Valuing What Is Most Important in Life

I have been on a blogging hiatus briefly as my husband James and I had our first child, Justice Ryan Feb. 3rd at Fort Campbell at BACH. The last month or so has been a beautiful blur! Newborns bring you absolute peace & constant crisis management moments later.

I was driving home from the hospital in my hometown this morning from a post op visit and a great country song came on the radio. The singer was crooning that no matter how bad you have it, someone else has it much worse. I try to remind myself every day that everything is relative, but as we know, this is difficult in the moment as you experience pain, sadness, discomfort or anger. I used to like to control almost everything...Law school and years of being single I guess. However, my recent birth experience & subsequent parenthood is changing this quality about me very quickly. No matter how much I planned a med-free natural childbirth experience, God had other plans for my husband, baby, birth partners, and I. After 25 hours of hard labor med free, meticulous planning, and too many personal details for the web, my baby was forced to arrive by Cesarean. Although I was disappointed, we now know that this procedure likely saved my and Justice's lives. Although I was trying to do what I thought was best for the baby, I forgot God's plan for us is unknown and beyond our control. Additionally, so many of our friends have not been able to conceive, or it took them many years to do so. We feel very blessed to have the opportunity to experience parenthood. It is all relative.

Try to remember, your stresses might be someone else's desires. Your pain could be someone else's best day. Even suffering has a place in this life. As a Christian, I deeply value Christ's very human experience of suffering in his life and on the Cross. It constantly reminds me of how close God wants us to be to God as God became incarnate in a human body and suffered as a human through Christ when God did not have to do such things. I find comfort in God's human incarnation and simply hope to relay a portion of this peace to soldiers and others that I encounter in this life.