Why, hello there, Twenty-Eleven

We have about five more weeks to go until Baby G's due date, although I'm sort of hoping that he'll take after his mama and be early to everything.

I haven't been one of those pregnant women who spend their every waking minute thinking about the baby or baby-related stuff, but now that I've been home a lot more working on getting ready for his arrival, I find myself being more reflective. This is probably a good thing, considering he could be here a month from now.

One of the thoughts I had this weekend as we rolled into the new year was that to our baby, the 1900s will seem FOREVER ago. He will never have known living in the twentieth century. What's weirder was that I realized that he (and all our other children) will be born in an entirely different century than Nich and me. I don't know if this is at all mind-boggling to anyone else, but it was to me.

Something else I thought of yesterday: I was lying in bed, looking at the wedding picture we have on the wall of our bedroom and thinking how sometimes, it seems like just yesterday we got married and other times, I feel like we've been married forever (in a good way). Then I got to thinking about visiting other (older) people's homes and seeing their dated, yellowed wedding pictures. By the time our kids have the critical thinking skills to process our photos and memories, our wedding pictures will look to them as those old pictures do to me right now. This thought made me aware of how fast time is flying by.

2011 is going to be an exciting and challenging year for us. There are a lot of changes that we're anticipating, changes that will stretch us, grow us, mature us, and hopefully, push us closer together as a family and to God. I just listened to a sermon by Mark Driscoll on "fear not" and what that really means. I pray for a spirit of love, courage, and resilience as we enter 2011 and all it will bring.