I heard a song today that totally fits our family. Specifically the relationship between our boys and their daddy. I remember hearing this song awhile ago but today was so different. The pressure of being a good parent is so huge, I (we) want nothing but the best for our kids. We want to share our faith with them in a way that they will see the relationship we have with our Savior, not a religion with strict rules and no personal involvement. Everything about our walk with Christ is personal, down to every decision we make-that's serious stuff when you think about it. I know not everyone reading this believes the same as I do - whether you share in my faith or not we still all want the best for our kiddos. Every decision that we make can affect them. EVERY decision- that is so scary. I'm not saying this because I think we have to be perfect parents because that will never happen; or that if we feed them a piece of pizza for breakfast instead of some highly nutritional meal they will end up totally screwed up (I would never do such a thing as that.....well not often anyways :). But in the overall picture what they see us doing and hear us saying will shape them in a very big way!
I am certain there will be many times that I will have to apologize to our kids for handling something wrong or speaking to harshly. I have no problem apologizing to them when needed-I'm not perfect and it's ok that they know that!
I say all of this to preface the song that I heard... it's Rodney Atkins "I've been watching you." To me it used to just be a cute song (still is), but as our boys have grown up it really hits home how much they are 'watching us'.
There is just something about a Daddy's relationship with his sons.
The children's choir sang at church last sunday and so Chase wanted to look nice. He ran downstairs and came up with his cowboy boots on and his chaps on and then started to look for his cowboy hat. When I asked him about his choice of attire he insisted that he needed all of this in order to look nice in order to sing. You see his daddy trains horses and competes on them (he's very good at it too, I might be biased but it really is true!!). When he is training he wears his chaps and cowboy hat for practical reasons (chaps to protect his jeans and hat to protect his head and face from the sun). When he competes he also wears these. Chase was too cute because when daddy competes he dresses like that to look nice, so Chase needed to follow daddy in how to look nice! It was so precious and heart breaking when he started to sob because we wouldn't allow him to wear them while singing on stage (we felt it would be quite the distraction). Luke sat with him and explained the situation and he was still disappointed but was okay with the idea of wearing them to church and taking the chaps off in the car (He wears his cowboy boots all of the time so no big deal on that one). On the way to church he proceeds to explain to daddy that he really should be able to wear them because he is a cowboy and the only reason that no one else wears them is because there are no other cowboys at his church. What a cutie!!
Cody is also right behind Chase in his desire to be like daddy. Last summer when he was riding his pony he would insist on me allowing him to stand on his pony's back (I held onto him the whole time, against his desires) because Daddy does that sometimes with his horses (I will also hold back my opinion of this action :). The boys have to wear a helmet when around the horses/ pony and while lunging his pony in the round pen one day he decided he wanted to wear his cowboy hat instead because that is what daddy does sometimes. Needless to say Luke and Cody were both in the round pen wearing helmets working with the little pony. Love how much Luke loves his little ones! Cody was daddy's shadow the other day, helped him out in the barn and then came inside with him. Luke was sitting at our island and had to get something from the dining room. Cody gets off of his stool follows Luke to get what he needed, follows him back and then climbs up onto the stool next to him again-with the biggest grin on his face. Did I mention they LOVE their daddy. Thankfully they still have plenty of snuggles and laughs that they want to share with me too-but for this post it's about the boys!
Here's a link to that song and some pics of my boys!
Quick update on the adoption-I will post again soon about it in more detail, we are still just waiting for our precious little girl. We continue to pray for you continually and one of the boys favorite things to do at night as they are falling asleep is to talk about their little Annaliese. Anything that is pink or girlie is for Annaliese as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAENe6nCg5A
