An entertaining and memorable event - MG's baptism

"The heart of a man plans his way but the LORD establishes his steps." (Proverbs 16:9)

Before the worship service yesterday, I had these grand visions (or delusions of grandeur) of my 3 older children obediently and angelically standing in front of the congregation as our 4th baby would be baptized.  I even "prepped" them for this event by instructing Christopher to stand close to me and Sarah to hold tightly to Hannah's hand since I had to hold Mary Grace.  Being that John would be doing the baptizing, I was prepared to corral the kids on my own.  At least I thought I was prepared.  Kids have such a knack of going way beyond your expectations...but in a completely different direction!

Now why on earth would I have such ridiculous expectations?  When Christopher was our only child, I remember welling up with all sorts of tender emotions during his baptism.  When Sarah was baptized, I remember wrestling my 19 1/2 month old Christopher just to keep him still and feeling a bit frazzled afterwards rather than misty-eyed.  When Hannah was baptized just last year, I recall both Christopher and Sarah having a grand ol' time hopping down the steps of the stage.  Mary Grace's baptism yesterday proved to be more like the last two and less like the first.    

Here you see John and I straining to listen and respond to our baptismal vows that Patrick was reading to us.  Sarah and Christopher walked up to the front by themselves and left me with Hannah and Mary Grace, so John came to the rescue since I couldn't get Sarah to stay on her task of holding Hannah's hand.  Christopher took it upon himself to grab Hannah's hand and keep her from running away, but he tends to be a little less nurturing and gentle than Sarah would be so Hannah resisted his efforts.  Sarah took great interest in the flower arrangements and all of the cool objects on the communion table.  Hannah kept grabbing the microphone on Daddy's robe and pulling it off.  When we responded "I do" to the baptismal vows, Hannah grabbed Daddy's nose for fun.  Then to top it off, I saw Christopher doing dinosaur charades out of the corner of my eye.  

John put Hannah down, picked up the baptismal bowl and handed it to Patrick.  I handed Mary Grace to John and then quickly scooped up Hannah from climbing on the front row chairs.  As soon as the cold water hit Mary Grace's head, she began to wail and John said, "Well, here Mommy..."  The congregation cracked up because as soon as John started to give Mary Grace back to me, he said, "Nevermind" realizing I already had my hands full with Hannah.  As he began to tell the congregation about Mary Grace, Sarah thought it would be great fun to play hide-and-seek underneath his big black robe.  By this point, the congregation was roaring with laughter and we had lost complete control over the entire situation (not sure we ever had it in the first place).  

John quickly tied up his comments and I soon realized that we didn't have a good exit strategy since John had to go back to the pulpit for the Scripture reading.  I put Hannah down, took a loudly crying Mary Grace back into my arms and began to walk them both down to the nursery wing.  Thankfully Patrick had the presence of mind to walk Christopher and Sarah in the opposite direction to children's church.  Maybe we should have done a "dry run" (no pun intended) beforehand, but then it would have been so much less chaotic and therefore less entertaining.   We captured the whole blessed event on video so that we can remember this 3-ring circus in years to come.

The expression on Christopher's face above suggests that he had been scheming and planning this chaos all along.

Here he is pretending to be an Struthiomimus dinosaur.

Being that Hannah is only 18 months old and has no prior experience standing up in front of the congregation, we did expect the most action from her.  

Sarah LOOKS sweet and innocent...

My mom thoroughly enjoyed being the photographer of the day.  I saw her laughing behind the camera during Sarah's hide-and-seek under John's robe.  As we were packing everyone up to finally leave the sanctuary, we realized that we didn't have any pictures with her in them.  We were too exhausted to round up all of the kids who were running throughout the sanctuary by this time, but we did manage to get a picture of her holding Hannah (above) and Mary Grace (below).

All of this excitement even wore out Mary Grace.  What a day!  

Now that I have had a little time to stand back and reflect, I am truly thankful that God's covenant promises are for believers and their offspring as we seek to raise our children up to know, love and worship the risen Christ.  And even though it made for an eventful day, I also think it is a wonderful privilege that each of our children has been baptized by their Daddy.  

"And I will establish my covenant between Me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you." (Genesis 17:7)

MG turns 2 weeks old and meets Paw Paw...

Mary Grace turned 2 weeks old this past Thursday and had her 2 week well check-up on Friday. I was curious to hear how much weight she had gained because I wanted to know if she was going to follow Christopher and Sarah on their rapid growth curves or if she was going to be more petite/normal like Hannah.  Pediatricians like to see babies regain their birthweight (plus a little more, I think) by the time they are two weeks old.  My babies have NEVER disappointed the weight gain expectations.  Christopher was 7 lbs. 9 oz. at birth and 8 lbs. 4.5 oz. at 2 weeks.  Sarah was 7 lbs. 6 oz. at birth and 9 lbs. 3 oz. at 2 weeks!!  Hannah was 6 lbs. 11 oz. at birth and 7 lbs. 9 oz. at 2 weeks. Well, Mary Grace was 6 lbs. 14 oz. at birth and weighed in at 8 lbs. 6.5 oz. yesterday.  She started at a lower birthweight than Christopher but weighed more than he did at 2 weeks...and he chunked up into quite a huge baby during that first year!  

