Extremely Pregnant

<- Enjoying Brazil at 21 1/2 weeks (2 1/2 weeks ago - even "pregnanter" today! :)

That's how I've been feeling in the last CRAZY days. Which is funny considering that I'm not even officialy 6 months along yet (but close - 24 weeks today).

What do I mean by "crazy" days, you might ask? Well, let me count the ways. It started with us packing like maniacs for our move to Texas - hubby's wonderful family came over and helped us with the ordeal. Then they drove us to the airport, where we'd be off to Brazil while they drove all of our earthly possessions across country. Gotta love 'em!

This trip to Brazil had been scheduled way before we ever knew we'd move, so it turned out that a million of important happenings ended up one after the other - the Brazil trip (to visit my family), the move AND, just for excitement's sake, also a writer's conference thrown in (I flew to St. Louis the morning after we arrived in Texas).

Oh, and may I remind you the baby inside me did NOT stop growing?? :) When all of this started, I felt semi-normal, not totally comfortable running around but pretty okay. The trip to Brazil was hard just because of Melissa's hatred towards the plane, but surprisingly, not because of backaches or any of the issues I had throughout my entire pregnancy with her. I did have a very very dizzy moment though, but thank God, we were already in Brazil, where people usually don't see the problem with staring at each other - which works wonders when you need someone to see you're about to faint and put in front of the line. So crisis averted :).

In Vitoria (my hometown), I started feeling the symptoms of extreme pregnancy-ities around our first trip to the mall. Let's just say this was not the experience I remembered having as a teen. My feet did not use to swell, and I did not walk like a duck who needed to go to the bathroom. I was like, really?? I'm barely pregnant!! Okay, 5 months isn't barely, but it isn't the end of the line either. And wasn't I packing up boxes like crazy just the week before? How come now I could barely stand to maneuver my purse?

So needless to say, my trip to Brazil was a lot less productive then I'd envisioned. We did enjoy the beach and the pool, but not nearly as often as I'd hoped. And in between several family visits (haven't seen most of them for almost 5 years), I wasn't able to go out with a girlfriend once. I feel guilty even typing this - there were some dear, dear people I didn't call not because I didn't miss them, but because I was afraid they'd think otherwise when I'd tell them I wouldn't have a chance to see them. It's so hard to explain to non-pregnant people that you can only handle so much socializing during the day, before your belly muscles start aching as if your baby's saying, "mom, ENOUGH".

After our Brazilian odyssey, we arrived in our new ADORABLE Texas home. Hubby's family not only drove our stuff here, they also organized most of it AND redecorated the place (painted walls, changed carpets, etc). I don't think we could ever, ever repay them. We'd thought we'd have to stay at hubby's parents' house until everything got settled, but the place looked so homey already (despite just a few boxes around) that we could move in right away. Yay!!

BUT the very next morning, I still had a plane to catch to St. Louis, where I'd attend the American Christian Fiction Writers' conference. My body said no but my heart said yes, so there I went. It was one of those things that, if you don't go, you'll never know what would've happened.

And I'm glad I did! It was so cool meeting my awesome writing mentor Betsy St. Amant, and making fun friends like my other roomie, Jenness Walker. And I only really felt my extreme-pregnancy-ities towards the end - the first couple of days, I was in an adrenaline rush, absorbing the huge amount of information around me, and getting starstruck every time I turned around. Even made some good connections for my writing, but I refrain from speaking about them further in order not to jinx them hehe.

So now, after this hurricane of adventures and emotions (like a soap opera commercial lol), I'm finally home. We're still putting a lot of stuff away, and fixing some things here and there, but it feels amazing already. Just being here in Texas feels right. David and I keep trying to find the exact reasons, but the thing is, God's led us here, pure and simple. And there's nothing better than being where He wants you to be - even if it's all over the place until you find your sweet spot :).