God is Gracious

Timing is everything, right?

Yes, our baby was 3 weeks early. Technically, he was a preemie (1 day away from 37 weeks!). But his timing was perfect.

1. We wouldn't have been any more ready by his due date, honestly.
We had just gotten the nursery painted. Beyond that, we still didn't know what we were doing. We knew nothing about babies. So the only plan was to have one more baby shower, then attempt to figure out what stuff we had in case we could think of something else we needed.

Somehow we had managed to get all of our canning done before the baby was born, but hadn't really gotten into making meals ahead of time to throw in the freezer. Honestly, I'm not sure if I would have gotten to that anyways. My energy and ability to move was very quickly disappearing.

Him coming early just meant we had an excuse to not be ready...

2. Chris got out of a bad situation at work.
There was a client that was creating a LOT of stress for Chris at work. The baby coming early gave him the ability to hand the project over and walk away from the stress. It was perfect timing too, because the situation was resolved in a way that Chris wouldn't have been able to do. There was less stress because someone else was able to look at the situation and just end it, rather than suffering through it.

3. Mom got to hold the baby.
My mom has been having hit after hit with the cancer, then pneumonia, then shingles, all on top of blood issues and other problems. With the baby coming early, she was able to get to the hospital and hold him a little. Now most of our interactions are through video chat so she can at least see him.

4. We skipped the stress that would have happened leading up to the due date.
Let's be honest. If your due date approaches, you stress out about it, wondering when it will happen, what's going to happen, will there be a mad rush to the hospital, will I be at work, will Chris be available, will blah blah blah... Chris and I can stress with the best of them. We got to skip that.

5. Both my mom and Chris' mom were unavailable, so we had to learn to ask others for help.
My mom has been sick. Chris' mom was going in for shoulder surgery the day my water broke. We had no idea what we were doing. Plus I was having headache issues and couldn't actually function very well for the first week.

We were forced to ask for help.

Luckily, there are lots of "moms" for us at our church. We had ladies come in and clean while I slept, hold the baby while I slept, make me lunch, make us dinner, and fill our freezer with some meals that all we had to do was stick in the oven.

We also had some friends on Facebook step up and volunteer. I've got more meals coming next week. I had a dear teacher from my middle school years come and hold the baby and even clean our bedroom and the bathrooms (WOW!). I've had people drop off things that they thought we might need (and we did, we just weren't sure when we'd get to the store to find it!).

It was and is fantastic. And humbling. And not easy. But we're learning to be okay with asking for help.

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So weighing all of these things together, we looked at the top few names we were thinking of for our new little boy. One name meant protector. One name meant fair. One name meant God is gracious. God is very gracious to us. So that's what we chose for his first name.

His middle name means beloved and is from one of my favorite characters in the Old Testament.

He will be our constant reminder of God's grace.

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gra·cious
adj.
1. Characterized by kindness and warm courtesy.
2. Characterized by tact and propriety
3. Of a merciful or compassionate nature.
4. Condescendingly courteous; indulgent.
5. Characterized by charm or beauty; graceful.
6. Characterized by elegance and good taste
7. Enjoying favor or grace; acceptable or pleasing.

Since October

What has happened since October? Let me tell you...

November:
I can't remember. Thanksgiving was in there. We had some turkey. I'm sure it was tastey.

December:
I got two kitties. Tesni and Ziva. Tesni is my little cuddle-bug, she loves to find an open lap, especially if it's mine. Ziva seeks attention by doing everything wrong. She steals things and breaks things and gets into trouble. Turns out Tesni does that too, but she does it when we're not looking – most of the time.

January:
We got a puppy! Her name is Bree. She's a Bernese Mountain Dog. She is currently 50 lbs and will grow to be about 120lbs.

February:
About a week after getting Bree, we found out... I'm pregnant! We are very excited. However, getting a puppy right in the beginning of the first trimester is CRAZY and not recommended. I got hormonal (ie very moody). Chris left for Texas for a week to do some training for work. It was a rough week for Bree and I, since I was the only one around to deal with her, and we weren't ready to tell anyone I was pregnant, so I couldn't easily ask for help. Now we know how to avoid certain situations that can set me off as I continue to learn how to cope with crazy hormones.

March, April:
Not much here other than doctors appointments and training for the Tulip Time 5k (yes, I had my doctor's permission).

May:
We celebrated our 5 year anniversary by running the Tulip Time 5k (I was under 40 minutes!) and then attempting to eat 5 hot dogs together. Even with Bree's help, we couldn't eat all 5 hotdogs (baby did not pull his/her weight in this eating challenge...). We (let's face it, I) wanted to eat 5 elephant ears, but that seemed even more daunting than the 5 hot dogs.

So there's your quick life summary.

Pets

Finally. We are getting some pets!

Puppies are due late fall, so hopefully there will be one for us to take home around Christmas.

I've been wanting a cat (or two) and I've convinced Chris that it would be good to get kittens and a puppy close to the same time so that they'll grow up together. This worked really well for my dog and cat when I was growing up.

We're getting the dog from a breeder. It will be a Bernese Mountain Dog. I don't have any experience with those kinds of dogs, but it's supposed to be a fantastic family dog. We're looking forward to it. Plus, it will be matching in size to the Rottweiler next door, so they can easily play together.

I'd like to get two cats from the Humane Society. Two cats cost the same as one, which is a nice perk. Also, the dog would probably come with us on trips, but the cats would stay home, so having two would allow them to keep each other company.

Anywho, probably won't get the cats until after Thanksgiving since we have to dog-sit for my parents a bit and then we'll be up north with Chris' family for Thanksgiving. It will be easier to deal with the cats after that. So they'll be a birthday present to myself. :)