Beautiful...

Last week was, well....it was great and terrible all at the same time! A week of bed rest for someone who never stays still is almost a form of torture. But at the same time, I saw so much love from my friends and neighbors, and so many unasked for blessings, that it was a great week as well! My kids were taken care of, others took them to and from their various camps and meetings, and took them to the park for play time. Dinners were brought in so Teagan didn't have to be the one in charge of making dinner every night... any need we had, it was met before we even thought about asking for any help! We live in such a wonderful neighborhood with so many beautiful and lovely friends...it makes me sad to think that we are leaving this little piece of heaven at the end of the year.

After 4 days of being on strict bed rest, I gave up and went grocery shopping Thursday night to get the food I was in charge of for the up coming wedding. I had some fun experiences shopping, that I'll have to explain in another post :-) Friday came and went and even though I didn't stay on complete bed rest, I did stay off my feet as much as possible and took it easy to save up energy for a busy weekend.

And then Saturday came. The day of the big wedding for my niece, Salinee. We got up to the north side of town early to help prepare food and get everything ready. I sat down while we worked on the catering and kept my feet up when I wasn't needed. As the wedding time got closer, Salinee and her mom asked if I would take pictures of her getting ready. She had someone gift her a photographer for the wedding, but they didn't want him there while she was getting dressed and ready, so I was more than happy to step in!

I got to see all the different phases she went through while waiting. Like being giddy with excitement:And being bored of having to stay boxed up in her little waiting room area waiting for the wedding party to arrive and line up. And her overwhelming anxiousness. She peeked outside to watch the last minute preparations being made and to see who was arriving. Then things started to move quickly. Her brides maids and maid of honor came and brought a lot of emotions with them. And then her dad arrived and everything seemed to get so definite and real.
You could see the pride and love in his eyes every time he looked down at his little girl. The bittersweet emotions were evident on his face - loving the young woman she is today, missing the girl she was yesterday, and looking forward to the woman she'll be tomorrow.
The ceremony was beautiful. The decorations were beautiful. She was beautiful.
She and her new husband glowed with love and happiness throughout the whole ceremony and on into the reception.
Her other photographer was busy taking pictures, so I walked around snapping shots of what I love most...my beautiful children! Owen looked so dashing, with his collar open and sleeves rolled up!
And then my camera started to fizzle out and eventually died. I wasn't thrilled in the least about that, but it did let me realize that I needed to sit down again and rest. Once I did, I had time to notice that the contractions were coming pretty close...like every 4 minutes.

We stayed at the reception for little while, let the kids eat and play with their cousins while I lounged on a chaise lounge in the corner. But after a couple hours with no slowing down of the contractions, we decided to leave early and we missed the toast and cake cutting.

After a phone call to the doctor, Scott dropped me off at the hospital and took the kids home. Three and a half hours later, I came home with orders for another 2 days of bed rest and a prescription to take every 6 hours for the next 5 weeks to keep the contractions down.
It was a beautiful day with a not as beautiful ending. But on the up side, I got to hear Sparky's heartbeat for a long while again (which as wonderful), was told he was a picture perfect baby (again!) and I was assured that I am not dilated at all yet, and this time it was only bed rest for 2 days instead of a week. So all in all, things ended just as beautifully as they started. Beauty is all in the eye of the beholder, right?