6.19.2012

Thankful for Tuesdays - Anniversary Addition

In July 2007, I was finishing up my first college summer as a youth intern at my church. As the summer was coming to a close, I was able to be more involved with the college ministry - or at least what was left of it for the summer. I was also taking a summer class, which caused me to be on campus more often.
While I was one campus one afternoon eating lunch with some church friends, this boy came and sat down with us. I recognized him as a freshmen Bible study leader at church. I remembered always thinking he was such a sweet guy, but I never got a chance to meet him until this day. Conversation was light-hearted and fun; I was really enjoying his company.
That afternoon we became Facebook friends and for the rest of the summer we hung out in a group made up of 5 more friends we already had in common. It was a great summer.
Once the fall started, we settled back into our regular friend groups and didn't see much of each other for a while. That is, until the Spring of 2008.

Every March (two weeks before Spring Break), our college ministry would take a trip to the beach for a weekend, called Spring Retreat. Each year a different speaker would come out and preach a message. It was always a great time to draw closer to the Lord and build stronger friendships with other college students.
During this particular Spring Retreat, the for mentioned boy and I started hanging out a little bit more. We'd seek each other out at the sessions to chit chat and at one point took a picture together and joked that it was our engagement picture.
Our "engagement" picture - March 2008
After Spring Retreat, we each went on separate Spring Break trips with different groups of friends. On his trip were three girls, him, and another guy. After Spring Break, I noticed on Facebook that this boy and one of the girls from the trip had just started a relationship. That was the first time I realized I might have a tad bit of a crush on this boy. But, being the good Christian girl that I am, I congratulated them and kept my jealous thoughts to myself.
Thankfully later I found out that it was a joke. Relief.
By the end of March the boy and I were hanging out on an almost regular basis. One night in particular, my roommate and I were invited by the boy to meet him and some other friends to play a game of Freeze Tag on the quad. On our way to campus, I asked my roommate to watch the boy and see if she thought he liked me. On our way home, she agreed that he acted differently towards me than he did any of the other girls out there.
On March 31st, the boy asked me on our first date.
On April 2nd, we had our first date.

Our first date was the most romantic and thoughtful date I've ever been on. He picked me up from my apartment and we went to his place. When we walked it the apartment was covered in little white tea candles. He had jazz music playing on his TV and he had dinner on the table. On my plate was my favorite dish from my favorite restaurant in town - Chicken Fettucini Alfredo from Cypress Inn. Afterwards we got ice cream and went back to his apartment to watch Enchanted.
At the end of Enchanted, there is a ballroom scene. During that scene, the boy asked me if I wanted to dance. Of course, I said "yes". So we danced. I was hooked.
May 3rd, we became officially "Boyfriend/Girlfriend".

Before we started dating, this boy and I committed to work at two different camps for two different halves of the summer. I would be in Texas for the first part of the summer and he would be in Arkansas for the second part of the summer. We kept in touch through letters throughout the week and phone calls on the weekends.

In July, I came home from camp. When I got back to Tuscaloosa I immediately rushed to the boy's apartment. When I got there, he had a letter he had written me. In this letter he described all the reasons he loved me. His final reason: "Because I know that even though you haven't told me, I know you love me too". He was right. I did love him. I loved him so much that I could hardly keep from writing it in my letters to him. When I finished the letter, I followed up with the question, "Do you love me like, forever love me?" His answer was "Yes".

Fast forward a year.
We spend yet another summer apart. He spends 3 weeks in India for the first part of the summer and I spend 5 weeks in Romania the second part of the summer.
I'll let this video describe what happened next:
(there are two songs on this video, but youtube won't use them for copyright reasons)

11 months later, we walked down the aisle and became husband and wife. While we stood before friends, family, and God, we made a covenant promise to love one another as Christ commands and to forsake all others as long as we are both living. 


Two years later, we're living in Texas, he is going to Seminary, and I am carrying his first child. 
There are two lessons I have learned in the last two years (at least two main lessons). The first is that love does not always come naturally, sometimes it is a choice that we must make. Love is not always easy, but it's also not always that difficult. 
The second lesson I've learned is that marriage is a covenant bond, rather than a contract. Contracts are broken when someone is unhappy with the finished product. Marriage is not something you break because it's not what you expected. Marriage is a bond between a man and a woman, in the sight of God and under His authority. When God makes a covenant bond with his people, which He did numerous times in the OT, he never breaks it. Even when his people turn to false gods, time after time, He continues to keep his covenant with them. 
Tonight I am thankful to be in a covenant bond with the boy I met at the Ferg at the University of Alabama. He has made me proud to be his wife. I am thankful for his servant's heart and his leadership over our family. I am thankful that Elijah (and all our future children) will have an earthly daddy who will point them to our Heavenly Father. 
I love you, Rob, and I'm excited for what this next year has to offer us! Happy Anniversary, sweet love!

