Count Your Blessings

It may seem cheesy to some people to say "Oh, we are so blessed to have such and such baby in our lives now", and from the outside, you wonder how anything can outweigh sleepless nights, poopy diapers, and the need for constant attention. Well, here are just a few ways that God has blessed Brenda and I through the first 8 weeks of Joshua's life. First and foremost, He has blessed us with a beautiful and healthy baby boy, and that takes so much worry out of your life. We are blessed with Joshua's amazing smile, which lights up his entire face, and can brighten even the darkest of my days. God has brought Brenda and I closer together in this time... some couples cave under the stress of all the new responsibilities, but God has really given both of us the hearts of servants during this time, and we are working as a team, instead of keeping score of diaper changes (she's winning by the way). We have been blessed financially... we saved a good chunk of change to allow Brenda plenty of time off, and so far, we have had to use far less of it than anticipated. I can also say with 100% certainty that if we were not tithing 10% of our income back to God, this blessing would not be in our lives right now. We have been blessed to see the miracle of life... not just the pregnancy and the birth, but just seeing Joshua learn little things every day. To see how we come into this world, knowing absolutely nothing, and to see how we develop, it is just awesome. We have been blessed in knowing that we have an amazing group of people around us, including our church family. To see so many people willing to help us, to love us, to pray for us... to all of you who helped us those first few weeks, it meant more than you know. And we have been blessed with an amazing child... he seems to be ahead of the curve physically, sleeps extremely well at night, isn't overly fussy, and just brings so much joy into our lives. Sure, there are times when both of us get a little frustrated and just need a break, but when push comes to shove, our little J-Bird is worth all of the poopy diapers in the world.