During our engagement in the year 2004, Brad and I had pre-marital counseling at our church. We took a compatibility test and aced it. :-) Our counselor had very few concerns about our future as a couple, in fact she said she had "only" one concern.
Miss Nancy looked at me and said, "Lauren, you are an extremely idealistic person...." Then she looked at Brad and continued, "But Brad you blew this test out of the water. You may be the most idealistic person I have ever met."
We didn't talk much about how idealism was a "concern", and
Brad and I left that church office on cloud nine.
"Wow!" we confidently exclaimed to one another,
"We are going to have the BEST marriage EVER!"
At the time, we didn't know the pitfalls that go along with being extremely idealistic. It took many, many experiences, especially in the first years of our marriage, to help temper our idealism. We learned through both hard and beautiful experiences how sometimes things don't work out exactly the way you hope they will.
Our visit to Williamsburg is now one of my most treasured memories of Jillian's first year of life, but it also had its fair share of hiccups!
For the first 15 months of Brad's graduate program, we chose to live in Maryland. Then, we booked tickets to move to England, three days before Jillian's 1st birthday.
Brad's parents offered to come help us with the move. I was confident I could get most of the packing done before they came, and didn't want them hanging out in a dreary apartment with boxes everywhere! So I suggested, let's make a visit to Williamsburg for Jillian's 1st birthday while they were visiting.
(My friends, why I wasn't more concerned about an international move with a BABY is why I brought up the story of our pre-marital counseling.)
Brad's parents helped us finish packing up some of our things at the beginning of their trip. Then several friends helped move all the furniture and boxes to our friends attic, where it was stored for the duration of our time in England.
Everything was going well, except I didn't realize how much of a toll the move had taken on my husband. He was exhausted and wasn't up to walking the streets of colonial Williamsburg.
After a wonderful first afternoon/ evening of exploring Williamsburg, Brad developed a high fever and began shaking uncontrollably. We called 911 and he was transported to a local hospital in an ambulance.
At the hospital, it was discovered that Brad had low potassium and was severely dehydrated. Brad spent most of our time in Williamsburg in the hotel resting under his mom's watchful care. Meanwhile, Brad's dad, Jillian, and I tried to give Brad as quiet of a room as possible and did a little sight-seeing of the city.
When we arrived back in Maryland, our entire family was invited to stay with dear friends (no dreary apartment with air mattresses)! It was a wonderful place for Brad to re-cooperate. However, he was still extremely weak and actually had to go back to the hospital for a second time.
Thankfully, God always gives you exactly what you need,when you need it. Everything that needed to be done for the move was accomplished. While Brad's mom watched Jillian, Brad's dad, a friend, and I cleaned the apartment spic-and-span. We got our full deposit back for our apartment, which was a huge blessing to get back while on our graduate school stipend. I was able to finish packing up all our suitcases (that had most all of the things we used/ wore for the time we were in England) for the move and we were ready to go.
The night before our departure, we had a 1st birthday party for Jillian before saying good-bye to our friends and Maryland for 20 months. We MOVED to England three days after our time at Williamsburg ended. It was a whirlwind of a time and a trip I will never forget.
This last weekend, we took a second trip to Williamsburg, and here are some thoughts and photos, both then and now.
The drummers are still drumming and
marching down the old streets of Colonial Williamsburg
She has gone from a babe sitting in my lap....
to an elegant young lady sitting on her own.
From a nearly one-year old who liked to hold her Mimi's hand to keep herself steady,
(as well as a little one who could always give her mama the most mischievous of grins)
to a girl who holds herself with grace and poise.
From mommy and daddy being in the gallows
to a nearly nine-year old who happily offers herself for the photo opportunity! :-)
The Governor's Palace
but my little girl is no longer
the baby I dressed in little overalls and held in my arms EIGHT YEARS ago.
I praise God that He is given me all wonderful nine-years with my precious girl! It was fun to visit a place of meaningful history, both for Williamsburg and my sweet Jillian.
More of our adventures in Williamsburg to come....we had a terrific visit in time.
No comments:
Post a Comment