Lions and Tigers, Oh My!

Today Peanut and I are celebrating 4 months! We are happy, healthy, and feeling great.

Peanut is the outward picturing of a life-long dream.  And similarly, his nursery has been in evolution for nearly 10 years.  When I first moved into the house, a room was designated as the future nursery.  I put some stuffed toys and my large collection of children’s books into that room.  My mom was a school secretary for over 25 years and each year she handled all of the funds and paperwork for school book fairs. Oftentimes, the book representative would give her a discount or free books.  So, my mom would give me several new children’s books each year.   Some of these I used in my work with children and others were saved for her future grandchildren.

About 7 years ago, I put a daybed in the room for use when my family came to visit.  I went into Bed, Bath, and Beyond for a twin size comforter. And high up on a shelf I spotted a bedding set with safari animals – a lion, a giraffe, leopards, and palm trees.  I fell in love at once – it was so cute! At this point, my mother began shopping for safari stuffed animals.  And she appeared for every visit with something new – elephants, giraffes, zebras, lions and more.  So, like very room in my house, my mother has been an integral part of decorating the nursery.  Her love and presence is felt in the books and the stuffed safari animals.

When I started looking for safari crib bedding, I was overwhelmed at all of the choices!  However, I was able to finally narrow down the option to something called “Safari Dream” – an appropriate name I think.  This is a picture from the website:

Last year, when I discovered my love of painting, I painted zebra and giraffe pictures for the nursery.

And today, I created my own original safari painting to match a curtain.

Over the last couple of years, I have brought home from Arkansas other gifts for Peanut from my mom.  We have lots of blankets, as well as stuffed animals, baby books, rattles, toys, clothes, and silverware.  I am grateful for every item which had been purchased by Grandma April and will be used with her grandson.  I know she is here with us in every precious moment.

Pursuit of Happiness

Happy July 4th! Today Peanut and I are celebrating freedom.  I feel so blessed to live in a country where I can choose to become a mother.  And to live in a place where Peanut will have freedom and choices about the course of his life.  I am grateful for the opportunity for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness!

Becoming a mother was the biggest dream I had for my life.  I knew as a little girl that I was destined for motherhood and that really drove my career path into child psychology.  During the year that I actively pursued this happiness I learned several spiritual lessons.

This first lesson was the experience of abundance and prosperity.  I have heard authors and writers say that when you follow your dreams, the resources will show up to support you.  And while I believed this intellectually, I had never experienced it in my life -- until now.  When I began down the path of becoming a single mom, I did not have financial resources for the endeavor.  However, the money kept unfolding in an effortless way.  I discovered resources I did not know that I already possessed.  Just like Dorothy with her powerful ruby red slippers!  And there were several times when extra money showed up unexpectedly – a surprise refund from a hospital bill, an unexpected raise...  And every time I worked out the funds that I needed, it affirmed for me that I was going down the right path.  I began to see that when you follow the course of your dreams, God and the abundant universe will bring together all of the necessary support.

In Spiritual Economics, Eric Butterworth writes “your good is always deeply rooted in what Jesus called ‘the kingdom of God within’…your fortune is an unborn possibility of limitless life, and yours is the privilege of giving birth to it.”

My second lesson was about the changes in one’s life plans.  During the journey to motherhood, there were still moments when I was upset at having to do this on my own.  I was disappointed that I had not been able to stay married or to remarry and share the experience with a partner.  Then one day I began to reflect on the many plans for my life that did not work out as expected. 

I thought I wanted to attend a tiny liberal arts college somewhere. But I ended up at a large urban university and I loved it.  I thought I would live in a small city when I grew up but I am in the 4th largest city and enjoy the opportunities that provides.  I thought I would be doing clinical work in a children’s hospital.  But I have spent 10 years as an Assessment Consultant.  I have the opportunity to teach other professionals about evaluating children and influence the lives of hundreds of children exponentially, instead of 1 child at a time.  Plus, I treasure the freedom and independence of working from home on my own.  I always thought I would want to have a small dog as a pet.  But Scott introduced me to Labradors and now I can’t imagine having any other breed of dog.

So I came to the conclusion that life often brings us something different from what we thought we wanted -- Something better.  My friend Gary taught me that he always prays for “this or something better.”  Because what you think you desire may not actually be for your best and highest good.  Something better shows up instead.  And for me, today, that something better is Peanut.

Tomorrow I will be 17 weeks along and I am feeling fantastic.  I’m definitely in that second trimester energetic phase!  I wish you a very happy Independence Day and the lovely pursuit of all your happiness.  All is well.

“The glorious Truth is that you are a very special person, and you always have something special working within you, flowing through you.  The whole Universe is on your side.”  Eric Butterworth