Baby of Faith

I just returned home from my yearly Women of Faith conference. If you haven't attended one, you should. Unless you're a man. Men, stay home. It might be dangerous for you...like an arsonist surrounded by a bunch of firefighters.

This was my 3rd year attending the conference. Also in attendance were my mom, my aunt, sister-in-law and Alexis. And about 12,000 other women. I believe the Women of Faith series is the largest Christian women's conference in the country. There are several fabulous speakers, great singers, and a whole lotta love. Steven Curtis Chapman performed last night (my new line that I picked up from him this weekend regarding having 3 kids: "this is Eenie, Meenie, and Miney. There ain't no Mo!") and today we got to hear Mandisa sing. Remember her? From American Idol? She's fabulous--even better than in her Idol days. It was fun hearing her talk about her Idol experience. Lisa Whelchel was one of the speakers. She played Blair in The Facts of Life and spoke of her experience moving to LA, without her parents, at the tender age of 12! Can you even imagine?? Anyhoo, I always leave the conference feeling renewed, refreshed, and with next year's tickets already purchased.

Alexis was the perfect, content, and often sleeping baby. And she was a hit. It's amazing how everyone comments on her. People always ask how old she is and when they realize she isn't just a few days old, they then ask if she was a premie. There are a lot of questions I'm still trying to figure out how to answer. With strangers, when they ask if she's a premie, I sometimes say "no" and smile and walk on. Often this weekend, when people would look shocked by how small she was at 4 months of age, I would often respond with, "no, she isn't a premie. She just had some stuff going on and now we're playing catch up on her weight." They usually let it go at that. I can often be the type to offer up too much information, but I've tried to be better about this. (Do you like how I just wrote that comment on a blog that anyone in the world can access?)

Even my boys don't know yet that Alexis has Downs. They see nothing wrong with Alexis, wouldn't really understand anyway, and while it's not like it's a big secret, I don't see the point of sitting them down for a discussion on Alexis's diagnoses. They may wonder in the near future why people (i.e. First Steps) are coming into our house to work with Alexis and at that point I'm sure we'll talk a bit about how Alexis needs a little exercise because it may take her a little longer to learn to do things. But for now, they just know that Alexis is their baby sister and when you talk to her in a baby voice, she smiles at you. And you shouldn't stick Playmobile toys in her face.