February 7th: Button...

Seriously?  Button?  Weird!

I learned something interesting, though:  In this age of touch-screens and keypads, I don't have very many things around the house that feature a conventional button!  My coffee-maker doesn't even have a button, really...more of a toggle switch.

One of the things I'm really enjoying about this photo-a-day challenge is that my kids are more and more into it every day!  So this morning, as I layered fruit and yogurt into parfait glasses (because nobody don't like parfait!), I got to enjoy the suggestions and input of seven aspiring blog managers.

In short order, I found myself taking pictures of several belly buttons.  Then, because I've always been highly suggestible, I photographed my own!  Promptly, Grace (who is about to turn 15) informed me that I was NOT posting my belly button on my blog!  Positively mortifying!

Now, I am on a first-name basis with every navel in this household, and I cheerfully concede that mine is bringing up the rear in the aesthetics competition...to say the least of the swimsuit competition!  No argument whatsoever.  But, really, how important is physical beauty when you possess an umbilicus with such a rich history?  

Just to hit a few high-points, my belly button has sat vigil at ground zero through six pregnancies.  (Every stretch-mark tells a story!)  Furthermore, after a lifetime as an "innie," my navel spent the better parts of those six pregnancies being turned inside-out...until it finally stayed that way permanently after Mary's birth.  This hernia ultimately led to the need for a surgery whose impressive scar now bisects my already-misshapen navel.  Will I ever win a belly button beauty pageant?  Not a chance!  But it's been around the block more times than all the other buttons in the house combined!  

And Grace finds it unfit for internet viewing?!

(Someone is raising that girl right!)

But there is a belly button in my family that is in a class by itself:

Behold the button of Asher David Carlson,
my fabulous 4-year old grandson!

What makes Asher's navel so much more interesting than your garden-variety belly button?  I'm glad you asked!


Asher was born at 26 weeks gestation, which is really frighteningly early.  And because he was my first experience with a preemie, I didn't realize that, because premature babies and their umbilical cords are very tiny, so are their little belly buttons!  And it's so cute!


But all cuteness aside, I just love this particular button because it reminds me what a wonderful miracle boy Asher is!  26-weekers who survive are often plagued by myriad mental and physical problems...but Asher is beautiful, smart, and whole!  And since we didn't receive him into our family until he was 18 months old (and because during his infancy he was subjected to further abuses), I am blessed all the more to imagine God's protective hand on Asher...even before we knew him to pray for him!


That's always a great reminder for me when I'm tempted to worry about something or someone.  God was fully able to take care of my grandson for a year and a half before he became my grandson!  Before I ever laid eyes on him!  So why is it sometimes so hard not to fret about the people I already know and love?  It kinda puts things into perspective for me.


Blessings (and belly buttons)!
Missy

Sshhh...don't tell Grace!

Children’s children are a crown to the aged...

Proverbs 17:6a