Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Not what I once was.

Tonight,  over the phone I told Dan I just want to get back to the old me.

Perhaps that doesn't make much sense out of context. 

Let me explain,  and in doing so I hope to figure out if the old me is really the former me and not likely to be me again.    You follow?   Probably not. 

Tonight I stare at the laundry undone,  the presents waiting to be wrapped.   I smell the clogged garbage disposal ,  the wet boots and gloves.    I chow down on the Christmas goodies that I just can't resist.   I hear our 2 year old crying out for her pacifier and I sigh.      All of these things could have described a typical December night a year ago,   but the difference this year is -- me.  You see,  I'm not dealing with the day to day quite as well. 

It's been nearly one year since I became pregnant with our 5th child,  the baby we lost and Heaven gained.   And ever since I learned of that pregnancy,   lost that pregnancygrieved that pregnancy,  and discovered this new pregnancy I have not been the me I once,  or you,  once knew. 

Maybe I can blame the  pregnancy hormones which have been raging in me for 41 of the last 53 weeks,  with 14 yet to go.   Or maybe it's the tiring work of sorting through grief.   I was/am  new to it,  and had to find my own way through it.   Grief can be a sneaky jerk,  popping up at times when you just don't want to go there. 

Maybe it's the constant balancing act of hope and fear.     Although God has given me so much joy and hope over this new pregnancy,   it only takes a bad dream recalling the day I delivered April to send me running for the tissue box and rendering me  useless when it comes to things like cleaning toilets or dusting.

Maybe it is those things.    Some days I like to blame the economy.   That sounds fair,  doesn't it?   The nation's economic crisis has trickled down to the industry in which my husband is employed. .   He has to go out of state to find work and that has been a HUGE adjustment for the kids and I.    Yes!  that is why I am no longer the productive,  stable,  self controlled,  person I once was--  being a on again,  off again single parent to 4 kids and growing another is doing me in!  

Why can't I be the me I used to be?

I get it,  really I do--this post sounds like a list of woes!

But I had to get them out to see that although they are certainly the raw ingredients in the lump of dough that I think I've become--
This  past year...  God changed the recipe.  

I may want to function at a certain level  because I think that is my best.
But... perhaps God is forming (and let's just say-- baking, for the sake of the metaphor)  

A new me. 

I have to trust,  that in His time the new me will in fact be a sweet,  not bitter creation. 


Philippians 1:6  NIV 

being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

2 comments:

Triplet Mom said...

One time I heard a sermon that described a person saying that she was always a patient person, until she had kids, and a cruel boss etc. And the minister went to explain that she actually wasn't a patient person before... but that she didn't have any reason to be patient until she was tried. You see, we may think we are patient, brave, strong, or just plain have it all together until we are tried. Then what? We aren't really what we thought we were - we just had it easy. But the great thing is that God is using the trial to do just what we wanted... to make us more patient, to make us more brave, to make us stronger.

I still think about this often. I think it's so true!
Love,
Stace

Laurie said...

First of all, thanks again for being so authentic on your posts. Secondly, I think I'm going to steal the line, "grief can be a sneaky jerk" 'cause it is so true. Maybe you should say, "get away from me jerk" next time you're running for the tissues. ;) You may not feel like you are the person you used to be but you are becoming who God intended you to be. Which is a woman who wrestled with grief and still walked away with hope and joy. Blessings to you & your fam in 2011!