The Almost Valentine's Day Post!

Before I get going on Valentine's Day, I just wanted to give a quick update on Taylor. First of all, thank you all so much for your prayers. She did finally get to go home from the hospital on Monday, and she even got to come off oxygen today. Debbie's parents flew in to spend the next 10 days helping them, so things are looking much better. Praise the Lord for healing!

As for the sweet and sugary holiday coming up in 3 days, do you remember exactly what you were feeling and experiencing last Valentine's Day? Will February 14th, 2008 forever be etched into your brain? Maybe some of you are saying, oh yeah, that was one of the best memories of my life! Maybe others are saying, I can't distinguish one Valentine's Day from another. And yet others of you may be saying, I don't celebrate Valentine's Day because it's a made-up holiday for the greeting card company to make more money. Fair enough. Whatever your feelings are on the subject, that's A-OK by me! But I've loved Valentine's Day for as long as I can remember. Not because it was a lovey dovey, mushy holiday, but because no matter what happened that day, my mom had bags, literally BAGS of candy waiting for me after dinner!! There's no hiding the fact that I'm a serious sugar junkie, so it was one of my favorite days of the year.

Now, you might be thinking, what in the world does all of this nonsense have to do with last February 14th? Good question! I will never forget that day as long as I live. Never. And I can sum it up for you in three simple words, I was pregnant. You all already know how rotten my pregnancy was, but just let me explain why it truly ruined Valentine's Day. Raise your hand if you remembered that I had pregnancy glucose intolerance, couldn't have ANY sugar, and was on a diabetic diet? High fives if you did! Not only was it dangerous for me to have sugar, but if I accidentally ate something that might have sugar in it, I was promptly reprimanded by having to hold my head over the toilet for the rest of the day. So, my usually candy filled day passed me by without even so much as a lick of sugar. Truly, that in and of itself is enough for me to say the day was rotten. BUT, that's not all.

In an earlier post, I had mentioned that I avoided leaving the house for the last 6 weeks of my pregnancy due to the gawking. However, my sweet and wonderful husband had gotten us our yearly reservation at Eddie Merlot's, and neither one of us wanted to miss it. One day a year, we like to sit in a ridiculously expensive restaurant and giggle uncomfortably about how we don't fit in. Against my better judgement, we went. Please remember, I was a walking watermelon at this point, and because Hopey was a chubby bear and squeezing my lungs so badly, I wound up with pregnancy induced asthma. Anyway, I walked into the restaurant waddling, wheezing, gasping for air, just minutes away from viewing my lunch in the toilet, and knowing that the moment I made eye contact with someone I was going to want to go home. Also, keep in mind that I had pregnancy pytalism, so I was drooling and spitting into a cup for all to see as well. Let me tell you, the evening did not disappoint! Not only did the waiter have to get someone to physically move our table because I couldn't fit my belly into the booth, but I also left my spit cup behind and had to have someone help me find it... Of course there was the ever present pointing and staring, but there were also those wonderful people that came up to me because they thought my belly was fake. They wanted to touch it to see if it was real or "go get one of their friends to see too." Ahhh, memories...

Ya know, looking back on it now, I guess I really was just feeling sorry for myself. But do you at least see why I'll never forget last Valentine's Day? Anyway, let me tell you, I'm looking SO MUCH more forward to this Valentine's Day! Just for fun, I'll leave you with last year's picture. Please remember that I still had a month left before Hopey was born! Tune in around the middle of March to see my final picture before delivery!