My lovely Deb has spent the last few days in a trance-like state due to a combination of allergies and some sort of infection, nasal congestion, etc. I feel for her, the time flies by, the days become a blur. Apparently it's pretty normal at this time of the pregnancy (thank goodness for lots of websites that let people share experiences, it's very reassuring to me.)
Ok, back to work now.
Friday, April 22, 2011
Thursday, April 21, 2011
You are what you eat...
If the saying, "You are what you eat!" is true, than our baby is going to be made of fresh grapes and chocolate milk.
Just saying...
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Peek into the future?
I found a fun website that combines photographs to show what the offspring of two people might look like. I put in a photo of Pete and one photo of me. Here's what turned up!
Girl baby might look like this:
Boy baby might look like this:
Girl baby might look like this:
Boy baby might look like this:
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Gender date set! Tune in on May 27th!
Barring any surprise appointments - we are having our next ultrasound on May 27th, and at the ultrasound we will learn whether we're having a BOY or a GIRL! I encourage you to make your guesses, we enjoy them a lot; please also provide your rationale for the gender guess - these crack us up too and it will be fun to see which might "hold water".
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
A lesson in faith...
Pete started his new job today. The house is quiet and I have lots of work to put my hands to. I miss Pete's company and mourn the completion of this unexpected second honeymoon, but I'm deeply satisfied with everything that has happened and eager to roll up my sleeves and get going!
Some of my deep satisfaction stems from the fact that the past few months have provided me the most tangible lesson in faith of my adult life. God's plan is perfect, and sometimes we must obey now and understand later. For the first time I can recall, I made a conscious choice not to worry and leave the understanding to God's timing. It was a choice I had to make several times over, but a majority of this waiting period, I had a deep sense that everything was going to be okay because God was working things out for good.
Let's back up to last Fall. When the writing was on the wall that Pete was unemployed, it was a crushing blow to me because I felt this change, in large part, ended a lifelong dream of mine. We could no longer afford to pursue my dream and I scrambled to figure out why God had led us across the entire country to pursue this dream, only to take it away a few months later. God had already taken away my dream of having children, according to the doctors, and now God was taking away something else! We had prayed over the decision to pursue that career dream of mine for months before we left, and God had orchestrated many amazing things to make it happen. How could it end this way? Was the point of our journey not what everyone assumed it would be?
It was a rough couple of months, thereafter, as God slowly revealed to me His perfection, in spite of me flipping Him the bird on more than one occassion. God revealed to me that our cross-country journey was a perfectly orchestrated part of His loving plan for more reasons than I can share in a blog post. God had carried us to Virginia Beach, taught us exactly what we needed to learn, carried us home, and would continue to faithfully move His plan forward regardless of our "understanding". Over the course of a few months, God helped me understand why He brought me to the edge of a dream and kept me from leaping over the edge into a life that would not allow us to embrace other plans He had for us. Our pursuing the dream was not a mistake. Our leaving the dream behind was not a mistake either! He did all of this on terms that affirmatively answered long-held questions about my own ability to accomplish it; He did it on terms that allowed me to hold it in my hands and purposefully choose to put it down with confidence that I was making the right choice and pleasing Him. He did it in a way that brought Pete and I CLOSER to eachother and closer to Him. How merciful!
This new understanding of God's hand in our lives made it easy to relax in spite of bad-looking circumstances. I often thought to myself, "I can't see the end of this valley yet, but I know it's out there somewhere and I'll feel very silly for worrying when this is all over - so I'm choosing not to worry." Somehow, we made it home, found a new place to live, and had plentiful food in our bellies. Yes, we were living on my tiny income and savings, and yet God provided more than enough.
Imagine our shock and joy when, rather unexpectedly, just two months later, we learned that we were pregnant! The well-meaning doctors were wrong! Knowing little about pregnancy (in spite of reading dozens of books on the topic), I was shocked beyond belief when I became more ill than ever in my life. I worried about how we would pay for pregnancy care and my hospitalization - but God provided there too.
Thank God Pete was unemployed, because I was incapable of caring for myself for nearly 2 months! Pete, quite literally, saved my life by his continual presence and loving care. On more than one occassion, he made judgment calls that prevented life threatening situations for both me and Baby Tebault. He also became the chef, the housekeeper, the bookkeeper, the family updater, and my personal nurse who gave me medicine through an IV, helped me bathe, and blended many meals so I could eat them through a straw.
It amazes me that God could bring me from a place of cursing Him over Pete's unemployment, to absolute joy and awe at His incredible provision and timing in allowing me to have my wonderful husband, my best-friend, by my side through TWO of the most frightening ordeals of my adult life: putting down one of my lifelong dreams (one among many) AND coming closer to death than ever before.
Pete's unemployment gave me:
- the perspective I needed to realize that God was asking me to put down one goal in exchange for His promise of something better;
- precious time for a babymoon with my husband;
- a full-time caregiver who protected me and Baby Tebault from life-threatening conditions;
- 6 months of adventure and fun with my best-friend, including several VERY long road trips (my favorite thing!);
- inspiration to re-evaluate finances and willingness to adhere to better financial principles that will serve us well as parents;
- a sense of accomplishment on having survived so many scrapes with Pete and only increased our love, mutual respect, and friendship; and
- the opportunity for both of us to sleep-in regularly and savor quiet time together before we welcome our darling little cherub into the world.
