Controlling the Babies

I have a stack of Charles' journals. I have decided that every now-and-again, I will post little excerpts of things that stand out to me. They might be funny, spiritual, or just something that caught my attention to share. This is one of those journal excerpt posts… 

Excerpt from Charles' journal entry written on November 12th, 2000:

I had a hard time paying attention to the speakers at church because I was distracted. I noticed today mothers and fathers coming in and out of the chapel with their children. I'm not sure how they would get anything out of their meetings with the constant commotion. I would think that there would be some way of controlling the babies while you are in your meetings, but that is probably impossible. I suppose you just have to get up, take them out, and figure out what is going on and come back in. I will probably want to sit in the back of the chapel when Mari and I have small children so that we will not disturb anyone when we have to come in and out of the chapel. 

-Charles 

When I read this, I was cracking-up! First of all, notice that the date is the year 2000 -- before we had any children. Obviously, we thought that we would be such good parents that our children would be reverent in church, starting the day they were born. The irony of this statement is that not only have we been (and continue to be) the cause of commotion in the chapel with our children, but we have also sat in the front row in the chapel for the last 7 years! And, if any of our children made the slightest peep, Charles would scoop them up quickly, and excitedly head to the hallway, where we would lull them (and himself) to sleep, or otherwise entertain them. Once he left the chapel, he would rarely come back in. I would often find him, and a baby, happily sleeping in a chair in the hallway.

Perspective. It changes everything. 

The picture above was taken in the church foyer, where Charles would often take Henry, if he was noisy and restless. A ward member from church decided to randomly take the candid picture on his phone. He had the image of Charles and Henry on his phone, never deleting it. The image was framed and presented to me as a gift after Charles passed away. There is more to the story of the picture that is pretty amazing, but because of some privacy laws, I cannot share those details. The picture was a beautiful little miracle. I have a copy of it in the boys bedroom.

I love the contrast between his unrealistic, pre-parent, journal entry written in 2000, and the beautiful picture of parenting-reality, 14 years later.

Time changes everything, doesn't it? :-)