A Dozen Years

Our story began a dozen years ago today.  You can read it in a nutshell here.  

I couldn’t have asked for a better story.  It’s ours, and it’s perfect. 

There is a theme of waiting weaved all throughout our story.  When at age 16 you know you’ve found the one you will marry, waiting is just part of the game. Waiting to graduate from high school so people take our relationship seriously.  Waiting to live in the same state again.  Waiting to graduate from college. Waiting for marriage, as God intended.  Waiting, waiting, waiting. 

Just over seven years after our story began, we were wed.  No more saying goodbye at the end of each day.  The wait was over, and we were together.

What is marriage like for us?  In a word, easy.  It’s the easiest thing I’ve ever done in my life.  It just works for us.  Hard to say why exactly, but the Lord has certainly blessed us with a marriage filled with all joy and zero conflict. 

Just a few years after we were married, our familiar waiting theme returned.  We had a deep desire to grow our family, and we were ready.  It didn’t happen right away, and we waited.  Friends and family members got pregnant and had babies, and still we waited.  We felt very at peace with the waiting.  After all, we’d waited seven years to be married and my goodness it was a marriage worth waiting for.  We knew God would bless our waiting once again.

Then we had the privilege of walking through a difficult time together.  What began as waiting had turned into a couple of bad diagnoses, and it was looking like our family wouldn’t expand in the way we thought it would.  But still, we waited, just in case.  And we leaned on each other and grew together and fell even more deeply in love.

Isn’t the Lord’s timing perfect?  It’s not our timing, but it’s somehow even sweeter.

And now, we find ourselves waiting again.  Counting the days until we meet our precious son.

Our story is far from over.  My heart just melts thinking of the life we have ahead of us together.  Husband and wife.  Best friends.  Parents!

Kolby:  Happy anniversary, my dear.  Thank you for loving me well for a dozen years.  What an incredible blessing to get to grow up (literally) with someone loving me as you have—it has shaped who I am.  And now onto the greatest adventure of our lives.  Let the wild rumpus begin!

Six-Word Memoir

Kolby gave his students an assignment last week to write a Six-Word Memoir--a platform for storytelling where the goal is to tell your life story (or at least a big part of it) in only six words.  He offered his as an example:

Hello. I do. It's a boy!

He asked me to come up with one, but I couldn't do it.  Writing and creativity are his strengths, not mine.

Then today I had a conversation with a friend at work where the story behind Beckett came up.  I hadn't realized how long it'd been since I'd shared that story.  The infertility diagnoses.  The 1-2% chance.  The cyst.  Surgery day.  The nurse walking in with a positive pregnancy test.  The worry at the beginning, when it was unfathomable how my body could sustain a pregnancy.  The miracle of life.

The conversation reminded me what a truly amazing story it is.  It's a story Beckett will have for life.  It's a story of God's power and His faithfulness, something we will always proclaim.

On my drive home I finally came up with my memoir:

We prayed for healing. God answered.

Infertility

As I've mentioned before, starting our family didn't exactly go as planned.  But I have to say, I wouldn't trade our experience.

I feel that I ought to share more of our story on here, since infertility was and will likely continue to be a part of our life and that's what this blog is---a snapshot of our life together.  But infertility talk is by nature very personal and the internet is by nature a completely public venue.  Kolby and I ultimately decided that this blog is not a good setting to share the details of our journey.  However, I have a deep desire to share our experience, mainly because I know there are others who may be on a similar journey (or know someone who is).  Infertility is a lonely and disheartening thing, and I want to offer encouragement and hope.

So, we came up with an alternative.  I wrote a [long] document entitled, "Our Infertility Journey."  Creative title, I know :).  It includes three sections.  One is an infertility Q&A, where I cover questions like,
Can you give a snapshot of your fertility treatment timeline?
Are you glad you started seeing a fertility specialist rather than just your OB/GYN?
How did you decide who to tell that you were dealing with infertility?
What are some things that people said to you that made you feel better? Did anyone ever say anything that made you feel worse? and several others.
Then there is an encouragement section.  By far the greatest comfort and encouragement came from knowing that God was in control, that He cares for us, and that His ways are far greater than our own. I was often reminded of these truths through worship songs at church or by certain scripture passages. I kept a journal of those reminders, and included them in this section.  Then finally I wrote a short section about the helpful ways our family and friends supported us, hoping that it may be a useful resource for anyone with a loved one dealing with infertility.

Email me at emilyandkolbyblog@gmail.com, and I'll send you the document.  I know that's not as easy as just reading it here, but this is the best we could do!  As our family and friends, you may want to just get a snapshot of this part of our life or maybe you or someone you know is going through something similar.  Whatever the case, I won't make any assumptions and would just love to pass on our story to you because it's a great story of God's incredible power and work in our lives!

So please don't be shy---when you read the document you'll see that I clearly was not :).  

Ramblings

Here are a few things going on around here these days.

I’m anxiously waiting for an iPhone 5.  I’m sad to say that I think it’s finally time to trade in my Jitterbug knock off.  Not familiar with the Jitterbug?  It’s a cell phone for senior citizens.  It has no extra features, a loud (and hearing-aid compatible) speaker, big buttons, an easy to navigate menu, and an insanely long battery life.  It was basically everything I was looking for in a phone :).  It’s treated me well, despite the fact that a friend’s puppy chewed off the battery cover panel a couple years ago and put bite marks all over it, and it *may* have recently earned a few strips of tape here and there to keep it limping along.  But with a baby on the way, I just can’t resist the chance to upgrade to a phone with a good camera and video capability.  So I will be saying farewell to speed dial and T9 predictive text, but hello to the world of Instagram and FaceTime (or as my parents both say, FaceTalk).

Switching gears, we’re now accepting bets for who will weigh more—Kolby or me—by the time the baby comes.  If I’m turning into a whale, I might as well make it interesting.  Feel free to get in on the action if you want!  Here are some clues to help you choose your side:

*Kolby may be lean, but he’s tall.  6’3” to be exact.  I am 5’6”.

*At 28 (of 40) weeks, I had gained 30ish pounds and was 15 pounds shy of Kolby’s weight.

*The recommended weight gain is 25-35 pounds throughout pregnancy.

*The average weight gain in the third trimester is ½-2 pounds per week.

May the best team win!

In other news, our nursery is coming along great!  It makes me smile every time I walk by (which is a lot).  Here’s a sneak preview:

And here’s a peek at our cloth diaper stash:

Yes, we’re planning to cloth diaper most of the time.  You may think we’re crazy.  What an inconvenience!   What a hassle!  What about the poo?!?!  Trust me—we’re thinking all those same things, too!  :)  But we’re giving it a shot.  I may write more about it later, but it boils down to the fact that we like the idea of saving thousands of dollars.  We also think they are super cute and we like the thought of our baby’s bum in soft cotton.  But we may totally hate using them… stay tuned, I guess!

To keep the belly pic streak alive, here’s me (us) at 31 weeks:

Everything is going so great.  I feel wonderful—not a single complaint!  We really feel the Lord’s peace during this pregnancy.  Absolutely everything has been perfectly normal.  It’s funny… every appointment starts with our doctor asking me what questions I have for her, which I always just meet with a shrug.  For a type-A personality like me, that is beyond strange and unexpected.  I can feel that everything is going well and just can never think of anything I care to ask.  Anyway, we are so thankful for a smooth and healthy pregnancy and for a baby who is crazy active, always letting us know that he’s doing just fine!

More updates coming soon.  We’ve been crazy busy lately trying to tackle a very long list of home projects and to get the nursery ready in time for our first shower this weekend.  Our due date is now just 8 weeks away!