39 Weeks! Pregnancy Update

Tomorrow marks week 39 for me and our baby girl. Which means I probably have 1 to 3 weeks left! John was 9 days late and induced and Peter was 12 days late before I went into labor naturally. We are hoping for a natural birth again with this baby, so we shall see if she is more punctual than her brothers. - please, oh please!!

My feelings emotionally...

Last week was very emotional for me. I felt like I was on the verge of crying at any moment - happy or sad. On my way to my doctor's appointment last week, I dropped the boys off with my mom and went by myself listening to the Fiddler on the Roof soundtrack in the car. Sunrise, Sunset came on and I lost it. Especially in these last few weeks, I can really relate to the fact that with each sunrise and sunset, I come one day closer to meeting our new child, and one day closer to our lives changing forever (in a great way).

I also get teary when I think about my little Peter, who will get booted out of the position of "baby" in our household. He is so sweet and will still come and snuggle some mornings in our bed with me. I love holding his little body and breathing in the smell of his hair. I know I'll still love doing that, but I also know that having a baby around will automatically make him a "bigger" boy, at least in my perspective.

John, on the other hand, is so big to me already - in stature and maturity. I am very excited to see him care for his sister. The vulnerability and helplessness of an infant is one of life's greatest lessons, and I am excited to see John in the roll of provider, even if it's just in small ways. It will also be great to have him around as Peter's accomplice. I know they'll still need my love and care, but having each other as entertainment will really help me (I hope!).

This week I am holding my tears back more and feel more determined to get things done and prepared. Yesterday alone, I got more done around the house than I usually do in a week!

Physically...

I've been feeling great! Especially this last week, I've had tons of energy. During my 1st and 2nd trimesters, I took a nap most days, but lately I've been getting up early and had energy to keep me going all day. Granted, I'm usually waddling and hobbling around, but I could take on the world!!

I'm sleeping comfortably, but I do wake up to adjust my position every once and a while, which takes a lot of effort. When I'm up and going, I feel great, but once I lie down, it's hard to move.

Right before Thanksgiving, we had a worry because my belly was measuring small. So we were worried that something could be wrong with the placenta. I had an ultrasound done and that checked out fine, which was a huge relief. Our girl is just more petite than the boys.

Having a baby growing inside me will always be astonishing. Sometimes I look at my belly and it is so hard to believe that I am carrying around a practically full-term baby. The miracle of life is humbling to be a part of.

Spiritually...

It has been great thinking of Our Blessed Mother as I journey along side her own liturgical pregnancy with Jesus. Most recently, I was feeling very overwhelmed by not being prepared enough for our daughter's birth. But then, I considered how Mary was traveling so late in her pregnancy and had so many unknowns to worry about - she didn't even have a place to stay! She gave birth in a barn and had to lay her sweet new Baby in a food trough for animals! So no matter how unprepared I feel, looking at Our Lady's trust that God will provide for her is a huge comfort and relief to me. I don't have to have it all together, I just need to trust and most of all, prepare my heart to welcome this new eternal soul into my care.

Truest Demonstration of Faith

 Thy Will Be Done

There was an article that I read a couple of days ago in a newsletter that Samaritan Ministries (our health care) puts out every month. The story is about a man and his family who are part of our health sharing ministry. It was so moving that I had to share it with you! I cried a lot when I read it and John was so confused. I tried to explain to him that the words were sad, but he didn't get it. He kept wiping my tears.

Here is the beginning of the story, I really recommend reading the whole thing:

As I ran up to him, the first thing I noticed was the Bible. It was small, a pocket-sized book, in black leather. It had apparently been knocked out of his clothing when the car hit him, and had landed beside him in the snow, down off the shoulder of the road.

That was yesterday, a few minutes after 7 in the morning. It was frigid and there was accumulation and black ice and two cars had slid off the busy Interstate. He had stopped and gotten out to help. He had been on the way to work, with his son, and he saw the motorists who needed help and he stopped. Countless others of us drove on by. But he stopped... (Read the rest here)

 What really struck me was the description of the wife's prayer for her husband:

Then she knelt and began to pray.

