Birthday 30

Each day, I re-encounter awe. So often, when I hold our sweet baby girl, I feel the Lord's warm presence upon my shoulders. I look into her eyes and blink back tears, this precious gift He's given to me, because He loves me. I am so grateful to Him... so grateful. He loves to watch me enjoy her. Eden and Isaaq are no less of gifts.
Gratitude is a lesson in expansion, thanksgiving an expulsion of a heart full.
I love how Isaaq loves to hold my hand while he eats and how he will first go and get Eden's shoes for her before getting his own before we go anywhere. How Eden will break her crayons in half so she can share them  with Isaaq, and hold his hand and yell at him like a crazy woman if he steps off the sidewalk because she loves him so, and knows it's dangerous for him to go off the gray cement path of safety.
I am deeply and abundantly blessed.
I often think back to that stretching month of February. A near-month in the hospital, a month of beeping and clipboards, and seven syllable words that I couldn't even hope to pronounce, much less understand. How grateful I am for those who carried those clipboards, pronounced (and understood) those long words, and put their hands on my shoulder when I cried because there was nothing else I could do.
I think of that handsome man, who wiped my tears, held me tight, who surprises me, lavishes me with love and affection, takes better care of me than I think to. I'm so grateful the Lord has bound us together so.
I'm completely in awe of this Awesome God. On Saturday I celebrated 30 years of life. I woke to soft faces and balloons and giggles of "happy birthday" and a man with a strong jawline and a smile that turns me to putty, saying "I love you. Happy birthday, my love." I love birthdays. Mine was fantastic,  I'll write more later.
A celebration of birth. A celebration of life. He's teaching me to celebrate life every single day, birthday or unbirthday, an invitation to relish, roll in, His embrace, His grip of grace. It's a good place to be.