It's About Tyme, Right?

Dear Ty,

I can't believe it has been so long since we last wrote to you!  Actually, I can believe it because we've been so busy, but I'm sorry that we have not done a better job preserving some of these memories.  The good news is that we have not, by any means, slowed down on making amazing memories with you.  The nights and weekends with you are really short because you are simply too much fun.

What has been keeping us so busy?  You, for one.  You are crawling around like a champ these days, and you're as happy and as silly as ever.  We really love that about you.  We love everything about you.  You're a little over 10 months now, and you are ready to walk.  I have to imagine it will only be a matter of time.  You took your first steps at around 8 months, but you are much more comfortable standing and walking around while holding onto something right now.  We're not in any hurry for you to grow up, so you take your time, Bubba.  We'll be here to obsessively record and photograph whenever you decide it's time for your moments. :)

We have also been busy trying to make our next dream come true.  At the end of next month, we'll move you into a nice big house with a pool.  I can't tell you how excited we are for that.  We want you to have a big yard and a pool and a basement to play in and siblings; this is the beginning of even more loveliness and happiness for our family.  You just make us want to work harder to make these things happen.  I can't believe how blessed we are to have the means and opportunity to see these big dream come true. :)

That brings me to the real inspiration for this letter, Ty.  Our lives have always been crazy and hectic, and having you just makes everything move that much more quickly.  It's hard to imagine that we lived so may years without you.  This week has been particularly busy, but I was thinking and feeling something today that I think is important enough to pause everything else to tell you about.  After a long but good day at work, I stayed late to get as many student projects graded as I could.  You and Daddy were nice enough to visit and keep me company for part of that time, and your little giggles gave me the fuel I needed to keep up my energy.  As I completed my routine of obsessively compulsively checking to make sure I had all of my essentials packed up and doing one last turn to glance into my classroom before turning off the light and shutting the door, I felt an overwhelming rush.  I couldn't believe how blessed I felt on such an ordinary day.

Here's the thing, Bubba.  It's easy to feel gratitude and to recognize blessings when things are going well.  It's also easy to drop to your knees when things are at their worst.  These are the times when my relationship with God is as easy as my relationship with you.  Of course I can easily find a place for Him in these days.  The days in between are the days when it's easy to forget him in the ordinary.  That's why I have been working hard to make my faith an important part of our ordinary days.

That being said, it seems almost silly to call any day in my life ordinary.  Every morning when I see you, I have taken to starting off like this:  "Good morning, Tyson.  It's so good to have another day in this world with you!  God has richly blessed us."  I hope you can recite this with me now and that it is familiar.  I am a regular girl living a regular life, but we are surrounded by far too much that is extraordinary to ever actually call this life ordinary with a straight face.  For starters, you and your dad (and hopefully your brothers and sisters by the time you read this) are the most amazing blessings I could ever hope to deserve, even though I'm not quite sure that I will ever convince myself of anything less than the fact that you are all too good to be true.  Our family, the one who will live in our fabulous new house and the ones who are spread all over the country, are surely worthy of the title of extraordinary, even when I'm not sure that I am worthy of them.  Our friends?  Extraordinary.  Our pup friend General?  Extraordinary.  Our life?  Extraordinary.  Our careers?  You guessed it.  Extraordinary.

That moment I spent in my classroom doorway today reminded me of how lucky I am to have a job that I truly love, too.  Despite whatever challenges and irritations I may face sometimes, I couldn't help but think of all of the moments I have spent in that room creating memories with my other "kids" and understanding that joy is tangible.  Those kids teach me on a daily basis how to be a mom to you (and sometimes, they teach me what not to do, but that's a whole different story).  You should feel blessed to have them because they challenge me in ways that make me better.  I only hope that I can do that for them sometimes, too.  You help me to understand just how important my job and my purpose really is.

I could continue to list blessings, but the list is too long to ever complete.  Instead, I hope to remind you of these things constantly to the point that you roll your eyes and tell me, "I knoooooow."  I hope that even after you say that, you will smile and start to make this daily tally and gratitude a part of your own routine.  Thank God for how blessed you are even on the most ordinary, mundane days.  Understanding and appreciating all of the little things in your life will help you to get through any of the big things that come your way.  Count your blessings, Ty, and rejoice always in this beautiful life of ours.  We are richly blessed.

Love you from here to the moon and back,

Mom