Life Delights in Life

Since December, people have been telling me that I am in the “homestretch” of pregnancy. This seems like a particularly fitting term, since it is only in the last few months that I have begun to look pregnant at all, and my weird belly is stretched to beyond all imaginable capacity. Having said that, the fact that this is my first baby and that I have a pretty long torso means that I’m not that big, even though that mean guy in Walmart said I was.

The title of this post is a quote by William Blake – “For everything that lives is holy, life delights in life.” I have thought of that over and over again during the past few days. I have been more than a little obsessed with many things lately, as these weird nesting instincts kick in and I am scrubbing the oven and embroidering quilt squares and deleting all the pictures on Luke’s camera and doing the human, modern-day equivalent of feathering my nest. So I have tried to take some time and remember how deeply delighted I am. There is something so inherently appealing about new life, and the fact that I helped to create it – well, it transcends words, but I still try to find them.

A few weekends ago, Luke and I drove to Washington to see my family and have a baby shower and make fun of old church movies and eat fruit pizza. I never wanted to come back. But I also did want to, because I wanted to put away all my new things and start cleaning my house again and revel in the fact that over the weekend, I transformed from 33 weeks pregnant to 34 weeks pregnant and that meant I was a little more justified in being crazy.

We found out a little more about Luke’s job a few weeks ago, and it was so nice to finally have some things figured out. We’ll move to San Antonio in July, probably, and then Luke will start some kind of training school in Sierra Vista, AZ in November, which will last for 5 months. That’s right. 5 months. Apparently, they set him up in a hotel and give him some money to buy food and a rental car and I can come if I want. And live in a hotel with a baby for 5 months. 20 miles from the Mexican border. After that, we’ll go back to San Antonio and live there for like two more years and then Luke will get an assignment somewhere else and we will move every 5 years for the rest of all time.

We will probably live internationally every other assignment, which we’ve talked about extensively. Luke was born in Brazil, lived there when he was a kid, served a mission in Japan and lived in China a few summers ago. I…visited Mexico and Canada a few times. This is not to say that I am not excited to start that chapter of our life, but oh man. Luke and I both plan on having a big family, and I sometimes get overwhelmed imagining international travel and living with a whole passel o’ kids. What does this mean?! Luke is just so happy, though, and he’s one of those people who is surprisingly competent, which sounds mean, but I think it’s not. He’s just so easygoing that sometimes I forget all the languages he speaks and all the stuff he knows about everything.

Oh, and were you curious about my terrible pains? I got an ultrasound (not the fun kind) and they told me that I have gallstones! Hurray!

So sometime after my dear little baby joins the family, my gallbladder will be removed from it. I kind of want to post pictures of both, though. Because what IS a gallbladder? I bet you are curious too.

I can't decide how to feel about the diagnosis, since on the one hand, it's nice to know what's what and have a plan, but on the other hand, I feel weird about the doctors taking out all my insides - which include a baby at this point.

Oh, and because this post isn’t really blog-like enough, here are some little projects that Luke and I did over the weekend.



We painted a dresser/changing table that Natalie let us borrow (I asked first) and got new little knobs and things for it. I already filled it all up with baby things, and I periodically open all the drawers and look at the tiny little things all folded up.

We also painted an old bookshelf that I got at a yardsale a few years ago. I paid $5 for it, and have already started stocking it. I’ve realized that I don’t have any baby books, so I hope she likes Ramona and Wayside School.

I am going to be done in like 5 weeks! Maybe less! Maybe more, also, but who really wants to think about that? My baby is the size of a cantaloupe, which is delicious and legitimate, and I will never stop thinking about what on earth she will look like. Luke has harsher features and when I first met him, I thought he looked a little like a wolf. I’m more round-faced and fair, so who knows?

I don't even want to consider that... :)