We have lift off!

Today as I was teaching in Relief Society, I noticed that Stacy was doing some teaching of her own.  She was teaching Tommy to walk, and apparently he liked it.  Until today, he resisted my efforts to walk him and just yesterday I was betting that Eliana would be the first to launch, but now I'm not so sure.  Tommy spent the afternoon practicing pulling up to a stand.  On end tables, printers, gates, and anything else that isn't a stable spot!  Forget about the couch, forget about the arm chairs, lets make sure it will hurt if we fall against it seems to be the theme.

We also enjoyed a visit today from Grandma and Grandpa Selvage.  They come to see us about once a week.

Ellie is enjoying a new dolly from grandma... 

 

And I think Tommy is giving Grandpa a high five here... 

They are all great buddies.  I think Grandma and Grandpa think Tommy and Ellie were worth the wait.

The Relief Society lesson that I taught today was based on the talk Waiting Upon the Lord: Thy Will Be Done by Elder Robert D. Hales.  In a way, I struggled to teach this lesson, because I am not particularly good at waiting.  Or maybe waiting isn't the problem, my problem is the "Thy will be done" part.  I'd be okay if the deal was "Waiting Upon the Lord for My Will to be Done".  That would be the story of my life. :)

My favorite part of the talk was this,

"Waiting upon the Lord gives us a priceless opportunity to discover that there are many who wait upon us. Our children wait upon us to show patience, love, and understanding toward them. Our parents wait upon us to show gratitude and compassion. Our brothers and sisters wait upon us to be tolerant, merciful, and forgiving. Our spouses wait upon us to love them as the Savior has loved each one of us."

I always knew that one of the reasons I wanted to have children is that parenting is the ultimate object lesson in "the things God puts up with in me".  I laugh at the number of times I say things like, "the gate is there because mommy doesn't want you to get hurt" and then think about commandments that I don't particularly want to keep.  Mostly though, although I knew I would really, really, really love my babies beyond belief, I didn't understand how it would show me just a touch of how much I am really, really, really loved too.