The Desert

Graham's first Halloween was great. We three and the neighbors sat in their garage to pass out candy, ordered a pizza and had a few brews. We had a steady stream of Trick-Or-Treaters. Still, I may have eaten more candy than we passed out. o.O

Early this week, Aaron got back from a (sporadically) annual fishing trip in Corpus with his dads and brothers, in-laws included. From what I gather, they had a great time, despite not catching all that much. I figure if people went fishing to catch fish, then nobody would do it. There are much more efficient ways to hunt. It should be called passing-the-time-ing, since that's the real purpose.

While he was gone, I had the privilege of being a single mommy for three and a half days. I've decided that it's just not for me. Aaron is too valuable to have around - especially if I expect to have any chance of getting to work on time in the morning. Regardless, me and my little man had a good time. We are learning how to roll over!

We spent the latter part of the week preparing to lead a bible study on the topic of being in God's desert.  And I've really been struggling to figure out what season of life He has me in right now. I feel like we are more than blessed in so many areas of our life. Yes, there are several circumstances that I would rather not be in right now, but they seem so small in comparison to where we are going.

I am so thankful that God gave me wise mentors early in my life and in my marriage. They taught me to do my best to view my life in stages, or seasons, all of which have an end. Sometimes the season I'm in is long and difficult, other times its brief and beautiful. In each, I know God is working on my heart.

The desert is a place of my Father's love. I'm conflicted because I know that while the desert is dry and barren, it's an opportunity from God to grow spiritually. Its humbling to know that He trusts me with such things. That He wants to focus on my heart. I'm not saying I want to be in a desert, but I do want to be stretched by God. I want to welcome Him to mold me into the character of Jesus, to prune and chisel and sculpt my soul. The trials we face are an invitation to seek and find Him.

I do want that.

I haven't decided what landscape characterizes today. Maybe I'm not supposed to know. I don't need to know, I suppose. I should be looking at every morning as that invitation to draw closer to God. To learn to love and live like Jesus. All of my life I have a reason to worship Him. God will meet me right where I am.

 

Back to Business

Graham's First Day!

Today concludes the last day of my first week back to work. I have to say that things went better than I had expected. Everyone tells you how terrible and awful it is going back to work after having a baby. Being horrified that gloom and doom would be my reality actually helped make it easier when it turned out to not be so bad. Still, I do not feel like we are anywhere close to being in a routine again.

Monday was a holiday so I (selfishly) kept my baby home with me for one last day. We had family visiting over the weekend which was wonderful but meant he was being loved on and held by everyone but momma. I squeezed in as many cuddles as I could.

Aaron and I have agreed that life with a kid only holds you back as much as you allow. This meant that we went to small group that evening, despite having not yet prepared everything for the big day to come. I'm glad we went. I don't think that looking back on my life I will regret having spent our time doing adult things with our kids in tow. I don't want my children to become an excuse to not participate in everyday life, though I'm sure there will be those times. Anyway, we're making an effort to stay involved.

On Tuesday morning, as we packed up our little bug with his "school supplies," I prayed Philippians 4:6-7 in my head over and over again. God was going to give me a peace beyond understanding. His peace. Aaron and I dropped him off together and chat with his caregiver for a bit. I gave my baby an overwhelming number of kisses and hugs and handed him over. I got back in the car, had a few tears, and felt okay by the time we were on the highway. I didn't even call during the day to check on him!

I will say that having a daycare that we are 100% comfortable with does wonders for a worried soul. I know he is being cared for by ladies who want to teach him about Jesus and love on him. And seriously, who wouldn't want to play here?

 The work day passed fairly quickly. Late that afternoon my sweet husband needed an emergency root canal and tooth extraction. This meant that we picked up our boy later than originally planned and made it home just in time for him to sleep through our snuggle time. 

Day two was not so easy. With the rough evening we had before, I had little time to get things prepped ahead of time. I had been rushed to get ready and failed to spend a few moments to cuddle with him in the morning. So when I dropped him off, by myself this time, it was harder to leave and I was obviously upset. Of course that would be right when the other mommies are coming to drop off their kiddos. "It gets easier..."

So I've been told.

They emailed me pictures of him during lunch that day. It was a nice little blessing.

Thursday I had to get back to business by attending a client dinner that evening. Not exactly what a new mom wants to have to do her first week back at work. Still, I knew it was important for me to stay visible amongst the company leadership. Plus it is always nice to have a good steak on the company dime. ;)

It's Friday now and I'm sure you can imagine how excited I am to have the weekend. Going from spending 18 waking hours a day enjoying my bug to 6 is... well... sad. But I know that God has me where I am right now for a purpose. Perhaps He can use me more productively in the workforce than on my couch. I just need to keep reminding myself of that and patiently endure this season of my life, trusting Him to use it to teach me about His love. Comfort never bore spiritual growth in the way that struggle does. And through it I lean on God's promises. Trusting that He is a faithful God who wants to give good gifts to His children, I ask for patience, peace, and perhaps a new circumstance.

Chapter Nine

 I'm terribly ashamed to say that this will be my first blog post in nearly a year. Well, here's to starting over... or to a new chapter, rather. Let me catch you up on the happenings of the last year.

Chapter 1: Sold

We bought a house back in September of last year. Home ownership has been wonderful. Aaron has a long honey-do list of projects. Currently he's in the process of building a built-in desk/wardrobe/bookshelf for our study. And now that the construction outside of our home has resulted in new neighbors, we've spent the last year getting to know the many fantastic families around us. This was such an answered prayer.