It just doesn't seem possible yet because she is still so tiny and lightweight.  The good thing about chunky babies is that they tend to sleep through the night sooner.  All that fatty milk satiates their tummies, I guess.  Mary Grace gave me a couple of nights where she only woke up once in the night, but then reverted back to waking up every 2 1/2 to 3 hours.  However, last night she only woke up once.  I'm hoping she keeps this up and doesn't backtrack again.

Oh, her little umbilical cord stump fell off yesterday as well so I was able to give her a proper tub bath.  She seems wide-eyed in this picture, but she was so tired and the water was so warm that she eventually fell asleep while I was bathing her!

Last night my mom was supposed to fly into DFW around 9:00p.m.  As with most flights these days, her flight was delayed by a few hours and she didn't land until after midnight!!  This morning the kids were all eager for her attention as you can see in the picture above.  She said with everyone talking all at once and then trying to protect Mary Grace from Hannah, she felt so scattered and didn't know who to listen to.  Yeah, welcome to MY world!

Being that my mom is Chinese, she doesn't know how to stop, slow down and rest while on vacation...so she got right to work.  (As soon as John reads this, he's going to say that I'm one to talk!  Fair enough.  I come by it honestly though.)  Sarah's bangs had gotten so long that we could hardly stand it, so you can only imagine how my mom felt when she saw her.

Now we can see those big brown eyes!

Christopher needed at hair cut as well.  What's funny is that as my mom was commenting on how much hair Mary Grace had, Christopher said, "You need to give her a hair cut, Paw Paw."

Mother's Day in PA.

All 5 1/2 McCrackens together on Mother's Day in Pennsylvania.


Today we worshiped at Manor Presbyterian Church where our good friend David Tate is the senior pastor. David and Cindy Tate are part of the Westminster cohort involved in the Pastor's Summit that John and I have been attending for the past 2 years. Manor Presbyterian is the 2nd oldest church in the PCA. It was a beautiful drive through the countryside to get to the church and we really enjoyed worshiping there with my mom and my sister's family.


What a blessing to be able to spend Mother's Day with my mom! (poor Hannah was patiently waiting for her bottle as we were taking snapshots). Too bad my sister's family isn't in any of these photos. They were pretty eager to get home as their youngest was pretty exhausted and melting down.


Ain't she sweet? I actually cropped this picture of Sarah out of a group shot since she was the only one in the photo looking and smiling at the camera. Gotta love editing software.


Here's Christopher running through the verdant fields surrounding the church.


Here's one of Hannah without her thumb in her mouth! You can see that she definitely got her blue eyes, fair skin and light colored hair from the McCracken side of the family.

Happy New Year 2008!

Well, what would a visit from my mom be without some haircuts? Here we are with our new haircuts for the new year (with the exception of Hannah who doesn't have enough hair to cut just yet).


Sarah's hair was cut and repaired from the butchering job she got at Great Clips a few weeks ago. Needless to say, my mom was appalled and ordered us to never step foot into another Great Clips ever again.

Yesterday morning my mom was telling the kids that she was going to be leaving the next day. Christopher asked why not live here in Texas? She said that she had to go back to work, to which he said she could work here in our house. My mom laughed and said, "But I need to make some money and you guys don't pay me any money." So Christopher disappeared and came back with a piggy bank filled with spare change and said, "Here Paw Paw! I'm giving you money!" It was very sweet.

I'll be waking the kids up shortly so we can all take Paw Paw to the airport. It has been a great visit, but as always too short.

Christmas/New Year's with Paw Paw

My mom arrived Saturday evening - early enough to greet the kids, who were VERY excited to see her! Sarah seemed to find every excuse imaginable to come out of her room to say something to Paw Paw. After the kids were fast asleep, I made my mom a spinach omelette since she was still hungry after eating my lentil soup. You'd think that vacation time was the only time my mom ever got to eat...


Here she is with all 3 kids on Sunday afternoon.


Hannah's cousin, Elijah, is just a few weeks older than she is but is quite a bit bigger (I'm talkin' off-the-charts BIG). So my mom didn't think that Hannah grew that much since Labor Day. (I told her that her perspective was a bit skewed from being around Elijah).


My mom got Sarah this t-shirt, which I think is pretty funny...especially with Sarah's mischievous, playful face in this photo.


Paw Paw's presents to the kids were bicycles! What's funny is that Sarah (3 yrs old) is already pretty good at riding it while Christopher (4 1/2 yrs) still needs lots of instruction, prodding, and guidance. Believe me, we TRIED with the tricycle, and he was NOT interested. We are determined to get him interested in riding a bike, though. I'll let you know how things progress.


Look at her go! Yes, that's a Lightning McQueen helmet on her head. They didn't have any girly helmets in her size at Walmart, but she likes McQueen so it works.


