Thursday, October 10, 2013
Saturday, October 5, 2013
What Mario Cart and following Jesus have in common, and some random thoughts too.
I had one of those profound moments this morning while drinking my homemade pumpkin spice latte in bed. (I love Saturdays btw) God sat me down and gave me a word for myself.
My devotional asked me to list the 4 things Jesus said in Luke 4:14 that He had come to accomplish in his ministry
1. proclaim freedom for the prisoners
2. recover sight for the blind
3. proclaim the year of the Lord's favor
4. release the oppressed
As I started to think about how He has done all of this in my life, I was reminded of where I started, where I came from, like your old home town on a map.
I have been freed from guilt and pain, I see the hurting world around me now, and I care. I have been given the desires of my heart in a loving husband and a family, I can proclaim and testify of God's realness, how He heals people, how His plans are perfect and How his Bible will tell you how to live an incredible life if you put your trust in Jesus.
(seriously His plans work for everything - marriage, being sick, parenting, dealing with tragedy, etc.)
I wish I could carry a map with me every day to be reminded of where I came from. You would think I would wake up every day with such JOY about being where I am now. and I should!
But I don't. I have had to fight to have joy the past year and half. I have been mostly in a season where the natural world around me brings me down. (life as an adult is hard yo)
and because I am not 100% happy all the time, effortlessly, I forget to be thankful for this place where I am.
Just like the Israelites. The people that God led out of slavery in Egypt. They were led out of oppression and a horrible situation and what did they do? They complained! because they were not 100% happy, because life wasn't a box of chocolates. They said they would have been better off still enslaved in the place where they came from. How ungrateful... but very familiar
What did God do? He loved them enough to test them, discipline them and teach them, even though they were sinful.
He made it so the only food they had was food He dropped out of Heaven for them every day. If they tired to save the food for the next day, it would develop maggots and rot. Why? so they had to depend on Him for what they needed, so they learned to trust Him and realize He was in charge and waaay smarter than they were.
Proverbs 19:18 NIV says this:
"Discipline your son for in that there is hope, do not be a willing party to his death"
God loves us so much that he will take away our happiness and will let us experience hard things in order to discipline and teach us. Why? because indulging us in our bad behavior would destroy us.
He didn't save us to leave us broken with all of our bad habits.
He threw us the inflatable raft in the water, but then He enrolls us in boot camp for the soul.
It is kind of like Mario Cart (the only video game I ever played) - to move up a level, you had to master the race. You had to fail, learn lessons, be humbled!!, and if you continued to make the same mistakes, you continued to face the same races over and over.
Today:
I will remember where I came from and I will testify that God has saved me
I will be happy where I am, I CHOOSE to look for all the JOY that is around me!
I will stop asking God why I go through challenges and tests
Instead I will work on figuring out what He is trying to discipline out of me and I will ask the Holy Spirit to show me how to master those things, how to be more like Jesus.
My devotional asked me to list the 4 things Jesus said in Luke 4:14 that He had come to accomplish in his ministry
1. proclaim freedom for the prisoners
2. recover sight for the blind
3. proclaim the year of the Lord's favor
4. release the oppressed
As I started to think about how He has done all of this in my life, I was reminded of where I started, where I came from, like your old home town on a map.
I have been freed from guilt and pain, I see the hurting world around me now, and I care. I have been given the desires of my heart in a loving husband and a family, I can proclaim and testify of God's realness, how He heals people, how His plans are perfect and How his Bible will tell you how to live an incredible life if you put your trust in Jesus.
(seriously His plans work for everything - marriage, being sick, parenting, dealing with tragedy, etc.)
I wish I could carry a map with me every day to be reminded of where I came from. You would think I would wake up every day with such JOY about being where I am now. and I should!
But I don't. I have had to fight to have joy the past year and half. I have been mostly in a season where the natural world around me brings me down. (life as an adult is hard yo)
and because I am not 100% happy all the time, effortlessly, I forget to be thankful for this place where I am.
Just like the Israelites. The people that God led out of slavery in Egypt. They were led out of oppression and a horrible situation and what did they do? They complained! because they were not 100% happy, because life wasn't a box of chocolates. They said they would have been better off still enslaved in the place where they came from. How ungrateful... but very familiar
What did God do? He loved them enough to test them, discipline them and teach them, even though they were sinful.
He made it so the only food they had was food He dropped out of Heaven for them every day. If they tired to save the food for the next day, it would develop maggots and rot. Why? so they had to depend on Him for what they needed, so they learned to trust Him and realize He was in charge and waaay smarter than they were.
Proverbs 19:18 NIV says this:
"Discipline your son for in that there is hope, do not be a willing party to his death"
God loves us so much that he will take away our happiness and will let us experience hard things in order to discipline and teach us. Why? because indulging us in our bad behavior would destroy us.
He didn't save us to leave us broken with all of our bad habits.
