I never want to forget:
- your prayer on the way to the hospital as we prepared for the unknown.
- how we watched a baby story together in the pre-op room, one a natural birth and one a c-section.
- you walking into the operating room looking so handsome in your scrubs and immediately grabbing my hand and asking how I was doing.
- you bringing me my baby around the curtain with this incredible look of joy and amazement and bending down to kiss my cheek.
- how proudly you showed me his precious little footprints that had been put on your scrub.
- the first hour we spent as a family inspecting this precious little life that the Lord had entrusted to us.
- how you were a tape recorder of information trying to help me remember everything we had learned in our class about this first hour together.
- how you instantly became our protector and how we became your number one priority.
- how you immediately stepped in and helped me with my own care: pain meds, using the restroom, asking the nurse questions, talking to the doctor, helping me figure out nursing.
- how many of the things you helped me with were embarrassing for both of us, but you did it humbly and with the sweetest, most servant-hearted demeanor.
- how your sense of fashion went out the window as you chose basketball shorts, a t-shirt, and thermal socks during our stay.
- how this care did nothing but increase once we got home.
- how you would look at me when I was taking care of our boy like you did when we first started dating--with complete awe and amazement.
- how your profession of not changing diapers immediately went out the window because you knew it was what was needed for me and him.
- how you would encourage me when I cried and not get frustrated.
- how you did everything with the sole intention of making it easier and taking care of us.
- how you would not let anyone touch him unless they were sanitized.
- how you had a plan for others to hold him a certain length during Christmas.
- how you would lean over and kiss me and then our boy.
- the way that you showed the video of his eyes being open so proudly to every person that would watch.
- how you would lean down and whisper the sweetest things to Keaton when he was screaming during a diaper change, sometimes barely dodging so urine.
- how you would sit with me in the nursery as we struggled those first two weeks and encourage me to keep going.
You were my rock and continue to be. You are by far the best daddy to our little guy, and we love you because of that. The Lord has blessed us beyond measure with you.
From the moment we found out we were pregnant and then calculated the due date, I have had this deep dread. I dreaded that December 22 could likely mean December 25. I dreaded that my poor child would be thrown into the hustle and bustle of the holiday season never to be truly celebrated. I dreaded that he would miss out on a “real” birthday and non-shared birthday gifts. I dreaded the sadness that he would feel because everyone would be too busy to celebrate his day.
It was around June, however, when I feel like the Lord spoke to my heart about the opportunities that being pregnant during this time of year provided me. As we have gotten closer to the season, I have often thought so carefully about Mary. Yes, Mary, Jesus’ mommy. In no way do I compare myself to her or pretend to contend with her or the baby in which she was chosen to carry, but if all dates were accurate and for the purposes for which we know this season, I do feel like I have the timing right on target with when she was pregnant with Jesus.
I shall never forget once our sweet boy was in my arms holding him on Christmas morning, playing him Christmas music as we rocked, and weeping at the mere thought of ever giving him up. It is through his existence that I have a greater understanding of the incredible sacrifice that God the Father and Mary made for me. What a true blessing our Christmas baby is.
- I've had more conversations with total strangers than ever before. It's insane how interested in me people have become all thanks to this sweet little guy growing inside.
- The constant, active reminder of God's faithfulness and provision as well as my desperate need to know Him more.
- The anticipation that it brings to everything.
- The way that my it has caused me to fall in love with my husband like never before.
- The fun it is to constantly have something to think about, research, create, organize, etc.
- The excuse to eat, um, more.
- For the first time in my life, I am the one who is warm and not freezing.
To be continued...
Really, I've been hugely blessed with comments of strangers and friends during pregnancy. That basically means that at no time have I cried over someone's comment. Going into pregnancy, I had prepared myself for the worst, but thankfully I've been spared. Of course, this could all change over the next four weeks. Let's hope not.
Nonetheless, what better way to catch up on pregnancy business than by reminding myself of these comments?!
- My first comment was, in my opinion, fairly early into my pregnancy. (Sadly, I can't remember what week this was.) So much so that I questioned whether he really thought I was pregnant or was just making conversation based on the groceries. Either way, he was brave because it could certainly have just been a nice gut or a belly full of lunch in an empire-waisted dress. Cameron insisted that he knew. Anyway, while in line at Randall's with just two separate gallons of ice cream that we were taking as dessert to someone's lunch invite, an adorable old man said, "You forgot the pickles." It took me a minute to understand what he was meaning, but I thought that was a cute "the public knows your pregnant" comment.
