It's funny how some people just take "internet" communication at face value and others just...don't "get" it.
Here is a conversation between me and my mom a few minutes ago when she dropped off some lunch for me:
Me: Remember the person I asked you to pray for, Annika? Well, she had her baby!
Mom: Oh, good for her. Now where do you know her from?
Me: She's Eric Durbin's wife.
Mom: Weren't you, like, four the last time you saw him? How do you even KNOW his wife?
Me: I wasn't four! I was seventeen or so. Hmph. And I *know* her...from e-mails and stuff.
Mom: Well then you don't KNOW her! For all the connection to it that you have, this baby COULD have really been one of a litter of kittens born somewhere in Prague.
Me: That's ridiculous...you don't underst- hey, look! Something shiny! *Whereupon I point, and then run away*
Okay, so I didn't really say "something shiny" and then run away. But I felt like it! I wondered at first if it was a generational thing...but scrapped that right away. My mom is fairly young...only 43. I know many people her age who have tons of "online" connections.
The mysteries of sociology, I suppose.
In other haven't-seen-this-person-in-ten-years-but-we-now-talk-anyway thanks-to-the-blogosphere news, I'd like to wish a HAPPY THIRTEEN WEEKS to Brooke!
For those not in the reproductive know, thirteen weeks is a major milestone. The risk of miscarriage decreases a lot by 8 weeks, then again at ten weeks, but the risk of subsequent miscarriage or loss decreases by a distinct margin at thirteen, so everyone keeps their eyes on the big prize-- the ending of that twelfth week.
Way to grow, baby Moore!!! : )
I hope everyone has a great weekend...me, I'm off to box up the precious, ruffly-pink things I got to send the planet's newest Durbin, as well as the stripey-boyish-cute things so the second newest Durbin won't have to be jealous.
Godspeed, all. -Liz
Friday, November 17, 2006
Joy in the morning!!!
My heart is just singing praises right now...for those of you who know them, Eric and Annika (finally!) welcomed their precious baby girl on Thursday! Thank You Lord for this wonderful new life! Bless little Elisabeth Kate and the family she is so lovingly welcomed into! Amen!
Now come on guys...let's see some pictures of this little beaut!
Now come on guys...let's see some pictures of this little beaut!
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
And I say....BAH again.
Lord, please help me get beyond my negative frame of mind at this time.
I am in a pinch...I work from home, as some of you know. I get paid through PayPal, and then *I* transfer the money into my University Federal Credit Union acct. Well, my deposits always go off without a hitch. Always! Until...now.
They messed up the deposit they sent me, because it was for the wrong amount. So without telling me, they cancelled/withdrew it, and therefore it did NOT make it into my bank account. Because of ALL the medical expenses my poor husband has had lately...this is not. good. at. all. :(
I promised to help a family member with a bill today...and now her electric might get turned off because I can't access my money in a timely fashion. I am so upset. :(
I am in a pinch...I work from home, as some of you know. I get paid through PayPal, and then *I* transfer the money into my University Federal Credit Union acct. Well, my deposits always go off without a hitch. Always! Until...now.
They messed up the deposit they sent me, because it was for the wrong amount. So without telling me, they cancelled/withdrew it, and therefore it did NOT make it into my bank account. Because of ALL the medical expenses my poor husband has had lately...this is not. good. at. all. :(
I promised to help a family member with a bill today...and now her electric might get turned off because I can't access my money in a timely fashion. I am so upset. :(
BAH.
I am really upset right now. I was blog surfing through the 4-5 blogs I read each day now, and I came across a comment that a total stranger had left in someone's blog...and it was just *awful*. Not just a little dig or insult, but a full-blown cruel assault on someone who was dealing with the worst tragedy that can befall us on this earth- losing a child. I mean, it was SO awful what this person said- it made ME cry, and it wasn't even directed AT me. I just thought..."is THIS the world my children will grow up in? THIS?"
God help us all.
God help us all.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
A melancholy morning.
As some of you are aware, my precious husband cracked both a vertebrae and a rib recently, and he is in awful, awful pain :( Poor thing. He has been in a veritable coma from the pain medication.
