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It is this precious little man’s birthday today.
I can’t believe it was four whole years ago that I was birthing him. Because he’s my firstborn, his birthday always causes me to reflect on this transformative journey of motherhood. We spent a special mother-son day together yesterday doing whatever the birthday boy picked: an IMAX movie with popcorn and Sour Patches (hence the sour face above), BBQ for lunch, and GF cupcakes from the local bookstore/cupcakery. He kept saying, “Guess what we’re doing next on our adventure day!” I won’t ever forget it.
I got word yesterday that my best friend Ellie’s mother died unexpectedly this week. I still can’t wrap my head around it. Not just because it’s so sudden and terribly sad but because Adalee was such a vibrant woman. She was delightfully witty, clever, kind, loving, and adventurous. She raised four children, one of whom was adopted, while doing linguistic work with her linguist husband with a biblical translation missions organization in Guatamala. She loved her family and made everyone who entered her home feel like family. I will miss her dreadfully and my heart hurts for all those who mourn this loss. God knew what he was about when he created her. May perpetual light shine upon her.
I love this photo of her embracing Ellie just after her wedding ceremony. So much love and beauty.
Coming Up in the Liturgical Year: Preparing for Lent, yet? I can’t believe it’s next week. SlowMama has some great recipe ideas for Mardi Gras and I loved Sarah’s post about her family’s plans for Lent. And Elizabeth Foss has a lovely list of Lent/Easter picture books that I will be adding to my library holds.
The Quotable Benjamin:
“Are warts fun? How do you get one?”
“Can you find me some books about gob-a-lins [goblins] because that’s what I’m really into right now.”
“Four is like young-middle-aged. That’s what I would call it.”
“What are Gollum’s pants made of? Is Shelob bad or just ugly?”
Boy, was I wrong when I thought handing over our illustrated Tolkien encyclopedias to Benjamin would give me a few moments of silence 
Links:
Did you hear Deirdre’s news?
An Instagram Worth Sharing:
My baby girl’s first tutu. Makes the ballet teacher in me tear up…oh wait, EVERYTHING makes me tear up this pregnancy…
Love,
Haley
Question: Is anyone having trouble subscribing to Carrots through the email subscription widget or the RSS button? I had a reader say that neither worked for her and I was wondering if that’s a common problem!
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(2nd image courtesy of Jade Pierce Photography)
Memory Eternal to this beautiful woman of God! May God remember her always in His kingdom!
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love this post; enjoying reading you here; am new to your blog and really enjoying it. Love the pictures.
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Will light a candle for all in grief of the loss of this wonderful woman – it is clear that she will be missed by your words….
Happy birthday, Benjamin! What an awesome boy he is! I’m so sorry for your loss. She sounds like a lovely soul. May she be enjoying her eternal reward.
Hi Haley, I love your blog! As a relative newbie in the liturgical church world, your writing has blessed me tremendously. Thanks for writing so faithfully and frequently! I know it’s hard with 2 little ones.
I wanted to gently ask that you rephrase part of your description of your friend’s heroic mother. As an adoptive mommy, I (and others) tend to bristle at phrases like “she raised three daughters and adopted one son.” Because it implies that adoption is more about the charitable act and less about actual parenting, which couldn’t be further from the truth. Obviously this precious woman raised four children, one of whom was adopted. I know you would never intentionally slight adoption or adopted children, but in our culture there is simply not a lot of discussion about appropriate adoption language. So I thought it might be beneficial to you and your readers to bring up the idea. I hope you are not offended by my correction; I mean it from purely wanting to help.
Again, I so enjoy learning from Carrots! I even read aloud some of your piece on Mary to my husband yesterday
Blessings!
Thank you for your gentle correction, Shannon! I will absolutely rephrase that and certainly didn’t intend to demean adoption in any way. I wanted to communicate that Adalee was a mother through birth and adoption because I think her choice to adopt is yet another jewel in her crown, if you will. She is actually the first person I met who nursed her adopted baby and I have always loved thinking of her tandem nursing a blonde little girl and a newborn Mayan little boy. How could I be offended at your kind and helpful comment? Thanks so much.
Several things: First, Mags was “reading” this post with me and asked what everyone’s names are. She instantly referred to Benjamin as “Little Benjamin Bunny Boy,” which I thought you would appreciate. Also, she’s excited that Lucy can stand.
And, yes, I’ve had trouble with the email subscription, just so’s you know…
Happy birthday to the little man, and happy anniversary of mamahood to you! I guess you might also say you are celebrating the anniversary of your vocation (or one of them!), in a way.
Blessings to you and yours.
Just wanted to say that I recently discovered your blog and have loved reading it. You have a beautiful way of conveying your thoughts about family and faith, and this blog is really inspiring to me. I am Catholic, 28 years old, married to my highschool sweetheart, homeschooling my 3 oldest kids, and about 21 weeks away from meeting baby #6. While there are many ways that we do things differently (you seem to have a lot more under control than I do right now!), so much of what you say is wonderfully familiar to me, and I feel like I am reading my own thoughts sometimes, but yours are put so much more eloquently
I look forward to reading more from you. Happy birthday to your little boy!!
Thank you, Jennifer! I’ll be 28 in the fall. If you gathered that I have things under control I have seriously misrepresented myself! Especially the past couple of weeks, things have been chaos and I’ve had pregnancy mood swings and meltdowns like never before. Whew. Everybody is fed and occasionally bathed, does that count as having things under control?
I’m sorry to hear of your friend’s (and your) loss. May she rest in peace.
Benjamin’s birthday sounds like a blast!
Thanks so much for linking to my post on LMLD! I’m so grateful! I can definitely relate to the pregnant, ‘everything makes me tear up’ feeling… Some days it’s quite intense!
so, so happy for you and your husband, Deirdre!