- Someone once told me, and maybe this was the same day, that they could tell I was getting chubby or else working out. Yeah, I don't get it either.
- "Mrs. Whitley, you look big?"
- A lady walks up to me and bends down to be belly height. She proceeds to talk to my belly in a stern voice and says, "You better be nice to your mama. You hear me? I know you can hear me." I slowly backed away.
- For the student Halloween party, a few of us went as some of The Office characters. I was Pam when she was pregnant. A precious middle school girl very seriously pointed to my belly and said, "Is that real?" Poor thing, I died laughing and then realized that she was serious. It was my favorite comment of all.
- While Cameron and I were walking into HEB, a man in a kind of ghetto accent pointed to my belly and looked at Cameron and said, "Did you do that?" We both said, "Huh?" He repeated, "Did you do that?" It was HILARIOUS. Seriously, we both laughed and Cameron shyly replied, "Yep."
- The day before Thanksgiving break a student asked if I was planning to do a belly cast. I told her that there was probably no way this would happen because I'd be clueless what to do with it afterwards. She very seriously in an "of course" tone said that I would use it as a turkey dish. Um, no thanks!
These comments really are not to shabby compared to what I've heard and expected to hear. I have some really great people in my life that have showered me with the sweetest of compliments. For this, I'm so thankful!
I have procrastinated updating our blog entirely too long. There are plenty of excuses that I came up with. Here are my top my top five:
- I want everything to look cute and cute like I like cute. This blog to me just wasn't cute enough.
- The formatting of this blogger stuff and how it just doesn't seem to be user friendly completely intimidates/annoys me.
- I wanted a new name and couldn't think of one.
- I always found something different to be doing.
- I would log on and start it and find myself quickly distracted by other's blogs.
Nonetheless, here I am four weeks out from delivering this baby boy and realizing that I really do want to keep track of his life in written/picture form, and I've done poorly at it thus far. So this is my Thanksgiving resolution: start blogging and worry about the cuteness and other factors later.
It has only taken us two months to get to this point--the point of realizing how nice it is to sit mindlessly intoxicated by something. Something like Everybody Loves Raymond or Bernie Mac. Something that doesn't require standing in line while people take their sweet time choosing from a touch screen. So we decided it was time.
"We're sorry. They're on back order, and we're not sure when there will be more in stock."
Perfect. Great. We'll just head right back to our friend, Red Box, and hope that all of the movies starring Zac Effron are not taken by this time on a Friday night.
I generally like to use the word cheap when I refer to my purchasing endeavors. There are times when I feel that I need to replace it with words that have a bit less of a negative connotation. That's when I go with thrifty or frugal, and I might start using prudent since the dictionary just told me it was a synonym.
What can I say? I find great joy in red stickers on top of price tags or red Sharpie marking out an original price. There is not a store that I go into that I don't head straight for the clearance. And I do mean straight. I check the end-caps of aisles. I dig through boxes. Even at stores that already start out cheap, I mean thrifty, I still head to the back. I can't explain it. I'm the girl that if you compliment something, I'm very likely to tell you where I got it and how much I paid. I know, it's annoying, but it just tickles me pink...or red.
I needed to give you that background so that you would see why I would even feel the need to tell you about this deal. Here's how it's going to work: I'm going to show you the pic of the item purchased. You're going to mentally think of how much it should've cost. I'm going to tell you how much I paid. I'm going to be happy and maybe a bit boastful over the deal. You're going to be annoyed but maybe a bit proud that I found this great deal. Ready? Go!
Bedford 3-drawer Filing Cabinet from Pottery Barn
(two purchased to be covered with a piece of glass or old door for a desk in our future home)
Insert your mental guess of price here _______
If you guessed $500 because you cheated and went to potterybarn.com and searched it, then you're wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong by $470. If you guessed that we paid $30 for both of these purchased items, then you guessed correctly. And you win. You win nothing, but you still win.