So, alone this morning...I started thinking...about Molly, the baby we lost at the half-way point of the pregnancy last year. For those who were not aware, we also lost the twins we only recently found out we were expecting. There was a thirty-one inch tumor completely encroached upon my uterus...it cut off the placenta, the babies' lifeline. I feel so angry sometimes! How...how...HOW could my OWN body have betrayed me in such a way??? My body is meant to nurture and sustain our babies, not cut off the very lifeline through which all of their nutrients and life-preserving entities are transmitted.
On Oct. 20th I had the tumor removed. By then, the doctor said the babies had been "reabsorbed by my body". What a horrible, clinical way to explain it.
I now have a large incision from the surgery...for the first few days in the hospital, it was so very awful I wished for death. Nothing they gave me for pain worked, and the pain was so incredibly intense. I stayed in South Austin Hospital for about a week...and my loving husband, bless his soul- he did not leave one single time. Even when I insisted he go around the corner to 7-11 to get himself a magazine or book, he refused. I seriously could NOT have done it without him. I mean it...I just could not have handled it. The experience made me so very grateful to have him there-- I know people have surgery all the time and have no one with them in the hospital. How do they manage? Bless their souls...
Somehow Molly's loss still feels more raw, more painful...even though it happened in mid 2005 and the loss of the twins JUST happened. I guess it's because with Molly, we just KNEW we were well past the point of "danger", that oft-dangerous first trimester...even when the first trimester ended, I kept saying "in a few more weeks...THEN I'll be comfortable!"
And I was...around 14-15 weeks, I just felt wonderful. Even strolling through the grocery store gave me SUCH a sense of purpose! "I am choosing the foods to best nourish my body, a complex machine of God's design that is actually growing another human being at this very second! I am AMAZING!"
I looked "really" pregnant...Molly had always measured big for her gestational age. In fact, at my first ultrasound, they insisted I was lying about my last period and the details of the conception date! Finally, with PROOF that my husband was out of town during the time THEY said I "must" have conceived, I got them to believe me. My mom said that the same thing happened when SHE was pregnant with ME...at 4 months, people were telling her how lucky she was to have a baby that would be born near Christmas! (I was due, and born, in mid-May!)
Anyway, I just loved walking around with my hand protectively covering my "Mol-Ball", as we called it.
It was so...stunning...to lose her. It was just out of nowhere. We tell ourselves, "She is our special guardian...at the right hand of God, waiting for us...and waiting for just the right time to bless us with her sibling(s)..."
But the truth is, sometimes we're terrified that we will never know that certain joy of parenthood. We know it's not a rational fear...we know that God will grant us our true heart's desires if we are sincere and deserving. But still, there is an occasional wide-eyed stare; a raspily-spoken, tear-choked "what if...what if we never..."
And whichever of us is having the "down" day will be comforted by the other one, one of us will say "We WILL have children...you KNOW we will...even if they are not borne of our bodies they will be borne of our hearts and that is ALL that matters". And we know it's true, but sometimes one or both of us just needs to voice the fears all the same.
Ah, melancholy morning.
We miss you, babies. We love you.
A time more innocent... ^
So, alone this morning...I started thinking...about Molly, the baby we lost at the half-way point of the pregnancy last year. For those who were not aware, we also lost the twins we only recently found out we were expecting. There was a thirty-one inch tumor completely encroached upon my uterus...it cut off the placenta, the babies' lifeline. I feel so angry sometimes! How...how...HOW could my OWN body have betrayed me in such a way??? My body is meant to nurture and sustain our babies, not cut off the very lifeline through which all of their nutrients and life-preserving entities are transmitted.
On Oct. 20th I had the tumor removed. By then, the doctor said the babies had been "reabsorbed by my body". What a horrible, clinical way to explain it.
I now have a large incision from the surgery...for the first few days in the hospital, it was so very awful I wished for death. Nothing they gave me for pain worked, and the pain was so incredibly intense. I stayed in South Austin Hospital for about a week...and my loving husband, bless his soul- he did not leave one single time. Even when I insisted he go around the corner to 7-11 to get himself a magazine or book, he refused. I seriously could NOT have done it without him. I mean it...I just could not have handled it. The experience made me so very grateful to have him there-- I know people have surgery all the time and have no one with them in the hospital. How do they manage? Bless their souls...
Somehow Molly's loss still feels more raw, more painful...even though it happened in mid 2005 and the loss of the twins JUST happened. I guess it's because with Molly, we just KNEW we were well past the point of "danger", that oft-dangerous first trimester...even when the first trimester ended, I kept saying "in a few more weeks...THEN I'll be comfortable!"
