(He's my skinny, mischievous little boy who just starting giving me the sweetest, real kisses in the past few weeks. Melts my heart into butter. She's my beautiful drama queen, always full of silliness and smiles, so I couldn't help but post this pout=) She's my joy and sunshine--always has been.)
So, I haven't written much about my two munchkins lately. Truth be told, we stay so busy, I don't have much time to write at all!!! I feel so much like Mary, the mother of our Lord, pondering and trying to treasure all these things in my heart, praying that one day God will help me recall them and put them on paper in some format. But today my heart sang, and this is why...
Saturdays have become my favorite day of the week now that Joey is home ALL DAY. We eat family breakfast together, usually run a few needed errands together, then hang out at the house just soaking up the opportunity to be in each others' presence, fiddling around doing any odds and ends a home requires.
Today as I was busy prepping for the spring consignment sale, Savannah and Weston were busying themselves picking holly berries and placing them in a watering can. This is the conversation I overheard:
Weston: "Sissy, I love you." (Completely out of the blue and unprompted!)
Savannah: "I love you too, Weston. And we are going to be each other's friends forever and ever, right?"
Weston: "Right."
My heart thrilled and soured and dipped and twirled inside my chest! It was such a matter-of-fact, Fox and the Hound type moment. They are only 2 and 4, but I have prayed from the day Savannah was born that her brothers and/or sisters would be her best friends the rest of her life. That God would give me the wisdom to somehow instill a sisterly/brotherly love for each other from the start of their relationship. I don't want Savannah to grow up thinking she needs to be Weston's second mother, and I don't want Weston feeling like she is. I want Savannah to grow up feeling valued and loved by Weston, and he respected and honored by her. These deep desires start NOW. I plant these seeds daily and earnestly at the leading of the Holy Spirit.
To be honest, I'm not sure how to even go about doing this, but I do the best I know how, responding as the Lord leads, and I try to think about how settling what seem like inconsequential arguments between them now is creating the building blocks for fostering that relationship and those future conversations. So needless to say, this overheard treasure was deeply special. One to be captured and hung in the Memory Hall (as I like to think of this blog.)
A little bit later, Weston is off doing his own thing, and Savannah walks herself out to the curb at the front of our house. "Savannah, where are you going?" I yelled from the garage. "I'm going to go sit down and talk to God for a while, Mom." Really?!? Does it get any sweeter than that? "Ok honey, that sounds like a great idea." Smiling to myself, I returned to work, and marveled in the sweet nothings of voice and sound that were coming from her direction. Words I could not hear, but words nonetheless to our Heavenly Father. I'm glad she felt the freedom to let me know and to just go---and talk to God. May she always be wrapped in that freedom. May those conversations only increase as her life moves on.
These are the priceless days, the priceless moments when time stands still and all is right with the world, even if just for a moment. These are the truly priceless things.
(This one's for my brother Matthew--pretty sure she's pulling some form of the raptor pose in this pic=)