I like the number 7. I like the sideways mountain, and long slant coming down. I like that it's odd. I've always found higher levels of math frustrating, and therefore numbers have brought me a lot of angst, unlike my husband who gets great thrills out of a well-made graph or a page full of statistics to wade through. In our family, the number seven has arrived by twos. To someone who doesn't do numbers that well, four times two, making seven, sounds just right. Let me explain what "It takes two" means.
It took two...I met Zach in Dallas in 2010, and we were both working in West Africa. Happy as can be to serve and love and live but when we decided to get married in 2012, it took two to establish a home where many neighborhood children were welcomed and loved. Where single guy friends of Zach's could bring their future spouses to talk about relationships, where two becoming one could shine God's light in Nigeria.
It took two...Mariama was born in 2015 in Jos, Nigeria. Three weeks later, Daso came to live with us. She was nine at the time. It took the two of them to stretch my heart in many directions, giving me a capacity to love that I never knew. Daso introduced me to the world of primary schools and a new insight into Nigerian children and their needs. I stumbled through ushering her through adolescence, and demonstrating what Godly womanhood could look like. Mariama introduced me to a community that embraced my children and humbled me through continual advice and constructive criticism. This sweet duo showed me how families are built, how discipleship starts at home as I discovered their spiritual needs were similar though at different levels of complexity.
It took two...Lydia joined us in 2017. Mariama and Lydia were the two babies who had entered our family through my womb, and they are so different! It took two to show me what I already knew; God masterfully knits each creation uniquely. Giving one child a powerful, husky voice, bubbling laughter, and contented zeal, and another an explosive imagination, slender limbs, and articulate vocabulary. It takes the two of them daily to draw out creativity and laughter, bringing me to tears of frustration and mountains of rejoicing in a single stride.
It takes two...Acacia and Olivia, surprising me with their arrival two months early, the every-three-hour feeds, they bombard me with need, sound, smiles, cuddles...I am surrounded. Without my life erupting with babies and diapers, I wouldn't have experienced the intense times with God while they were in the NICU. I would have missed out on the community that has gathered around us to care. I would still be struggling more desperately with the idea that God's love is linked to my ability to serve him. But I have been emptied two by two, and then filled back up. A continuous refreshing cycle of losing myself and relief in finding a renovated me in the tides of this life rolling over my heart.
Me + Zach,
Daso + Mariama
Mariama + Lydia
Acacia + Olivia = 7 individuals who have joined to become family, each giving from the wealth that is in them to enrich the others. Now that's my kind of math!
It took two...I met Zach in Dallas in 2010, and we were both working in West Africa. Happy as can be to serve and love and live but when we decided to get married in 2012, it took two to establish a home where many neighborhood children were welcomed and loved. Where single guy friends of Zach's could bring their future spouses to talk about relationships, where two becoming one could shine God's light in Nigeria.
It took two...Mariama was born in 2015 in Jos, Nigeria. Three weeks later, Daso came to live with us. She was nine at the time. It took the two of them to stretch my heart in many directions, giving me a capacity to love that I never knew. Daso introduced me to the world of primary schools and a new insight into Nigerian children and their needs. I stumbled through ushering her through adolescence, and demonstrating what Godly womanhood could look like. Mariama introduced me to a community that embraced my children and humbled me through continual advice and constructive criticism. This sweet duo showed me how families are built, how discipleship starts at home as I discovered their spiritual needs were similar though at different levels of complexity.
It takes two...Acacia and Olivia, surprising me with their arrival two months early, the every-three-hour feeds, they bombard me with need, sound, smiles, cuddles...I am surrounded. Without my life erupting with babies and diapers, I wouldn't have experienced the intense times with God while they were in the NICU. I would have missed out on the community that has gathered around us to care. I would still be struggling more desperately with the idea that God's love is linked to my ability to serve him. But I have been emptied two by two, and then filled back up. A continuous refreshing cycle of losing myself and relief in finding a renovated me in the tides of this life rolling over my heart.
Me + Zach,
Daso + Mariama
Mariama + Lydia
Acacia + Olivia = 7 individuals who have joined to become family, each giving from the wealth that is in them to enrich the others. Now that's my kind of math!
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