He threw us the inflatable raft in the water, but then He enrolls us in boot camp for the soul.
It is kind of like Mario Cart (the only video game I ever played) - to move up a level, you had to master the race. You had to fail, learn lessons, be humbled!!, and if you continued to make the same mistakes, you continued to face the same races over and over.
Today:
I will remember where I came from and I will testify that God has saved me
I will be happy where I am, I CHOOSE to look for all the JOY that is around me!
I will stop asking God why I go through challenges and tests
Instead I will work on figuring out what He is trying to discipline out of me and I will ask the Holy Spirit to show me how to master those things, how to be more like Jesus.
Monday, September 30, 2013
36 weeks!!
Blood pressure was good :) Nolan appears to be happy where he is with no though of joining us any time soon. Yay!
Will see Doctor again at 38 weeks!
Friday, August 23, 2013
Friday, July 26, 2013
Monday, July 22, 2013
Monday, March 4, 2013
on being an adult and resisting the mundane
Just a few thoughts about life right now. WE have passed the six and seven week marks (see photos below) and this Thursday marks 8 weeks! Very exciting! (btw if you see a bump...it may be a bump... it may be girl scout cookies)
We are getting ready to jet off to Washington D.C. next week, while I am off from teaching, for spring break. Some awesome friends of ours are meeting us there and we cannot wait!
The Monday after we return from our trip is our first official doctor’s appointment with our OB. Whoo hoo! Can’t wait to see our little one.
On another note, I have been thinking a lot lately about my life and how it looks right about now. There are many things to be happy about (new baby, new house) but I have just been in a funk lately. Pregnancy hormones you ask? Maybe but I think it is more than that
I think it has to do with working full time. Now before any of you roll your eyes because I am whining… well actually roll away because I am whining but I don’t care. Here is the thing, all throughout college I worked part time. Never more than 20-25 hours. I also went to school full time though (taking 15 hours usually) I thought this was the same as working full time… I was wrong.
You see, in college my schedule still changed from day to day and week to week. Things were new and fun. I had some classes MWF and some on T/TH. Every semester I got a new course load of exciting stuff.
Even though I love what I do now (it is a “make a difference” type of job and for a Christian non-profit which is awesome) things are just different.
When you work full time… you do the same things…every week (at least at my job you do) and it is TIRING, no make that exhausting.
You get in these routines and you know the word “mundane” starts to come to mind. After 9 months of the same things… I miss my old life.
I am so tired of working Monday through Friday, cleaning and laundry on Saturday, church and grocery store on Sunday, rinse, wash, and repeat!!!
This may just be part of being an adult but I am rebelling. Starting today I am going to find small ways to mix up my routine.
For example, today at lunch I bought the oh so exciting new “ Orange Tropical Remix” gum at the 7-11 across from work. I normally only chew Cinnamint gum…that I buy in a 4pack…from isle 23…on Sundays when I grocery shop at HEB. (Always HEB)
One small step for gum, one giant leap for rebelling against mundaneness.
Sounds dumb but the point is, I think that you start to lose part of yourself when you work full time (a.k.a officially become an adult). You lose part of your fun spirit, part of your spontaneity. I don’t think you have to though.
I am sure our spring break trip will help these feelings a lot, but in addition I am going to get intentional about enjoying every day of this awesome life I have to live, thanking God for it, and who knows maybe randomly having doughnuts for breakfast on a Wednesday. (even if they are really bad for you) I am going to be reminding myself that this is the day the Lord has made! What can I do to make it a meaningful one? Can I win souls to the Kingdom? Set a good example; change the lives of the students I teach??
Fight the mundaneness of being an adult people. Don’t surrender.
Whats new with us? Just about everything!
Whats new with us? Well...just about everything. They say everything changes when you have a baby.. yep that is whats new with us, we are expecting! A sweet little baby some time in late October =) For now we are calling Him/Her "Baby M" (for Maroney)
My goal throughout this pregnancy is to document as much of what is going on as possible! I know I will want to look back one day and know what all I was thinking.
Week 3
I already felt pregnant! I kept thinking, I am going to feel so silly if I'm not! As early as 3dpo I am feeling nausea at Church. My stomach was growling from hunger towards the end of the service and while this is normal, the accompanying "gaging" sensation was not. Weird! This gagging feeling/nausea continued from 3dpo - 8 dpo (the time I had to wait to take the pregnancy test) around 6dpo, I developed a runny nose and sore throat, a little searching on google lead me to find that this is a pregnancy symptom! Hmmm...could it really be? I also have the urge to hug every single student I teach... hormones?? My temperature is also up and I am running a low grade fever during the day.
