Saturday, November 10, 2007

Family

When I first found out I was pregnant, I freaked out (I think "Holy S***!" were my exact words), but then I became very reflective. I wondered "why do people have children anyway?" "What is the point in starting a family?" (I should've actually been asking these questions BEFORE I got pregnant!)

Anyway, the only reasons I came up with at first seemed fairly petty on the surface: i.e. I want to pass on my genes...I want to take care of someone...everyone else is doing it...or I guess that's just what you do after you've been married for awhile.

As Aaron and I explored this question together, family kept coming up again and again. When I think about the most influential relationships in my life...I think family. When I think about who I call when I'm having a bad day or who knows me maybe a little too well...the answer is family. Who are the people that I can't live with and can't live without? Family! From my last few posts you can probably tell that family is pretty important to me, and this is exactly why Aaron and I wanted to start our own family...to continue that legacy, to expand our family.

My Uncle emailed this quote to us the other day and I think it is a beautiful way to consider family:

Through the ... honoring of the dead, the generations were bound together in a stabilizing continuity of obligations, so that the family was not merely a couple and their children, or even a patriarchal assemblage of parents, children, and grandchildren, but a holy union and sequence of blood and fire stretching far into the past and the future, and holding the dead, the living, and the unborn

in a sacred unity stronger than any state.


Will Durant, "The Story of Civilization "

33 weeks and still growing...

Here's the latest belly picture. I'm still feeling great. I feel so blessed by this pregnancy. If this is how pregnancy always feels...I could be pregnant forever! (Although I do miss all of my "normal" clothes and I'm looking forward to more variety in my wardrobe in January.) Izze is moving around like crazy and that is a pretty incredible feeling. Somedays I am so excited to meet her and other days I think "please just stay in there longer...I'm not ready!" Aaron and I are doing what we can to prepare physically, emotionally, and spiritually for this little one...but I don't know if we will ever feel completely ready for the responsibility of this life. But ready or not...here she comes (hopefully sooner than later!).

Friday, November 9, 2007

Tribute

My Uncle Richard...

*fiercely loved his family*had wrinkles around his eyes from smiling*gentle, warm, and kind*took the time to love*one of the only people who still call me Ka-tie Babe*leaves a gaping hole in his absence*home with his Maker

you will be desperately missed...