I'm sure there are countless ways God provided through Pete's unemployment that I haven't even identified yet.
I look forward, without sight, but with more confidence than ever before that God will continue His good work in our lives.
Some of my deep satisfaction stems from the fact that the past few months have provided me the most tangible lesson in faith of my adult life. God's plan is perfect, and sometimes we must obey now and understand later. For the first time I can recall, I made a conscious choice not to worry and leave the understanding to God's timing. It was a choice I had to make several times over, but a majority of this waiting period, I had a deep sense that everything was going to be okay because God was working things out for good.
Let's back up to last Fall. When the writing was on the wall that Pete was unemployed, it was a crushing blow to me because I felt this change, in large part, ended a lifelong dream of mine. We could no longer afford to pursue my dream and I scrambled to figure out why God had led us across the entire country to pursue this dream, only to take it away a few months later. God had already taken away my dream of having children, according to the doctors, and now God was taking away something else! We had prayed over the decision to pursue that career dream of mine for months before we left, and God had orchestrated many amazing things to make it happen. How could it end this way? Was the point of our journey not what everyone assumed it would be?
It was a rough couple of months, thereafter, as God slowly revealed to me His perfection, in spite of me flipping Him the bird on more than one occassion. God revealed to me that our cross-country journey was a perfectly orchestrated part of His loving plan for more reasons than I can share in a blog post. God had carried us to Virginia Beach, taught us exactly what we needed to learn, carried us home, and would continue to faithfully move His plan forward regardless of our "understanding". Over the course of a few months, God helped me understand why He brought me to the edge of a dream and kept me from leaping over the edge into a life that would not allow us to embrace other plans He had for us. Our pursuing the dream was not a mistake. Our leaving the dream behind was not a mistake either! He did all of this on terms that affirmatively answered long-held questions about my own ability to accomplish it; He did it on terms that allowed me to hold it in my hands and purposefully choose to put it down with confidence that I was making the right choice and pleasing Him. He did it in a way that brought Pete and I CLOSER to eachother and closer to Him. How merciful!
This new understanding of God's hand in our lives made it easy to relax in spite of bad-looking circumstances. I often thought to myself, "I can't see the end of this valley yet, but I know it's out there somewhere and I'll feel very silly for worrying when this is all over - so I'm choosing not to worry." Somehow, we made it home, found a new place to live, and had plentiful food in our bellies. Yes, we were living on my tiny income and savings, and yet God provided more than enough.
Imagine our shock and joy when, rather unexpectedly, just two months later, we learned that we were pregnant! The well-meaning doctors were wrong! Knowing little about pregnancy (in spite of reading dozens of books on the topic), I was shocked beyond belief when I became more ill than ever in my life. I worried about how we would pay for pregnancy care and my hospitalization - but God provided there too.
Thank God Pete was unemployed, because I was incapable of caring for myself for nearly 2 months! Pete, quite literally, saved my life by his continual presence and loving care. On more than one occassion, he made judgment calls that prevented life threatening situations for both me and Baby Tebault. He also became the chef, the housekeeper, the bookkeeper, the family updater, and my personal nurse who gave me medicine through an IV, helped me bathe, and blended many meals so I could eat them through a straw.
It amazes me that God could bring me from a place of cursing Him over Pete's unemployment, to absolute joy and awe at His incredible provision and timing in allowing me to have my wonderful husband, my best-friend, by my side through TWO of the most frightening ordeals of my adult life: putting down one of my lifelong dreams (one among many) AND coming closer to death than ever before.
Pete's unemployment gave me:
- the perspective I needed to realize that God was asking me to put down one goal in exchange for His promise of something better;
- precious time for a babymoon with my husband;
- a full-time caregiver who protected me and Baby Tebault from life-threatening conditions;
- 6 months of adventure and fun with my best-friend, including several VERY long road trips (my favorite thing!);
- inspiration to re-evaluate finances and willingness to adhere to better financial principles that will serve us well as parents;
- a sense of accomplishment on having survived so many scrapes with Pete and only increased our love, mutual respect, and friendship; and
- the opportunity for both of us to sleep-in regularly and savor quiet time together before we welcome our darling little cherub into the world.
I'm sure there are countless ways God provided through Pete's unemployment that I haven't even identified yet.
I look forward, without sight, but with more confidence than ever before that God will continue His good work in our lives.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
New employment!
I can't say enough about God's provision for us during this time. We were literally on the ropes in any human measure, a number of times in the past few months. Each time, when we prayed, when we asked, when we trusted, God came through. Although I was unemployed, He provided for us financially in many ways. Because I was unemployed, I was able to spend my time and energy in the best ways: loving and caring for my wife, maintaining our household, having fun with our cats, reflecting on my experience and learning about myself in ways that will assist my career going forward.
God's presence has been consistent and amazing through this experience. It has truly been a
spiritual retreat and a time of massive growth for us.
And now, according to His timing, I have a wonderful new job starting on April 12th!
God's presence has been consistent and amazing through this experience. It has truly been a
spiritual retreat and a time of massive growth for us.
And now, according to His timing, I have a wonderful new job starting on April 12th!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)