It should come as no surprise to any of my friends and family that I catch moonbeams, store them in jars, and then look at them nostalgically. I’ve always been quite melancholy this way – celebrating with glee small joys and instantly recognizing with weeping the fragility of life the next moment.

These last weeks of pregnancy have been a beautiful and bittersweet time as I celebrate the arrival of one new soul into the world as we know it. I remember grieving before Soren was born that my time with Jeff would be different. I was mourning the loss of “two of us”. This time is no different as I’m mourning the loss of “the three of us”. Yes, I know, I know, life is about to afford us a beautiful blessing, but this, my friends, is the plight of a melancholy soul. Every new chapter means closing the last one.

Last night we enjoyed a candlelit dinner at home to celebrate “the three of us”. I cooked while Jeff and Soren put the ornaments on the tree and my heart was very happy. We sang Christmas songs and watched the flakes flutter out the window. That sounds too good to be true – actually, it kinda was. Jeff and I sang Christmas carols while Soren yelled at us to be “all done” and screamed “more Miley Cyrus”. Apparently, she doesn’t find “Lo How a Rose E’er Blooming” as musically captivating as “Party in the USA”. Still, it was a night at home, just the 3 of us and my heart was full.

In Genesis, the bible speaks of childbirth. (“… I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children.” ~ Genesis 3:16) Before I was a mom, I always figured that this passage was referring to a physical pain. I understand that pain having had a natural and wonderful drug-free birth with Soren. But, watching Soren develop in the last couple of years shows me that this passage is much more.

Every time Soren enters a new stage, birthed, if you will, into a new season, she leaves the old behind. It is not so much the pain of the childbirth as it is the letting go of the opposite that accompanies it. Even now as I’m overjoyed at the thought of delivering our precious miracle in a matter of days, I feel grief at the thought of my first separation from the baby – the first of many times of letting go, I’m sure. It comes as no surprise to me that Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit when her baby leapt in her womb. To feel a baby kick within is indescribable and unforgettable. I’ve spoken with women in their 80’s who have not forgotten the feeling or joy.

I’ve felt a special connection to Mary this season as I recognize the merging of something from heaven and something from earth as a part of me. Yes, I realize I’m not carrying the Messiah, but the fact that God would orchestrate human life and use me as a vessel is mind-boggling, humbling, and extraordinarily other-worldly.

It is with joy that I continue this blog to celebrate the merging of heaven and earth in daily moments. Thank you for walking alongside us in these times.

Life in the McLaughlin home

Hi blog-readers! I've been a stranger to my blog lately. Don't worry though - I'm still obsessively documenting my kids' lives through Facebook, imovie, YouTube, journals, and extensive picture taking. Ha.

So, here is one of my favorite pictures of Soren from a couple of weeks back. This was on our way to ride a balloon at Conner Prairie. Click here for a video of the experience. It was a total blast!

Soren will be 2 on Monday and I can't believe it. I can't believe that she'll be 2 already and I also can't believe that God has given Jeff and me the incredible pleasure of raising such a delightful and bright little sweetie pie. She is making us laugh, making us recalibrate our lives. Here is another shot of her at her birthday party - a princess with a tool bench. Perfect, right? Happy birthday Soren!!!

We are about one month away from welcoming baby #2 (boy? girl?) into our lives. We're getting very excited. The thought of having another makes a month seem very close, but the thought of being pregnant for another month makes it seem a tad far away. :) Here are some shots that my close friend Melissa

(http://melissahanleyphotography.com) just took as we approach the big day.

I've felt great this pregnancy, but also learned that being pregnant while having other children is more tiring than the first time around! Soren has kept me hopping!

While I didn't swim, walk, do yoga, and eat as many v

eggies as I did while I was pregnant with Soren, I did instead have dance parties, cook and clean for and after play groups, burn calories kissing, hugging, and swinging my little gal instead. I suppose that counts for something, right?

Caring for a toddler while being pregnant has taught me a good deal about what people are capable of while running on fumes. I'm pretty sure I've put out multiple fires while bra-less, having only one contact in, and trying to get us both out of the door to go somewhere - and that's just before breakfast!

Soren has been such a precious joy and I'm thankful for the privilege of staying home with her. While it is a luxury to be home, Jeff and I have enjoyed all we've learned in the process of making choices to ensure that we're able to be home as much as possible. We pray for guidance within these choices as we cut coupons, skip having cable/DVR/etc., eating out often, etc. We both value being present with our children and I know Jeff would do anything possible to make that happen. I married him loving his huge heart and I'm amazed watching it grow even bigger as his love for his family expands.

