We dedicated Emily on May 6th at our church Christ Chapel. Dedications are not required in our faith, but it is an act of surrender that we wanted to make. I’ve been thinking about what that surrender should look like for me. I have always had a sense that Emily was God’s creation as much as she is a mix of Robby and I. In fact, my doctor gave me a compliment about the pretty baby that I had made, and I pointed out that her beauty is God’s gift. God has entrusted her to us, and it our desire is to give her back to Him.

Who can be with Emily every moment of the day? Who knows Emily’s personality before she expresses it? Who knows what will happen before it occurs? Who always hears Emily when she cries? Who knows what each cry really means? I definitely don’t and can’t.

If I want to give good gifts to Emily, what better gifts will her heavenly father give her? What can I give Emily that God has not given to me first?

We prayed and waited for Emily. In God’s timing we received our gift. We’re excited to see the gift grow and enjoy the blessing everyday. We pray that we are as big of a blessing to Emily as she is to us.

I commit to remember that Emily is a gift from God and teach her of her Heavenly Father, of the love and salvation of Jesus, and the companionship of the Holy Spirit. I pray that God will give me the strength to do this and that my friends and family will encourage me in my lifelong effort to do so.

Emily and I are spending a lot of mornings over at Granddaddy’s since he has returned home from the hospital. One day I was in the basement while Emily was sleeping in the living room with Granddaddy. I heard Granddaddy get up and walk over to Emily to address some noises that Emily was making. After a few minutes I came upstairs and Emily was quiet. Granddaddy had been playing a blanket game with Emily. Emily enjoys a game of kicking off her blanket and someone replacing it over her. She can play this game for quite a while. Granddaddy was picking up the blanket and placing it over her and then waiting for her to kick it off. They both were enjoying each other!!

(11 weeks) Part of our daily routine involves burping Emily. This is not an activity that she enjoys. She will fuss and fidget while I have her against my shoulder. One day I looked down at her and she was fidgeting and I realized and she had pulled away from my shoulder and was looking around on her own. She had figured out that she could hold up her own head and escape my shoulder. She has continued to do this everyday and now she doesn’t mind the burping as much. I guess she wanted a little control.

Robby and I have wanted to take a trip and we decided that we should make a day trip to learn what it would be like to travel with Emily. We drove to North Carolina and visited Chimney Rock. The temperature had been dropping over the last couple of days and the day we had chosen to go was the day the temperature bottomed out. Because of the low temperature two of the trails were closed at Chimney Rock and Robby and I were disappointed to not be able to hike them. We were able to take in the vistas and do some light hiking around some large rock formations. Emily enjoyed the hike, but not the blustery winds. She would fuss when hit with a blow. For the most part Emily slept the whole day. She slept in the car and while hiking. Other than working out the hiking gear with Emily and her feedings, it was a pretty normal trip for us. I don’t think we will be taking any 7 mile hikes any time soon, but shorter excursions will be quite enjoyable!

(9 weeks) Emily has discovered that she can move her arms . . . a lot! While she can move them she doesn’t know what she should do with them. This leads her to flail her arms around for not much reason. When she feels insecure her arms go flying out relying on the instinct to ‘catch’ her that has already developed, although it is pretty ineffective. Not to worry because she has her mommy [Daddy: Me too!] to catch her. One of the first signs of her getting tired is that her arms calm down and a sign that she is up for a while is because her arms start moving again. I think she gets that from her father.

In her 6th week, Emily was sitting in her boppy next to Mommy on the couch while we were all watching TV. Daddy and Mommy were talking and we noticed that Emily had turned her head and was watching and listening to Daddy. It was the first time we had seen her search out and focus on someone that wasn’t directly in front of her. This melted her Daddy’s heart.