And I was...around 14-15 weeks, I just felt wonderful. Even strolling through the grocery store gave me SUCH a sense of purpose! "I am choosing the foods to best nourish my body, a complex machine of God's design that is actually growing another human being at this very second! I am AMAZING!"
I looked "really" pregnant...Molly had always measured big for her gestational age. In fact, at my first ultrasound, they insisted I was lying about my last period and the details of the conception date! Finally, with PROOF that my husband was out of town during the time THEY said I "must" have conceived, I got them to believe me. My mom said that the same thing happened when SHE was pregnant with ME...at 4 months, people were telling her how lucky she was to have a baby that would be born near Christmas! (I was due, and born, in mid-May!)
Anyway, I just loved walking around with my hand protectively covering my "Mol-Ball", as we called it.
It was so...stunning...to lose her. It was just out of nowhere. We tell ourselves, "She is our special guardian...at the right hand of God, waiting for us...and waiting for just the right time to bless us with her sibling(s)..."
But the truth is, sometimes we're terrified that we will never know that certain joy of parenthood. We know it's not a rational fear...we know that God will grant us our true heart's desires if we are sincere and deserving. But still, there is an occasional wide-eyed stare; a raspily-spoken, tear-choked "what if...what if we never..."
And whichever of us is having the "down" day will be comforted by the other one, one of us will say "We WILL have children...you KNOW we will...even if they are not borne of our bodies they will be borne of our hearts and that is ALL that matters". And we know it's true, but sometimes one or both of us just needs to voice the fears all the same.
Ah, melancholy morning.
We miss you, babies. We love you.
A time more innocent... ^
Saturday, November 11, 2006
Birth announcements...one of my favorite things to make. I often hand-make a batch as a baby gift. I made several different ones for my newest cousin, as her parents are part of a huge social circle and I needed to make tons of them. I wanted to post a few here just in case any of my about-to-pop pals (you know who you are, A & G!) wanted me to make them. I currently have a surplus of both supplies and festering desire for creativity. Oh, and please note...my superimposed comments and the "original" images used to make them are *not* part of the actual announcements ; )
I used a vellum overlay on this one...this is one of my favorite pictures I've taken of my new little cousin. I wanted to do something creative for her announcements, and I didn't have much to work with by way of lighting or special clothes/props/etc. So...I picked a bunch of the tops off some fake flowers my aunt had on the dining table! I loved the way this one turned out but unfortunately, I was the only one : (
This wasn't an annoucement, but she was born close to Easter time and I wanted to do a bunny themed one. It didn't get made into an annoucement but I did have it enlarged and framed...I think she makes such a precious little cottontail : )
If anyone wants me to do birth announcements, e-mail me or leave me a comment...I do them for free and I get them done pretty fast! I just need to know the baby's gender so I can start organizing supplies! I might post some more announcements I've done for other babies later on...I just recently recovered a ton of them on a CD that I thought had been lost forever when our computers were stolen. YAY for husbands who back up everything!
Edit: I see that the blogger upload feature distorted ALL of these photos...grrrr. Please imagine them perfectly clear and sharp; that was the original format!
My first post!
I'm probably the last holdout, but here I am...finally joining the ranks of the many, the masses, the life-cataloging horde...the bloggers.
Mainly I'm posting this entry just to see how a post displays on the page. I have a "real" entry coming up, complete with lots of pictures.
It feels really weird to be writing this, knowing that if I've not yet given out the address...I'm pursuing the digital equivalent of mumbling to myself in the grocery store. Note to self: send blog address to one and all.
Note to everyone else: (once you arrive after I've sent the address, of course) please pray for a new friend in a difficult, uncomfortable circumstance. Pray that God would ease her mind and body; completely envelop her in absolute peace. Thank you.
Mainly I'm posting this entry just to see how a post displays on the page. I have a "real" entry coming up, complete with lots of pictures.
It feels really weird to be writing this, knowing that if I've not yet given out the address...I'm pursuing the digital equivalent of mumbling to myself in the grocery store. Note to self: send blog address to one and all.
Note to everyone else: (once you arrive after I've sent the address, of course) please pray for a new friend in a difficult, uncomfortable circumstance. Pray that God would ease her mind and body; completely envelop her in absolute peace. Thank you.
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