Grub grub – Part 3 : weaningJune 1, 2015
A few months back I met up with my two mummies in the city, we stopped for a drink and to feed our three little boys. I remember clearly then watching the two mummies with their bite sized and finger mashed food as I bottle fed Adam who is the youngest of the trio. Weaning was already on my mind and while their meal wasn’t by any means a disaster it did seem a lot of work.
Weaning is an emotive subject. I’ve never seen such high strung message boards and outright anger displayed as I have when people discuss when to start. Medical professionals appear equally torn, some insisting on the 6 month mark, others (like our Serbian doctor), insisting during the 4th month is the right time. And when you decide to take the plunge there is more debate on what to feed the little one, how much and when. I’ll happily admit I found the whole thing quite daunting. 7 weeks in and I’m relieved to say it’s wasn’t nearly as traumatic as anticipated.
Like everything connecting to feeding a child there is much debate and little instruction. Nobody wants to be definitive as children are so different. ‘As long as the child is healthy, happy and gaining weight’ is the mantra that spurts forth, but it’s a unreassuringly subjective line to many, especially those who don’t get to weigh in very often. So that five month old who is chomping MacDonald’s chips can be sitting next to a child who will get only milk for another month and both really are doing just fine.
Like most we muddle through. I sided with the late start people using spoons, admitted our diet is not veggie heavy so jars would be in the picture and got used to sharing my food with Adam when possible. I must admit preparing refills for the jars has had mixed results, I still fret over if he’s had enough, but he eats well and finger foods are still a game he enjoys. Jars, like formula milk, disposable nappies, spoon led weaning, and so many other things fall short of the co-sleeping, constant baby wearing, potty trained at 2 months parents, but who cares. I’d rather grab a jar of (what legally has to be nutritionally balanced) purée, order a pizza, and spend the afternoon laying on the bed hearing Adam say ‘glug glug’ in glee and giggling until my eyes leak!
Divine MomentMay 27, 2015
God is here, right now, and I know that, I do… but sometimes the veil parts, sometimes he’s almost tangible, and those moments have been rare of late.
The other weekend I went to my first Serbian Catholic wedding. I stood amongst the family in the cathedral, I saw the customary stole and alb, followed the service that was so familiar though completely over my head. Whispers told me the priest had married the parents and baptised the bride. Unprompted amen’s showed the church natives scattered amongst those gathered. The old walls rang with the clarity of the younger priest’s voice and then the powerful trembling of the older priest’s anthem. And in the almost deafening sound of the final prayer I closed my eyes and felt the wind atop the mountain, the spirit of the Great I AM reverberating my bones, the ghost of passing generations inside those stone walls.
Church is such a beautiful thing in it’s gathering, it’s such a powerful presence even to those who pay it mere lip service. If I’m to be honest, then Serbian weddings are not the place I really expect to meet God. While there are echo’s of the divine in the sacred act and the places of devotion, they are deep and subtle, overpowered by the deafening music of the reception and abandoning of etiquette to circling up in drink fed dance. So such a powerful moment swept me off my feet temporarily. It made me look afresh at the place I was in, long again for fresh spiritual nourishment, highlight my lamp burning low and show my oil jug dangerously empty.
It prompted me to move, to seek out teaching and create myself a scheduled moment. I tried it out last Sunday while friends watched Adam and rain pounded the streets. Little did I know that rain would cut us off from work for 3 days, temporarily strand our friends, issue the first level of flood warnings. Thrown out of kilter that short deliberate time replayed in my mind and sustained me, engaged me, and challenged me onwards. How this emerging ‘moment’ will develop is something I now very much look forward to.
Those decisionsMay 22, 2015
Fours years ago this morning our lives changed. It is a morning I’ll not forget for excitement stood in the air almost as thickly as apprehension. It was my husbands last day at work.
When I met Zeljko he worked in a shop, he had a regular (if decreasing and unreliable) income and he’d never really been out of work. We didn’t really have much of an alternative income at the time, our float was depleting and donations were thin. Life wasn’t easy, married just over 6 months, I was still adjusting to the a more permanent foreign life, and Zeljko’s work was beyond taking the mickey. Even the basics such as eating had failed, I was skipping meals daily and failing to find my feet cooking when Zeljko arrived home. Some of the resulting conversations are etched clearly in my memory.
I’ll not pretend that the decision we made back then was easy, but it was the right one. We stepped out into the unknown and what followed was life changing. From helping add a little content on a website Zeljko has slowly turned himself into a programmer and discovered something he loves to do. I had the tools and the right number of nudges to build a website full of kids ministry resources that is now used worldwide by thousands of people every month. Finding our feet and projects we love have given us things to build on, opened doors (like joining CMS), and helped us establish a more stable and healthy life in the city we call home. Being bold meant being open to blessing greater than we could imagine.
7 months ago this morning our lives changed big time. We held our first born child. Bringing a child into our lives was a huge decision. Zeljko is still considered officially unemployed, our lives rely on a careful balancing of visas and our bills are paid by money which is either irregular or reliant upon goodwill. While it may seem crazy to add a child into this mix we know already some of the great blessings it’s brings. As we enjoy the light we know darkness can ascend at any moment, yet we also know that we can boldly move forward, continually trusting in God’s provision.