So Happy Together

On Sunday, I FINALLY got to see Babies.  It is a great movie that I have been anxious to see since I saw the previews a few months back.  I was hard pressed to find someone who wanted to see it, but finally my friend Katie-the trooper-said she would go with me.  It was different than what I was expecting and really it was like watching a home movie played to music with a few sounds here and there.  I thought it would have been more documentary like with voice overs explaining what we were seeing or explaining traditions etc, but it was just video of 4 babies in 4 parts of the world.  Here is how I would rank my desire to raise a baby in these parts of the world:
1.  Namibia
2.  Japan
3.  San Francisco
4.  Mongolia
I had pretty strong impressions from my first choice and last choice locations and the reason for both is the same.  I CRAVE community.  In fact when I thing of Namibia I decided that this is the absolute best way to raise babies.  Of course it would take some getting used to-walking around topless, letting babies poop on your leg and cleaning it off with dried corn, licking your baby to clean them, but looking beyond the creature comforts what I thought was amazing and quite exciting was the fact that the mommy had another mommy there with her doing everything together.  They walked to the river together, they ground their rocks to make paint together, they made meals together, etc.  Each time they showed a scene, I had tears in my eyes thinking how great that would be. 

On the opposite end of the spectrum, the baby from Mongolia lived in a remote field with no other family around.  In fact the whole movie I only saw one other person besides the family and that was a doctor that came to weigh the baby on a house call.  The baby from Mongolia was PRECIOUS and would provide a lot of entertainment on his own but I could not take that as a only form of contact.

Thinking about this over the last few days I am starting to see how much my emotional well being is controlled by those around me.  When Annabelle was born, I had one friend who was a mommy.  My sweet friend Kim.  Landen was 7 months old when Annabelle was born and I had serious adjustment issues.  I will never forget being in my chair holding Annabelle shortly after she was born and Kim calling me to check on my and feeling like I was talking to the guru of motherhood.  It felt so nice to talk to someone who knew where I was.  She provided advice and a listening ear to a mommy who was losing it!  Fast forward 2 years and Maggie joined our family and I had LOTS of mommies to help share in the journey.  We had friends come over to eat dinner with us, babies for both girls to play with and mots of people for Mommy to talk to.  In fact, the day we came home from the hospital, 2 good friends  were at our house staying with Annabelle while she took a nap.  As it turned out, Kyle had to take Ryland home to nap because she was keeping Annabelle up and so Sherah and Talitha stayed at our house for several hours waiting for our sleeping beauties to wake up.  God orchestrated those few hours just for me!  I dont know that I would have been able to tell anyone that I needed people around me in those early days but it made such a difference.  During my maternity leave, I had play dates, outings and all kinds of fun with my family.  I was loving life and I can not say that about my early days with Annabelle. 

This past weekend, my very talented husband was working on a home repair project ALL DAY on Saturday.  To be honest I still dont know exactly what he was doing, but on a day I look forward to hanging with ALL my family, we were one man down.  My family was not complete without my fun husband and I started to get really sad.  Now, to be honest, the way that sadness showed up was being quite angry with him for taking so long, but honestly, I just wanted to go to the park or get some ice cream or WHATEVER else he wanted to do together as a family.  After a few days of contemplation, I realized that I need people much more than I every thought I did. 

Of course this can go to an extreme that is unhealthy-co dependence, but I really dont think I have an unhealthy need for this type of togetherness and I think it is quite biblical to share life with people around you.  Recognizing that I NEED anything from other people is honestly a little hard to admit, but after 35 years I finally am able to say it-and finally able to recognize it.

So for those who read this and are part of my "hit" of people time-THANK YOU.  You all make life easier to enjoy and stir my heart for the Lord!