Virtues

On Day 3 of my resound11 project the prompt is Virtues:
What good have you done in 2011? Where do you really shine? What have you done that makes you proud of yourself?


Let's see, what did I do in 2011? I really needed my husbands help on this one and he told me that giving birth counts :P For me, the whole birth experience was pretty awesome! 14 hours of labor, a half hour of pushing - the whole experience wasn't bad or hard at all! I was ready to do it all over again a day later :) After how difficult the whole adoption process felt to get to my son Malachi, the whole pregnancy and birthing experience felt like a piece of cake to get my Elias! Obviously, it wasn't bad at all if I am here, doing it all over again already :)

Another area I feel like I "shined" through was the whole NICU experience. Having Eli in the NICU was the hardest thing I have ever walked through. I felt so hopeless and had to turn it all over to God and trust that he would make Eli healthy. I didn't have the option of taking time to recover from the birth, I just had to get up and get to my son as soon as possible! Regardless of how "easy" the birth process felt to me, I was exhausted and it was still quite a painful recovery process (birth is still birth after all) but I just had to suck it up and press forward and ignore the people who stared at me daily as I walked funny through the hospital to get to the NICU :) It was the most difficult thing I have ever had to do emotionally to say goodbye to him every night and leave him in the hospital. It was so hard to watch being poked and prodded and with all those machines on him, but we all survived it and I am proud of how well we did through that very difficult time!

I know I have failed MANY times as a mother this year, but I am also proud of the things I have accomplished. Having 2 kids, 9 months apart is not something easy to face. I had so many people tell me how overwhelming it was going to be, but honestly it hasn't been that hard at all. (until recently, which I will discuss later!) I have truly enjoyed being a mother to two children! I guess I can't really brag too much about myself because my children also make it quite easy! Malachi did awesome with the transition to big brother! Elias has been a very easy and content baby, so I guess my "shining" as a mother has WAY more to do with them, than it has to do with me :)

So there you have it! I am not a superwoman at all :) I gave birth, which millions upon millions of woman have done! I survived a difficult time with a sick child, which MANY deal with on a daily basis (unbelievable how big the NICU was, and that was just one hospital!) and have survived motherhood with two children!