While we may boast of Christopher's many talents, large motor skills are not one of them. He certainly got us laughing today while leaving Walmart, however. As we were loading the bikes into the trunk of the car, he declared, "I'm going to be a Mormon when I ride my bike." He was confused by our hysterical laughter because he wasn't intending to be funny. I guess he overheard me say, "Well, there go the Mormons..." as they passed us by on their bikes with their backpacks.


You'd also think that vacation time is the only time my mom gets to sleep. Peace and quiet are not required...all she needs is a couch.

Chinese moms

Here is a picture of my mom holding Hannah after she dressed her in winter pajamas (this picture was taken in April...in Texas!)

Yesterday, John, the kids and I went to the library together after getting flu shots and then taking hundreds of Christmas cards to the post office (all I have to say is, thank goodness for self-adhesive stamps and address labels!). The morning started out rather chilly, but then got progressively bitter cold as the wind picked up. When we opened the doors to leave the library and the freezing wind hit our faces, I saw this Asian lady running toward us saying, "Oh! The baby! Cover the baby!" Now, Hannah was bundled up nice and snug and I had a blanket for her, but all this lady saw was two little bare hands sticking out of the stroller into the icy cold. So she picked up the blanket on Hannah's lap and pulled it over Hannah's hands. Even though our car was only a few more yards away, she was NOT about to let us keep moving until she thought Hannah was sufficiently covered for the remaining distance!

Now, most people would find this a bit intrusive or invasive of personal space, but I actually found it to be rather endearing. My mom, who has now lived in the States for a longer period of time than she lived in Hong Kong, is still VERY Chinese in her thinking and behavior. What I'm about to say obviously doesn't apply to every Asian individual, but I think it well describes the vast majority of Asian moms. Let me give you a few of my favorite examples...

The year after John and I got married, we went on a family vacation to Estes Park, CO. On this particular day hiking in the mountains, it was raining sporadically and my mom was making everyone put on these plastic ponchos that she got at the dollar store 'just in case'. Well, on our way up to Dream Lake, we passed by this couple with a baby in one of those hiking back packs and the baby did not have a hat on. What started as a whisper of disapproval: "Look at them. That baby should have a hat on..." embarrassingly turned into a confrontation by my Chinese mom to these perfect strangers: "You should put a hat on your baby...her head's getting wet and cold."

The winter after Christopher was born, John went with a group of people to China. While there, they traveled from city to city, much of it by train. According to John, it was standing room only for hours on the train and sweltering hot. So he was delighted to step off the train without his coat on in sub-zero temperatures. That is, until an elderly Chinese woman who spoke no English patted him on his bare arm several times and shook her finger at him!

After we got home from the library yesterday, John told me I should call my mom and tell her about the latest event that reminded us of her. (My mom knows that we get lots of laughs at her expense, but she secretly loves it!) I then began to imagine the conversation in my mind and realized that after a quick recognition of the humor in this story, she would move to justify this woman's actions and then ask me why I didn't have mittens on Hannah on such a cold day. I decided not to call, but I'll probably get a call after she reads this blog post...

This tightly swaddled baby just might pass my mom's inspection.

Labor Day Weekend

Mindy's mom arrived Friday night to spend Labor Day weekend with us. Here are some pictures from our time together...


Any resemblance? Hannah may be 1/4 Chinese, but there isn't an ounce of evidence in her appearance thus far!


Now that we have 3 kids, Paw Paw has been relocated to the sofa bed in our family room. Some may think that we should give up one of our bedrooms for her. What you don't know is that she sleeps on the couch more often than not in her own house! She even objected to having the sofa bed pulled out and made up, but we insisted. She woke to the whispers of Christopher and Sarah creeping down the hallway, "It's Paw Paw...Paw Paw's here...it's Paw Paw!" As soon as she popped her head up, Christopher and Sarah climbed into bed with her.


Paw Paw wasted no time - she got right to work on Christopher's hair.


After the haircut - look how sharp he looks!


Now for Sarah - we like to keep her hair short because she doesn't like her hair pulled back with barrettes or bows...

...plus it just looks so cute in a bob.


Later on Saturday evening, we had a combined birthday celebration - Martha's Birthday on Sept. 4th and Philomena's birthday on October 2nd. Mindy cooked a huge meal and baked an Italian cream cake...mmmmmmmm! (yes, I know there are only 7 candles on the cake...but I'm not allowed to say how many candles we needed. Let's just say that if we added up Nana's and Paw Paw's ages, there wouldn't be enough room on the cake for all of them to fit :-).


Picture of Mommy and Hannah after church.


Paw Paw and the grandkids.


Whenever someone shows Sarah 'special' attention, she attaches herself to him/her while rejecting the usual help or assistance from mommy and daddy. All weekend long, Sarah wanted Paw Paw to feed her, help her go to the potty (two activities she normally does all by herself), read her books, and carry her. Despite mommy's objections, Paw Paw was happy to do all of the above...as any grandparent would!