Over six years of blogging, I have never actually taken the time to share about why I chose "The Valentine Nest" as the title back in 2009 so, here we go....
There was a favorite book that was read to me time & time again by both my grandmother & my mother called "The Best Nest" by P.D. Eastman. It is the story of Mr. & Mrs. Bird looking for a "better" nest. While in the process, they find all sorts of wrong places & end up back where they started. Throughout the book there is a song...
"I love my house, I love my nest, in all the world my nest is best"
"I love my house, I love my nest, in all the world my nest is best"
My grandmother & my mother have always sung it to the same tune & I in turn have continued to sing those same notes to my little ones. At the time I was beginning to record life with little baby Charlotte, I was reading that book & singing the beloved song to her in the birdie themed nursery we prepared before her arrival. The word "nest" was on the brain. As we waited for God to bring children into our arms I dreamed of a home focused on nurturing the little ones in our care & began to think about the way a mother bird prepares a nest before laying her eggs. I had experienced the "nesting" that most pregnant women do & it struck me eight months into being a mother myself, that Robby & I had made our own nest & were able to nurture a sweet baby girl the way we had longed for.
- a home full of laughter, joy & peace as we vowed to each other on our wedding day
- to know Jesus & make him known & help our children do the same
- for our children to grow up learning about the world through the lens that God made all things to reveal his own glory
- to nurture our children in a way that they feel loved, encouraged, protected & trained well to leave our nest as a young adult feeling confident about who they are in Christ
Six years later, we are still learning about nurturing not only our little babies but those who are becoming more independent (in small ways) but hey, independence is independence...even if you are only four & almost six years old right?! The past year has offered much time for contemplating the effects of picking up & moving our family from one state to another. Most anyone that has spent time with Rob & me over the past year has received the honest answer "it has been rough" to the question "How has it been being back in Texas?" I was NOT expecting it to be a challenge at all mostly because I considered Dallas "home" for Robby & me. It was "home" considering it is where we spent our early married life together, bought & sold our first house, welcomed two puppies into our lives, enjoyed time with nearby family & established friendships & community through a nearby church.
We uprooted & took off to the Sunshine State after being in Dallas for almost three years & for some reason, when moving back to Texas I had forgotten what the process of assimilating to a new city with only a few familiar faces is like. It's hard, even when you know the Lord has gone before you & remains with you providing vast opportunities to be thankful & content in all circumstances & in all places. Robby & I have had too many conversations to count reminding each other of the length of time it took to establish close friendships in Orlando. It is encouraging & discouraging at the same time. There is one major difference in the two "stages" or rather FOUR little differences....soon to be five. We were free anytime we wanted to be about 6 years ago & now our life both naturally & out of necessity revolves around our little Nest.
God has surrounded us with people here who care deeply for us & we are thankful. That being said, we are still adjusting to life back in the Lone Star State. All of this thinking has led me back to the word "nest" & the goal of sharing about our family through this blog.
If you haven't read The Best Nest, you should add it to your library & read it to your own children, someone else's child or maybe just to yourself. As Robby & I talked about the idea of a "nest" on a recent date night, I brought up the "theme" song, "I love my house, I love my nest, in all the world my nest is best" & said I thought it seemed like it was boastful & I didn't want to boast about our nest being better than anyone else's. He brought up a good point though in saying "but don't you want our children to feel like it is the best "nest" for them?" Of course I do. Looking back at the points elaborating on what we desire for our nest, we pray God will bring all of those to fruition over the course of time & that our children will grow to value the same things making our nest their favorite.
