This year we lived in three different homes. We even got to experience generational living, which I have to admit I rather enjoyed. The highs being we sold our home with relative ease, we got to spend 8 weeks with Jake's parents in their home, and we were just thrilled to move in to a home we worked hard for and dreamed about, maybe not a forever home, but a good long while home. We started looking for a new place in 2012 so it was a long road, but it helps having your dad as your realtor and your mom as a babysitter! The lows being two hard moves (one while just 6 weeks pregnant), jealousy over cries that turned from "mama" to "Mimi" or "dada" (not my finest moments) and more stress than I have experienced in maybe ever. We are rather settled in our new home and though we still have walls to fill and closets to arrange we have already made some lasting memories here and I wake up thankful everyday for the blessing of being close to family, and with space for our family to grow.
A few times this holiday season my mother in law commented that I am such "a happy pregnant person" and I have to agree. I love being pregnant, I am even crazy enough to say I loved the actual work of having a baby too, the end result is just too sweet. We are so happy to be growing our family, so far in my life I have experienced nothing greater than being a mother. I am even more thankful for this pregnancy after spending more than half the year just trying to get pregnant, crying with friends over their own losses and struggles to conceive and just having experienced pregnancy and birth once before and the anticipation of getting to do it all again (see, I am slightly crazy!). Yes, there are discomforts in pregnancy but I think most will agree those seem to fade in comparison to a late night snuggle or an early morning hug from tiny arms. Jake and I (and Jameson) can't wait to meet little bro or little sis in 2014.
This fall I was devastated to receive a call that I was being laid off from my job. Nothing could have prepared me for the emotional roller coaster of being laid off and trying to start over again. As a nurse, the threat of job loss never seemed real or pertinent to me, but with changes in healthcare and the consolidation of the three downtown NICUs almost half of our nurses were told they weren't needed anymore. It's difficult to explain to people who didn't work there, but I felt like I was losing my very close friends, women who taught me how to take care of tiny sick babies and women who I text on my day off and meet up with for play dates. I was losing a job that defines a large part of who I am what my mission is. After working on that unit for 4.5 years there wasn't much you could throw at me that I couldn't handle and I had worked so hard to get there. Of course there were also concerns of affording our new home on one income, being pregnant and losing my health insurance, being pregnant and finding a new job that would hire me and then let me take maternity leave. A lot of it left me an emotional wreck, but it wasn't long before I found a new job. I still get to take care of tiny babies, even sicker babies and I am so happy to be working closer to home, and though there are new challenges of learning a new unit and new people and working 12 hour night shifts I am just thankful for God's provision.
All in all 2013 was a good year, though not without it's low points. But it is these valleys that make the peaks so much greater, and I never lack things or moments to be thankful for, even when I feel drained or at my lowest.
Little doctor
Thank you for the new post!
ReplyDelete:) Crazy year! Life will just continue to increase in the ups and downs…so get ready!! Not trying to be discouraging, just letting you know what's ahead. "I have experienced times of need and times of abundance. In any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of contentment, whether I go satisfied or hungry, have plenty or nothing." Phil 4:12
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