Mary

There are about a thousand reasons why this Christmas is going to be different from all the other Christmases of my life, but one thing is that the likelihood of me having a brand new baby is very high.  Lately I've been thinking about Mary and how brave and tough she was.  I can barely stand riding around the busy streets of Pittsburgh in the car with Andrew driving, let alone ride on a donkey to Bethlehem.  That sounds pretty awful.  Also the whole giving birth in a stable sounds pretty bad too.  And the pressure of having to be the mom of the most important person whose ever lived. . . that sounds very intimidating to me.  Luckily I don't have to worry about all that stuff.  I'm grateful for Mary, the mother of Jesus, and all that she did.