Lent is about waiting, about longing, about aching for resolution. I understand this waiting; it is so hard and I am so impatient. You have hope for what is ahead, you may even know for the most part what is going to happen, you know it will be good, a sigh of relief, a blessing, even a miracle. You have seen signs of it coming and yet you have to wait.

I am in such a season of waiting. I can only plan, predict, create lists for so long. I know that April will hit and it will all snowball: from baby shower to baby in my arms-I see it all.

Yet this month it’s just to soon.  Too soon to write a birth plan or visit a hospital. Too soon to transform a toddler room into a nursery again. Too soon to move big brother to a new room. Too soon to make freezer meals. Too soon to buy baby and post maternity items. Too soon to wash and organize all those tiny clothes and toys. Too soon to celebrate big brother’s birthday. Too soon.

And so we wait with hope, anticipation and little anxiety about what is ahead. It reminds me of the feelings you have before Christmas-the anticipation-the waiting. It feels like November.

If you are one of those people who gets super excited for the holiday season: you have your shopping list and decorations ready, and playlist made before Thanksgiving but feel cultural, personal (or family) restraint and know you should just wait. You get it.

Just as with Advent: aka “the countdown to Christmas” as I tell Z. We are in our home this year learning about Lent: aka “the countdown to Easter”. Z showed an interest and kept asking when Easter was? The easiest way I could think of to help him was a visual countdown, although this is use more often for Advent, it makes sense for Z. (If it goes over well, I may share more about our Lent countdown later this year or next Easter).

I like Z understand how hard it is to wait. I have a countdown to this little guy’s arrival on my online baby registry and it helps and makes it harder all at the same time.

Just as there is a reason for the waiting season as a baby to grows and become ready to enter this world; there is a reason there is a waiting time before each of these holidays. I want Z to understand the significance of that.

And so, we wait and learn as a family the significance of the waiting. And I remind myself that I am grateful my waiting season for this little one is much shorter than the waiting represented in Advent or Lent.

What are you waiting on or for in your life?