I got them at the outlet for $50 each with 20% off, and I had $56 in gift cards from our wedding that I had saved for just this moment. Well, actually there is not much you can buy at Pottery Barn for $56, so I was just saving them until something fell in that price range. Nonetheless, it will go down as one of my proudest, thrifty-girl moments.
Thanks for playing the price is right and making me happy by letting me be boastful. Feel free to share your deals. Or you could tell me that you don't ever shop clearance, and then I would spend some time annoying you by trying to convince you that it's the way to go.
(Kyle, if you're reading this, I'm sorry. But not really and I do hope you shop the back racks now.)
is because we've been THAT person. That complain-y person.
I had woken up, emailed the photographer some picture ideas, packed some things in the car, and headed to Starbucks with some of the greatest friends in the world. After filling my body with much-needed caffeine (or nerve suppressant), I was on my way to get my hair done. I can remember every detail of the day as if I'm actually there preparing to end my life as a single and embark on something that seemed, on many occasions, like it would never arrive.
My wedding. My marriage.
There are those events in life when you wait so long for it to come, and then when it does, all your anticipation, anxiety, and excitement seem like they are all meshed together like a pot of stew. When the three emotions collide, your heart is just not certain that it can take it. Then you think, sadly, that all this waiting and emotion-building will end when the day, night, hour, or week is over. Only on this day though, there would be no end. I would spend the whole day celebrating, but I would spend the rest of my life learning how to live joined as one with someone else.
Now, three years later, I feel like I have learned so much about this man and about this marriage, but I feel like I am so far away from having it figured out. It's like when you're running and you feel like you accomplished so much when you see a mile pass, but when your goal is three miles or five miles or thirteen miles, you realize that a mile seems like so little. So you just keep running. Even in the moments when it seems like a lot of trouble to keep pushing on with your exploding lungs and aching legs, you remember what your goal is so you persevere.
And three years ago this man that I married, who I was certain that I loved more than I ever could love anyone, has transformed my idea of love with the help of a Savior. No longer is it love that exists solely on giddy feelings, though those feelings do come around, and no longer is it love based on everything that I need, though that selfishness still very much exists. But ultimately, it's love based on a choice that in spite of anything that happens, he's the one that I love. And I love him so.
Cameron,
Year one was fun, new, and exciting. Year two was challenging, adventurous, and change-filled. Year three has been calmer and more hectic all at the same time, but full of lessons that are worth more than gold. I love you more today than I ever have, and if for no other reason, it's because of the man that I have seen the Lord grow you to be. Thank you for loving me in spite of days of complete selfishness and incredible sinfulness. Down three and forever to go!
Fun facts for three years of marriage:
- We've had four (and hopefully five soon) addresses.
- Together we've had five job changes.
- We haven't broken any of our dishes.
- We've had to replace many wedding gifts and still have more to replace thanks to Uhaul's stellar storage facilities.
- We've almost bought three houses.
- We've been to seven youth camps and four disciple nows.
- We've had a leased car and an almost fully purchased car. And then there's the mustang.
- We've realized how completely stubborn and hard headed we both are.
- We've prayed about adoption on a serious level.
- We've prayed about a million things on a serious level.
- We've gained and lost some friends.
- We've become friends of Dave Ramsey who turned our financial world upside down.
- We've lived with family for ten months and loved every second of it.
- We've developed a love-hate relationship with apartments.
- We've lived and flourished without cable TV despite the odds.
- We've annoyed each other a whole lot and loved each other a whole lot.
- We've learned to love Jesus a whole lot because of His grace in our marriage.
Happy Anniversary, my love!
This message popped up on my Facebook chat tonight:
hello god is really talking to me.
he has called me to be a pastor.
sorry for giving you a hard time in class
It made me really happy. Really, really HAPPY! There's hope for those hellion kids that do everything to drive me crazy. There's hope.
HGTV, MTV, ESPN, and sometimes even NBC are initializations that are just not apart of our vocabulary. For the life of our marriage, we have not subscribed to cable. And I'm pretty sure that I never had it throughout college either.
What this means is that I can't remember a time within the last eight years where I have had the pleasure of turning on the television and watching something of great quality while seated in my own living room. What this also means is that when it comes to television, we are most likely limited to the shows that the rest of the cable-watching world has never heard of. When my coworkers are sitting around discussing the latest episodes of quality shows like "The Real Housewives of Orange County" or "Jon and Kate Plus 8," I try to chime in with a "Did you see Bernie Mac yesterday?" and am usually shut down with stares of dismay and confusion as to if I'm really serious. And I am. That's what's shown on the four channels that I get. Well, that I got.