Chapter 2: Draper & Dillon

Our tiny little twins are not so tiny anymore. These dogs are crazy! I'm so thankful that they have each other to play with. Our pups have completely destroyed our backyard though - to include building a 'friendship tunnel' to share toys with the dogs next door. Did I mention how thankful I am that we have nice and forgiving neighbors??

Chapter 3: Pabst

In December, we found out we had a little one on the way! My sisters, who were of course ecstatic, took no less than two days to come home from the bookstore with a... helpful book on unique baby names. And since we decided not to find out the gender, the baby's odd little nickname stuck.

Chapter 4: Wolf Creek, CO

We spent Spring Break snowboarding in Colorado. Yes, I went snowboarding at 4 months pregnant. Yes, I was still awesome. Yes, it is entirely possible that my cute preggo self got overly dehydrated and had to get IV fluids at the ER. Yes, I subsequently (and repeatedly) kicked everyone's butt at Monopoly Deal while resting in the lodge.

Chapter 5: Reading Railroad

Work has been going great for both Aaron and myself. After a bit of a rocky season with several changes in management at Aaron's job, we were blessed by a great promotion for him. My job afforded me the opportunity to begin working with our international offices in Reading, UK. I spent a very cold and rainy week in London! While there, I received a (very unexpected) promotion, as well! God has been so good to us through our careers.

Chapter 6: Love

Our sweet sister (via Aaron) was married this year.
We are so excited to have Travis and his son in our family! 

We joined a young-married couples small group with our church. It's a breath of fresh air to have quality friends who are in the same life stage as we are. 

Chapter 7: Showered

With the impending arrival of Baby Pabst, our friends and family completely, absolutely, and staggeringly overwhelmed us with love and gifts for our new little family. It's amazing that so many people love a kiddo they've never met because they love us. Seriously... I cannot say THANK YOU enough. I hope we are able to bless people like that, too.

\Chapter 8: Birthday

 And then it happened... a beautiful little boy was born on my 24th birthday! Weighing 7 pounds 5 ounces at 20 1/4 inches long, our sweet baby Graham entered the world at 4:14 pm on August 4th, 2013.

Becoming parents has brought so much love into our world, and not just love for our son but for each other. God has been so good to us this past year. I only hope that people look on our family and, whether or not believe He exists, see how much my love for my God affects my life. 

Now that my little one gives me the motivation I need to document more of life's happenings, you should see the posts coming more regularly. We'll see.. I'm going to consider this a start to a new episode, Chapter 9.

Our Growing Family

Well we have some exciting news....Our family has grown! 

We are now the proud parents of 8 week old TWINS! 

Meet the newest Thurmons: Draper and Dillon

 

  DRAPER

(namesake Don Draper of MadMen) 

DILLON

(namesake Dillon Panthers of Friday Night Lights)

Our little boys are adjusting quite nicely. Mom and Dad are still getting used to 2 AM potty trips and not being able to look away for fear of carpet disaster or couch mutilation.
Draper and Dillon are brothers born on 9-15-12. They are at least 3/4 lab which is just fine with us! They play together a lot, thereby pretty much entertaining themselves. Squeak toys are in high demand as are evening cuddles with mom. Bath time is less anticipated but is much needed. 

Our new additions should keep us pretty occupied for the next several months. My sisters about died when I told them we needed a Skype date because "we had news."  Puppies weren't the expected announcement. :) 

For now, I'm just ready to get through potty training! Two pups.. what were we thinking!?

Seasons

It makes me sad to see that my last blog post was three months ago.. Good grief.. Can I just chalk it up to being in a crazy season of my life? Well I'm going to and you can secretly look upon my lack of dedication in disgust. Thank you for visiting.

I suppose I left off in the midst of house-purchasing, work-event-planning, and nephew introductions. To catch you up...

Work has been a lot of fun lately. I helped to coordinate our departments' Halloween party/decoration contest. Our team has won two years in a row and we were aiming for a three-peat. I had my work cut out for me but everything turned out great! We kicked some serious Halloween butt and took home the trophy! Can you guess what our theme was?

Since softball ended, Aaron and I joined an office kickball league. One would think that we would all be stellar at a sport that you're pretty much required to play in every P.E. class you'll ever have. This was not the case. We went 0 - 8 but had a lot of fun in the process!

We finally were able to close on our house in late September. This was not without heartache. Our loan fell through a week before closing and we took a pretty significant (and unplanned) financial knife-to-the-chest to get it sorted out. Still, we are here now and it feels amazing to be in our own place again. We are so incredibly blessed and humbled by the love and generosity of everyone who prayed for us along the way. I must say though that we would not be where we are now without our amazing brother and sister in law! Any attempts that I might make at trying to come  up with the right words to express my gratitude would fall so So SO incredibly short. Thank you. Thank You. THANK YOU!

And as ready as we were to settle down and re-enter life with just the two of us, I was not at all ready to leave my sweet niece-babies and new little nephew. My heart was heavy with thankfulness and sadness as we pulled the U-Haul out of their driveway. I am so grateful for the nine months that we were able to share with Adam & Lisa. I don't think I would have had it any other way. We are so lucky to be so loved.

We still have a lot of unpacking to do. With every box I unpack I'm hit with memories of the season of struggle we had just been thrown into when everything was being boxed up. A year ago this week, I had just lost my job only to have Aaron come home to tell me he'd been laid off too. We were confident and hopeful that God would have a plan for us that would be greater than anything we could have imagined for ourselves. Now, we live in a whole new city, have great jobs, and own a house! What an incredible, amazing and wonderful season we are entering into and I can describe the one we just left the same way.

Everything happens for a reason and my God has ALWAYS been faithful to me.