We'll keep you posted with news about our growing family!

Miss Soren Michelle McLaughlin

Let me share this beautiful picture with you that our friends from www.twiceshydesign.com shot at our friends' wedding. Can you say sassy??? (Double click to enlarge.)

The house is officially broken in!!!n

Today, we had our playgroup over here for some good ol' fashioned hangin' out and lunch. There was a lot of hugging, story time, laughing, and one SERIOUS picnic with lots of grilled cheese sandwiches!!! So much fun!

Soren's new skills

Good morning... it's been so very amazing to watch and hear Soren's developing communication. At Christmas, Memie and Papa (Jeff's parents) gave Soren these wooden letter puzzles. At the time, she would sit for a good 30 minutes and put the pieces in a bag and take them back out - over and over and over again. It cracked us up to watch her intense concentration. We would say the letters as she did this and now she knows almost all of the letters, enjoys putting them in the puzzle, and then picking them up and putting them away. Needless to say, it's EVERYBODY's favorite toy in this household. What amazes us though is how it's helping her read. The other day we saw a stop sign in one of her books and she said "stop, s, t, o, p". It blew me away. She's continued doing this in her books - today she knew the word "lion" and spelled that out. She spells out people's lettered shirts. It's amazing to watch the wheels turn!

We've taken to our new groove since Jeff went back to work 3 weeks ago after a wonderful summer vacation. It's been awesome to live so close to Jeff's work now - not having the commute has been a great change of pace. Soren and I get up everyday and come downstairs where she says "cuddle" and "blanket" and "books". After I get her some milk (first things first, you know!), we snuggle up under the blanket and read a good 10-20 books. She knows a lot of the sentences and if we leave the last word of every line out she enjoys saying it herself.

Yesterday, she said "let me close it" in reference to the fridge. Her other favorite phrases are: "Mama read it", "Daddy eat it", "milk please" or "drink please", "I love you", "thank you Mama", "I miss you", "Daddy work", "Daddy home", "Grampy's (or someone's) car", and "Where are you?". It's also cool how she is using her apostrohpes. She likes to point out whose item something is - "Mama's shower", "Soren's cup", "Mamaw's car", etc. How cool to watch her figure this out! She also changes the word based on the context. For instance, she knows that we go SuperTarget to shop, but when we see it from the exit, she starts saying "Soren shopping". She'll say, about the man painting our house this week, "hi Pat" and "hi painter", and then watch him at work and say "Pat painting".

Her favorite phrase of all though is "hi cutie pie" which she likes to tell everyone. A couple of tricky phrases - "hi flag" and she can't pronounce the "l", "fork" where she can't pronounce the "r", and "shirt" without the "r". She's a regular foul-mouthed sailor with these.

Some of her favorite items/words/characters right now - "dolphin", "tractor" - which she especially loves watching on T.V. with Papa, "Linguini" - a character from her Ratatouille book, "Paul Judy" - Paul and Judy are characters in her Pat the Bunny book. It's especially funny when she occasionally licks her fingers before turning a page like adults do. She doesn't lick the finger she's going to use, but she clearly gets that this is the way you do it!

Thanks for reading while I celebrate these milestones!

Love,

Jeff, Sarah, Soren & new baby

A Life in the Day of Soren

My goodness how time has flown!  I've been lax at posting lately, but, in my defense, we've had a lot of major transitions in the last couple of months!  Thank you to my (helpful-but-nosy) friends and family who tell me that I need to start posting again and remove some old posts.  I need to figure out how to convert this thing into a book or print it off or something before I start the next chapter, so to speak.  I don't want to delete anything (even the obsolete stuff like the fact that our old house is listed as for sale on there!!!)  I figure this is a great time to start a new chapter because we're having another baby!  That's our big news!  We've also moved, are living with my grandma, planning to move again at the end of July into our new place, fought one round of pneumonia with Soren after a series of funny (well, funny now) trips to the hospital and overdoses, another with Jeff's thrown out back, and played a series of shows lately.  It's been busy, but we are well and content.  So, before I move on to chapter 2, there are some things that I want to tell you about Soren and some things that I want Soren to know herself...

