Luckiest Baby in the World

My husband is a great cook. He's creative and talented. Mostly what makes him such an awesome cook is that he loves to share. He cares about others enjoying what he makes, so he takes a lot of pride in it. This is also why he makes such a great musician too. Not everyone will agree upon what their favorite style of music is, but when you can't help but notice his enjoyment in it, you get sucked in. Biased? No. I hear it all the time.

He's a man with many passions, and if you can look past the shy exterior, you can see it too.

One of the biggest driving forces of us returning to Washington was that while Ian does love to create in the kitchen, after a lot of prayer and careful consideration, God made it very clear it's not what He had planned for Ian professionally.

Ian is a teacher. I saw this so clearly yesterday when our front yard was filled with 6 unbridled screaming and screeching little girls and boys and two anxious dogs behind a fence. Sol and Amber are Ian's sister's dogs and they spend their days in a large fenced in yard. Most of the time, the little neighbor girls come by and happily greet them and the dogs are more than thrilled to accept the extra attention. But yesterday, summertime tripled the amount of kids in the yard and a few didn't really know how to treat animals they didn't know.

I became a little weary when I heard Sol barking, the bark he normally saves for coyotes, and an unfamiliar little girl barking at him. Sol is a well trained family dog, but he's also old and was probably feeling a little uneasy and threatened. And I didn't know the little girl that was making him feel this way. After watching for a few minutes, Ian went out there to talk to the kids.

My first thought was. "What's he going to say to them?"

When I was a kid and being somewhat obnoxious, I'd mostly get a "HEY! YOU KIDS GET OUTTA HERE!"

But that didn't seem like an "Ian Response" to me so I was pretty curious how this was going to go down. I knew screaming at the kids wasn't going to solve the problem, but I didn't know what an effective resolution really looked like, until Ian showed me, with grace, how to use this as a learning moment for both the kids and me.

I just don't think Ian knew exactly what he was getting himself into, but as he put it, he suddenly found himself in a scene from Kindergarten Cop......

As Ian approached the kids, I could see from afar that they knew they were in for it. But then I heard him cheerfully say, "Hey guys! They are probably barking like that because the screaming is making them feel a little nervous."

I have to admit, at this point I thought, "Oh great! Like that's going to make them stop."

But what I didn't realize was that Ian had opened up a dialogue between them.....

All: "Are these your dogs?"

Ian: "Well, yes kind of. We all make sure the dogs are okay around here."

Girl one:  "Well....well we had to scream because it was AN EMERGENCY!"

Ian replied, "OH? What happened?"

Girl one: :"Well...well." Very unsure about what she saw and how she was going to say it, she yelled, "The black one was on top of the white one!!"

Girl two: "They were connected!"

Girl three: "They were making babies!"

Boys: "They were HUMPIN'!!" (How these baby-faced boys know what that is, is for another blog entirely)

Ian: "Ohh. Well dogs do that sometimes, but the boy dog can't make puppies so there's no emergency."

Girl three: "Are they boyfriend and girlfriend?"

Ian: "They've been married for a really really long time."

All: "Oh okay."

Ian: "The dogs are very friendly, but when they hear humans screaming they think something's wrong and they need to protect someone. See how right now we're all just talking normally, and the dogs are fine, laying in the grass?"

All: "Ohh.."

Thankfully the screaming and barking ended but the kids still playfully frolicked in the yard for hours and hours. Everyone was happy.

I couldn't help but be in awe of not only how Ian handled the situation, but in how he talked with the kids with respect and no one felt reprimanded. It was just an opportunity to learn something new. After all, dogs are people too, ya know!

I was overwhelmed with how lucky the little babe we are expecting is to have a daddy like that. I can't wait to watch as the two meet for the first time. Love at first sight....