Theo in his first starring role!

On Tuesday, our children's director from church had me bring Theo in to take his picture. We took off his sleeper and wrapped him in a white blanket and put a little crown on his head and laid him in a manger. She is making a Christmas Eve slideshow that uses kids from the church as the characters from the Christmas story. Theo was so content while we took his picture (it took about 20 minutes) and actually cried when we took him out of the manger. It was so moving to imagine that Jesus himself was actually a tiny baby once. He cried and cooed and, I'm sure, made his parents feel crazy and overwhelmed when he wouldn't sleep at night. Thank goodness for us that stage is over, but I do remember it well. He just finished his breakfast and fell asleep on my knee while I was typing. I am choreographing a couple of dances for Mary & Joseph in our Christmas production at the dance studio. I feel very connected to them and to the whole story of the baby Jesus this year. Last year was very difficult for me...I couldn't imagine celebrating and entire holiday that focuses on the joy of a new baby when we had lost our little one just 7 months before. I had to learn (in the months prior to Christmas) to focus on Jesus and his character, not the fact that he was a baby. By the grace of God, we discovered we were pregnant with Theodore just a week or so before Christmas. What a miracle. God is good.