Nine. Where do they go?

Well. I feel like I say this every month, but it's hard to believe that we recently passed the 9 month mark of living here. Absolute insanity if you ask me. There are days when I don't remember a life that wasn't full of noodles and street signs I can't read, and when our life in the States feels like some odd parallel universe.

Regardless, I can't remember any other season in my life where growth was so challenging and so simultaneously sweet. I recently helped throw a baby shower for two sweet mamas-to-be here, one of which is a friend and co-worker of ours who I've got to see at the various stages of her pregnancy. While oohing and ahhing over tiny baby clothes, and seeing their little ones rolling around in their bellies, I couldn't help but marvel at the unbelievable miracle God brings about in 9 short (says the one who is NOT pregnant!) months.

I got misty eyed thinking about all the ways God has pieced us together in a similar fashion as He has created life for us here. In the early months, we absolutely were the aliens on the screen . . . in very few ways representing what we were to become. And slowly, but so faithfully, God has breathed into us, giving us movement, voice, and growth so that we can survive here. I love thinking about how when babies are born, they are equipped with all that they need - hearts that beat in life and love, tiny eyes that increasingly understand the faces around them, vocal cords that give sound to their needs and cries . . . all of these things that He has been so faithful to place in us in our development here as well.

And yet, just like a newborn baby, our growth is far from over, our development far from done. But what I love about these nine months, is that the God who has nurtured and sustained us, will continue to do so. As our levels of need changes, He still is the source. He still is life. He rejoices with each step and toddle we make, and weeps with us when we skin our knees. He is such a gracious Father, and I am so grateful for these early months of seemingly unseen but necessary growth.