100th day project

Times sure does fly, doesn't it?

It seems like it was just yesterday that I was buying new school clothes, and spending the last few glorious days of summer with my kiddo. Look at us now! We've celebrated Labor Day, Halloween, had fall break, ate too much at Thanksgiving, celebrated Jesus' birthday, ushered in a new year, and are headed full steam ahead into Valentine's Day. As if the reality of this slipping time wasn't smacking me in the face enough already, I got a note in Hannah's homework folder that read "We're celebrating the 100th day of school!!!". What? 100 days already? You've got to be kidding me. They only go to school for 180 days. We're more than half way through this school year!

To "celebrate" Hannah had a project due at the end of this week. A collection of 100 things, "displayed neatly". 100 things? What kind of things?? I really didn't have a clue what we were going to do for this. Partly because both Greg and I worked this week and I feel horribly guilty pawning large projects off on my moma, and because at first glance I didn't see 100 anything in my house. Hannah came home and said "Sydney is bringing 100 seashells, and Eric has 100 toy cars." Oh geez....how were we supposed to hold a candle to seashells and matchbox cars? After thinking about it, suddenly it hit me!! PICTURES!!! Our home is filled to the brim with pictures. Family pictures, pictures of friends, tons of memories printed on 4x6 photo paper. PERFECT. Greg bought a cute new photo album, and I got busy uploading pics to Walgreens.com. Even Hannah was excited.

Hannah was in every single picture I chose. This project turned out to be a timeline of sorts. The first picture in the book was of the day Hannah was born. Her daddy and I holding her and all her IVs and wires in the nursery at the hospital. We were so young, so dumb, and so deliriously happy. The last picture in the book was the last one we had made of ourselves. Christmas at the National Guard armory. Greg in his ACUs with me and Hannah-banana by his side. I looked through those pictures over and over again. MY HEART BROKE!! My baby isn't a baby anymore. Wow....God allowed me to be that precious baby's moma and with His help, and her daddy's of course, we've raised a beautiful, smart, sweetheart of a little girl. 6 years of pictures and memories were in my hands. What an amazing blessing this "little project" had turned out to be. God is faithful, and he's used our lives and the moments displayed in so many of those pictures to prove it....time and time again. Even though I was sad that my baby has grown up so quickly, I was so thankful for what those pictures were. Wow at the amazing memories God had allowed us to make with our baby girl. Vacations, and holidays, special occasions and everyday life. We've lived, loved, and laughed together. We made memories with our little girl that we wished we'd had as children. When we decided to start a family our goals in life change dramatically. Our life wasn't about us anymore, but it became all about making a "better life" for the little lives we were about to bring into the world. The 100th day project showed us that we'd been blessed to do just that!!! Who would have ever thought there would be a blessing in a homework assignment? Now, we just keep praying that one day, very soon we can start a picture album full of new memories with me, Greg, Hannah, and a new little bundle of joy!! Ya'll will be praying with us, right?