God's Grace

Sorry, no pictures on this post. I forgot my camera at home. (We don't have internet at home so I have to blog elsewhere). However, I still wanted to write and praise the Lord for His grace and mercy. My dad made it through his surgery (11 hours!!), and after a week in the hospital, he is now home and doing well considering all he's been through. God has blessed in so many ways through all of this. The doctor was terrific; he was one of the few doctors that actually came out to the waiting room periodically to tell us how it was going (most of the others just phone news in). My dad responded well to the surgery and is progressing well. Rocky, who spent the day with me in the waiting room, was great! No fussiness or anything! Praise the Lord! Two of the ladies from church, Cindy and Nancy, came to sit with my mom and me for a few hours. The Lord is so gracious! Thank you to all of you who have been praying!
As to our family, we are doing well. Gracie is saying more and more words. Her latest is "cado" for the avocado I let her try last night. (She didn't like it. She made quite a face, but tried to eat it anyway). We moved Rocky into Gracie's room this week. We'd been putting it off because he had been waking up early, but we finally decided we just had to do it. I thought it might be tough for Gracie because he might wake her up. I was wrong. She thought it was a party! When I went to get them on the first morning they were together, she was standing in her crib babbling away to him excitedly, and he was laughing at her. It was such a sweet moment to see them enjoying each other so much.
Gracie is becoming very helpful, too. She'll put Rocky's clothes in the laundry basket for me and get his pacifier for him when he drops it. She loves to have baby wipes; she tries to help me clean the table with them. She's a riot when I try to wipe her face after she eats. I'll wipe her face, and she'll say, "knee, knee" because she wants me to clean her knee, too. As Lou pointed out, she's like the apostle Peter when he doesn't want to the Lord to wash his feet and then decides he wants the Lord to wash his head, his hands, etc.
Rocky is getting more and more active, rolling a lot, and grabbing for toys...and hair (ouch!). We're still waiting for him to sit up. He's almost there; he's just such a big guy. He's got a lot of weight to support. He's almost ready to go to a bigger car seat (about a pound away). Lou and I are busy as usual. Lou's trying to keep up with all the duties of ministry, and I've been busy getting a going-away party together for Nancy, a lady in our church who is moving away. I'll try to remember my camera next time; the kids are changing so fast!