Quick Takes!!

So excited to join up with Conversion Diary's Quick Takes! If you happen to stumble across me, head over there for more of the fun!

I decided to do my quick takes with blessings I became even more aware of this Christmas than I normally am. I missed doing things I was thankful for during Thanksgiving, so I think I'll do Christmas blessings instead.

~ 1 ~

I'm so blessed to have found the Catholic church. It always makes me sad to hear people who have no faith in God talk. It just seems like their lives are so empty and cold, with nothing that is solid or substantial. I've never been in a place like that, where God didn't exist as far as I was concerned, but it feels like a sad place to be.

~ 2 ~

I'm blessed to have such a good husband. Really, he's the best. Not only is he always doing everything he can to take care of me (which, given how stubborn and independent I can be, is a very hard job), he gets along so well with my family. It makes me so happy to see that the man I married is such a part of my family's life, too. It only brings it home once again how awesome the plans are that God has for us, and how perfect they are.

~ 3 ~

I'm blessed to be a mother to these two wiggle worms. I'm so excited to finally be able to see them soon, and to hold them in my arms instead of just feeling them kick in my tummy. Oh, I know I'll miss feeling it, but having them kicking outside and being able to kiss those little feet and hold those little hands that have been stretching so hard is going to be amazing. I still can't really believe that we're parents, especially to two.

~ 4 ~

I'm blessed to have so many of my family members with me. I realized this even more this year because of my dad. He's been sick for a couple of weeks now, and we were all worried he might have pancreatitis or worse. He went to the ER this past Sunday, and they diagnosed him with an infected gallbladder and said it would have to come out. He was supposed to be meeting with a surgeon next week to set up the surgery, but a continuously spiking fever sent him back to the ER yesterday, and he'll be having the surgery either this afternoon or tomorrow morning. We're so thankful that it wasn't something worse, and something they can take care of as easily as it seems they can a bad gallbladder. Say a quick prayer for him if you get a chance today, please.

~ 5 ~

I'm blessed to have such a good job with such good people. I'm a technician at a local pharmacy, and they've been the best throughout my whole pregnancy. I realize not every employer would have been as understanding when for the first 4-5 months I would often have to suddenly run to the bathroom because of all-day sickness (I refuse to call it morning sickness. It's a blatant lie.). And then to be understanding when I was put on modified bed rest at 25 weeks in October, realize I would probably not be back until March at the earliest, and I still have a job waiting on me. They did insist that I come by after every doctor's appointment and give them updates and let them see my belly. I love my girls at work.

~ 6 ~

I'm blessed that my husband has such a good work environment, too. They've been very understanding when he's taken time to go with me to doctors appointments or had to be off work completely for a day, like a couple of weeks ago when we spent the night in the hospital because of a pre-term labor scare.

~ 7 ~

And last of all, mainly because I'm goofy and I have to add something off the wall, I'm blessed to have survived the Mayan apocalypse of 2012. :)

Join me in counting our blessing this Christmas, and leave one or more of your own in the comments if you please! Merry Christmas!!!

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A Never Ending Journey

              We all have had times in life when we look back and the only thought that can come to mind is “Whoa”. God’s hand is so evident that we can only scrape our chins off the ground, then hit our knees and say thank you repeatedly. Over the past three to four years, I’ve had multiple moments like this. I think back to how I was in 2008, and then fast forward to my life now. I ended a relationship I never should have been in and started looking into the Catholic Church in late summer/early fall of 2008. I was determined to prove a friend wrong about the truth that lay in the 2000+ year old faith, and instead, got to the point I couldn’t deny it any longer. It was truth, pure and simple. So on April 12, 2009, I was baptized into the Church. At that point, I feel like God pushed pause on me.

                I was still working, going to school, attending mass every Sunday at the very least, and spending time with friends and family. But it felt like everything had been put on hold. Then God pressed play again in the spring of 2011. A young man had recently started attending the parish I was going to, had joined a small group I was a member of, and then joined the Catholic Church that Easter. We started dating in June of 2011, were engaged in August that same year, and married on January 13, 2012. Now, as I type this, our two sons are pushing each other around in my tummy. We’ll deliver them in one week on January 3, 2013, unless they get impatient and insist on making an earlier appearance.

                When I think back to all the small things that had to happen in order for me to get where I am today, with my faith, my amazing and loving husband, our babies, and our friends and family, I can’t help but be amazed. God has done so much for us in such a short span of time. This journey has been mind-blowing so far. And the fun part is, it’s only beginning. This life of ours, from the time we are conceived in our mother’s womb, is a never ending journey. We start as an infant, then grow to a child, an adolescent, an adult. Then after we die, we (hopefully) move to purgatory and heaven. We are constantly journeying, moving from one stage of life to the next, God holding our hand and coaxing us onward. Sometimes we let go of Him and try walking on our own, but like a baby new to the sensation of standing on two legs, we inevitably fall. It’s His hand that pulls us back up.

                This blog will be about my own personal never ending journey. As a Catholic, wife, mother, and whatever else I end up acquiring as a title in the meantime. I hope you’ll join me as I take shaky steps on this path laid out before me. It promises to be an adventure.