This blog was supposed to run in a sequence with my last entry “two weeks to go” and was destined to be entitled “two weeks after”. But I believe we're currently looking at approximately 12 weeks after and so my original title seems somewhat outdated. Well what can I say, I have my excuses, you can't deny I've been fairly busy these last 12 weeks, what with having my first baby, packing up my house and moving back to Romania and all. In fact so much has happened I find myself a little stumped for a topic to ramble about today. Every week I have thought of something I would like to write about but it soon becomes old news before I get around to it. Babies just don't seem to understand that you need more than 10 minutes at any one time if you actually want to get something done lol (or maybe they do get it and that explains why they are so good at waking up/getting bored/getting hungry just as the computer loads up).
Nonetheless here I am........ I have found my slot of time. It is a crafty little move that involves walking with the pram down to the mall, lulling Annabelle off for a morning nap and then sitting in a coffee shop typing with one hand and jiggling the pram with the other thus fooling her into thinking she is still walking and earning myself up to an hour of computer time! This is the third time we've tried it and apart from the mean security guard in the food hall, who made me move because it wasn't officially open for another half an hour, it's going quite well!! I successfully managed to prepare a sermon and a bible study, write a blog for kairos and catch up on a few important emails on my last two visits. Today I have the most delicious hot chocolate (seriously it's so thick it's more like a pot of hot chocolate pudding) and a bit of space to catch up on my own blog.
The only problem now is inspiration! The thing about inspiration is that it doesn't always arrive on demand..... just because I have the opportunity doesn't mean I will have something to say. And despite staring at the screen for ten minutes I still have no great ideas, no stories to tell, no lessons learned to share. But I'm going to keep writing anyway because if I wait for something great my blog will disappear neglected and unfinished into cyber-space and even if no-one will miss reading it, I will definitely miss writing it.
I will take this opportunity then, to give you a quick run-down of the last fourteen weeks since I wrote an entry and save the inspirational stories about nettles, dogs and balconies for another time lol. So ….... I am no longer pregnant (which is weirdly normal- 14 weeks ago I felt like I'd been pregnant forever and now I can hardly remember what it felt like at all) and now I'm a mum (which is also weirdly normal since 14 weeks ago I was just me and now I can hardly remember what that felt like at all). Annabelle Summer Craven was born at 12:58pm on Friday 29th July, one day later than predicted and 11 hours after she first announced her imminent arrival. I guess the birth was pretty straightforward really- I went in with a bump and came out with a baby- but it doesn't matter how many other people have done it before you and how normal it is to have a baby it's such a spectacularly frightening, exciting, happy, painful, mind-blowing, life-changing event that you just can't quite comprehend it for a while. It feels like what I did (and what I am doing) was (and is) something really special and yet there were at least 10 other women on my ward with their new babies and everyone in the world seems to be pushing a pram these days. It's such a big deal and yet so completely normal at the same time. Surely you should have to be selected or have special qualifications or be in some way superhuman to embark on such an amazing and all consuming endeavour. Since she was born, Annabelle has continued to blow us away on a daily basis. There are no words to describe the joy and love we feel so I won't even bother! I'm sure you can guess what the last twelve weeks have entailed in regards to tears, laughter, tiredness, cuddles etc etc so there's no need to go into detail here. The only unusual part of our parenting journey has been our relocation back to Romania. We flew back to Timisoara on the 10th September when Annabelle was 5 weeks and 6 days old. I was pretty worried about the journey -a four hour drive to Luton, arriving at 5am for a flight at 7am, 2 and a half hours on the worlds smallest plane, 3 giant suitcases plus 2 hand luggage bags, a pram and a car seat, and of course a six week old baby and two, already tired from a week of packing up the house, new parents. But we made it. I had prayed a lot about the journey and I really believe God was with us- it was a mini miracle. Annabelle has never slept and fed with such impeccable timing before or since...... you had to see it to believe it :-).
We have now settled back into our little flat in Timisoara and have found new routines and baby placating tactics. The 10 minute walk to the nearest supermarket which I probably only actually walked (as opposed to drove) about five times when we were here before has become a daily (at least) sleep-stroll. We have discovered that walking up and down the cold, dark corridor outside our door has weird and wonderful calming effects on a wound up Annabelle, as does sitting on the newly erected swing out front etc etc. Annabelle too is getting to know her new environment, she now recognises when we arrive home and promptly wakes up and demands to be out of whatever contraption she is being transported in, she has also developed a particular dislike for all the junctions around our house and shouts her head off if the car stops for a second. She loves to go walking in the forest in her sling and her favourite place in the world is the play-gym her grandma bought. She has made many new friends here in Romania, everybody loves her, despite her tendency to throw up on them. She is growing and changing and keeping us on our toes!
It's been an eventful three months, an exciting three months, an emotional three months. Life has changed dramatically......permanently.....but I have no doubt it will continue to surprise me, and challenge me, and hopefully provide me with plenty of topics to ramble about in the future!
