Friday, November 27, 2015

Five Events That Changed My Life

Welcome to #FiveOnFriday!  Last week I talked about Five Reasons Why My Husband Is Awesome and this week I'm sharing about...

Five events that changed my life and what I learned from them:

1.  Living in Kenya. After my third year of teaching, Gary and I broke up (gasp!) and I took a year off to go teach in a remote village in Kenya.  When I say remote, I mean it; my new friend and I were the only mazungus (white people) in the village and to get to the internet we would have to take a bus for two hours.  It was incredibly beautiful and eye-opening.  Kids often take an education for granted here in Canada and this was not the case there; families worked so hard to send their kids to school. I gave all my girls a lined piece of white paper to write a quiz on and they asked if they could please keep the paper and not write on it because it was so nice.  A piece of lined white paper. In church, there was very little money to donate so people would bring food and sell it there to make money to donate.  We loved when someone brought eggs or potatoes that we could buy because otherwise we were mostly eating ugali (maize paste) and sukuma wiki (kale).

{PS The girls all had shaved heads, no jewelry, and uniforms so that there were no distractions from their studies}

2. Death of my mom. I learned that I only have so much control over things in my life.  You can read more about that here.  Oh, how I wish I could've talked with my mom as a mom myself.

{Last photo of us together}


3. Graves' Disease.  In 2009, when Koen was just 9 months old, I got very sick.  I lost about 20 lbs, my heart rate was elevated, I had no energy, I couldn't stop eating, I had insomnia...it wasn't fun.  Fortunately I was quickly diagnosed with Graves' Disease.  I learned that although it was likely brought on by hormonal changes postpartum, stress was a huge contributing factor.  I used to thrive off of stress; I would try to attack a "to do" list as quickly as possible and it felt so good.  I had to decrease the stress in my life which led to leaving my teaching job.  I now substitute teach once a week but I know my body couldn't handle working full-time along with a family.  I've been really working on being healthy and not trying to do it all.



4. Year 8 of marriage.  Early on in our marriage I thought that it was just so easy. We didn't invest a lot of time into it because it didn't seem to need it.  Before we knew it, we had three young kids and were not investing anything into each other.  I didn't like where we were and something HAD to change.  We talked about it and started working on it.  I love where we are now; we still put in so much work each day to make the other person a priority but it is worth it!  You can find some of my marriage posts here.



5. Having kids. Does anyone else ask themselves "Why did we have kids?!" It is a wild thing to give almost all your time, energy, and money to raise these little people that are just so messy and loud and...awesome.  I love them and my life is forever changed; in my mind I think of all they have to do, what I need to work on, and how to keep them safe.  There is only so much I can do and I have to trust God with the rest.  It is a wild ride of self-realization, exhaustion, and love.  Now, add in a foster child and, well, all those feelings are amplified!



So, there you have it. I would love to hear one thing that changed your life.  If you read this, you have to comment, it's a rule. Okay, it's not, but I'd love to hear it!



Don't forget to check out these other Canadian bloggers and their FiveOnFriday posts:
  • If you're interested in making life simpler, and also honesty from a nerdy mom of three, check out Shawna from Simple on Purpose.
  • For five funny things that will make you feel better about your own parenting skills, check out Jac and Juli at TwoFunMoms!
  • Local to Edmonton, this mom is blogging about a little bit of everything. Things to do with the family, a simple DIY, or life as a family of 5 here
  • Check out the blog that is basically all things in life at Eclectic Soapbox, because variety keeps it eclectic.
  • For Everything and the kitchen sink that happens in life, Check out Canadian Basics for your 5 on Friday for laughs and fun!
  • For tips on green living on a sensible budget with a smattering of parenting, ranting and raving, check out Juicy Green Mom!
  • Paula at Product Junkie

12 comments:

  1. Well, since I read your post I guess I had better comment. The event that most changed my life was definitely becoming a mother. How someone could sometimes wish for her old life back and yet fiercely love her baby cannot be explained!

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    1. Ha, you do anyway :) I love how you describe the dichotomy of it!

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  2. Going to UBC :) Growing up in a really small town has lots of benefits, but one of the downfalls is that I didn't have the experience of knowing a diverse group of people. Going to UBC and being exposed to such diversity in thinking, values, beliefs, etc. really impacted the person that I am now. And I met so many really great friends there ;)

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    1. Terri, so true! You small town, me Christian school my whole life. Loved the exposure too--didn't try sushi til I was 19 I think. So crazy. I met some good friends too :)

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  3. Adopting my children. It's been a complete game changer!

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    1. Three at once--wild!! I bet you could have a good FiveOnFriday with that :)

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  4. Having a baby and moving to Alberta! Both in the last six months... so crazy!!

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  5. Definitely getting married and having kids! :)

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    1. Yes! It's something you can sort of prepare for but not really so I think that's why it's so huge!

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  6. What a great list! Thanks for sharing it with us! It has me thinking now of what my list would say. (maybe I'll even blog about it!)

    Oh, and I had to tell you this: I saw you and your beautiful family in the grocery store tonight. Actually, I saw your husband first and thought hey, I know him, I should say hi! but then I realized that I only "know" him through your blog and don't actually "know" any of you!!! hahaha. But it was quite neat to see you all IRL. So, uhm, yeah, Hi! *waving* (neat to think we both live near-ish each other)

    Lori-Anne

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    1. We must live so close!! Oh boy, hopefully you didn't see me in the checkout when we were waiting for the code for turnips! ;)

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