I can't believe it's over already -- all the paper-ripping, box-batting, bell ringing battery-operated rush and craze of it all..... And now she has more plastic playmates than she could ever wish for, and the sleepless rings under her baby blues to prove it!
I'm a gulp overwhelmed by it all; her first round under the tree seemed to me so wrapped in the sentimentally charged generosity of friends and family, and when I look at her, I can see why anyone would want to give her the world wrapped up in glittery tissue paper. It's not just because she's my child, or because of the long, hard road that's been hers to travel from birth. It's her innocence, her glee, the naked and unabashed need she has to connect with other people and bring them into her circle of happiness.
Christmas morning with our new little family was exactly the refreshing reprieve we sorely needed from winter's strangle-grip of illness... It seems she recovered from her first stomach bug just in time to smile for Christmas pictures, and then we hurtled headlong into a viral encore: influenza, Type A.
And Ava and Daddy came down with it on the same day.
Needless to say, two days later, I am not in my most glamorous state. Think a fluffier Debra Messing gone all Howard Hughes.
But what makes ME feel truly beautiful is that, with the kindly support and assistance from Ava's Pawpaw and dear soup-makin', cookie bakin' friends, I've managed to keep everyone fed, medicated, and fairly well wiped off without becoming a crumpled, blubbering basket case.
Maybe that's my own little Christmas miracle -- that when the chips are down, I've got more than just an empty buffalo. I've got a Father who works miracles in strength and endurance, who lovingly hides me in his hand as I rest and recharge.
With the dawn of the New Year today, I felt somehow more relaxed and joyful than I might've physically held any right to be. The new bag of Starbucks Blonde roast might've had something to do with that... But no, I think it was the fact that Ava awoke with a squinty grin, and my sweet husband with a quiet smile and no fever. We've got a ways to go (and a few Star Trek episodes to watch) before we're all ready to reunite with the outside world, but I think the Clenneys still have juuuust enough Christmas spirit leftover in the fridge to carry us to a healthy, happy new year.
Stardate 2014......
ENGAGE!
It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life......
...and I'm feeeeeelin'.... Goooood.
(My apologies to Mr. Michael Buble.)
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