Answer to Prayer

I've found that God answers our prayers. He really does. But we have to be careful how we word those prayers and not assume that how we see fit to have those prayers answered is actually how they will be answered.

Case and point:

We've been praying about a career for Bob. He's interested in real estate and has been around that and property management his entire life. He's been considering becoming a real estate agent and then seeing how that career and knowledge can tie into property management. But he's been working this dead-end job at a plumbing supply warehouse. It was a decent job for a good company, but it was more of a means to an end for Bob, and nowhere near where he wanted to stay for the next 10 years. The problem was it takes up his entire day. And he started liking it less and less every day, so when he'd get home from work the last thing he wanted to do was work on something else. But he tried.

So Bob had been praying for this career choice. He prayed for the ability to pursue it so that he could provide enough stable income for his family in the future. He saw the answer as being able to go work all day, then come home and work on this career all evening, and then still have time to play and surf to keep his sanity plus spend time with myself and Graham.

But that answer just wasn't happening. 

Things at work have been going fine for Bob, aside from his slow and steady decline of satisfaction in his current occupation. His supervisor liked him fine, as well as most of the guys he was working with. He was just getting a new gas card for the truck he was driving. And then last Friday at lunch the HR person called him into the office and told him his "services aren't needed anymore" for the company.

What the what?

He came home 30 minutes later and went straight to the shower, partially to clean himself up because doing what he did at work makes him sweaty and dirty, but mostly to settle down and cool off because he was really upset over losing this job.

All weekend we talked about it here and there. We mostly tried to have fun, relax a little, and figure out what to do this week.

Once getting past the anger over the whole thing, we've realized that now Bob has plenty of time to go after this real estate thing. He has plenty of time to do that as well as surf and spend time with his family.

Oh, Heavenly Father... Thank you for answering our prayers in a not-so-expected and yet oh-so efficient way.

We haven't figured out this whole how-to-earn-money thing without that job, because we do still have bills to pay. But we have some plans. I have some ideas of what I'll do and Bob has some ideas of what he can do. Hopefully it will earn us enough to make it for a little while. Something will work out, because Heavenly Father answered Bob's prayers about finding the time and a way to pursue this career. He will surely answer our prayers about how to make ends meet and stay afloat at this turning point in our lives.

Here's to exercising a bit of faith and having the humility to continue accepting how God sees fit to answer our prayers to Him.

Growing Graham: 2 months!

June 6th, 2012

2 months old

I can't believe Graham's been a part of our family for two entire months already! The days don't slow down, unfortunately. So I'm doing the best I can to keep up with my responsibilities to friends, family, home, and church while soaking up every moment I can with my sweet baby boy.

A few of my favorite things he does now:

• Coos, giggles, and smiles--especially while having his diaper changed, that silly boy.

• Pulls his knees up under him during tummy time.
• Holds himself up and looks around like he owns the place when he's on anyone's shoulder.
• Plays and is entertained in his play-gym.
• Kicks his legs nonstop when he's laying on his back anywhere.

A few of my least favorite things he does now:

• Cries at naptime.
• Cries and squirms when being burped during mealtime (to the point that it's almost impossible to hold him!).
• Starting to grab everything with his hands--my necklace, my shirt collar (and pulls it down so anyone around me can see my bra), himself or his diaper while being changed, his pacifier (and pulls it out of his mouth, then screams about it), etc.

And here are a couple of my favorite pictures of him at this age:

My favorite part of this church  outfit: those plaid pants! I love them!

He is so cute! And he looks way more mature than a 2-month-old.

Growing Graham: 6 Weeks

[I know, this is late... I'm playing catch-up again!]

May 18th, 2012

6 Weeks Old

"Got tickets to this gun show?"

• He's getting so much more interactive. He's starting to smile now!

• At church recently Bob was holding him because he was getting fussy. During the Sacrament, while everyone was quiet and being reverent, Graham decided to fill up his diaper in a really loud way. It must have been a huge relief, because immediately after that, he looked up and gave Bob the sweetest toothless half-grin I've ever seen.

• He's been making good use of tummy time every day, because he's now wiggling around more. He holds his head and chest up nearly the whole time and looks at everything around him. He also pulls his legs up and pushes his backside up in the air, which makes me think he may start crawling sooner than later, which, as proud as I am of him, I'm really not looking forward to following him around for the first day or two and baby-proofing everything.

• He loves to stand up. With help, of course. But he likes to stand, and he looks so tall when he does!

• He also took his first airplane ride! 

 He did so well! Bob was with me for the flight there, so that was a breeze. Plus it was early in the morning, when he's usually in his best mood anyway. The flight home was trickier because I was by myself and he's in his least pleasant mood in the evenings, but even then he was still pretty good. The first leg of the flight was fine, but as we landed for the layover, he started getting hungry. By the time I made it off the airplane and got the car seat and the stroller and secured Graham in there and got my checked carry-on suitcase and the diaper bag all situated, I had to use the bathroom SO bad and he was in all-out crying mode. There were no big handicapped stalls in that airport bathroom. The handicapped stalls were maybe 5 inches wider than the regular stalls. So I took a deep breath, pushed the stroller in, sideways stepped in next to it, wedged my suitcase in with what space there was left, and barely managed to close the stall door. The stroller was pushed all the way up against the toilet and there was nowhere else for it to go, so using the bathroom in that scenario gave me a greater appreciation for actual handicapped stalls that are the size of two regular bathroom stalls. I finally stumbled out of the stall, washed my hands, and tried to find the baby changing table because it had been nearly three hours since I had a chance to change his diaper (between driving for an hour and a half, returning the rental car, taking the shuttle to the airport, printing my boarding passes, going through security, getting to my oh-so distant gate and barely boarding my plane in time plus the turbulence on that flight, I didn't have a chance to give the poor kid a fresh diaper until then). I saw door with a sign on it saying "Nursery." I open it, and it's a room no bigger than the bathroom stall I was just in, with a counter and a changing table. What's the point of having a counter in such a tiny room if there's a changing table built in next to it?? Anyway, I finally made it out of the bathroom, all the while Graham was wailing as loud as he could. I made it to my gate, found a seat, and fed Graham. I looked at my ticket and remembered that it said my seat would be assigned at the gate. They would be boarding any second and having a lap-baby requires specific seating on as small of a plane as this was. Halfway through feeding Graham I stopped, put myself back together, and once again situated all of my carry-on items so I could take them all with me to the desk by the gate to get my seat assigned. I ended up being last on the plane because they had overbooked it and were scrambling to find me a seat. By the time I got on, Graham was beside himself because he was so hungry, and I could just feel the tension from the people sitting around me because nobody likes a crying baby, especially on an airplane. I quickly sat down and got to settling him down so he would eat. He was fine the rest of the way, and I was so glad to see Bob. I don't think I'll fly solo with a kid again if I can help it.

Such a handsome baby boy!

My dad finally got to see him! Also, Graham is making a really cute face here.

Tired mommy, wide-awake baby.