8 Questions: Your Answers Wanted/Needed

We are back from our 3rd out-of-state trip this fall.  I would not recommend taking 3 trips (2 by plane and 1 by car) in 4 1/2 weeks with an infant.  While we enjoyed each of the trips, my energy is really sapped.  Not that I had a ton of energy to begin with (I'm still wondering about adrenal and/or thyroid problems).

Anyway...I'll talk about the trips more later, but in the meantime, the following miscellaneous questions are on my mind.  I would love responses you could give to any or all of them!

1. Is anyone in touch with Little Joann?  Is she ok?  Her blog has been taken down, and I'm worried about her.  Plus, I miss reading about Toddler Ann and Little Joe.

2. Does anyone have good websites to calculate cost of living differences between two cities?  Or is there a place I can go to find the average cost of living in one city?  I've googled and been to a few sites, but all the information is different for each calculator I've used.

3. Has anyone ever worked with a moving company that comes to pack up your house, moves it, and unpacks in the new location?  If so, how much do you clean and organize your things before they come and how much do you just get rid of things, so they don't have to move them?  I'm thinking of all the junk drawers in our house, our big plastic totes full of things, etc.  I've been trying to declutter and eliminate things since before R was born, but it's a slow process when you have so much stuff from having lived in one place for almost 10 years.  (Don't interpret this question as us having made a decision about moving.  We haven't at all, but I'm already thinking about this and wondering if I should start super-declutter mode now...just in case).

4. Are there things I can eat to increase little R's immune system?  It seems she has another cold, or at least another plugged nose after her 2nd airplane trip.  I've been trying to eat super healthy to help her get over it quicker, but I wonder if there's more I can do?  I also take a probiotic and she takes Tri-vitamin drops (Vitamins A, C, and D).  I'm exclusively nursing.

5. Do any of your little ones wear an amber necklace to help with teething?  Do they really work?  No teeth here yet, but the drool and irritability has increased.  I'm thinking teething season has started.

6. We're 2 weeks away from starting solids....oh my!  How do I start?  Do I just offer rice cereal before nursing?  How many times a day do I give rice cereal?  When do I start pureed foods?  I'm super paranoid about rice cereal since Consumer Reports came out with their article on arsenic in rice, and I'm super clueless about how to start solids.  I'd like to make my own baby food, so I borrowed a few books from a friend but haven't had a chance to read them yet.

7. Changing pad acrobatics.  That's what it's like to change a diaper in our house lately- an acrobatic feat.  We have the changing pad on the floor because as soon as you get a diaper off and start lifting her legs to change her, she's arching her back and going on her head.  It's sort of like the reverse wheelbarrow move if you ever did that in elementary school where someone picked up your legs and you had to move forward by crawling on your hands.

Anyways, I don't know how to get her to stop or at least slow down, so I can put a diaper on properly and minimize the chance of blowouts.  And if it's not the reverse wheelbarrow move, then it's rolling over onto her tummy.  I thought the novelty of these new tricks would wear off after a few weeks, but they haven't.  She also does the arching her back, lean her head backwards/upside down move while she's nursing.  That old trick continues as well.  Maybe she just likes looking at the world upside down?

Thanks in advance for any answers or experiences you might be able to share.  Once again, I am humbled by how little I know about raising a child, and yet she seems to be turning out ok so far:-)  It must be those prayers.

"Whom Shall I Fear?"

I was driving to work this morning when God spoke to me through music on the radio.  He does this often.  I'm not sure why He so frequently chooses to speak to me in the car, but maybe it's because I'm focused on the words of the music (and the road, of course).  My mind is usually thinking about a lot, and I almost always have the one Christian radio station in town on because I know I need to fill my mind with positive thoughts during my drive time.  I'm never in the car long (10-15 minutes thanks to small town life), yet often have powerful encounters.

Today was no different.  DH recently got a call officially offering him the job in ATL.  Even though we knew this was most likely coming, until he received the official call, we could just pretend like it was a long ways off and we didn't have to make any decisions.  Now that he's been offered the job, we DO have to decide if we're moving or not.  It's not some far off decision.  It is here and now.  And while we're waiting to receive all of the paperwork and detailed compensation package, we've already begun talking about where we feel God might be leading.

So I was in the car today thinking about the potential move and all that would be involved.  In particular, I was thinking of having to say goodbye to all of the people I've built relationships with here the past 9 years.  This is the longest I've lived any where since I was young at home growing up. 

I was thinking about pulling out of the driveway for the last time and saying goodbye to our home.  That may sound weird, but this home has so many memories.  It was our 1st home we lived in as a married couple and now that's been 7 1/2 years.  It was our 1st home with a nursery.  The home we brought Baby R in to.  It's already filled with so many memories in just that short time.

I was thinking about R never knowing the place she was born.

I was thinking about having to start over with every thing...a new home, new church, making new relationships, new doctors, new this, new that, etc.

And it was all a little overwhelming and emotional. 

And just as I turned off and was getting ready to park at my building, I heard this new song by Chris Tomlin, "Whom Shall I Fear?"  I sat in the parking lot until it was over, and thanked God for speaking to me so clearly today.

You hear me when I call
You are my morning song
Though darkness fills the night
It cannot hide the light
Whom shall I fear?

You crush the enemy
Underneath my feet
You are my sword and shield
Though trouble linger still
Whom shall I fear?

I know who goes before me
I know who stands behind
The God of angel armies is always by my side
The One who reigns forever
He is a friend of mine
The God of angel armies is always by my side

My strength is in Your name
For You alone can save
You will deliver me
Yours is the victory
Whom shall I fear?
Whom shall I fear?

