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Here is to another wonderful, less grief filled, more abundance filled six years of knowing one another even more and walking the journey close together.

When I was a teenager we lived in a mountain town in northern California that used to be a stopping point for loggers. We lived in a very old house that had a wrap around porch. My mom, being the Trudi that she is, put up a clothesline. For big occasions or to make a grand announcement she would use the clothesline. She would take cloth diapers and electric tape and write out a message hanging it for all to see. So I kind of copied this idea. Thanks Mom.

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Quite fun making a surprise with Audrey for her daddy. We rehearsed it for weeks prior to the big event. We used a bandanna to cover his eyes and played up the whole surprise semi-kidnapping factor.

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I left it up for a week after Father’s Day and we got many a look and then a smile and then some pointing. People would slow down to look at it, shout out their car windows, “that’s cute”, and a few kids I overheard walking by reading the sign to their buddies.

I think everyone in the neighborhood knows without a doubt that we love our daddy.

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And she is still lounging like that this morning. I guess I had asked people to pray for the baby to drop because I was experiencing such uncomfortable rib pain from her being perched so high. So your prayers were answered, friends. The little one is swinging in the hammock and my back doesn’t hurt so bad.

We awoke this morning around 8am after sleeping almost 11 hours straight through the night. I think we were tired in more ways than one.

I love going to these reunions. It is the extended family I have longed for most of my young adult life that I had tasted as a kid but it fizzled out over the years. Aunts and uncles, cousins and more cousins, the grandmother hovering above the whole tribe. And now the younger generation is having children and the fourth generation is springing up and having the time of their lives catching toads, swimming in the lake, running wild, getting really dirty, having water balloon fights, and in essence, being kids.

This year, Ivan, Audrey, LoAnn and I were the only Martens’ to attend the reunion. That was a little odd and sad for me, but I still enjoyed being with the rest of the family. I had some wonderful conversations with some of the older cousins whom I enjoy greatly. I learned that Ben is a history buff and is into all natural foods. I rediscovered how lovable David is and realized one day as he was covered in little ones that he is going to make a great dad some day. I processed with Heather about all the anticipatory anxiety one feels when you start nursing school. I bonded with Jessica as we talked about being pregnant together and due very close to one another. I shared with some of the aunts about how hard the last few years have been on me and my little family, as they looked on me with compassion and care. I got lots of hugs, especially from the Phil and Teri gang who are so affectionate.

Audrey loved the canoe rides across the lake (she probably went on 4 different rides and is still talking about it). We played with stickers. I cut out the material/pattern for a dress I have been wanting to make (with LoAnn’s help and coaching). I finished a silly little washcloth for my sister who requested I use baby yarn with purple and pink tones. I conquered a more complicated knitting pattern I am making for Audrey Anne. I watched the first 3 episodes of John Adams (HBO mini series) with Ivan, LoAnn and Ben. I ate delicious pecan pancakes made by Michelene. I set up our room in the basement of the lodge looking out at the glistening lake, and of course I made it feel like a little home with a reading area included. I hit whiffle balls with Audrey. I made sun tea. And most of all I just stared and enjoyed doing not much.

It was another great reunion and I am glad I went.

1. You go to make a copy at the copy machine and before you have laid down the document into the feeder, your belly accidentally taps the copy button and makes an image of your arms laying the paper down.

2. You are massaging a friends shoulder’s at work who is completely stressed out. You are standing behind her chair and for some reason you can’t get close enough and your body mechanics seem off. You look down and realize, “Oh, there is a belly in the way.”

3. You go to lay flat on your belly in your big king size bed to read a book and flirt with your husband and there is something in the way and it feels like a volleyball that all of a sudden snuck up and placed itself between you and the bed. Curious.

4. Your shirts aren’t quite covering your mid section the way they used to.

5. Your toes are beginning to disappear when you look down.

6. You are placed flat in the dentist chair, and maybe just a bit in trendelenburg, and you all of a sudden feel a bit short of breath as the weight and mass of the baby in the womb slides north into your diaphragm.

7. You put your hand on your belly that once used to feel soft and smooshy with lots of woman curves and chub and now it is starting to feel hard and bubble like.

8. You first start feeling the little baby move around way down in your pelvis, kind of like a little butterfly fluttering its wings or a bubble popping. And all of a sudden, you are quite sure there is a little head pushing up above your belly button, jumping, as it seems on a pogo stick, on your bladder. Lovely.

9. You bend forward all prepared to tie your shoe and realize that this isn’t working so well. You can’t breathe and it is a bit painful. You are forced to put your foot up over your leg to reach the laces.

10. It has happened…your belly has almost instantaneously become a nice shelf to prop a book on when reading in your recliner. Fantastic!

[Enjoying my growing belly these days and finding it quite beautiful, actually.]

Last night, as I was chopping bell peppers, cucumbers and carrots for the salads, Ivan pulls out a little plastic bag and I knew instantly what it was…my heart leaped with excitement. As I ripped off my other rings that were in their place, I reached for the dazzling “new” wedding rings and slipped them on as if it was for the first time. I declared, “I feel like a newly married woman,” flashing my glittering rings under the lights of the kitchen.

Oh, to have my sapphire back on my finger brings me great pleasure. Thank you, my love, for picking out a truly lovely ring to adorn my hand as a reminder of the promise you made to me long ago.