Grateful

I haven't taken many photos of myself during this pregnancy, but yesterday I figured it was probably about time. Believe it or not, we've approached the 20 week mark already. Half way to the home stretch for a singleton... Only 16 more weeks to go for the average twin pregnancy.

My friends from the motherland have been encouraging me for a while to post a much-anticipated belly shot, so after church I had Bryson break out the camera. After snapping a few pictures, he turned it back over to me. "Very nice," he commented.

I was a little skeptical.
"Did any of them turn out okay?" I asked.

He just looked at me and smiled.
"Check them out for yourself," was his reply.

Well, I did just that.
Honestly, it took me a little aback.

For the past few weeks now, I've had people tell me that I've been looking really good this pregnancy-- but I really haven't believed them much. It's not that I think they've been lying to me, but more that everyone is just being incredibly nice and polite. But here, now, with the proof before me, I had to stop for a moment.

"Wow," I thought, "I do look pretty good this time around."
(If I may say so myself.)

With my last two pregnancies, I avoided the camera at all cost. I don't really consider myself a vain person, but the resulting photographs were just too painful to look at. Preclampsia was not kind to my body, causing me to gain weight rapidly and swell throughout my body. The pictures from my brother's wedding in 2006 are especially difficult for me to revisit, as I can all too plainly see how badly I was starting to swell up, even in my face. It was soon after our return home from California that I was put on restrictive bed rest. (But isn't that a cute little bugger I've got in my arms?)

This pregnancy has been so different.
Yes, I was pretty sick for the first little while, but not nearly as long as I was with Taylor & Reilly. Yes, I have been dealing with exhaustion and sciatica daily-- but I will take that any day compared to the difficulties we faced prior to this.

I have been healthy. I have been active. My blood pressure has stayed nearly the same as my pre-pregnancy levels. I haven't yet experienced any swelling. All of this, even though the preclampsia odds are stacked against me-- as it is even more common in twin pregnancies.

I am grateful.

I feel like we have been carried through this experience on the wings of something greater than us all. And while I learned many important lessons through our previous trials, I am so thankful that I don't have to relive the same ones over again this time around.

So I've decided to stop hiding from the camera so much.
Helllooooooo, Mama.

And while I've still got the April 2006 picture archives open...


This is what makes it all worthwhile.