My Bed is Special

Here's a little story about a bed. You might find it's about something a little more, but don't read ahead!

I have a bed that is unlike any other. It may have started out like others, as a mahogany tree in Honduras, but it didn't end up like the others. It may have been built like others, by the hand of a enterprising carpenter, but it still stands unique.

I spent a year in Honduras with the Air Force. Like all the other "cool kids" there, I ordered a few pieces of furniture to be custom built out of world-reknown Honduran mahogany. Several carpenters made their rounds on the base, showing albums of their work. We customers had only to show them pictures of what we wanted from catalogs or printed off the internet and within a few days, they would return with our beautiful furniture. To make this an even sweeter deal (and the only way it really was a deal at all),  we could have the furniture shipped back to the States with our household goods (read: for free).

I ordered a queen-sized bed, a dining room table and six chairs, a book shelf and a few other knick-knacks. My chosen carpenter returned in due time with my furniture, I nodded my approval, handed over my cash and had it packed up to meet me again in Virginia.

When my time in Honduras was over,  my household goods were delivered to my house (much, much later than I expected, something about getting stuck/lost in a warehouse somewhere in the Carolinas), and my furniture was set up in the appropriate rooms (definitely some perks to having the military move you). The table was water damaged and warped, the shelf was hacked with an axe (the downside of having the military move you), but the bed looked great.

We plopped our full-sized mattress on it, and to our surprise, it just sortof swam in the middle of this giant bed frame. The carpenter must have made a king-sized bed instead, we thought, so off we went to buy an appropriate mattress. Again, to our surprise, that mattress hung over the sides, but didn't make it to the end. Finally we thought to measure the bed. We googled the measurements, thinking this must be some sort of special size. Oh, it was special alright. A size our carpenter had invented.

I found a furniture repair company here with Honduran carpenters, thinking they might understand the design of their fellow countryman and be able to come up with a way to rebuild the bed to be a standard size. After much discussion between them, they informed me it was not possible without destroying the bed.

Now, you're probably several steps ahead of me, but it finally dawned on me that we'd have to get a custom mattress. We found a company in Tennessee, worked out a deal, and when all was done and delivered, it wasn't much more costly than buying a mattress from the store. And, fortunately, king-sized sheets and blankets fit it just fine.

So why am I telling you about my special bed? Other than this being my blog and I can write about whatever I want, I'm building up to tell you about something else.

See, God speaks to me with pictures. Analogies, if you will. And a few months into my marriage, He showed me the true beauty in what my special bed symbolizes. My marriage.

Our marriage was designed and built for me and John. Our relationship is not to be compared to anyone else's. Sure, there are similarities, but no one else's marriage will work for us. And ours won't work for anyone else. This theme has been constant throughout our entire relationship.

For example, we started dating (long distance) about two months before I moved to Honduras. We knew even then we were going to get married, and shopped for rings about six weeks in. This may be fast for some people, but for us, it was what we needed. We got engaged half-way through my tour and married two months after I came home. That's only four total months of dating in the same country, with only two of them being in the same area code.

Then, due to our military service, we had a scattered six months together over the course of our first married year. During our second year, John's job had him traveling six weeks every other month. It was tough. Actually, it really sucked at times. But because of the way God had designed and built our marriage, starting with a year of long-distance dating, it worked. We worked.

(And you probably got here ahead of me, too.)

Everyone's marriage is a special bed. I'm glad there are books and classes and conferences and counselors to help us strengthen and improve our marriages. I'm grateful for others who have gone before and beat down trails with mistakes and failures and good choices so I and others can walk with fewer stumbles. But I'm also ever so aware of the unique design in marriage that reflects the unique design in each person. Even though it's tempting at times to be jealous of what other people seem to have, I wouldn't trade a thing about the miracle and gift that I've been given.

I'll have more to say about this in coming posts, but for now, I'd love to hear what is special and unique about your story (marriage or otherwise).

The Gift of Receiving Well

I do not like to learn. I just like to know. For someone who wants to be a teacher someday, this is a strange paradox.

Going deeper, though, it's really that I don't like process. I just like result.

I am most uncomfortable when I am new at something. A job, a relationship, a concept. I want to skip right over to the part where I'm an expert. I do not like not being good at something.

I very much like being the strong, capable, competent one. I like to be the one with the answer, the word of encouragement, the good advice.

Now, I realize that very soon, much sooner than I'm ready for, I will be new at something once again. I will not be physically and mentally at my peak. I'm already finding pregnancy brain and body changing what I am capable of.

(And for those of you who haven't been here yet, people LOVE giving you advice when you're pregnant or have a baby! This isn't a bad thing, it's just a constant thing. I digress...)

I don't like asking for help. Oh, I love to give it, I love to be the one people can rely on. I own the phrase, "It is better to give than to receive." But having Blueberry, even now, is making me realize I am going to need help and need to ask for help and need to receive that help gladly and graciously and gratefully. And all of that is a process that I have to learn! (Ech!)

For the past few months I have been telling God, "You are going to have to teach me how to receive, but don't do it yet. I'm doing ok right now." Somehow, though, He keeps loving me and showing me how much I need to receive this gift from Him. This gift of receiving well.

I just wanted to put this out here now, because it's going to be an important theme for me the next few months. And my friend, Alece, who is one of my heroes, said in a video today that it's important for us to tell our stories, even while we are going through them, not just at the end when there's a pretty bow to tie it all up with.

So there you go.

(Strangely enough, I'm really good at receiving your comments. Hmm... :-))

Vote for Blueberry

In the spirit of Election Day, I thought I'd take advantage of the "Let your voice be heard" fervor and take my own poll. You will be able to change your vote until the polls close on Dec 31, 2010.

