can i ask for a favor? please?

i wake up every day and i feel so lucky to have my wonderful, healthy children.  i read to them, and play with them... i cook for them and clean for them.

i will be honest, some days i want to pull my hair out.

most days it reveals to me my imperfections.  what i need to work harder on.  my attitude.  my temper.  my patience.  my time management.  my organization.

and those revelations are really what make me want to pull my hair out.   i think that people say it is hard to stay at home with your children, not because you are home with children.  but home with yourself.  expecting great things out of yourself.  disappointing the people you love if you don't measure up.  no boss to badmouth.  no company to complain about.

or at least it is this way for me.

but i wouldn't want it any other way.

and then, sometimes, i get an extra reminder of how precious my little babies are.  i have been squeezing my two silly muffins even tighter after hearing about baby james.  baby james is a sweet little baby that won a battle against a brain tumor only through leaving this world to be healed by our Heavenly Father.

to imagine losing either of my babies is simply the most devastating thing.  to imagine the pain of this mother is unbearable.

i don't know kara, but we both went to baylor.  we know some of the same people.  it seems so close to home.  she and her husband wrote with such transparency on their blog and i think and pray for them daily.

but here is where you can help.  baby james had a thing for giraffes... and the dallas zoo had a little giraffe born a few days after james was buried.  and the dallas zoo wants help naming the giraffe... sooooo.... the very obvious conclusion here is that the new giraffe should be named for the sweet baby that loved them, right?

so go on over to kara's blog and read about how to make it happen. {basically, print out the giraffe form and mail it in... the giraffe is a girl so we want to name it JAMIE}

thank you very much any and everyone who does this.  and if you have babies... squeeze them extra tight, because life is indeed a precious gift.

xoxo, s