Robby had me read the entire book to him once we were discussing this topic & we had some good laughs. It starts with Mr. Bird being so happy with their nest & singing his song until his grumpy wife says "I'm tired of this old place, let's look for a new one!" He does some looking around finding all the wrong places & she has the audacity to say "you make too many mistakes, I am going to pick out the next house!" Yikes! Once she is in charge, she finds a church bell tower & Mr. Bird comments that it may be too big but she said she loved the big place & it was perfect. Another chuckle... I can SO see myself thinking big, beautiful, new & nice = perfect ; )
I love the next part describing all the things they collected to build their nest which included hay, mattress stuffing, soda straws, broom straws & even man hair with a picture of a creepy man on a bench (Rob's favorite to laugh at). They work so hard to make their nest just right but once the bell is rung, it all comes crashing down & Mrs. Bird fearfully takes off.
Considering the building part though, we can clearly see that every family chooses to build a physical "nest" in a unique way resulting in nests that differ in location, size & decor. Similarly, families build their nests according to their values, or biblical callings & even if these are the same as the "nest-door-neighbor" if you will, it could look entirely different than your own. Community with other Christians, if their family includes only a husband & wife or a house full of foster & adopted children, how they choose to educate those children, how they spend their time & a thousand other things will not & should not line up exactly with how your nest functions. God places these other nests around us to find encouragement from as we press on & be challenged to find our satisfaction in Him alone. When I consider our little brood & their differences in personality at such young ages, I can't help but imagine what they will be like when they are ready to leave our nest. They may join their life with another & build a new nest that will be one of a kind. It will likely be some combination of the nests that each spouse grew up in plus plenty that is all their own. How exciting. When all those kids "spread their wings & fly" we will have an empty nest & again, life will look entirely different. Tonight I cannot even imagine what that would be like as I am finished with day 1 of potty training two rambunctious two year old boys. Empty Nest syndrome is the farthest thing from my mind.
Back to the book as we are coming to a close. Once the "perfect" nest was built & then destroyed by that clanging bell, Mr. Bird could not find Mrs. Bird. In the midst of a storm he crashes into his old nest only to step inside & find Mrs. Bird singing "I love my house, I love my nest, in all the world my nest is best." I'm sure he was shocked to hear those words come out of her mouth (or beak) after all her negativity & was then even more surprised when she said "there is no nest like an old nest for a brand new bird!" We will soon have a brand new bird & although we are not back in a physical "old nest," Dallas in many ways feels like that. There are many things that are familiar but with the life change we experienced in going from a newlyweds to soon to be a family of seven we are building a new nest in an old location. We trust that the Lone Star State is the best place for this brand new bird because it is where the Lord has us right now. We hope that like the book says "and when the baby bird hatched, he thought so too" will ring true for baby number five.
The other emotional roller coaster I have been on the past month is hearing from two Orlando families that are making big moves this summer. The Ziel family that we spent countless hours with took off west to Colorado just a couple weeks ago & our own family, Steve, Jenny & our precious nieces & nephew should be on a plane to Poland by the end of the summer. In many ways it feels like yesterday when we loaded up the truck & left our Florida "nest." I could still cry at the drop of a hat thinking about all the emotions leading up to & following our move. Considering our adventure & the adventures for both of these families, I am clinging to the fact that a nest is something you can rebuild anywhere & with anything. Florida looks different than Texas, Colorado & definitely Poland but each of our families is rebuilding or soon will be, a place to nurture those in our care. It may resemble an old nest but it will always be different than it was. In the grand scheme of things, our earthly nests, lovely as they may be are temporary. Eternity with God in the new heavens & the new earth will be infinitely better than the physical provisions, security & care that we have worked so hard to provide in this broken world. Life in the presence of our Savior will not be temporary like our earthly nests and will be far beyond "the best" place to call home.
If you haven't read The Best Nest, you should add it to your library & read it to your own children, someone else's child or maybe just to yourself. As Robby & I talked about the idea of a "nest" on a recent date night, I brought up the "theme" song, "I love my house, I love my nest, in all the world my nest is best" & said I thought it seemed like it was boastful & I didn't want to boast about our nest being better than anyone else's. He brought up a good point though in saying "but don't you want our children to feel like it is the best "nest" for them?" Of course I do. Looking back at the points elaborating on what we desire for our nest, we pray God will bring all of those to fruition over the course of time & that our children will grow to value the same things making our nest their favorite.
