Despite the fact that I just want to complain about how I am over-due and throw a fit, I decided this morning to dwell on the positive things about pregnancy that will no longer exist when we meet Asher. I know that seems mature. But don't be mistaken, I have a meltdown about every day due to my lack of patience. So resist your temptation to be impressed.
*The rate that I go through roles of toilet paper is astounding. Several per week. It's just what happens when there is a human squishing your bladder 24/7, causing you to pee at least every hour. But as much as we have had to buy more toilet paper, it still comes out to be much cheaper than what we will be spending on diapers. So overall, it's a financial blessing in the toileting budget for the Grahams to be pregnant comparatively to our near future with an infant. Hey, it's the little things.
*Carrying this baby around. When pregnant, I NEVER have to worry about leaving the baby in the car, carrying both the baby and groceries, cleaning the apartment while still having the baby close to me. My uterus is a natural sling that the baby never leaves. I don't have to fight guilt of neglecting my baby if I need to take a shower or get something done around the apartment while the baby is crying to be held. Even when we went swimming yesterday, I did not have to worry about the baby drowning because I was not holding it. If I go under water, Asher goes under water. No big deal.
*Adding some weight to my body has not been the most fun process, but I know that there is a limit. I am full term and Asher is about 7 pounds. The likelihood of Asher being over 10 pounds in the womb is minimal (yay for a small baby). However, when Asher is born, Asher will continue to grow and grow and still want to be picked up and held. It's a lot easier to say yes to holding a 7 pound baby in the womb than a 30 pound child who squirms in your arms. Post birth child weight limit = 300+ pounds. Yes please, give me the 7 pound baby inside my uterus.
*SLEEP. I know this seems obvious, but I don't think I will fully grasp the glory of my current sleeping habits until Asher is born. Right now I can go to sleep at 9pm and wake up at 10am (with frequent bathroom trips in between) with no consequences. If I slept like this after Asher is born, someone should call CPS. I can also take a nap whenever I want to. After Asher is born, I am at the mercy of his sleep schedule. Of course Otha will be there to help, but let's be candid- I have the nutrients to feed this kid 10 times a day, Otha does not. AND Otha is incredible and still has a job to support our family while my new job is to take care of the baby. So my people-pleasing complex will have difficulty handing off a crying baby to Otha in the middle of the night knowing he has to work in the morning.
*When I am pregnant and don't feel like working out, I don't have to. People don't look a full term pregnant woman in the eye and judge them for being too tired to go walking that day. They say "Make sure you get plenty of rest!". But as a mom, if I don't work out I am letting the leftover baby weight win. Not to mention I will need to work out for my own sanity to get outside and release some ever-welcomed endorphines to compensate for crazy-new-mom-hormones. It's acceptable to have kankles as a pregnant woman... not so much when I have a 6 month old.
Other positives such as frequency of eating, wearing Otha's t-shirts, etc that are also great things about pregnancy, but I will spare you from more rambling. Conclusion: Pregnancy definitely has perks that I will miss after Asher makes his big appearance. I will continue to try and focus on these things as I avoid pulling my hair out watching the clock tick wishing for painful contractions. Labor please come soon.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Friday, June 17, 2011
The Provision Collision
Two weeks ago Otha and I were heading home from Com Group early due to my crazy pregnant body. Cramps mixed with absolute exhaustion made a concoction resulting in tears. So we were stopped at a red light, I was crying and trying to explain to Otha how miserable I was feeling (it really was pathetic), then BOOOOM!!! the Echo - my beloved car - lurches forward into the intersection. Luckily we were the first people in line at the red light and therefore did not rear end anyone. Also, the only cars going through the intersection were the ones turning left, so we also were not hit by cross traffic. But what do I do? I FREAK OUT. My emotions went from "I'm crying because I don't want to be pregnant anymore" to "I'm hyperventilating out of shock, weeping uncontrollably, and I can't believe we just got in a wreck when I am 9 months pregnant".
Otha was a stud and calmly got out of the car, agreed with the driver who hit us to pull over into the HEB parking lot, then safely got us out of the road. My hero. Meanwhile he is also trying to calm down his crazy hysterical wife. "Becca, you HAVE to breath. You NEED to calm down." Seriously, double hero. The driver of the other car, or I should say ginormous truck, felt awful for crushing the fragile little Echo. But then I increased his guilt ten fold whenever I made eye contact with him through my waterfall of tears holding my huge pregnant belly. It wasn't my intention. I just couldn't stop the freak-out-faucet.
Overall, the driver was very easy to work with, had insurance, and apologized an infinite amount of times. Definite blessing!
So I know it doens't look awful, but the collision totalled the car. Goodbye Echo forever.
