It's been a month now since my grandma passed away. Not a fun or positive way to start a blog post I know, but it's been on my mind a lot the past couple days. As I was thinking back on the quick overnight trip to Mound City, MO for my grandma's funeral my mind went to the many beautiful things about that time. I got to see so many of my relatives, most of which live out of state in Florida, California, New Jersey, Georgia, etc. It was a great time to connect with the Scarbrough family who, despite their many dysfunctions, love each other deeply and most of whom have a strong, personal relationship with Jesus! My Aunt boldly preached the gospel at Grandma Bonnie's funeral and shared about the amazing woman my grandma was and the incredible 88 years of life she had! She raised 3 talented, wise, God-fearing children (all of who were prodigal kids who came back to God later in life...a lesson to never give up on God or your kids!) I hope I can have just some of the legacy my grandma has left behind!
While in Mound City at the local restaurant (really one of the only ones in town) I had a chance to chat with a more distant relative who was just enamored with Eli. She was a mom to a big baby of her own (her children now all grown with kids of their own). I've found moms that birthed large children all have funny stories to tell and are very partial to big babies...funny how much this comes up when people find out how old Eli is compared to his size. These moms all have advice for me and tell me how their kids grew up to be, it's fun to hear these stories and somewhat humorous at how passionate people get about it. Most of these moms ask me all the basic questions (did I have a C-section? am I breastfeeding? etc.) and when they find out I gave birth naturally think i'm crazy, but this mom was seriously giving me high fives...it was funny but also very encouraging. She was quick to tell me not to let people convince me big babies need solid foods any earlier or that they should be supplemented with anything besides breastmilk and was relieved to hear that I and our pediatrician agreed on this point. So, this woman and I are somewhat bonding by now, and then she discovered I use cloth diapers. She was thrilled to pieces and amazed at the progress made in cloth diapering products today and called me an "old fashion momma!" Lol! I've never really thought of it like that...does having children naturally, feeding them the way God intended and using reusable diapers make me old fashion?
I don't know if i'm old fashion or not, but I took all of this as a compliment and realized just how much I have loved my experiences of bringing Eli into the world and caring for him as much as I can without interruption from our modern society. Not that the modern conveniences are bad, i'm thankful for things like formula and medical technology when it's needed (and trust me I like many of my modern baby toys and gadgets that make my busy life easier). But, I know for me it has been such a beautiful connection time with my son to breastfeed (this has truly become one of my favorite things, and trust me it wasn't always easy). It is the healthiest thing for both of us and even now that i'm working full time and it's not convenient anymore, it's still one of the best gifts I can give Elias as a good start in life, so that makes all the pumping so worth it! I love our cloth diapers and don't even really mind the laundry (maybe i'm a weirdo). Of course the money savings for these 2 things are amazing too! Now that i'm just rambling I will stop, but I guess the moral of my story is...naturally caring for your children shouldn't be an "old fashion" thing...why am I some sort of phenomenon to women I meet all the time? I know many of my like-minded mommas out there have experienced this too, I guess i'm just shocked at how often I come across people like that who think i'm the crazy one...this is how God intended it to be, it shouldn't be so weird!
