Our Little Family: Granny Dee's Visit After the Twins Were Born

While I was pregnant with Dallas (over four years ago!), Bryan and I moved. Granny Dee flew in right afterward and unpacked almost every bin and box. Many, MANY things are still in the places she put them. Then she came after Dallas was just born and stayed for two weeks(!). I told people: the first six weeks isn't as hard as people say! ...then she left and I had to do all the cooking and cleaning she'd been doing! It WAS hard! I wrote a little article about her and I'm just going to post it here:

She Gave Me Her Son, Then She Washed My Feet

As I sat in church last Sunday evening, I watched a young couple in front of me. She is in her late teens and he is in his early twenties, a couple with a lot of potential, who plan to marry. It was so sweet how she was gently and lovingly caressing his back. I happened to be sitting next to the boy’s mother and wondered what she was thinking. As a young mother, I can only imagine what it would be like to see the child that I bathe, brush his teeth…do practically everything for, sitting beside and being caressed by a different woman. Of course, I know this will happen…or at least pray it will! I want my son to be blessed with a loving relationship, but in that moment, I thought only of the boy’s mom and her feelings. Then my thoughts turned to the woman whose son I had taken. I have often wondered how she feels knowing that the boy she rocked for an hour every night, nursed, read to and loves, now tells me everything and has given his heart to me. I wonder how she feels and pray that God prepared her beforehand.

This woman, whose son moved across the country for college and then stayed to marry and make our home here in Arizona, when she lives in Kentucky, has taught me so much about gracefully moving through life’s stages. When my husband and I moved (only one mile, but I was pregnant with our first son), she flew in and unpacked virtually every box and gave things a home. I was so grateful! Then she blew me away again: our son was born and she flew in and stayed for two weeks! She did all of the cooking and cleaning and we appreciated her so much. Then she suggested something that made me feel very uncomfortable: “I’ll get a bucket and some yummy smelling lotions and soaps and wash your feet.” Pride getting in the way, I quickly said, “Oh thank you, but I’m fine, really.” But she insisted that I needed it and got out a bucket and soap and lotions and washed my feet as she sat on the floor and I sat on the couch. It was uncomfortable: my elder sitting on the ground, while I was perched on a couch. My mother-in-law serving me for two weeks and serving me by washing my feet as well, but it was so Christ-like and it sent a message to me that I’ve never forgotten: of love, family and service.

I had prepared myself for the first six weeks of having a newborn, hearing from everyone, “the first six weeks are the hardest; you’re just surviving.” I didn’t feel that way at all! It wasn’t so bad. …Then my mother-in-law left. It was bad! We were exhausted! She had done all of the cooking and cleaning for two weeks!

I didn’t think I could ever appreciate her any more than those two weeks, until our second-born was born and suddenly passed away, all in the same day. Part of my heart was gone, in Heaven. My husband and I were devastated: the daughter we wanted so badly, loved so much, had dreams for, was gone. Our local family and friends rallied around us in such a loving way and did everything they could to help take the edge off of the pain and you know who was on the next plane: my mother-in-law. I didn’t want to be around anyone and she respected that: distracting our son, cooking, cleaning and even calling in more reinforcements: her mother. They served us for two weeks and then let us grieve alone.

As I think about how I will feel when my little son loves another woman more than me, I look at the woman whose son I “took” and pray that when I meet the young woman who loves my son, that I will love her into my family as I was loved into my mother-in-law’s family.

By: Jamie Powers

And she stayed FIVE amazing weeks after the twins were born and is back now for another three! I have the best mother-in-law in the world! In fact, I'm sick right now and she just brought be a cup of hot water steeped in ginger with honey! This after doing the night and morning feeding! I praise God for blessing me with her.

Grace wanted Dallas to be her knight and she would be the princess, so Dallas decided he did not want to be a knight. And he went as Jengo Fett (Star Wars) to his first Halloween bash. Grace, being the wise little woman that she is, went ahead and bought Dallas a knight costume. Seeing how super cool the shield, helmet, and especially the sword were: Dallas ditched the Jengo Fett and was a knight for his next two Halloween events. Granny Dee kept the twins so that I or Bryan and I could just focus on Dallas.

Granny kept all the kiddos so I could teach a cooking class at ASU Downtown. We made three meals and ate one of them all together afterward: Chicken Milano...YUM!

Blessed boy with his two grandmothers (he also has two grandpas: one is a Pappah, two great grandmas and three great grandfathers: all Pappahs and one great, great grandma!)