poopy diapers and God's grace

**Fair warning: poop is discussed in this post, and yes, I am a new mom!**

So my timing for changing poopy diapers is way off. I guarantee that at least three out of every five times I change Brayden's diaper, within seconds of changing him or even right after I get a clean one under him, I hear the lovely "tooting" sound again. I think, "Really?!?"

It's been two weeks (yay for his two-week birthday!) and at least five times I've been through 2-3 diapers in one change thanks to his pooping through the clean one I stick under him (but haven't closed up!). Today was probably the "worst" yet - I changed one diaper and then was cleaning him up and got projectile poop all over. (BTW - this isn't like toddler poop; it's baby, non-formula poop, so it isn't quite as nasty as it would be after he starts on solid foods.)

After throwing in load #54 of laundry (okay, maybe not quite that many), I grabbed some ice cream and got ready for the day (the ice cream came from the nap I wished I had, but Brayden wasn't taking because of said poopy diaper). While eating the amazing chocolate mint ice cream Erik picked up a few days ago, I looked over at Brayden and thought about what just happened and had a revelatory moment. Perhaps one reason God gives us babies is because they keep us humble. Right when we think we have it all figured out (changing a poopy diaper should be easy enough, right?) our babies go and change it up on us. They'll poop through that third diaper, create the 14th load of laundry, or change our sleep schedule unexpectedly. They're not necessarily the boss of you, but they do show you that you don't know everything.

This whole pregnancy thing has been humbling for me as well: asking for and accepting help from anyone and everyone, not being able to proactively clean my own house, not being able to take care of my own family (I was taking care of my family; I just was taking care of an unborn baby from the couch, which doesn't feel like much!), etc. It was hard! And it looks like the humility lessons will simply continue.

James 4:6 says that God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Maybe that's one reason why we have babies: so we can be humbled by the poop under our fingernails, the moments we forget our words, and the topsy-turvy schedules and ultimately receive God's grace to live instead of living life on our own.

So today, I'm asking God for grace, His undeserved favor, and His abundant strength to live.

Brayden's praying the prayer too....

:-)