Throughout our struggle with infertility, we somehow adopted a,”If you build it they will come,” type of philosophy. Y’all, we built it! We fully prepared our home for a child.
We started with small things. A onesie and a cute little hat. But the baby didn’t come.
We prayed and really believed it would happen. We built some more. This time we picked a nursery theme! It’s awesome by the way. The perfect combination of us. Winnie the Pooh meets Star Wars…Wookie the Chew! I know, right!? Could we be any more adorable?! Still, no baby.
We kept building! We had custom bedding made and picked out names.
We continued trying and successfully built a beautiful home for our future family.
4 years later…still no baby.
My belief in God is strong. I 💯 trust He has a plan. I also have no idea what His plan is! Ugh…isn’t that frustrating?! We were just assuming it included getting pregnant and having a healthy baby. What if that wasn’t His plan at all?
We opened our hearts to other possibilities and a new adventure was conceived.
We were extremely excited! And totally into the If we build it philosophy!
Because…um…we have a room that is totally ready for any child, male or female, between the ages of birth to 5. We also have a contingency plan for older kids. We kinda went crazy!
We no longer have a guest room. We now have a beautiful crib . And just in case we don’t get a baby that crib turns into a toddler bed! What if we don’t get a toddler? No worries, we have a twin trundle bed with new mattresses.
The cabinets are locked, all chemicals out of reach, medications are stored high and have a padlock. We updated the smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors . The emergency numbers and fire safety plan are posted. We have all the boxes checked on the checklist.
We have all the books! Seriously, we have up until kindergarten completely covered. Toys? Yep…those too. Although, most kids who visit our home prefer to chase the cat, play keep away from the dogs (our dogs are definitely not retrievers) or spend hours playing on the trundle part of the bed.
After babysitting some friends kids and our nieces, we discovered the need for more things! Now, we have retractable baby gates (those also come in handy for the fur babies), baby monitors, and door alarms.
Door alarms?…yep, one escaped! Only for a minute and the kid was totally fine. In fact, we found her sitting right outside the door yelling “come here kitty kitty, come here right now.” That little escape artist is adorable…but she’s not escaping without our knowledge again 😜.
We had a list of parenting books recommended during PRIDE training. We’ve read them all! We have even practiced a few of the techniques on each other. It’s proven to be helpful in adulting! I’m sure we will find parenting more productive due to our expanded knowledge.
We have all the things. We have learned so much! We were pretty impressed with ourselves!
1 John 2:16 “For all that is in the world-the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions-is not from the Father but is from the world.”
I started seeing this everywhere!
Ya, I don’t think God is impressed with our things! You know how you sometimes ask for signs?! I do anyway. Most of the time I either don’t get one or I’m not observant enough to see it. This time…I see it. I’m not sure I fully understand it…but I see it.
We have good intentions. Somehow, we are still selfishly serving ourselves.
We prepared our home. Now it’s time to prepare our hearts.
John 16:33 “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world, you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”