If you're thinking you don't have time to vote or that your vote doesn't count, just think of all the code that was written so this vote could be taken and all the babies who have gone before who did not have the chance to be voted on. Inspiring, right?

Rally Eve

And here I thought my visitor season was over for the year as of this summer. Maybe October is the new July? Well, the weather is much more agreeable, I must say! And the Fall scenery here can only be beat by the Cherry Blossom scenery in April.

This is from last year. I'll take some of this year's tomorrow.

So far this month, I've gotten visits from my Uncle Gary from California, my Officer Training School roommate, Kristie visiting from Alaska, my BFF, Neelka visiting from Texas, and one of my Aunt Paulas from California.

Tonight, I close out the month with 6, count them, six, visitors coming for the Rally to Restore Sanity And/Or Fear, which is on the National Mall tomorrow. Coming are my brother, Judah, his girlfriend, Jackie, my cousin, Rose, and 3 of her friends.

And yes, there is an app for that!

Needless to say, I spent today cleaning watching my friend's 1- and 2-year-olds while she had a Dr's appointment, sleeping, cleaning, watching Hulu (Parenthood and The Office, if you must know), crocheting and cleaning some more. The floors are vacuumed (side note, if you don't like to vacuum, don't get a Lab!), Plug-Ins are in, shamefully purchased toilet paper stocked, fridge is full. Oh wait. Hmmm... I hope they like cereal and Greek yogurt.

I'm really looking forward to having some other people besides Mocha to talk to around here. (John's been in Germany for a week, 7 days to go!) I'm also excited about the rally. I'm not a big rally fan, but I do love me some satire. I also have a thing for Stephen Colbert. Well, more like I did a thing for him last year. I'm a big fan of both he and Jon Stewart, so it should be fun.

What are you up to this weekend?

Ashamed of myself

Few things annoy me more than the country band Sugarland and drivers who don't turn their headlights on in the rain (or at dusk). One of those things, though, is commercials that use animated characters to advertise anything other than animated products.

Here's the deal: I am not a cartoon (that I know of). Why do you think a product you are showing is beneficial to a cartoon would be attractive to me?

Take, for example, the Red Bull silliness or the quilting ladies over at Quilted Northern. The one I dislike the absolute most is the bears they use to advertise Charmin. Not only am I not a cartoon, but I am definitely not a cartoon bear.  Besides, I hate the idea of bears using toilet paper. Are they just leaving it in little piles behind trees, or do they also have toilets and sewers to go along with it. It just gets too complicated.

Anyway, I have always avoided buying Charmin for this very reason. Until today. I went to Costco and had a coupon for it, so after comparing with the Kirkland brand (those were the only two they had at this one), I blindfolded and gagged my conscience and heaved the cartoon bear toting package into my cart.

I'm so ashamed. I can only hope that the softness and strength of my new toilet paper is enough to wipe some of it away.

Are there commercials that annoy you so much that you can't buy the product? I have many others, but I'm interested to see what you say.

Not my own

I was hanging out with my Aunt Paula yesterday. My Aunt Paula from California. Maybe I should be more specific. My dad's sister, Aunt Paula from California, because I have two Aunt Paulas from California. Ok, now that we've cleared that up...

She asked me if I felt like my body was no longer my own, as she had heard other pregnant friends mention. Like, had the baby taken over and was I feeling like a mere vessel. I had to think about it for a few minutes.

Blueberry is definitely moving around so much these days. There is at least one water aerobics class taking place in there every day, usually around noon. I also get "Oh, boy, you woke up at 4 a.m. to use the bathroom, so let's play!" kicks and "Nooo... you can't go to sleep yet!" kicks as bookends to my day. I think Blueberry is doing some decorating in there, too, because I think I feel hammering from time to time.

But so far, it's just been fun. Nothing too painful or uncomfortable and sometimes I forget I'm carrying another person around until I try to bend over or get up too quickly. I haven't had to change my diet too much, but have enjoyed having the excuse to splurge a little now and then (or a lot and all the time. whatever.).

As I continued to think about her question, I recalled how other people are reacting to me being pregnant. I was just visiting family in Oklahoma and Texas and every female and a few of the males in my family approached me with eyes directed and hands outstretched to my belly. I was like "Eyes up here, people, I have a face!"

I don't mind at all, I think it's kind of funny. I think I've probably done that to pregnant people. And every question or conversation has something to do with the baby. It's like you lose track that this person actually existed before they got pregnant.

The more I thought about it, the more I think I can say "yes." My life is not about me anymore. I don't think it ever will be again. Once Blueberry gets here, the attention will shift from my belly to the bundle. The conversation will still center on the baby. Heck, I probably won't have much else to talk about, so that'll probably make things easier.

So, I'm pretty grateful I have these few months left to get used to being a mere baby carrier. Seeing as how I've prayed and dreamed about this for years, I really can't think of anything else I'd rather be!

For you, MomC and Kim

I'm sorry.

I didn't mean to be gone so long. I only meant to take a few days off blogging and start right back up.

I didn't realize how long it had been until I went to visit family this past weekend. My mother- and sister-in-law got right to the point on our way home from the airport.

They told me it wasn't fair for me to blog every day for a month, get readers all addicted, then force everyone to quit cold turkey. I'm going to take that as a compliment. (I have readers!! :-))

So, even though this isn't a deep or meaningful post, I just wanted to say hello and promise I'll be more consistent. I have lots of fun pictures and stories from our trip and updates on Blueberry and our first foster baby, Baby F, plus just some randomness.

Today, I also must mention it is my brother, Tim's, birthday. He is a great guy and I love him very much. I was going to write him a sappy blog, much like I did for my sister, but he always cries about stuff like that and I wouldn't want to embarrass him just in case he read it at work or something. I'm considerate like that.

I hope your October has been going well so far. What have you been up to? How are you going to finish out the month?