It Takes a Village

Grab a cup of tea and curl up, this is a long one ;)

The old saying "It Takes a Village" is so, so true! And not just in raising children - in keeping adults healthy as well!

First let me say, I am incredibly thankful for the family and friends I have been blessed with and how amazingly involved they have been in Cadence's life as well as mine.

From Grandma giving us our first date night to Auntie Katie taking Cadence when I was out a sitter and had to get to class, to Rachael staying with us to help out, to Cat coming with to run errands all summer, to all of the selfless offers to help, I cannot express my gratitude enough both to God and to our loved ones!

If it weren't for my mom (Grammy) I would not have been able to go back to school and finally finish my degree after Cadence was born. She stepped up and took Cadence two days a week (yup, I crammed my full-time schedule into Tues/Thurs!) in addition to working full time as a nurse. She and Dad have always been willing to drop any plans they have if we needed them (though thankfully I don't think we've had to take advantage of their generosity in that dept.) and never hesitate to say "family comes first". It is awesome to see the wonderful relationship that Cadence has with her Grammy and Poppy and I absolutely love how lucky she (we) is (are)! I know that my parents don't mind hanging out with Cadence (in fact, I'm pretty sure they would adopt her if we would let them) but I do know how hard it can be to get things off of your "to-do" list done when you have such a fabulous little girl to play with ;) So I absolutely recognize and appreciate the time sacrifice that they make to be so involved. (And I really wonder, how DOES my mom stay on top of it all??? hello superwoman!!!).

In my second semester commuting back to VCU I had to go M/W/F since my list of remaining courses was dwindling. My Mom works mostly on the weekends (7p-7a!) and couldn't watch Cadence on Mondays so my Granny (Mom's mom), who lives in Chesterfield, jumped on the opportunity to step in and take Cadence on Mondays. She and Grandiddy even drove out to meet me & C at their church (shout out to Immanuel Baptist on Monument Ave - where Nathan and I attended all through college!) near the fan and take her back to their place way out on the edge of Chesterfield. SO AWESOME!!! I could not have done it without them!!! And the relationship they have with Cadence now is beautiful :) I am praying we can make it out to visit them at least once, hopefully twice, a month to keep it up!!! It is so cool to think about how Granny helped to raise me as a little girl and is now getting to be so involved with Cadence as well -- double blessing! :D

In my third and final return semester Nathan's mom had just retired from her job and was then able to watch Cadence once a week as well! So, Cadence got to see THREE grandmothers every week!!! For this semester I got most of my classes into T/R but had one lab on Monday afternoons (laaame). So Nathan's mom happily stepped in to come play with Cadence while I knocked out my research lab in Richmond every Monday! As the semester progressed Cadence got to start going back to the farm with her and I'm pretty sure that put her in heaven :D I am so in love with the relationship she has been able to build with her Grandmommy!!!

Now that I am looking to go back to work both Grammy and Grandmommy have been more than awesome in their willingness to continue watching Cadence! And Granny, who use to work in daycare, has said more than once that she would be willing to drive up once a week if the moms could take care of the other days so that Cadence could be with family instead of in daycare. So sweet :) I am thrilled that Cadence will be able to continue to hang out with family while I'm at work and cannot get over how blessed we are and how generous our family is!!!

However, we have also put down a registration fee to hold a spot for Cadence to begin at the Goddard School over the summer, two days a week. We are a tad bit anxious but very excited for her because, even though she is ahead of our timeline (we weren't thinking preschool would happen until 3!), she is absolutely going to looo-oo-oove getting to make friends and play with other kids! She is such a social butterfly already but she doesn't have too many outlets for that yet.

One of the outlets that she does have is the nursery at church, which brings me to my next point!

At LifePoint last Sunday (1/17) Pastor Daniel talked a lot about the importance of community. I have never felt more community outside of our blood family than at that church!!! From working in DIVE (the nursery) to LifeGroup to the atmosphere and friendly faces every Sunday, LifePoint is the most amazing church family we could have ever asked for. They proved this once again when, after tearing down Sunday (we're a portable church and Nathan serves on the auditorium tear-down team), Steven called everyone together (not one bit embarassing!) and they literally surrounded us, put their hands on us, and prayed over our family for this period of Nathan's deployment. Aside from the blush factor, it was the most amazing support and I know that I will pull strength from remembering that moment throughout this deployment.

Also on 1/17 we heard from the newest member of the LifePoint staff, Beth, who is coming on board to maximize our LifeGroup experience. I am so excited for what is to come!!! There are countless reasons to love LifeGroup and we have built some wonderful friendships thus far, I look forward to expanding on those and growing together with a small group!!!

So, in "short" (haHA!), while it may be true that it takes a village to raise a child, it is more accurate to say that it takes a village to raise a family. My sanity is so reliant on the people we keep close to us, and what they do not only for Cadence but also for me and Nathan. I worked as a nanny with a woman in Richmond, who is now a dear friend, who wrote in our wedding guest book that I took care of not only her daughter, but her. At the time I laughed, not realizing how true that statement could be. But it is so true that through taking care of Cadence, my family and friends are also taking care of me (and Nathan - not having a crazy, disheveled (ok, maybe that's hard to fix), overwhelmed wife!). And they don't just stop there! Phone conversations, facebook updates & check-ins & photo comments, blog comments, lunch dates, emails, antiquing downtown, trips to Roxbury Gardens, company for Target runs, our friends and family are the heart and soul of our family <3