Soren has been so fun.  She makes us laugh our heads off.  She is full of a certain joie de vivre and seems to remind us daily how to feel young.  Although, some days when my head hits the pillow before bedtime and after taking her to the zoo, childrens' museum, or running through the sprinkler, I feel tired and old! :)  She is talking up a storm.  My favorite thing she says is an unprompted "thank you mommy" when I give her something.  It is so very precious.  When she runs downstairs saying "hi Sito" to my grandma, my heart about melts.  She is a sponge and repeats just about everything - and I mean everything!  She knows hundreds of words and recognizes some of them in books as she reads.  She knows a lot of letters by name and has started counting a bit.  She also is a good little signer - her favorite signs being "more", "please", "thank you", "happy", "milk", "drink", "apple", "cheese", and "together".  It is so stinkin' cute.  She loves to take bike rides with Daddy in her little cart that follows behind the bike.  I love watching her climb in and wave bye-bye as they pull away.  And Jeff - he is an amazing daddy.  He does so much with Soren, but is amazing mostly because he adores her and loves her so well.  He cuddles with her, loves to have her "helping" him with tasks, is so wonderfully patient with her, and laughs so hard at her VERY expressive personality.  She has also started singing and dancing all the time.  When we're in the car, I just hear her back there singing to herself.  My heart is so full.  She is still an awesome eater and sleeper.  Even though she's a curly-headed near-blond, she does have a Mediterranean bone in her body when it comes to eating!  She loves taboule, falafel, and lots of other various foods. She loves veggies, fruits, and ice cream.  She still won't eat meat except for fish (although she ate a bite of Uncle Stephen's steak he grilled the other night.)  She asks to go to sleep and I could probably count on one hand the times she's cried to go down.  She is independent and lets us know when she wants her space and wants to go night-night.   She knows our grandparents, parents, sibs, etc. by name now - or her version of their names - and loves to call them that.  She's even taken to calling my mom by her first name - Marlene - because she hears my grandma say that.  So funny!

I am so enjoying being home with Soren.  I must say that there were times when I was working consistently - and I did love the work I did - where I would say that my work made me a "better mom".  Now that I am home, I feel honestly that my thinking was erroneous.  I try to translate that another way and feel that it would be like saying "Soren, I realize that if I'm around you too much, I'm worse at being a mom." Of course there's the element that I wanted to use my other talents too, but I've seen that I can still use my gifts in the context of home and, as time allows, outside of home and feel creatively and socially fulfilled.  Really what I've been learning as I've been home is that the things that would make me feel inadequate, stressed, or unable to be home one more minute are the areas in which God has needed to work on me.  Do I need time out of the house?  Sure.  Am I thankful that I have an outlet while Jeff is home that I can pursue different ministries and even girls' nights out?  Yeah.  Do I love going on dates with my husband and taking opportunities to let Soren know the adoring love of her grandparents while hanging out at their place?  Right on.   But, I am learning that what makes me a "better mom" is the time that I've had with Soren this past 19 months that has been dedicated to daily time with her, trips to library, learning sign language, cooking together, reading together, snuggling in the mornings, nursing until she was 14 months, taking her to the pool, sitting on the floor playing, and figuring out that no book can tell me what's right for my babies.  This is what has made up my life for the last year and a half and I'm overjoyed at the gift God's given me to be able to be present with my children this way.  Thanks for keeping up on our lives and we'll be back soon!

Here are some shots of Soren in the dresses we've been making...

Soren continues to amaze us.  God continues to amaze us by using this little 2 1/2 foot being.  She is walking, almost running, everywhere.  And she is a climber!  She's mastered getting her rocking horse next to the piano, getting to the bench, and trying to summit the piano itself.  She climbs into her rocking chair and pulls for the top of the dresser.  I will sometimes see her hanging off the side of her crib and changing table.  I feel that I can't turn around...

She has really enjoyed her swim lessons - she is always off and running, we can hardly keep her from jumping in before class actually starts.  While other kids cried as they froze and got dunked, she laughed and splashed.  It's funny to see her personality come out!

She also seems to be quite the disciplinarian.  While at our "Busy Babies" class at the library, she loved diving into the ball pit.  She, again, was fearless and loved it!  But, whenever another little friend threw a ball out, she would hit their hand and say no (or "nah" as she puts it) and go retrieve the ball.  Oh my goodness, I was a little embarrassed.  What's funny is that I have tried all along- well before she could talk to not say no, but they just learn it!!!  She is a t-crosser and i-dotter.  The apple didn't fall far from the tree on that one, I suppose.

Check out these pics of our precious little girl.