Here are a few pictures to recap the last many months :)
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| We went to Ireland for the Eucharistic Congress with my grandparents. AMAZING! |
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| Liliana was 10 months old and such a joy! |
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| We capped off our trip with a visit to Rome and Assisi. It was so wonderful! |
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| Happy Canada Day! |
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| In our house we celebrate Australia Day, Canada Day, and the 4th of July (in this picture!) We are so lucky! |
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| Enjoying beautiful Calgary Summer. Liliana @ 13 months! |
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| Autumn came and with it our little walker. She is now our runner/jumper/dancer. FUN! |
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| It is so fun seeing her play and use her imagination. She certainly has her Daddy's fabulous imagination!! |
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| 1st snowfall in October. She LOVES playing outside in the snow! |
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| Maui for Christmas...17 months |
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| Can't believe we've been married 2.5 years. I love this man so much!!! |
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| Be still my heart....I love these two! |
Liliana is already 17 months. I can't believe it! In many ways, she seems to behave beyond her "months." Perhaps it has something to do with being our first, perhaps it also has something to do with her travelling with us all over the world since the day she was born. I'm sure it is also attributed to all of her older aunts/uncles/cousins. She is such a talker, and it has been so much fun for Joe and I to be able to communicate with her since she was about 10 months old. We certainly have to watch what we say, because she is our little household parrot!
We recently made the big change of putting her in her own toddler bed, in her own bedroom! I think it has been more painful for us than her. Ever since the day she was born we have all been together, almost all the time. Our little apartment in Australia only had one bedroom, so it was just natural that she was never in her own room. Regardless, it is more in line with our philosophy on parenting to have her super close to us early on! In our new house, she was at the end of our bed in her own bed...but by the end of every night we would wake up all cuddled together in Joe and I's bed. It was time to change that, she is getting so big! Oddly enough, I felt tragically sad about it.
So, I was reflecting on Liliana's life so far and it hit me that this is just one more "letting go" that will be part of my whole journey of motherhood. Right after she was born, I remember standing in the shower and crying. I was so happy that Liliana was born, safe, and that we had finally met her. On the other hand, I missed her! I wished I could put her back in my tummy. There have already been a whole series of moments such as these, but this one has struck me particularly hard. It is such a reminder that she is a gift, entrusted to us but only briefly. We have only these individual moments to love her rightly, to equip her to live rightly and with a beautiful soul. Then we have to trust that as we are forced to let go we have loved her well enough that she will be OK.
In this little moment of "letting go". I've seen so clearly that she is OK! She loves her little bed and her own room. She is so secure and feels so safe, that she is not afraid when she wakes up in the dark because she knows that we are nearby and will come to her if she needs us. I suppose that is God's plan for us too...to be so secure in His love that we move through life with confidence and grace.
Well, that's it for now but I hope to be back in just a few day! I'll leave you with a video of our little songbird...hopefully it brightens your day. We miss you, we love you, and we pray for you!
XOXO
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