38 Weeks

It's Friday night.  I'm super tired.  I'm 38 weeks pregnant and feeling every bit of those 38 weeks!  

This week was VBS (vacation Bible school) at our church and we all went everyday.  I have worked in registration for the last 6 or 7 years and my kiddos get to be in the early childhood program with all their little buddies.  It's a very laid back role that keeps me sitting at a table counting kids, filling out new registrations in the classrooms, and adding up every penny of the offering they bring in each day, while drinking a coffee and catching up with some fun ladies!  It's really a pretty great exchange in order to have my kids entertained every single morning until lunchtime and it makes the week fly by!  Trav and the student ministry staff are in charge of the rec time for 1,000+ kids all week, so believe me we are all worn out tonight!  But I knew I needed some distractions at the end of this pregnancy because when I'm at home I just can't do a whole lot and then I have to try and keep the kids busy too.  VBS was a perfect way to spend our week! 

Here are some of the friends I got to laugh with all week!  

 And here are the little VBS attendees!  They had so much fun everyday and slept like rocks at night.  They loved being with their friends, making tons of fun crafts with their cousin Bette, singing all the new songs with the dance team, playing at the playground, and hearing the lesson everyday from a sweet lady who worked so hard to teach them truth about God's word that they could absorb on their level.  Ava can always articulate what she learns pretty well these days, but this was the first time Carter really came home and talked our ears off about Jesus.  It was so fun for us to hear his thoughts and his take-away every day!  I love that about parenting.  You spend so much time and effort trying to teach things to your kids, impressing truth on their hearts and wondering if/when they will "get it"?  But then sometimes the Lord takes the foundation He's helped us lay and he uses another  voice to build on it in order to really capture their hearts.  This week He used the Bible teacher in early childhood to really break through to Carter's heart and help him understand a little more about Jesus and salvation.  And that is worth every early morning and then some!!  Travis and I are so grateful for the many people who love our kids and invest in them too.  What a blessing!!  We are very, very thankful that our church loves kids and prioritizes their spiritual development.  

And speaking of kids, we are at the tail end of our wait for Walker now and the kids are asking me a million times a day about when he is coming and how much longer it will be??  They clearly don't have a strong grasp on time yet and often get confused so I finally made a little countdown chain for each of them last night, mostly for my own selfish benefit!  I'm so tired of answering the same question, 5 times every hour!  ha ha!  I knew they would love doing this each morning and today, they did.  We have one more week left to enjoy before their baby brother is "scheduled" to arrive.  Of course he could come anytime now, but we are praying he sticks to "the plan" and waits for his big day.  Not that I wouldn't love to welcome him early, I totally would, but his Daddy is gone at JH camp this next week and I really want him to stay put so we can welcome him without a frantic drive home (for Trav, not me!) and some added chaos.  

 We do have a plan in place if I do go into labor early, but only the Lord knows how this is all going to happen so I'm not worrying about it because I can't do a thing about it anyway!  I did go to my OB appt today and all is well with Walker and I.  They think he's around 7 pounds or so at this point, but really that's just their best guess.  My plan for this next week is to do nothing!  My Mom will be here with us in case anything happens and to help me get the final things ready around here.  It's my first year in the 8 years we've been here that I won't be at camp with Trav, which is a little sad, however being this pregnant at camp would be miserable!!  So I'm not losing sleep over it  :)  But I will miss him like crazy and I wish I could be there to help him.  I guess I'll be running my own camp at home this year!  I'm really glad to have a camp nurse and a camp cook joining me though!!  

And speaking of cooking, I barely did any of this week because I was so very tired every night, but I did manage to make room for this rhubarb cake I made for Trav on Father's Day last weekend!  Oh my word, it is SO GOOD.  And I ate way too much.  But that's about all I can do right now...well, besides napping, which I also did almost every afternoon this week!  

Last week I was pretty productive, cleaning some and getting lots done in Walker's room.  But this week??  Not so much.  Several afternoons I took 2 hour naps and each night Trav and I were in bed at 10!!  I had very little energy after being out every morning so it was wonderful to come home and sleep.  My kids were troopers, playing together or watching a movie so I could sleep.  Occasionally I woke up to someone yelling at the other one or to a request for a snack, but for the most part they just made a huge mess and had fun!  At this stage in the game that was totally ok with me if it meant I could sleep.  This was my view from my pillow!  My toes barely stick up for me to see them and I only last on my back for about 20 seconds before my sciatic starts causing all kinds of trouble for me.  Thankfully I am sleeping at night with some great pain meds and an ice-pack or two.  It almost makes me giddy to think I'm just about done with this pelvic/sciatic trouble!!  I literally think I might cry when I can roll over in bed again or just walk without thinking my body will break!  

But truly, if I'm being very honest and totally serious, I am trying to just cherish these last days.  Being pregnant and carrying  a baby for 9 months is totally amazing.  It's a miracle and a privilege and even though this one has given me a run for my money, I can already say that Walker is SO worth all of the pain and discomfort, the sacrifice and the prayers!  I still marvel at how GRACIOUS God has been to let us do this three times over now.  He has blessed us with 4 gifts from Heaven and I never want to lose sight of that or complain, because I know that many women would LOVE this privilege (me included during those years we couldn't get pregnant) and it's not something to take for granted.  I also know that families are built in lots of different ways and there are many women who make hard and selfless decisions to give up the baby they are carrying so that another Mom could have the chance to welcome and love a little one into her family too.  Every life is precious and how your babies come to you is up the Lord!  As His plan for our family has unfolded over these last 6 years, we continue to marvel and wonder at the unique ways and perfect timing He chose for each one of our children to make their way into our arms.  Trav and I were at my appointment today, amazed at how quickly this has flown by and remembering when we came for all the appointments for Ava and Carter too.  To think we doubted Him for a season and wondered why He was not letting us get pregnant??  I hate to think about the anger I had at him during that season, and yet He used it to draw me close and to grow me up in character and to remind me about who He is.  None of it has been wasted!  His timing and His ways are sovereign over mine and I couldn't have scripted a better outcome than the one we have been given.  What a ride we've been on and what a blessing all of our kids are to us.  

But I won't lie, I'm so happy to be at the end and almost done!!!  Can't wait to pull Walker close and kiss those cheeks and his little face.  We are SO excited over here and so ready to do this all over again.  But for now, I'm already up past my bedtime and ready to call it a week.  10 days to go now!!  We would love your prayers for God's perfect plan regarding Walker's timing and for all the details to come together so that we can both be there! I'm really not stressing and I'm choosing to just believe He's going to work it all out for us.  

Happy weekend, friends!