And nothing formed against me shall stand
You hold the whole world in Your hands
I'm holding on to Your promises
You are faithful
You are faithful

The chorus is what really struck me: "I know who goes before...I know who stands behind..." God.  God is the One who goes before me to pave the way should we decide to move.  God is the One who stands behind me to support me in the decision making process.  There is no reason to fear.  There's no reason to fear the decision that we make, and no reason to fear the future.

And with that, I got out of my car and went to teach, vowing to look up that song as soon as I got home.  I had a feeling it might become my theme song for the coming weeks.  The bad news is since it's a new song, it's not available on iTunes yet and the album doesn't come out until January.  Bummer.  But I wanted to share, nonetheless, in case someone else is struggling with fear of the future.

Waiting Well

Waiting on God.  

I'm an extremely impatient person, so learning to wait has been hard for me, especially waiting on God and His timing in my life.  The hardest waiting periods of my life so far have been waiting to meet and marry my DH, waiting for God to grow our family with a child, and waiting for loved ones to recognize their need for God and return to Him and His Church.

The 3rd waiting example is a little different than the first two, and I will just speak to those two.  In the first two cases, I can still clearly remember the angst, jealousy, and fear that would crop up as I spent months and then years waiting to see what God had in store for me regarding marriage and children.  The waiting would grow harder as I looked around to see those friends and family members all around me doing the things that my heart longed to do (get married, have kids).  And that was what I found interesting...the more I would look around at others, the more I would grow restless and uncomfortable in that current season of life.  The more I would look up at God, trusting Him in that season, the more tolerable my current season of life would be.

I have so many more thoughts on waiting as I find myself again waiting on God.  Waiting to see what He has in store for our family regarding this move (which in no way compares to the above two long seasons of waiting that I had to endure.  I want to make sure that is clear.  There are different kinds and lengths of waiting; some are definitely harder than others.), but I want to encourage each of you in a waiting season of life right now to head on over to this blog, In its time.  The author is posting every day in October about some aspect of waiting.  She has such amazing things to say about waiting- worship and waiting, God's promises and waiting, learning how to wait, waiting well, etc.  I have no doubt that if you find yourself in a season of waiting, at least one of the 31 posts she does this month will touch your heart and speak to you.  I know they have for me already.

Her 1st Flight

***Posting this now as-is since we've already taken a 2nd trip as a family and I haven't posted details about the 1st one. Time to get these posts out of the draft stage!

We were gone Thursday-Monday, and if you remember, this was for an on-site interview for a potential new job for DH.  This is a job that came out of the blue.  We weren't looking to move; the opportunity was just sort of placed before us.  And while we aren't necessarily looking to move right now, there really wasn't a reason to say no to their request for us to come visit.  Sure, it wasn't very convenient to travel with an infant, nor was it  enjoyable to fly 1,500 miles, but we did it and I'm glad we did.  Turns out R is quite the little traveler.

We left Thursday morning, after feeding R, with an hour and a half drive to the airport.  She dozed a little bit on the way down, then I put her in the Ergo to walk around the airport.  We boarded our flight during the pre-boarding because she was hungry.  I was able to nurse before many of the people got on board, and we were able to make sure there was space in the overhead bin for our luggage.  The nice thing about the plane was it was 2-3-2 for the seating configuration, which meant I had a window seat with R and DH had the aisle.  We were near the back of the plane, so DH could step to the back and rock R when she became fussy.  That made the 3 1/2 hour flight much more bearable.

With a full belly, R quickly fell asleep on take-off.  Woo hoo!  This was working great...until 20 mins. into the flight- she filled a diaper.  Stinky!  We had to wait until the seat belt sign was off to go and change her.  Did you know most planes don't have a changing table in any of the bathrooms?!?  I didn't know that.  We took a blanket from the airline, put it on top of the toilet seat and attempted to change the diaper.  It was a 2 person job.  And of course, it was a diaper blowout..complete with a new clothing change as well.

Phew.  At least we got that taken care of.  She should fall back asleep now, right?  Wrong.  30 mins. later we hear that familiar sound....another diaper filled!  Off the 3 of us go to the back of the plane to maneuver another diaper change in the teeny bathroom...one person holding the baby and the door open, another changing the diaper.  Man. That's a lot of work.

Back to our seats to relax and 30 mins. later...guess what?  A 3rd diaper change was needed.  Now I realize this blog is dealing with way too much poo lately, but seriously...3 poopy diaper changes on one airline flight was too many for me.  I wondered if it was some kind of "you're on candid camera" kind of joke.  And surely the people sitting behind us must have wondered what was going on after we got up 3 times with a diaper in hand.  I'm guessing it was something to do with the pressure of the ascent because rarely does she have 3 messy diapers a day, and I can't remember ever having 3 so close together.  Well, by this point she was getting fussy and not wanting to sleep, so DH took her back to try and rock her to sleep before returning to the seats.

All in all, not too bad for R's 1st flight.  We survived, and I'm so glad I had DH along to help. 

The flight home was less eventful.  She slept for 2 1/2 of the 3 1/2 hours on my lap, so while various parts of my lower extremities were tingling and numb from not moving, it was relatively easy to survive the 2nd flight.  The filling of the diaper came on the descent, which meant we were able to change the diaper in the "luxury" of a bathroom on the ground.  Ahh...it's the little things.

Next up...her 1st road trip!