Robby had me read the entire book to him once we were discussing this topic & we had some good laughs. It starts with Mr. Bird being so happy with their nest & singing his song until his grumpy wife says "I'm tired of this old place, let's look for a new one!" He does some looking around finding all the wrong places & she has the audacity to say "you make too many mistakes, I am going to pick out the next house!" Yikes! Once she is in charge, she finds a church bell tower & Mr. Bird comments that it may be too big but she said she loved the big place & it was perfect. Another chuckle... I can SO see myself thinking big, beautiful, new & nice = perfect ; )
I love the next part describing all the things they collected to build their nest which included hay, mattress stuffing, soda straws, broom straws & even man hair with a picture of a creepy man on a bench (Rob's favorite to laugh at). They work so hard to make their nest just right but once the bell is rung, it all comes crashing down & Mrs. Bird fearfully takes off.
Considering the building part though, we can clearly see that every family chooses to build a physical "nest" in a unique way resulting in nests that differ in location, size & decor. Similarly, families build their nests according to their values, or biblical callings & even if these are the same as the "nest-door-neighbor" if you will, it could look entirely different than your own. Community with other Christians, if their family includes only a husband & wife or a house full of foster & adopted children, how they choose to educate those children, how they spend their time & a thousand other things will not & should not line up exactly with how your nest functions. God places these other nests around us to find encouragement from as we press on & be challenged to find our satisfaction in Him alone. When I consider our little brood & their differences in personality at such young ages, I can't help but imagine what they will be like when they are ready to leave our nest. They may join their life with another & build a new nest that will be one of a kind. It will likely be some combination of the nests that each spouse grew up in plus plenty that is all their own. How exciting. When all those kids "spread their wings & fly" we will have an empty nest & again, life will look entirely different. Tonight I cannot even imagine what that would be like as I am finished with day 1 of potty training two rambunctious two year old boys. Empty Nest syndrome is the farthest thing from my mind.
Back to the book as we are coming to a close. Once the "perfect" nest was built & then destroyed by that clanging bell, Mr. Bird could not find Mrs. Bird. In the midst of a storm he crashes into his old nest only to step inside & find Mrs. Bird singing "I love my house, I love my nest, in all the world my nest is best." I'm sure he was shocked to hear those words come out of her mouth (or beak) after all her negativity & was then even more surprised when she said "there is no nest like an old nest for a brand new bird!" We will soon have a brand new bird & although we are not back in a physical "old nest," Dallas in many ways feels like that. There are many things that are familiar but with the life change we experienced in going from a newlyweds to soon to be a family of seven we are building a new nest in an old location. We trust that the Lone Star State is the best place for this brand new bird because it is where the Lord has us right now. We hope that like the book says "and when the baby bird hatched, he thought so too" will ring true for baby number five.
The other emotional roller coaster I have been on the past month is hearing from two Orlando families that are making big moves this summer. The Ziel family that we spent countless hours with took off west to Colorado just a couple weeks ago & our own family, Steve, Jenny & our precious nieces & nephew should be on a plane to Poland by the end of the summer. In many ways it feels like yesterday when we loaded up the truck & left our Florida "nest." I could still cry at the drop of a hat thinking about all the emotions leading up to & following our move. Considering our adventure & the adventures for both of these families, I am clinging to the fact that a nest is something you can rebuild anywhere & with anything. Florida looks different than Texas, Colorado & definitely Poland but each of our families is rebuilding or soon will be, a place to nurture those in our care. It may resemble an old nest but it will always be different than it was. In the grand scheme of things, our earthly nests, lovely as they may be are temporary. Eternity with God in the new heavens & the new earth will be infinitely better than the physical provisions, security & care that we have worked so hard to provide in this broken world. Life in the presence of our Savior will not be temporary like our earthly nests and will be far beyond "the best" place to call home.
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