Throwback Thursday {Pregnant in China}

So, what were you doing two years ago? I was passing the time in Beijing, China, waiting for my sweet little son to be born. He was due on August 26th. He was 15 days late.


For three and a half years, we lived in Qingdao, China, a city on the Eastern coast of China, smack in between Beijing and Shanghai. When I got pregnant, Bo and I made the decision that I would give birth in Beijing rather than Qingdao. This decision required me to travel to Beijing about a month before my due date, and wait for Marty's arrival (just in case he was early. Ha!).

Fortunately, our temporary apartment in BJ had a gigantic swimming pool, which I thoroughly enjoyed during those blazing hot August days. Nothing better than floating weightlessly when you are 10 days overdue! My dear friend and photographer extraordinaire, Kiley Ariail, stopped through BJ on her way back to QD from Europe. These photos of me in the pool are some of my favorite preggers pics. So tired...so ready to meet my boy...maybe jumping in the pool will force him out?!

My mom had come to China to hang out with me and be there for Marty's big arrival. We did a lot of touristy stuff while she was there, hoping that all the walking around would start my labor. Nope. He took his time. Perhaps he knew we had a few more memories to make in bustling Beijing...

This random man came up to me on the street, and insisted that his belly was bigger than mine. I'm thinking a big NO on that one. Close, though.

When you are 10 days overdue, you stop and stare at every child you see, wondering what it will be like when that little monkey is all yours.

At the Beijing Silk Market. This woman was literally pulling me into her booth and trying to convince me to buy something. She didn't let go of my wrist the entire time we were "bargaining." After I made my purchase, she politely informed me that I should not be out in public that far into pregnancy, as it is "bad for health." (And as a random side note: I grew like 4 cup sizes my first month of pregnancy. Yowza. I was glad to see those suckers go bye-bye when I stopped nursing!)

Mani-pedi-round-o-golf, anyone??

We took my mom to this huge fabric market where they sell everything from fabric to buttons to ribbon to trim. Anything a factory would need to create the clothing that we buy every day! A crafters dream, for certain. This was the real deal, no tourist trap, so everything was suuuuuuper cheap. I think we may have been the only foreigners walking around that place.

See that guy in the pink shirt? That is exactly what I wanted to be doing. Instead, I was hoofing it around Beijing, trying to evict my son from my belly!

"The accidental therablog" -or- "Perhaps the deepest thoughts you're ever gonna get out of me"

Just couldn't choose a title for this one... 

It took Bo and I eight years of marriage to talk ourselves into getting pregnant. We had relocated 11 times in those eight years, and we were not entirely sure that a child would respond well to our transient lifestyle. Many conversations were had, many scenarios were discussed, many pros-and-cons lists were made. Did I mention that we were smack in the middle of our three-and-a-half year stint in CHINA during all this?? Oh, the timing...

We ultimately decided to give it a go, figuring that no time would ever be the "perfect" time, and heck, I wasn't getting any younger. I got preggers so quick we couldn't have changed our minds if we had wanted to. And man-oh-man am I glad. Marty was born in Beijing, China on 9.10.11 and I wouldn't change a single detail about how things went down. (I want to write a post about his birth sometime soon).

My Chinese pregnancy test. Couldn't read a word of the instructions. Thank goodness pee sticks are fairly universal.

When I look back on my thought process before I had Marty, I realize how completely wrong I was about so many things. The main one being that having a baby would add more chaos and stress to a lifestyle that has both of those things in spades. But God gave us exactly the kid we needed, as He is known to do. Marty has, in fact, brought so much calm into our crazy life that I can't imagine how we survived without him to mellow us out.

Having him around caused me to slow down and simplify my routine, which resulted in me having less on my plate and fewer things to worry about. Becoming a mom has also made me less self-centered, translating into less time worrying about whether this or that is impressive to those around me,  be it the clothes I'm wearing, my relationship with my husband (how it appears to others anyway), or how many events I get invited to. Since Marty's birth, all I want every day is to impress this tiny little man, which makes me think about what qualities a child actually finds impressive. Does a 2-year-old care if I'm 6 months past the point of needing a haircut or pedicure? No. He looks to me for kindness, consistency, patience, and love.

>>Side note: I'm embarrassed to say that those qualities weren't necessarily tops on my priority list pre-Marty. My mind was once filled with so much anxiety, fed by a desire to be accepted and admired by my peers. Maybe it is just part of being young. I don't know. Does everyone wrestle with this at some point? I want to think that it is a typical part of personal growth (to make myself feel better?), but then again, I want to hope that not many others waste valuable years looking inward when there is so much to see out there.  When I think about how much time I spent worrying about what others thought of me, or if enough people liked me... well, it's just shameful, really. I'm not sure how nearly all of that evaporated with the arrival of my child, but it did somehow. And for whatever reason God saw fit to change my perspective, I'll accept that gift with gratitude.<<

Anyway, back on track... Isn't that brilliant?! Becoming a mother was like a chance to start over as a totally different person. A better, more authentic one this time. Someone who strives to display the characteristics I want to see develop in my child. Qualities that I'd want him to seek in a wife someday. In about 40 years.

It comes fairly easy in these early days, when your hero status is correlated to the number of blocks you can stack (and I can stack high!).  Nice that I get to eeeeeeaaaaasssssseee into this whole transformation thing. Whew! But everyday, I am aware of (and thankful for) those two little eyes that stay locked on me. Those little eyes that are making me want to do better, be better, every single day. I must admit, however, that if I let my mind settle for too long on the fact that I am raising a man... well I start to hyperventilate a little bit. Lord help me.

Mart-man has totally perfected the fist-bump and peek-a-boo. We are still working on closed mouth kisses, though...

Does anyone else feel that blogging is like really cheap therapy? Yeah me, too.

Moving on... Overnight, my baby has morphed into this toddler and is on his way to turning into a full fledged boy. I can hardly even type that without my heart tightening just a smidge. He is just so BIG. Independent like nobody's business. And his buddha belly is shrinking by the minute (which is downright sad).

So naturally, as more and more of the baby disappears, more and more people start asking about the next baby... sheesh. I guess we don't have another 9 years to mull this over (as a matter of fact, I always said I didn't want to get pregnant after I turned 35. That happens in like...5 months. Yikes.), so the conversations are starting once again. Pros and cons of just keeping it like it is. It seems pretty perfect at the moment, but that is what I thought when we had no kids. Decisions, decisions. Tick-tock, tick-tock.