December
2002
Dear Friends,
Ah…I am tired…weary…impatient and probably won’t win any contests
today for “Best Parent”. My children
have morphed into angels as they sleep off the day that would’ve convinced me
that they were anything but angels! The
Rathmell family has been struck with a bug that has made for some interesting
moments around here.
Thankfully, our year has not been much like the last couple of
weeks. In fact, I thought we were going
to make it almost a year without anyone being really sick. It doesn’t seem possible that we’re at the
end of another year already. Becoming a
parent has really made me aware of the two extremes of time…it can speed by at
times, while other days make me think nap time will never arrive.
Speaking of kids, our big addition to the family has been Jack, our
now 7 month old son. Jack is Gods answer
to Buddy’s parents when they would feel like I do today and beg Him to “bless’
Buddy with a son much like himself. (Not
sure how I got in on this deal) God
should have attached a note with him that said, “Anything that works with
Adrianne will not work with me”. All
boy, he grunts, spits, burps (from both ends) and despises getting
dressed. He is much happier now that he
has found semi-freedom in a walker. He
was chasing my friend in the kitchen yesterday…everywhere she went, he followed
and rammed into her shins.
Adrianne continues to be an adult in a 2 year old body. We said the other day that we need to start
writing things down that she says, because 1) we’ll forget them and 2) no one
will believe us. Having a verbal 2 year
old is not always fun! Why do parents
want their kids to talk so quickly?
Today after about 45 minutes of a crying, punishment, whining vicious
circle, I asked her, “What do you need?”
And she said, “I need to hold you”.
I was broken, wishing I could just freeze everything around me and give
her 100% of me. For the most part, I
did, but there was another 2% having to hold my slippery son from falling off
the recliner.
What do you
need? I need to hold you. As I lay with her as she fell asleep, I
wondered how I have put God off as He has asked me what I need, especially as
life has been hard these last couple of weeks.
As I talked to Him, I asked for His patience, His kindness, His goodness
and wisdom. I need Him to help me trust
and love Him more.
In the bigger picture, I would like
Him to heal my Mom (who continues her struggle with bone cancer), to touch my
Dad who fights pain everyday, to uplift my sister and brother in law who are
learning French in West Africa and far away from family this Christmas. We need Him to work out things in our
ministry that present different and difficult circumstances as we long to reach
kids for Christ in
Buddy’s family continues to do well health-wise. His sister Julie came and visited this summer
which was such an encouragement to us.
We loved having someone see our world first hand! (Please come!)
Christmas in
I will close because I picked Christmas paper that doesn’t allow for
much more information from the Rathmells.
(You know I could go on forever!)
Please know that we think of you all not just during the Christmas
holidays, but so often throughout the year.