She may have held his hand, she may have leaned in toward his head. As she spoke, I cast my eyes down and reverently listened. She addressed God. Whether she called him “Dear Lord” or “Heavenly Father” or something else, I can’t recall. But she addressed him, and then she thanked him. And she offered him praise. Her words were not words of pleading, they were words of praise and gratitude. And then she said something like, “If today you wish to call him home and take him from us – thy will be done.”

Thy will be done.

The line from the Lord’s Prayer. The hardest part of faith. At a moment when most of us would be begging God to give us what we want – to spare us our loved one – she asked the Lord to do his will, what he wanted. She trusted him, and had faith in him.

Where could there be a truer test or demonstration of faith than in the snow beside the broken and near lifeless body of your sweetheart and spouse? In that situation, there can be no pretense, no show, only the heartfelt honesty of a soul in direct communion with its Creator.

And in her moment of test, in her own Gethsemane, she literally prayed, like her Savior before her, not my will, but thine, be done.

But if it was not his time to die, if the Lord did not want to call him home, she asked for his life, for her and their children, and strength through the weeks of hospitalization and recovery.

After I read that part, I felt silly for crying. Here I am - a stranger - and I was crying as if this were my own husband. While she had the strength and conviction to ask for God's will to be done and that this whole situation add to the glory of God. I really hope and pray that God will give me the grace to act the same way when I face trials in my own life. This made me realize how much I have to learn about real sacrificial love.

When I read this portion of the story to Andrew he commented on how she was acting like Mary, our Blessed Mother, did during Christ's passion and death. Surely it was very heart-wrenching to watch her Son suffer so, but she knew it was for the glory of God and she desired to be submissive to His will.

This wife and mother is such a great example for me and I will always remember her story. If you didn't have a chance to read the whole story, her husband did die - and now she is a widow with eight children to care for. May Our Lord give her the strength and joy she needs to persevere in this life and be reunited with her beloved in Heaven.

7 Ways to Celebrate Mary's Month with Your Family

I'm blogging over at our parish today:

It's almost May, which means it's almost time to celebrate Our Blessed Mother in a special way!

1. Pray the Rosary together: Here is an idea for praying the Rosary with your children.

2. Read a book about Mary, as a family. There are SO many great books out there, here is a sampling. Be sure to check our parish library for more books about Mary.

• Picture book: Our Blessed Mother by George Brundage
  
• Easy Reader: Mary My Mother by Father Lovaski, S.V.D
  
• Intermediate Reader: Bernadette, Our Lady's Little Servant by Hertha Pauli or Our Lady Came to Fatima by Ruth Fox Hume
  
• Teens and adults: Hail Holy Queen by Scott Hahn or True Devotion to Mary by Louis de Monfort

Read more...

7 Quick Takes ~ Vol. 7

Hosted at Conversion Diary

1. I have been meaning to work out a system of organizing John's clothes. It is challenging when he is always growing. It makes me appreciate that I have stopped growing ...for the most part ;)... and don't need new clothes all the time! Anyway, I found an inventory sheet on the internet and modified it to fit our needs. Today I have been going through ALL the clothes we have for John and categorizing them on this inventory sheet. This will help me to know what we have and don't have and when I go shopping I will know what his needs are. After I put everything on the inventory and sort it all, I will put them in boxes labeled with the size. We are hoping to have many little boys; this system will make it easier to access the clothes down the road.

2. John is big enough to fit in his car:



3. Did you notice the pictures we finally have on our wall from my post about Labor Day?

4. I am trying this new thing where I keep the kitchen clean. It is hard. I love cooking and baking. Cleaning... not so much! But I have been thinking lately about how I feel when the kitchen is messy - like I have a huge burden on my shoulders. I just know that I am generally a happier person when the kitchen is clean. I thought that moving into our new apartment with a very large kitchen would help. On the contrary, I have found that it is worse because if I make a mess I can just move to a clean area of the counter and make another mess. Finally, when all the counter space is messy, I break down and clean the whole thing. It would be a lot easier if I cleaned as I cooked. This week I realized that another reason I need to keep the kitchen clean is it is my JOB! That is part of my job as wife and mother. So wish me luck and keep me in your prayers as I endeavor to keep the kitchen in order. I'm on day 3 of having a clean kitchen...

