New life

It seems like life has been full of pregnancies and births lately. I have two friends who just recently gave birth to beautiful, healthy babies. And it seems like every day someone new is announcing their pregnancy. In fact, the big news in my family is that my brother and his wife are expecting their third child. This, after a 10 year hiatus, took everyone by surprise! They announced it to the family on Thanksgiving weekend via this cute video that my brother put together. Check out these pictures of the family when they found out:







There is just something so magical and special to me about all of these changes. Life is moving so rapidly and change is coming whether we want it to or not. Perhaps because I am manipulating so much change in my own life I am finding some clarity in seeing the changes unfold in other people's lives on a day to day basis. And (Not that everything is about me, but it's my blog so I can make it all be about me, right?) I am finding a lot of similarities between what my pregnant and newly parenting friends/family are going through and what I am going through as I prepare to embark on my own new adventure. I can't imagine what it's like to go into the hospital one day and come out the next day with your very own infant in your arms! When you're going to become a parent many people read books, talk with other parents and buy all the right equipment; yet somehow I imagine that there's really nothing that one can do to fully prepare for what that experience will entail. You just have to live it and experience it and figure it out as you go along.

Well, that's exactly how I feel right now about going overseas. We've been working toward this move for so long. We've met people who have lived there; we have attended session after session in the orientation program; we've bought new equipment. But there's really no telling what it's going to be like to step off that plane in our new home until we just do it. We'll just have to work it out as life unfolds. And there's just something really poetic to me about that. We just need to keep moving forward knowing that God will give us all strength to handle whatever challenges and triumphs are thrown our way.