The White Stocking

I received this little thought at our RS Christmas party this month and I'm always glad to be reminded why we celebrate Christmas.

It wasn't that anyone had been forgotten, no child had been slighted or made unhappy and no adult had been left unremembered. The present had all been distributed and all the stockings were beautifully filled-- all that is except one; one stocking that had never been hung. It was the stocking intended for the child of Bethlehem. Of all the people belonging at that Christmas gathering, only he had been forgotten. Only he had been left out of the festivities. This didn't seem quite right, inasmuch as it was his birthday that was being celebrated. Since then the little white stocking has hung in the center of all our stockings. On Christmas Eve, we gather in the living room to recall and express our feelings of that Christmas Eve so long ago. During this time we reach into this stocking and pass out the paper that were placed in the stocking the year before. Each person quietly reviews last year's gift and then privately writes down his or her offering or gift to Jesus. The new gifts are then placed in the stocking to be reviewed next Christmas Eve.

As I've pondered this all month long, I've remembered just how grateful I am for the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. For his gift that he gave to us, that gift of everlasting life. And as I think about my gift to him, I think of my many flaws and everything that needs to be better. My goal this year is to strive to be a little better each day, and to set a better example for those around me and especially remember the true reason for the Christmas Season.

What we do as Moms

I've had lots of people ask me how I ever survived my journey with Graham. And I think to myself a lot about how I did it, and how I was ever that strong. I think about if the next one has the same condition and I find myself amping myself up, trying to find more strength, preparing for the what if's. Then I ran across this post from Kelle Hampton, about fight of flight syndrome as a mother and this completely sums up why we do the things we do for our kids, and SURVIVE it.

"But the other amazement in all of this is the instinctive initiation of the Fight receptors in the sudden surge of Fight-or-Flight that ensues when your baby gets sick or your kid falls off the top bunk or your toddler slips into the deep end with a quiet splash, or maybe you just received news that your brand new baby has a genetic condition that makes her different. You fight, without even knowing it. You rise to the occasion. You jump in, save them, wipe tears, call doctors, hold compresses, pull yourself together and you fight like hell. As "minor" in the world of parenthood snafus as our trip to the ER was, I couldn't help but recognize the fight that commences and the calmness that deploys. You just know what to do. You tell the What-if voices to shut the hell up, and you advocate for your child-- attentively, fiercely, fully."