8 months old

8 months old! We are SO BIG! (l-r Eden, Hannah, Bella)

You know that feeling when each day seems to drag on forever, but the accumulation of them adds up so quickly you have no idea where the time has gone? Well, my sweet triplets are now 8 MONTHS OLD!!! Somehow I have managed to keep them alive for 8 full months! They are getting more adorable every single day. Bella started crawling on July 5th, Eden cut the first tooth of them all on July 9th, Hannah's hair is getting longer, all three girls are sitting up, giggling, jibber-jabbering, and loving life! And I adore these sweet little babies.





The other night I had the opportunity to go on a gals' outing with my Tate gals (Dave's mom, sisters, and sis-in-law) and on our way home I asked them to share their recent life lessons . I love to ask this question of people and hear their responses. I am of the opinion that, as a rule, we spend way too much time talking about nothing and too little time talking about the important stuff. And if I am to learn from other people's experiences, it helps to know what they are learning from them! Anyhow, my sisters in law spoke about patience and learning to recognize the hand of the Lord in every aspect of their lives. Yup, that's good stuff. When they asked me, I had to reply that the past year of my life has been about COURAGE. The willingness to go forward into the dark and unknown. The willingness to not turn and run at the first signs of struggle but to look ahead with trust in the Lord, knowing that He will certainly provide a way to walk or leap or run or whatever it takes to go through the trial. There have been countless times when I have heard the little voice inside my head shiver with fear at what lies ahead of me but somehow God has given me the COURAGE to move forward and keep going. My heavens, the pregnancy alone took more courage than I ever imagined I could muster. And you know what, I have adapted. People tell me daily that they cannot imagine how I do what I do. If anything, this experience has given me a great understanding of the human capacity to adapt to our circumstances. I admit that I desperately need the assistance that is given to me by my mom, and Dave's mom, and others who have shown up to help. In fact, I would be locked up in an asylum by now if not for all the help. But I have adapted. Yesterday I took the girls for a long walk in the triple jogger and a woman pulled over in front of us and got out of her car to admire the girls. She said, "I know that parents of multiples hate this, but I just HAVE to see your babies." In my mind I caught myself thinking, "Oh yeah, I AM a parent of multiples!" I know that it's unique to have triplets, but I'm just Julie and these are just my babies. I don't know if that makes sense, except to say that I forget that we are so unique to everyone else. Well, I'm beginning to ramble. And my 5 year old has been screaming for 30 minutes because he is so OVER-TIRED. My fault, should've put him to bed 3 hours ago. Isn't the first parenting mistake I've made, and most certainly won't be the last...

A recent addition to our home is a wall hanging that reads: "When you come to the end of everything you know...and the next step is into the darkness of the great unkown...you must believe one of two things: either you will step out onto firm ground or you will be taught to fly." I'm doing a little of both firm ground and learning to fly.

I encourage you to start to share your life lessons with others. And ask them to share theirs with you. It's nice to hear about each other's days and where we got our new shoes (I love shoes!), but so much more powerful to learn what life is teaching us. In the meantime, I will be here, with these cute 8 month olds, watching them giggle and grow, and facing the future with COURAGE!