Hannah had her 4 month check-up today! She is 25 inches tall now and weighs 14 pounds and 9 ounces. Hannah is in the 75-85 percentile for her height, weight and head circumference, which was 16 and 3/4. She checked out great and did much better with her shots than last time. Hannah didn’t even notice that she got the first one, and then cried for the 2nd, but it wasn’t a screaming fit like she had for her 2 month appointment.

While we were waiting to go in for Hannah’s check-up the tv playing in the waiting room had some trashy news show that updates people on all the Hollywood gossip. Today they were talking about Tiger Woods and whatever is going on in his life. I first heard that something is going on with him from someone in our church last week, and it annoyed me that someone was talking to me about it, because it is not my business, nor theirs. And so today when this show came on and was talking about all the drama I really felt like I needed to change it, but there were 2 men sitting there looking at the screen off and on, so I wasn’t sure if they were interested in the show or not. After sitting there for a couple more minutes fighting with the thought that I really shouldn’t be listening to the garbage, and really neither should anyone else because it’s just gossip. It wasn’t uplifting in any way. I asked the men around me if they were watching and if they minded if I changed the channel. Luckily they weren’t interested in it, and it sparked a quick conversation about unnecessary gossip, which all gossip is unnecessary. It caught a few people’s eyes that I got up and changed the channel vocalizing why I didn’t want to watch it. It’s been a while since I have boldly stood up about my morals, and I was hesitant to do so, but am glad I did.

Two Sundays ago Pastor Rol did a sermon called, “Welcome to the Wedding.” And just yesterday we finished up using Perry Noble’s series “Don’t get Married Until…” with our youth. These past few weeks I have really been thinking about the imagery God uses to teach us about our relationship with him. And now that we have Hannah I am seeing more and more that the life experiences God has set up are a way for us to understand him better.

For Pastor Rol’s sermon he asked a friend of mine to wear her wedding dress at the end of the service and we all stood for her entrance into the sanctuary. I was first of all super excited to get to see her in her gown because on her wedding day Tim and I were in the hospital meeting Hannah for the first time. And then as she stood up front and the words of the sermon started to stick I couldn’t hold back my tears as we worshiped God.

I could never truly grasp the concept that the church is the bride of Christ, until getting married. Being married has opened my eyes to so many aspects of God that I haven’t been able to comprehend before. God has used and is using Tim in many ways to teach me and draw me closer. And now that we have Hannah, the fact that Christ died on the cross for our sins has become even more personal. I look at my little baby and just think about Mary taking care of baby Jesus. I can’t even begin to understand the feelings Mary had, watching her son die for our sins. This Christmas has so much more meaning to me than any before because God has blessed us with Hannah.