Megan's Back at Work!

Hello, friends!

After a beautiful 12 weeks of maternity leave, Megan has returned to work! Here are some of her thoughts on her first day back:

It's true the months leading up to childbirth are filled with nesting instincts. For some reason it was essential for me to clean the walls, base boards, and every nook and cranny of our home before having all of my kids. I think one of those reasons is because post birth there is little time or thought that goes into keeping the house in order. At the moment of birth all attention goes towards keeping that baby alive and the other kids healthy.

In November we welcomed Jonah into our family and the last 3 months I had the privilege of a wonderful maternity leave.

The first 7 weeks of Jonah's life were filled with Drs appointments, a hospital stay for RSV, and then more appointments following. We also had stream of visitors come and help us adjust to a family of 5. As time wore on we got into more of a rhythm. One of the things that I am thankful for is having childcare for the older two kids for the normal days that I would be working. That way I was able to have some more bonding time with just Jonah and get some of the much needed work done around the house. You might have read about some of that time through Adam's blog.  I wanted to share here some of my own reflections and what I have learned.

ONE: RELEASING CONTROL IS HARD FOR ME
There are so many things that you just can't control with a baby.  One of my biggest concerns with having a winter baby was flu and respiratory season. With Ezra and Thaliea I wasn't so concerned about that since they were summer babies. We had so many students come over and hold them, flew with them at 2 or 3 months, etc. With Jonah we were more careful, enforcing hand sanitizing, masks for the kids when Thaliea was sick the same day Jonah was born, and had very few visitors. Regardless of how much I tried to control, Jonah still ended up sick. Each year I ask God for a word for the year. But since I am extra, I usually do more than one word. Last year was Cling to Jesus. When I asked the Lord for a word for this year while we were in the hospital I sensed that "Relinquish Control" is in addition to Cling to Jesus. So even with all that I can't control, I am asking God to help me relinquish control to Him.

This also has been relevant as January was the process of attending kindergarten round ups and deciding on a kindergarten placement for Ezra. We feel we are doing the best we can to ensure our kids have a place they can thrive in school but in the end, we can't control every experience they have.

TWO: I HAVE A CHOICE
A few weeks ago I listened to the That Sounds Fun podcast where Annie F Downs interviewed the IF Gathering founder Jennie Allen who recently wrote the book "Get Out of Your Head: Stopping the Spiral of toxic thoughts" Now normally I am not into self-helpy books and that is what this book sounded like to me. But, that morning I had the thought - "Am I a good Mom?" When I listened to the podcast I thought, man, I do get sucked down into some pretty negative thinking. So I ordered the book and have really been enjoying it. She talks about how we have a choice when those negative thoughts come - to as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10:5 - "take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ." This is especially important for me post partum. So I have been trying to practice the discipline of when I am feeling like my thoughts are spiraling out of control to do a mental map of where is that emotion coming from and instead releasing it to Jesus and receiving His truth about what He says about me and the situation. This is a discipline I want to take with me as I begin to work again.

Have an excellent day!

~Megan (Adam)