Although I am grieving the loss of my dear friend, the Silver Bullet, we quickly realize this could benefit us in the long run. The Echo was already headed down hill so we knew eventually we would need to get a replacement car. What better way than to have someone's insurance pay for that replacement? We ended up getting a check that covered the entire cost of the car, which is way more than we could have sold it for. Huuuuge blessing!! God totally provided for us in an unexpected way!!!!!
So what now, you ask? A navy blue 2003 Honda Odyssey. That's right, I am 22 years old and just bought a mini-van. It's too much for me to process. Married, pregnant, bought 2 cars in the first year of marriage and one of those is a family van. fa;lskdfja;lksdjfl;kajsd;flkj <------ jumbled feelings.
We decided that it made more sense to invest in a larger vehicle for the sake of our growing family, carpooling, and overall more storage space. However, we did not want to buy a huge vehicle that was a gas guzzler. Otha had searched for hours and hours trying to find a car that fit all of our criteria (financially, mileage, space, etc) with minimal luck. The day before we were planning on going to Austin for multiple reasons including looking at cars, I prayed that God would make it very clear to us what a wise purchase would be. I immediately took a nap after praying about it, woke up, and Otha called me into the living room to look at this van he found online. Due to my recent prayer, we both felt really good about it, called the owner, and set up a time to come see it. Make a long story short- we picked up the van from Austin yesterday as the official owners of the vehicle!! We only had to pay a third of the cost due to the insurance check, then my uncle blessed us with $1000 out of no where, and my parents were so gracious and had set up an account for me growing up that we were able to use funds from. Therefore the van is fully paid off- no car payment! Once again God blew us away with his provision!!!!!
Although you may have seen this before, my new friend Courtney sent it to me and I think it's very fitting to celebrate our new van:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql-N3F1FhW4
And be watching for me cruising around town in the coolest mom car around. Alright, so it's not that cool, but it's practical. And it has a DVD player. And automatic sliding doors. Jealous yet? That's alright, you will see when I pick you up and take you for a spin.
Otha was a stud and calmly got out of the car, agreed with the driver who hit us to pull over into the HEB parking lot, then safely got us out of the road. My hero. Meanwhile he is also trying to calm down his crazy hysterical wife. "Becca, you HAVE to breath. You NEED to calm down." Seriously, double hero. The driver of the other car, or I should say ginormous truck, felt awful for crushing the fragile little Echo. But then I increased his guilt ten fold whenever I made eye contact with him through my waterfall of tears holding my huge pregnant belly. It wasn't my intention. I just couldn't stop the freak-out-faucet.
Overall, the driver was very easy to work with, had insurance, and apologized an infinite amount of times. Definite blessing!
So I know it doens't look awful, but the collision totalled the car. Goodbye Echo forever.
Although I am grieving the loss of my dear friend, the Silver Bullet, we quickly realize this could benefit us in the long run. The Echo was already headed down hill so we knew eventually we would need to get a replacement car. What better way than to have someone's insurance pay for that replacement? We ended up getting a check that covered the entire cost of the car, which is way more than we could have sold it for. Huuuuge blessing!! God totally provided for us in an unexpected way!!!!!
So what now, you ask? A navy blue 2003 Honda Odyssey. That's right, I am 22 years old and just bought a mini-van. It's too much for me to process. Married, pregnant, bought 2 cars in the first year of marriage and one of those is a family van. fa;lskdfja;lksdjfl;kajsd;flkj <------ jumbled feelings.
We decided that it made more sense to invest in a larger vehicle for the sake of our growing family, carpooling, and overall more storage space. However, we did not want to buy a huge vehicle that was a gas guzzler. Otha had searched for hours and hours trying to find a car that fit all of our criteria (financially, mileage, space, etc) with minimal luck. The day before we were planning on going to Austin for multiple reasons including looking at cars, I prayed that God would make it very clear to us what a wise purchase would be. I immediately took a nap after praying about it, woke up, and Otha called me into the living room to look at this van he found online. Due to my recent prayer, we both felt really good about it, called the owner, and set up a time to come see it. Make a long story short- we picked up the van from Austin yesterday as the official owners of the vehicle!! We only had to pay a third of the cost due to the insurance check, then my uncle blessed us with $1000 out of no where, and my parents were so gracious and had set up an account for me growing up that we were able to use funds from. Therefore the van is fully paid off- no car payment! Once again God blew us away with his provision!!!!!
Although you may have seen this before, my new friend Courtney sent it to me and I think it's very fitting to celebrate our new van:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql-N3F1FhW4
And be watching for me cruising around town in the coolest mom car around. Alright, so it's not that cool, but it's practical. And it has a DVD player. And automatic sliding doors. Jealous yet? That's alright, you will see when I pick you up and take you for a spin.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Here's to 365 days...
A year ago I was walking barefoot down a path towards my future husband... minutes away from vowing to spend the rest of my life from him. What a year it has been indeed. As Otha and I celebrated our anniversary yesterday (a day early- don't judge, things aren't open on Sundays), we reminisced about some highs and lows of our first year of marriage.