6.12.2012

Thankful for Tuesdays

Here we go, week 2 of my weekly blog. This week I am thankful for the life growing inside of me, or as I prefer to call him, Elijah.
In September of 2011, Rob and I began discussing when we would like to start trying to get pregnant. The timeline changed consistently. You see, I had been juggling my own personal timeline pretty much since we said "I do". It was all left to Rob to get on board.
At first we planned to start trying in September 2012 (which is the month our child is due to be born, isn't that ironic). Then the time to start tying changed to Summer of 2012. Then we decided we would just stop not-trying in December and just see what happened.
I stopped birth control in November 2011.
In December, I got a text from my dad telling me to call my brother as soon as I got a chance. So I did and found out that he and his longtime girlfriend were expecting a baby in the July/August time frame. After receiving that phone call we decided "Hey, what the heck". We started trying at the end of December.
After actively trying for one week we found out early Monday morning (around 2 am), January 16th, that we were in fact going to be having a child in September. And it only took 4 pregnancy tests to convince us!
On February 17th, we got to see our baby for the first time. Hearing his heartbeat was by far the most amazing moment in Rob's and my life. As soon as the sonographer turned on the sound, we both burst into tears. 

On April 5, we found out that this sweet little miracle was going to be a little boy, Elijah Paul. We were able to find out earlier than expected because my sweet boss, who is a family practitioner, allowed us to come to her office and get a free sonogram to find out his gender. 

On May 1st, we got to see our baby boy again. Here he is at 19 wks and 4 days. 

Around the 18 week mark, I began to feel his tiny movements. They were few and far between and when they'd happen they were very light, almost impossible to detect. As the weeks went on, he grew larger and stronger. On Mother's day (21 wks and 2 days), Rob and I were on our 12 hour drive from Alabama to Fort Worth. This was the day that I felt Elijah moving like never before. He wiggled and flipped almost the entire drive home. From that day on, I felt every bump. On May 19, while we watched an episode of How I Met Your Mother, Rob got to feel Elijah kick for the very first time. I was 22 weeks pregnant. 
We have loved watching this sweet boy grow. We've loved watching him move and explore his current home. We have prayed many prayers over this little one and are so excited to watch the Lord work in his life. 
Something we have learned during this entire process is God's hand is in everything. I honestly do not understand how people can walk through the pregnancy journey and still deny that God exists. Down to the very possibility of conception, God is given glory. 
Before we started trying, I read the book What to Expect Before You're Expecting. In one of the chapters, the author explains that every woman has approximately 2-3 days to conceive, and even then, with the hostile environment of the egg, she still might not conceive. How can we take the fact that that tiny little sperm made its way all the way to (and through) the egg and chalk it up to happenstance?
That I will never know. One thing I do know, I asked God to give us a baby Sunday afternoon, January 15th. And at 2 am January 16th, I got three positive pregnancy tests. I realize that I was already 4 weeks pregnant when I took the tests, but it's still pretty amazing that I got my "Ok" the day after I asked. God is good and He seeks only good for His children. 
We are blessed beyond belief. Every day we become more and more anxious and excited to meet our little Mister. All we can do now is take care of our physical bodies and continue to pray that God prepare us to be the kind of parents who show Christ's love in all aspects of our parenting. 

I hope you enjoyed another week of Thankful for Tuesdays. What are you thankful for this week? 

6.05.2012

Thankful for Tuesdays

I've decided to start a weekly themed blog. I've noticed that of my friends who blog the most consistently, most have at least one theme blog a week. Hopefully this will encourage me to blog more often.

For my weekly blog, I've decided to blog about all the things I'm thankful for. It will be called Thankful for Tuesdays. 

This week, I want blog about the things I didn't think to be thankful for before getting pregnant.
TMI ALERT: Some things might not be appropriate for the Male population. Read on at your own risk.

Here we go, in no particular order:

  1. The ability to shave my legs comfortably. 
  2. The ability to maintain my own toe nails (i.e. painting, trimming nails, etc). 
  3. Having a small waistline - better yet, having a waistline in general. 
  4. Not getting winded after walking up a set of stairs. 
  5. Not having joint pains, especially in my feet and knees.
  6. Sleeping with only the pillow(s) under my head.
  7. Sleeping on my stomach.
  8. Sleeping through the night.
  9. TMI alert: Not feeling the need to celebrate a legitimate waste disposal session.
  10. Carrying laundry to and from the laundry room (shoot carrying anything over a few lbs).
  11. Doing housework without taking a break every 5-10 minutes. 
  12. Going longer than 30 minutes without taking a potty break.
  13. Having a consistent body shape and size.
  14. Having the hunger of a normal person (i.e. only needing to eat 3 meals a day with maybe a snack or two)
  15. Wearing heels and not losing feeling in my feet immediately.
  16. Eating sushi, sandwich meat, rare steak etc. without worries for what might, possibly happen to my baby. 
  17. TMI alert: Normal intimate time (oh, c'mon, how'd you think this kid came about?) 
  18. Not sweating like a man every time I step foot outside.
  19. Sitting like a lady... really just general ladylike-ness. 
  20. Feeling normal.
Please understand, I LOVE my son so much already. Being pregnant is certainly not terrible, however, there are certain things you never think to be thankful for until they no longer exist. I truly am loving the experience of being pregnant, feeling my child kick and flip and grow inside of me. It is by far the most amazing thing I've been a part of. I also am beyond excited to meet him, to hold him in my arms and rock him; but all that is for another post, another week. 

I hope you enjoyed. Come back next week for another Thankful for Tuesdays. Thanks for reading! Goodnight.