Gabe kissed us goodbye after dinner and left to teach a class tonight for church.... then this happened.
With the sink still full of dishes, I decided to try to get Ava to eat the rest of her dinner she didn't finish. I began to make funny faces to try to distract her from the arduous task at hand... She giggled. It was one of the cutest laughs and I did it again. She giggled again and then made almost the exact same face I had made.
I laughed.
The more I laughed, the more she laughed. I made the face again and she copied it while giggling. I couldn't stop laughing and I thought "so this is one of the joys of being a mom."
After she didn't finish her dinner, we read some books then I gave her some space to play on her own while I did the dishes. Little did I know that as she army crawled her way around the floor, she was working out one of her biggest attacks yet...
I picked her up to get her ready for bed and I realized she had pooped (a word I say more often than I'd like to admit). And it wasn't just a poop that filled her diaper, it also filled her pants and went halfway up her onesie.
I held her at arms length, held my breath and immediately took her to her room. I quickly realized that this mess wasn't going to be contained on the changing table and that yet another bath was needed. I wrapped her in a blanket, got out her tub, threw it in the kitchen sink and tried taking off the poop filled clothes without getting it everywhere.
The more careful I tried to be, the more she wiggled. I finally got her free from her clothes, but since she had been wiggling, the poop was everywhere.
On her. On me.
I was gagging. The dog was gagging.
And I thought, "so this is one of the joys of being a mom."
As I hosed her down and put her in the tub to get clean, I couldn't help but think that this was exactly what I signed up for.
I love it.
The giggles... the poop... everything.
After great loss, a seemingly endless wait and tons of prayer... we have Ava. This precious gift that I wouldn't trade for the world.
I put on her jammies and "night night" lotion (that sweet smell of baby covered in relaxing lavender), snuggled her, fed her a bottle and kissed her goodnight.
And as I cleaned up another mess for what seemed like the fiftieth time today, I thought of how tonights' poop filled episode reminded me of salvation.
(No, I didn't think that's where it was going to lead either.)
But, as our Heavenly Father, this is exactly what God does for us.
He loves us in our good moments and loves us in our bad moments. He loves us completely.
He doesn't turn His back when we're covered in our own mess... He loves us then just as much when we're "cute and giggling."
He picks us up, and cleans us off.
And oftentimes we don't even realize how bad it is. But He is willing to get His hands dirty... to reach into our lives... to meet us right where we're at and to love us completely. In our sin, in what seems to be too strong for us to face on our own... He picks us up and gives us a clean slate.
"He reached down from on high and took hold of me;
He drew me out of deep waters.
He rescued me from my powerful enemy,
from my foes, who were too strong for me.
He rescued me because He delighted in me."
(Psalm 18: 16-17, 19)
He delights in us!
The way I love and take great delight in Ava... He feels that way about me... about you. I'm overwhelmed by this love and how He is more than ready, willing and able to save (rescue, clean up) anyone who asks Him to.
He loves us all that much.
We don't have to get cleaned up to come to Him... He takes us and loves us as we are... poop and all.