5.Right now John is laying in bed - post nap - and talking. He does this frequently. He will wake up and begin making all sorts of happy noises. I sure wish I felt that way when I wake up!

6. I started brushing John's teeth. He really likes it! I'm trying to develop healthy habits for him, so we do it every day!

7. On Tuesday, September 8th, the Church celebrated the Blessed Virgin Mary's birthday! I made cupcakes and decorated them with blue frosting (it's a Marian color) and put Marian symbols on them. It was fun, but it will be even more fun when John is old enough to do this stuff with me. I am so excited to teach him all about the beauty of our faith!

Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

From Three to Get Married, by Fulton J. Sheen:

The Church reminds poor mortals with their weak bodies to keep their eyes on heaven, for there are two human bodies there: the Body of our Lord through His Ascension, and the body of the Blessed Mother through her Assumption. On the fifteenth of August, each year, the Church commemorates the taking up of the holy body and soul of Mary into Paradise, where she was crowned as Queen of Angels and Saints. The Church does not teach that Mary did not die, but only that her body did not suffer corruption. If our Lord did not disdain to take on the sufferings of life to purify them, and the pang of death in order to conquer it, He would not dispense His own Mother from them. If He, the new Adam, would drink the chalice of sufferings, she, the new Eve, must have a share in them. But though she died, her body was not corrupted but assumed into heaven. The primal penalty of sin was the dissolution of the body: "Dust thou art, and unto dust shall thou return" (Gen. 3:19). But if corruption was the penal consequence of original sin, it follows that she who was preserved from original sin should also be preserved from its penalty, namely, corruption. Quite apart from the ancient Christian tradition concerning her Assumption, it hardly seems fitting that she, who gave the world Him Who conquered death, should herself be completely under its heel. Should not He Who, by His own Divine power, rose from the dead, use that same power to preserve His Mother from the grave, so that His Resurrection and Ascension should have their counterpart in a lower level in the Assumption of His Blessed Mother?

She was the flesh-girt garden of the new Adam, and it is unthinkable that the heavenly Gardener, once He had gathered His human life from her as a garden, should suffer it to be overrun by dust. The chalice that contains the Blood of Christ does not become a profane cup when once the wine of life is drunk. Only holy hands may touch it. There is no reason to believe that, once He conquered sin by His Resurrection and ascended to the glory at the right hand of the Father, He could forget the one who had given Him a human nature. A son remembers his mother even more in triumph than in battle. He spoke to her in the battle of Calvary; then He should not forget to call her to himself in the triumph of His Ascension. He Who received the hospitality of this spiritual Bethlehem would not be an ungrateful Host. As the homes in which great men were born are preserved for posterity, so His Home (which she is) would be preserved for eternity. If the innkeeper had only given shelter to that maid on Christmas night, history would never have forgotten his name.

It is incredible then that she who housed Him should not have immortality, not of name only, but of body and soul. If He Who conquered death ascended into Heaven to be a mediator between God and man, then should not she, who received the high summons to share in His Redemption, be near Him now in Heaven, to mediate between His power and our needs, as she did at Cana? Certainly she who begot Him Who empties all sepulchers should not herself be one of its first inhabitants. Corruption ought not touch her who begot our incorruptibility, nor should she whose virginity He preserved in motherhood be now a virgin body despoiled and ravished by death. Eve, our first mother, lent her ear to the tempting Satan and justly was returned again to dust, but Mary, our new Mother, who lent her ear to the Holy Spirit, could not be the prey of the self-same dust.

A church once consecrated may not be delivered over to profane use, nor shall the temple of the living God be profaned by the dust. Die indeed she ought, for she should have no other law than that to which her Son was subject; but corrupted she should not be, for she gave birth to Him Who broke the jaws of death. For a member of the human race, death was normal. Clothed with the power of God, dissolution would be abnormal. There are only two empty tombs in all the world: the tomb where the Resurrection and the Life was buried for three days, and the tomb where the Mother of the Resurrection and the Life was laid when she fell asleep in the love of the Lord. Mary's empty tomb was to woman what Christ's empty tomb was to man, with this difference: that only through His power was her tomb made empty.