Maternity Leave

January and February 2010

Although I've been very quiet on this site, I've been very busy at home. In January we began a new trend...Mama stays home. Mama liked it very much. I needed a break physically as well as emotionally and mentally. I was nearing the 30 week point of my pregnancy and my midwife recommended I get off the road. So every weekend Grace and I would say goodbye to Bobby and the other children and they'd leave us. A couple of those times they were gone for 4 days, usually it was 3 days, and occasionally it was only 1 day.

Since Grace and I were going to be regular church attenders again, I asked Mr. Pat Johnson when he'd like us to attend. I knew he and his wife went to church on Saturday nights and that would have been my first choice too but because I knew his wife, Mary, might not appreciate Mr. Pat leaving him for a younger woman (Grace, that is) I decided to let him tell me when he'd rather we'd come since he tended to Grace during church. Mr. Pat preferred that we come on Sunday morning and so that is what we did and I was happy to do so when I considered that it would put me back in touch with my Sunday School class.

Grace LOVED going to church again and instead of crying when Bobby and the kids hit the road every weekend, she was GLAD. I have to admit I was surprised, knowing how much she loves to go places. But thinking it through I realized she enjoyed the fact that I was speaking to her a WHOLE lot more since she was the only other person there to speak to. I gave her choices of two when it came to what to eat, what to do next, which clothes to wear, and which show to watch. She also enjoyed the fact that she got to watch a whole lot more television. So when we asked her if she was ready for Daddy and the kids to leave again she smiled and screamed her happy scream.

I got so much sewing done on those weekends. I loved it. I made progress. I also read to Grace quite a bit and...blogged? Not so much. I decided I couldn't sew and blog at the same time so I decided that sewing would be pre-baby and blogging would be done post-baby.

My due date was March 13. However, I'd asked God to call this baby out a couple of weeks early because Bobby and the kids were going to be gone a lot in March. I walked and walked and walked and walked but even walking 2 or 3 times a day didn't cause our baby to come...when we wanted him to.

In the meantime Bobby and the kids were going out and ministering and having a good time...most of the time. One of my main concerns about them going out without me was Faith's safety. She's not afraid of anything and is very curious, to put it nicely. Not only would the children be on their own the hour before the concert, helping Bobby with set-up and making sure their hair was combed, etc., but they had to be still on the front row without Mom during church and oh, what about after the service when Bobby was greeting people and then tearing down his stuff? Faith likes to run off and explore the church. I begged Bobby please find the pastor's wife or some lady that might keep Faith under a watchful eye until Bobby is ready to leave the church. I could see that wasn't going to work as I'd hoped and so I knew that I had to leave it with the Father and trust Him with my family. I felt bad for Bobby but had to laugh at him as he had more responsibility on him than ever with leading the service as well as looking after the children. When they returned home from their first weekend without Grace and he said, "It was mentally exhausting for me just to make sure everyone changed their underwear and brushed their teeth!" Classic.