You see, my non-cable-watching life changed drastically on June 12. Who knew they were actually serious this time about the whole digital conversion thing? Not me. We had never purchased a converter box the first time they threatened and practiced this whole thing, and then we had lost the coupon that we were saving to purchase it. (This in itself pretty much portrays why we don't have cable to begin with. We're cheap. I mean thrifty.) Needless to say, we have no channels. None. Zilch. Zero. Really, it has not made that big of a difference to me until today. It was today when I decided that I missed my good friend Bernie. And if you have cable, I know what you're thinking because I've been asked this several million times: "How do you survive?" Well it kind of works like this, if you don't have it, you don't know what you're missing. Then when you have a taste of it like when you're in a hotel room or sitting in the waiting room of Discount Tire or visiting your parents, you think to your self that this is the life. And then you remember that you have other things to fill your life with and spend your money on like Facebook and blogs and clothes.
Oh, and if this lady would come give us a hand, life with Bernie could be back to normal.
Heading down the only road our summers know
Like a Body [of Christ] we were meant to walk along [side kiddos]
And we've made up our minds
This ain't no waste of time
I'm feeling so clever right now because I made that up. I know, it's hard to believe that it's made up especially with that stellar second line. It's harder to believe that I had to google the lyrics to know what they really say. (I'm lyrically and musically challenged. Remind me to tell you about this later.) Don't judge/falsify the subject line in thinking that technically, if your guess of our going to camp is right, we won't be on our own but will be with all the lovely teens. The thing is that we didn't leave with the other kiddos this morning but are leaving tomorrow instead. So if we're speaking technically, then we (hubs and me) will be on our own. Really, who am I kidding? WHO CARES?
With the oh-so-clever parody and justification paragraph that followed, I just wanted to share that we're off to camp but with middle schoolers this time. The scenery will be different (lake instead of beach) and the kids younger, but the God part is still the same. So this week, any time you think of your middle school years and your too-large bangs, say a prayer for us. We'll need them; it's hot out there. If you don't believe me, go read everyone's status on Facebook. They're determined to remind you in case the sweat running down your back as soon as you walk out of the door wasn't enough.
P.S. The tracker of traffic that is located to your left and down the page has totally amazed me. Someone in Michigan read my blog yesterday. I'm not even sure of the capital of MI (or the correct abbreviation because I just looked this up), and I definitely don't know anyone there. Wait, maybe one of my five readers is vacationing there. This thought just came to me and made me a tad less excited. So if it was you visiting there, don't tell me and let me think that I'm becoming famous like Pioneer Woman. Probably not.
See you in the bloggy world next week!
Reasons why it happens so fast:
- There's somebody asleep in my bed everyday past 7 am (sometimes 8, 9, or 10 am), and it's almost always yours truly.
- My bed actually gets made. For about nine months, my duvet is more like carpet as it rests on its home--the floor.
- Going to the gym at 9:30 pm or am is not even a question. Just put on the sneakers and go!
- Reading by the pool is an option with no guilt as to what I should be doing.
- A constantly clean home.
- Doing laundry at whatever pace that I would like. Why? Because I can do it all day!
- Spendin' time with Jesus for any length of time with no rush to go get ready.
- Staying in pajamas all day long.
- Being able to have dinner AND lunch with friends and the hubs on a week day. And if lunch ends up lasting 2 hours and 40 minutes, no biggie.
- Using the restroom whenever I feel like it and not having to hold it. (I know, TMI.)
- Having room in my brain for anything else other than middle schoolers and English.
- And the common theme amongst all of these: TIME. I have it. Lots of it. It's glorious.
Dear Summer,
You are now my very best friend. Ever. You have given my brain all kinds of new freedom that it had forgotten that it had. You allow me the time to do whatever needs to be done. Overall, you just make me happy. And the icing on the cake (drum roll, please) is that the cash (though little it may be) is still flowing to my bank account while I bask in your rays. We're BFF, and I just want you to know this.
Hannah
To fold or not to fold? And other questions brought on by marriage.