Some lows:
*Making the effort moving to Austin physically, emotionally, financially, etc only to turn around and move right back to Bryan/College Station.
*Adjusting to the reality of pregnancy after our passions were further stirred for adoption at Together for Adoption conference.
*First trimester = miserable.
*The first month of marriage feeling isolated, surrendering expectations, and lacking wisdom in the communication department.
Obviously our lows had purpose and turned out to be blessings. Even first trimester being miserable... my hormones were working hard to build a baby despite the 24/7 nausea. So we really don't have anything to complain about. They were just tough times.
Some highs:
*God bringing us back to College Station (includes jobs for both of us, rejoining Com Church, financial relief)
*Adding another family member who we are so so so excited to meet!
*Honeymoon. Seriously I think about sitting on the beach with my mango juice in Belize often. Probably too often.
*Learning how to love each other well! Our conversations have so much more grace, understanding, and patience than they used to.
This past year has brought countless tears and moments of frustration only to be outdone by even more times of laughter, thankfulness, and being overwhelmed at God's intricate plan that dominates my own. In all honesty, I want Otha to be the "crazy one" in our marriage. But the longer we are married, the more obvious it is that I am crazy and am in need of Otha's love, patience, and grace on a daily basis. I cannot count the number of times that I am crying for a ridiculous selfish reason and Otha provides comfort instead of judgement. He offers wisdom instead of pity. God was not kidding when He created marriage to model the relationship between Christ and the church. Otha has been a consistent example for me of God's outstanding, unconditional love- I cannot begin to express how blessed I am in this marriage.
God gave me a man who is consistent, honest, full of knowledge, encouraging, thoughtful, hilarious, passionate, and of course, handsome. Really, I don't deserve a man with any of these qualities. But God gave me Otha anyway. Otha has this gift of understanding me when my words fall short and has insight to see beyond what I can perceive inside my own heart. It's incredible. He is also an amazing leader. Did I mention that he is GREAT at making decisions? But in a gentle way that includes me in all the decisions even though I am awful at making any sort of choice. He genuinely cares about what I think and incorporates that into every decision- it blows me away. I am so thankful to have traveled this last year of adventure and changes with Otha Graham!!
Some lows:
*Making the effort moving to Austin physically, emotionally, financially, etc only to turn around and move right back to Bryan/College Station.
*Adjusting to the reality of pregnancy after our passions were further stirred for adoption at Together for Adoption conference.
*First trimester = miserable.
*The first month of marriage feeling isolated, surrendering expectations, and lacking wisdom in the communication department.
Obviously our lows had purpose and turned out to be blessings. Even first trimester being miserable... my hormones were working hard to build a baby despite the 24/7 nausea. So we really don't have anything to complain about. They were just tough times.
Some highs:
*God bringing us back to College Station (includes jobs for both of us, rejoining Com Church, financial relief)
*Adding another family member who we are so so so excited to meet!
*Honeymoon. Seriously I think about sitting on the beach with my mango juice in Belize often. Probably too often.
*Learning how to love each other well! Our conversations have so much more grace, understanding, and patience than they used to.
This past year has brought countless tears and moments of frustration only to be outdone by even more times of laughter, thankfulness, and being overwhelmed at God's intricate plan that dominates my own. In all honesty, I want Otha to be the "crazy one" in our marriage. But the longer we are married, the more obvious it is that I am crazy and am in need of Otha's love, patience, and grace on a daily basis. I cannot count the number of times that I am crying for a ridiculous selfish reason and Otha provides comfort instead of judgement. He offers wisdom instead of pity. God was not kidding when He created marriage to model the relationship between Christ and the church. Otha has been a consistent example for me of God's outstanding, unconditional love- I cannot begin to express how blessed I am in this marriage.
God gave me a man who is consistent, honest, full of knowledge, encouraging, thoughtful, hilarious, passionate, and of course, handsome. Really, I don't deserve a man with any of these qualities. But God gave me Otha anyway. Otha has this gift of understanding me when my words fall short and has insight to see beyond what I can perceive inside my own heart. It's incredible. He is also an amazing leader. Did I mention that he is GREAT at making decisions? But in a gentle way that includes me in all the decisions even though I am awful at making any sort of choice. He genuinely cares about what I think and incorporates that into every decision- it blows me away. I am so thankful to have traveled this last year of adventure and changes with Otha Graham!!
In Belize for our amazing Honeymoon!
Celebrating our anniversary. So my stomach is a little bit bigger than it was a year ago. No big deal, just growing a human inside of my body.
I dominated Otha with cake on his face.
Note the icing on my cheek. Otha sought out revenge as we enjoyed eating our wedding cake top. And yes- it was still delicious after being in a freezer all year.
I think we should eat cake every anniversary.
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