So my little man, Aiden, woke up with a song in his heart this morning.  Jeff and I were half dozing, half sipping our coffee when we heard the faint singing coming from upstairs. Jeff asked if I thought it was Misty to which I replied, "Nope, thats AJ."  He is the singer in the family.  Misty loves music, don't get me wrong. But Aiden - he just sings.  He doesn't even know he's singing sometimes but he is.  I like to think its just the joy of Jesus coming out of his heart. 

Well this morning he woke with a rousing rendition of "God Bless America" proceeded with his hearty, half yelling version of "God of Wonders".  I though it interesting that he stayed in bed singing for half an hour when it is his usual habit to rush downstairs for breakfast.  But he just sang. 

It was the second day of kindergarten today and I know he was excited to go to "drama" class. He asked me before bed, "What is drama, mama?"  (Sounds like a great kids book, huh)  I tried to explain what it means to "act" or "pretend" for the purpose of art. 

Naturally, when he came home from school I was eager to hear how his second day went. "Tell her about drama class." Jeff prodded Aiden.  "In drama class today we each got to go up on stage and tell our names. I sang a song?"
"What did you sing?"
"God of Wonders!" 
"Did you sing the whole song?"
"No, just a part."  He said -  having no idea that he had just stood on stage in a public school and proclaimed the truth that God is Holy. If you don't know the song - it goes like this.

God of Wonders, beyond our galaxy, You are Holy, You are Holy.
The universe reveals His majesty, You are Holy, You are Holy.

Two things baffle me about this little "mom" story that I feel compelled to tell.

One, I'm challenged by the sincerity of Aiden just being who he is and not feeling the need to mask his love for Jesus for the sake of cultural acceptance or political correctness.  I need a little more of that.

Two, the beauty of the Spirit's preparation for the tasks that he has planned for us.  Aiden had no idea of what I am convinced - the Spirit put a song in his heart this morning.  As it is for most of us, we have no idea what opportunities might come our way but one thing is sure, if we just follow the Spirit - we will be well ready!

God cares about the tooth fairy. Sure he does.  Read on and you'll see.

Life has been overywhelming inside of me lately.  Life is wonderful - new baby, wonderful husband who has been a dream through this whole experience, loving friends who've been so helpful.  But, the inside of me is just wrestling with how "out of control" I feel.  Yes, I admit it.  I like to have my ducks in a row.  I really like to have my house clean, like to maintain some semblance of a schedule, like to plan in a little fun and free time into each day. I like to have open communication lines with those I love  - checking in regularly and feeling connected.  I like to plan what I do and do what I planned so that I feel I am honoring Jesus by being a good steward of all that he's given.

Yeah, I like all of that and it's simply impossible to maintain those standards when you have a newborn and are trying to adjust to the "out-numbered" phase of parenthood.  I'm trying hard to just let some things go, I really am.  But, it's hard to not feel overwhelmed at all the things I'd like to do but can't get to.  Anway, you didn't ask for all of that...you wanted to konw about the tooth fairy.

Misty lost her front tooth Sunday night.  She's officially a snaggle-tooth.  In fact, the other front tooth is dangling tooth making her look like a NC hillbilly. (I can say that...I grew up with those hillbillys). 

Shortly after she lost her tooth, little Kaci had one of those inconsolable crying spells. I had to miss all of small group which just fueled my overwhelmed emotions of being disconnected and all out of control.  After group, I vented to Jeff for an hour. We prayed and went to bed as soon as we could.  Do you think I even thought about the need for the tooth fairy to show up before morning? Nope.  All I thought about was the fact that I'd have to wake up in three hours for Kaci's next feeding. 

But she didn't. She slept through the night.  I woke up to Misty by my bedside saying something. Before I could even comprehend what she was saying the Lord whispered the word "tooth-fairy" to my heart.  My heart started beating rapidly as I realized the near fatal mistake I could have just made.  I thought for sure she had already checked under her pillow and was coming to inform me that that her heart was broken because the fairy had not come. 

"What did you say, honey?" I asked, hoping that my assumptions weren't right.
"I'm hungry, is it time to get up yet?" She asked.

