The Update

This was the text of an email I sent to friends earlier this week:

I thought I'd send you an email while the baby is being quiet ... since she's still inside. :) She's due on Sunday, but of course, that doesn't mean much of anything. We are getting ready for her to come, which is really exciting and fun, and a little crazy sometimes. We'll name her Elizabeth, and the middle name we haven't told anybody yet, but I believe God gave me that name when I was at camp last summer.

So life is pretty busy these days. Sam just started work (last Monday) at the same HVAC company he'd worked with in the fall semester. This time instead of being in the office, he is working outdoors with a crew, starting at 7 AM, hammering air ducts together, measuring out drawings, and going up and down countless flights of stairs. He comes home dog tired every day. The project he's working on now (and will be until they move on to a different project, or till his summer work program finishes in August) is near GA Tech, which lately has been an ugly place to be, because of a whole lot of violent crime, and fun stuff like stolen vehicles (even one of the guys he's working with had his car stolen recently while at that project). So that is kind of exciting, and it is causing us to depend on God to keep us and our property safe. It has been kind of weird for me to be at home on my own while he's been at work this last week, after so many months of his being home most of the time, too. He had been in school and working, of course, but he had fewer hours in the week that he was gone. With him out of the house so much, and me feeling more and more large and tired as the days go by, I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that I'm not motivated to do much of anything, though I guess in the last couple of weeks of pregnancy there's not always a lot of motivation to do much, so I shouldn't be too surprised.

We've gotten the baby's room (i.e., the guest room/nursery) set up, and have a little bed set up in our room for the first little while when we're trying to adjust to life with an infant. This week I'm going to hit the store and make sure we have all that we need, and we'll install the car seat in the Suburban (yes, we're buying my parents' Suburban - it seems to make sense for us right now). Anyways, at home group a week or two ago, a couple of the guys were looking at Sam and saying, "Poor guy, so innocent and excited. He has no idea what he's in for; he won't know what hit him."

At this point I'm kind of tired of being pregnant. I've been fortunate to have had a good pregnancy (though it started out pretty rough in the first couple of months), and I've really only just gotten to the point that I'm ready for it to be over in the past week. I am grateful that I have been fairly comfortable until recently - and I am still able to sleep pretty well, I'm not getting tons of contractions that aren't meaning anything, and I can still get around pretty well. But my back hurts if I sit, and my feet and up almost to my knees swell if I stand; I am pretty exhausted most of the time, and sometimes the thought of doing something as simple as hanging up clothes makes me want to cry. From an outside perspective, it's actually pretty funny, but in the moment, it's just pathetic. It may have a lot to do with our waking/sleeping schedule changing now that Sam is getting up early, and I'm getting up to pack his lunch, etc., and once I'm up, the dogs are up, and if I'm up, I may as well stay up..... Just being exhausted could have a lot to do with my lack of enthusiasm for this last brief period of just the 2 of us. Speaking of the 2 of us, we have now been married for 4 years, if you can believe it! It's funny how simultaneously it seems that we couldn't have been married that long, but also that we've just always been married, haven't we?

Because of the recent influx of young couples with (or expecting) young children, we had the privilege of having Keith & Patricia Currie come up and do a marriage and parenting seminar a weekend or two ago. It was great to see them and to receive from them. They have such a wealth of wisdom and of common sense. I think I took about 10 pages of notes - literally. Now the tricky part is going to be remembering and applying the things that are timely for whatever season we're in.

My family's doing well. When Dad was working on a painting project several weeks ago, the ladder he was on collapsed and he broke his left wrist. He should be able to get the brace off of it in the next couple of weeks. It's hard for him to be idle, so he's already been working on stuff, which of course he shouldn't be doing, and we hope that nothing he's been doing will interfere with his wrist healing properly. Fortunately it was his left, and he's right handed, so at least he can still write, eat, drive, etc., without too much trouble.
Mom is still writing, and just sent a great story to her great agent, who is presenting it to several editors.... We're praying one of them - or two of them - will bite.
Older Brother's got one last semester of school (i think it's just the one), and he's starting a small advertising or marketing business - helping local businesses advertise to new residents. We hope that will be profitable for him, too.
Younger Brother is about to graduate high school, and then do .... what? I don't know. But I didn't know then, either. Anyways, they're doing really well. He is at the beach with his best friend's clan this week, and he's so excited about the baby coming that he is willing to drive back whenever I go into labor if it happens before Saturday when they're scheduled to come back, just so he won't miss it. I had no idea he would do that, but I think that's so sweet.
They are all excited about the new addition to the family, my dad especially. He stops in the stores when he sees little Asian babies, girls especially, all enraptured by the thought of his little granddaughter. He will be a total pushover of a grandparent. It's really cute.

These days I think we're doing fairly well. The Spirit is stirring up many in our church in the past little while, and my heart is also being drawn along. But I'm kind of in my, "what do I need to do, to do the works that God requires?" phase, forgetting that the answer to that question is, "believe in the One he has sent," not something that I have to "do." That is such a relief for someone exhausted most of the time, anticipating more of the unknown immenently to come in the next few weeks. But at the same time, I know that involved in there are some basics, like - open the word, take the few minutes of concentrated attention to pray, and be willing to do what I'm prompted to do because of what I can believe of Him....

And it's actually been quite a blessing to have Sam get up and out the door early again, so that I am awake and have opportunity to get up and have a quiet time. I know I should take advantage of it when I can. So my spirit has been hungry and provoked and encouraged - but in that place of causing me to be discontent with my heart's condition, so on top of the raging hormones and the stress of impending major life changes, I've been a little bit of a challenge to live with these last couple of weeks. But Sam is doing quite well with my little episodes of crying fits. He also knows to offer me food when that happens. He has been a fast learner.

That is what life looks like from my perspective lately. I can't believe it's been so long since I've written, so I am glad to have gotten this out to you finally.

I may not post another update for a while - but when I do, it'll be a heck of an update!