FINALLY Saturday rolled around (9dpo) and for the first time, I looked down to find myself absent midely cradeling my tummy with my hand... weird! I told Justin I know it is sooo early but I just have to test today! I took a test that wasn't early detection and shouldn't have shown me anything for at least 5 more days... but what do you know! It had a faint postive line =) after this test, Justin ran to and got me 2 clear blue digital early detection tests... both of them? POSTIVE!!!!!!!! Justin picked me up and screamed with excitement =) and then he grabbed my hand and said "we have to pray!!" We got down on our knees and thanked God for this miracle, for allowing us to be parents. We prayed for safety for our baby and that our baby would one day come to know our God and our savior Jesus Christ who has saved Justin and I from the pit and transformed us in every way.
I called Julie (my twin sister) and told her immediately. She came right over with our first baby gift!! Newbown diapers (never to early to stock up right?) and a sweet Teddy bear for baby M.
Here were some of my thoughts from my journal that I wrote right after finding out I was pregnant. We found out really early and I have since had more time to adjust:
"And here we are 3 weeks and 4 days along.It is not common to know you are pregnant so early but listen here Jack, me and the hubs have been wondering like crazy wanting to know. Our parents laughed that we told them only 8 hours after getting our first positive test, but we waited 2 weeks for that test!!! Longest two weeks of my life people.
I sit here now documenting these thoughts while Jus is asleep. (Better get all the sleep you can dude) and I just took my 4th positive test. It is finally starting to sink in a little and can I be honest? I am kind of sorta thinking what have we done!!! Lol Justin is beyond excited. I am too! I am just a control freak… and man this is uncharted waters.Plus EVERYONE told us to wait and “get to know each other” first. Well we did date for 3 years before getting married, newlyweds of 8 months, the college degrees are finished, we both love our jobs, and most importantly we know this baby (so weird to say that) is a gift from God.
For the next 9 months we will be trusting in Him and leaning not on our own understanding. We are so thankful that we were able to get pregnant so easily and we are praying for a healthy son or daughter. We always wanted to be semi-young parents too! (We will be 26 and 25 around the suspected due date of October 2013)
I am also counting on Him to help me ease into this new stage of Life. My Father knows me better than anyone. So I am sure he will send many mentors and scriptures, everything we need, our way."
The rest of this week was spent telling our family one by one. They are so excited for us! At 12 dpo, I have my first encounter with the pregnancy "super smell" This ecxert is from the notes section of my iphone:
"12dpo - Super smell sense is here. Guys at office came back from hamburger place today and I could smell hamburgers on them like crazy, I could smell the onions, the pickles. I mentioned to my coworker when she walked in that I was sorry it smelled like hamburgers, but just so she knew...it was THOSE guys...when she says um I don't smell anything. Are you kidding? I can smell the different burger toppings! You can't smell anything??"
At 13 dpo, I logged this note in my iphone
"Super tiredness kicked in tonight after pizza with Gma. By 8:45 my eyes were drooping."
4 weeks
Our 4 week gift to ourselves, was to tell everyone on facebook =) its public knowledge now! This is how we broke the news:
 |
| Justin and Jenny sitting in a tree... |
 |
| K I SS I N G... |
 |
| First comes love... |
 |
| Then comes marriage... |
 |
| Then comes the Maroneys with a baby carriage... |
At 14 dpo I logged this note in my iphone
"Started eating a piece of bush's chicken. Thought after first bite: yum this is sooo good! Thought After one piece: eww I don't want any more of that."
Lots of weird twinges...I read in a book that my uterus and ligaments are stretching. It feels like it for sure!
I am feeling more and more tired.
5 weeks
The food aversions have since continued along with the fatigue, prenatal vitamins are helping though! I will be so blessed if this is as bad as the food thing gets though! It is for sure tolerable. The hormones however??? Not so fun! This is how I celebrated Valentines day...the day that marked "5 weeks"
"I punched my husband… a pregnancy story.
The next thing I know, I am up out of bed charging to find Him to demand WHY IN THE WORLD he has to make so much noise?!!! Remember me? The person who is GROWING your child?? Ya I need my beauty sleep.
All I know is that his reply must not have been the SENSITIVE, caring, response I was looking for. The next thing I know, I’ve reared back with all my pregnant might and punched him in the arm… pretty hard.
His reaction? Shock…anger…laughter…more anger… “are you serious????” “really???”
I (still furious) turn right around and walk back to bed. This time to fall asleep successfully.
The next morning, as I stumbled around making breakfast in my morning sleepy haze, he greets me, “hi there Muhammad Ali…how you feeling today?”
Utter embarrassment washes over me as his joke brings back a memory… did I really punch my husband???? My wonderful husband???
I apologize and hug him and tell him he is the best husband ever and this will NEVER happen again.
He smiles and pats me on the back, assures me he loves me, (and probably thinks to himself…35 more weeks…only 35 more weeks)"
That is all the updates I have for now folks! Stay tuned! More coming soon. Justin and I are so excited for this journey. We are tying to seek the Lord in every way. We know He is in charge and watching over us! (all 3 of us!)
Love - The Maroneys and baby M
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