2 comments Posted by Lilies of the Field at 11:56 AM
These are our bathroom hand towels. They are housed on this classy, silver towel rack as given by The Lodge. In the first version, you will see how I prefer for them to hang. In the second picture, you will see how the hubs prefers for them to hang. Who cares, right? Well, this is one intriguing things about marriage that I have found. Who's preference wins? There are some things from one's own raisin' that are just assumed that everyone does, like be able to dry one's hands while keeping the towels folded. As they should be folded. However, once one enters into marriage, one realizes that said things from old are not always spouses ways of old. The question then arises: Who wins?
No one (or maybe everyone) because daily the towels could be found in either manner at any point in the day. If this could be secretly video recorded, you would see hubs drying his hands and unfolding, and then you would see me shortly after coming to put them back in their rightful folded position.
Rightful, of course, is a relative term in this case.
Those two words describe these girls in a nutshell, if you couldn't tell from the pictures! They are the cutest little girls that I've ever seen, and they filled our teeny apartment with so much fun and girliness for six days. When I came home after returning them to their mom (my sister), my heart hurt a little at how quiet it was. They wore me out and caused me to exercise all my girly entertaining measures. I also exercised my ability to please a little girl in picking out an outfit and fixing hair. Girls are A LOT of work, and it begins at a very early age. There's just so much to think about when it comes to their appearance alone. Matching bows, matching barrettes, matching rubber bands, matching swimsuit coverups, ponytails, side ponytails, half ponytails, shoes, flip flops, dresses, leggings, and the list could just go on because their suitcase was filled with all of these items plus! They're sassy like that.
One of my favorite events of the week happened while I was getting ready on Wednesday, and they were in the living room watching "Hotel for Dogs" for probably the third time since in our home that is cable-less, it's all they had. Ella, who will be four on June 27, is playing, and while she plays, she constantly talks to herself. It's pretty hilarious because it generally involves her pretending that she is a momma or someone famous. This particular time, she chose Hannah Montana. Klaudia chimes in and says that she will be Hannah Montana, too. Ella obviously doesn't like this idea because that's not how this game is played. If she's Hannah Montana, there will be no other. So from the bathroom, this is what I hear: "No, I Hannah Montana. You not Hannah Montana cause I Hannah Montana." "Ella, then I will be Miley Cyrus." "No, I Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus. You not be Miley Cyrus or Hannah Montana." "Ok, then I will be big Hannah Montana and you be little Hannah Montana." Apparently that worked better than all the other options given.
This is ultimately my favorite part of the week. Sunday morning we were in the car and some how started talking about the Bible and why it's important. Then Klaudia went on to tell me what she knows from the Bible. I started asking her several questions about Jesus, sin, and heaven. We basically went through the basics of the gospel: we sin, as in lie and do things against God, so He sent Jesus to die for us and save us from these sins. If we accept this and ask for forgiveness, then we get to go to heaven. She then asked me what happens if we don't go to heaven. I told her that we would go to hell, and then we talked about why that would be so bad. On Monday night, I was reading to them from a little toddler-type Bible. When we finished, I asked Klaudia if she remembered all that we had talked about on Sunday about Jesus, and she kind of quoted back to me what we had discussed. I reminded her that Jesus loved her, but He wants her to ask Him to be her savior so that she can spend forever with Him. She asked me when she would do that, like when she was old or something. I told her she would do that when she felt like she was ready. It was just the sweetest conversation and just such a reminder of how simple the gospel is that even a child can understand it. What a sweet day it will be when she asks Jesus to be her Savior and many prayers will be answered!
Sweet Uncle Cameron was quite the apple of their eye during the time that he was home! Actually, he has been the apple of Ella's eye for a while now. So much so that every time I talk to her, her first words are "Where's Camrin?" Love it!
Uncle Cameron started the silly faces that follow but would not perform for the camera.
They were more than willing to show their stuff.
We filled several hours of our time in the swimming pool. Three different swimming pools to be exact. Sweet Bennett and Hayes joined us for swimming one of these days. Both the boys had two extra mothers during their stint with the girls. They didn't seem too bothered!
I love these girls, a lot! They took a lot of our energy and time, but we'll take them for a visit any time. We'll just need a few days to rest afterwards!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)