To which I immediately went into stealth mode and said, "Why don't you lay here with daddy for a minute and I'll go get you something to eat."

I quickly ran to check under her pillow and to my surprise the tooth was still there. I ran down to Jeff's wallet got out a dollar and quickly did the "tooth fairy" thing as we adults know it.  Then I ran down stairs thanking the Lord all the way for whispering in my ear and keeping me from a mistake that would have broken my little girls heart.  Believe me, I know her. She would have been very sad and would have stopped at nothing to uncover the mystery of why the tooth-fairy had not come.  "Thank you, Lord.  You really care about the "tooth-fairy" stuff of our lives? That is amazing to me.  Thank you for reminding me in the midst of the overwhelming time of life that you are my help." 

Misty met me in the stairwell by this point and I handed her a granola bar that I had chosen to abate her hunger.  She took one bite and with that bite turned and ran up the stairs as fast as she could.  When she returned she was giving me the biggest toothless grin and holding up her dollar.

I didn't even think much more about it until that afternoon when she came home from school the next afternoon.

"Mom, did you know the tooth fairy goes to bed at ten o'clock?"
"No, why do you say that?"
"Well, my friend Trinity lost her tooth last night and the tooth fairy didn't come. Her parents told her it was because the tooth fairy's bedtime is ten o'clock.  She went to bed too late and now has to wait a whole day."

I had to laugh out loud. 
"Lord, that really was you.  You do care about the tooth-fairy."

I just imagined him saying, "I care about YOU and want you to know that I'm going to help you do the things that really need to be done. Rest in me."

I hope you are just as encouraged as I am by the truth of God's amazing detailed love for His children!

As I was writing this blog - Misty pulled out her other front tooth.  How ironic.  We've got some more tooth fairy business coming our way tonight :)

Waiting is hard work!  6 days from my due date for little Kaci Lynae and its torture.  When the scripture says that women will "toil" in childbirth -- I never considered the waiting for childbirth to happen to be a part of the toil.  But it is, oh so hard.  I keep apologizing to the Lord for being such a brat...waking each day asking him, "Can today be the day?"  So far, the answer is no.  I'm taking great encouragement in the fact that the newest Lothamer cannot come a day early or a day late because "all of her days have been written down in God's book", Psalm 139:16  But I so long to see her little nose, and her toes, and hold her in my arms.  I can not even explain the thrill that sits on edge in my heart just knowing that soon that desire will be fulfilled. 

I've been trying to make correlations in my head about the experience of birth and the end of times.  You know often scripture refers to the end coming about as an experience of birth.  Over and over in Isaiah.  Again in Matthew when is says that some of the things we are experiencing right now are just the beginning of birth pains.  You know my mind, thinking too deep for its own good sometimes.  But I'm just trying to understand why God would make that correlation. 

Yesterday it occurred to me that waiting for birth to happen is much like waiting for Jesus' return.  Aiden asked me, "Why can't the doctor just tell you when it's going to happen?"  Good question, the answer is because He doesn't even know.  Only God knows when He will, in His sovereign power and authority, release the chemical in my body that will tell it to get busy doing one of the amazing feats it was designed to do. Oh, the marvels of the human body.

Back to the topic at hand.  So, I was just reading in the Psalms - 122 to be exact - and I came across the verse "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem." I stopped to do just that when it occurred to me that Jesus knows exactly what I'm going through in my "waiting" phase.    How he must long to rise up and defend His chosen people once and for all. He must long to see the fulfillment of the work of the cross.  He must hurt in anticipation when He can finally put Satan in his rightful place and take His place in person among the people He redeemed.

You think, perhaps, he sees the dawning of earth's each new day and asks the Father, "Is their today going to be the day?"  Mat 24:36 says "But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only."  Oh how it does my heart good to constantly remember that "we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with us. (Hebrews 4:15)"  I'm so grateful that one of the joys of knowing Jesus is His ability to relate to my humanness because He, too, was human at one point.   My heart is encouraged today to realize that just maybe He is well acquainted with my longing and anticipation!