Baptism

Today I got baptized as an adult!! Baptism literally means immersion. Our pastor put it very clearly by stating that it is a "watery grave", that once you are immersed publically proclaiming your life for Christ, that you are reborn into a new and everlasting life. I have been a Christian for many years, but have never made this public profession as an adult. It was fun to proclaim Christ fully in charge of my life in front of others. I have always been intimated to share my faith with others. Before the baptism, we had video tape interviews on what your life was like before Christ, how your life has changed since you decided to follow Christ and what baptism means to you. This was very anxiety provoking for me, but I made it through and hope that God uses my words to speak to others next year that are concidering baptism. Eric was able to help baptize me along with our pastor. That was special because Eric and I actually met through mutual friends at church. I'm sure he enjoyed being "allowed" to dunk me! We have both grown from the college "sunday morning Christians" to knowing how rich our lives have been blessed by God and working toward the "everyday Christian". With each struggle in my life, I am more and more reminded on how important it is to give my life up to God and fully trust His plan. Before I was a parent, I didn't know the capacity I had to love another human being. I can't even begin to describe how much I love Alahna. To know that God has that same love for all of us is so amazing. Praise God for all His love and blessings in my life!

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice-the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.
Romans 12:1

Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinte value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him.
Philippians 3:8

Ouch!

Alahna had her first offical bad fall a couple weeks ago. I was on call and imagine the call I get from Eric after she fell on the cement and tore up her face! I felt horrible for not being able to be there. I was glad to hear that he didn't think she needed stiches and that she was happy after he put her in the bath to clean up. With the running toddler comes all the bumps and scrapes. I think that most of the time it's harder on the parents than the kids =) I forgot to take a picture the first day, but just imagine bright purple underneath all the red scrapes. Amazingly she healed quickly and is almost back to herself now.

Spring fun- March update

March was a busy month for us. I had evening board review lectures at Wills Eye 2-3 nights a week, so unfortunately I wasn't home much. In the midst of the business we got to have some fun with Grammy Sulli. We are always so thankful to have our family members come visit. Alahna and Grammy had a great time together. Eventhough it was rainy for the first part of the visit, we still made the most of it.
Rainy fun!



Grammy brought Alahna a new purse to carry her toys in. She loved it!

On one of the rainy days we decided to build a fort.
Alahna was more interested in climbing on the chairs than in the fort!


Dont' get in the middle of Alahna's strawberries and her lucky bear! Ha!


This is one of my favorite ones of Alahna. She looks so grown up! I can't believe she is almost 16 months already!!


New shades. So cute!


St. Patrick's day is a big deal at the (Sullivan) Higginson house. Eric made a wonderful corned beef and cabbage. Alahna really enjoyed it.


I think that with the hair and eye color, Alahna looks more like my mom than me!


Eric started taking Alahna to a tumbling for tots class once a week. Alahna LOVES it! She is the youngest one in the class, but can keep up with everyone just fine. She loves to run, jump and climb. I wish we would have known about this during the winter!






I love her soooo much.


Riding her rocking horse is one of her favorite things to do.

Alahna loves to dance. She can twirl around in circles all day!




Alahna loves having Grammy read to her.

I finally got off before it was dark, thanks to daylight savings time, so we decided to go down to the river and see the ducks and take the dogs for a walk. It was a beautiful day to enjoy God's beauty!





We are looking forward to the weather warming up and getting to be more active. We are currently searching for a house/townhouse to rent. Please pray for us. We are looking forward to seeing what the Lord has in store for us. We would love a place with a yard for the dogs and Alahna to enjoy and for us to be able to grow as a family. Alahna can't be an only child forever! This spring has a lot of fun in store. We are going to Chicago and Des Moines to see some of our friends that we miss so much the first week of April. We can't wait!!

Words! (kind of)

Alahna is finally starting to communicate! She has known sign language for please and all done for quite some time and says mama, sometimes daddy, but a few nights ago she actually answered a question! I said out of the blue, "what does a dog say?" and she answered what sounded very close to "woof, woof"! It's been consistent everytime we ask now so I think it's real. Too funny that dog sounds are her first form of communication (outside of the given mama, daddy)!! Even more funny is that our dogs don't even bark! It's so fun to see her starting to connect things. I'm sure she will be breaking out in sentences before we know it.

bath time fun

Baths are Alahna's favorite thing. I think she would live in water if she could! We got some bubble bath paint and she absolutely loved it. The funniest thing was when I said "look at mommy" and these are the faces she came up with! What a cheese ball, but I love her to death!!

Dr. Sullivan aka Mommy Higginson

Wow, it has almost officially been a year since I went back to "work"! I can't even begin to explain the challenges of pursuing my medical degree and specialty while being a mother and wife. I try to break my day into two each day and focus as wholeheartedly on each aspect of the day as I can. Although being a doctor and a mom can be seen as two very different jobs, I actually can appreciate many similarities. Both require a lot of patience, compassion, energy, dedication, and endurance to name a few. The newest reward when I get home and transform into Mommy Higginson is that Alahna claps and dances when she sees me walk in the door! It's so overwelming that I wouldn't change my life for anything. Being a mom keeps me sane and allows me to remember that there is so much more to life than the daily turmoils of residency. I do have to pay a major tribute to my loving and devoted husband. I can't forget my third role, wife! (PS all these roles are by far not in order of importance, just chronological throughout my days!). Eric is such an amazing dad and has endured the toddler mood swings, energy level, crazy hours of internship, and a constantly sleep deprived wife like a pro. We are currently reading Song of Songs together and are starting a bible study every other week. I look forward to this time together as a couple to deepen our relationship. It's unfortunate that I have to "schedule" time to spend together, but honestly it's been the best thing for our relationship. Thank you to all of you for your continued support through this difficult portion of our lives!

Love to all

Valentine's Day was blessed with me coming home post-call to roses and a wonderful card from Eric and Alahna. We went to church that morning then went to a new play place to let Alahna expend some energy. The rest of the day was spent enjoying time as a family and then Eric made a wonderful dinner. It might sound simple and not that exciting, but I couldn't have asked for anything more. Just being able to spend quality time with my husband and daughter, the true loves of my life, made it an extra special day!