On God's Time, But That Guy's Got a Sense of Humor

Linking up with Blessed Is She and #BISsisterhood, to talk about God's timing.

Our oldest child was born 9 1/2 months after our wedding. We get a lot of questions about if he was a "honeymoon baby", and subtle (along with not so subtle) inquiries about if he was an "oops".

Short answer is: not really and no. We had decided to "try to whatever" (TTW) for that cycle. We had no strong reasons to wait, but were not actively trying to conceive either.

It had occurred to me that having a baby at that point, my senior year of college and while I was writing my thesis and working as a TA and an Admissions Coordinator, might present some challenges. Not so much on not being able to do the work, that was fun at that point, but on being a pregnant woman at a school that tended to ignore the realities of reproduction.

My whole first trimester, I was a TA for Introduction to Women's Studies. You know, the class where we talk about women's issues all day all the time. I could not bring myself to tell anyone in that class for a while. When I finally did, they didn't believe me.

According to these women, pregnancy was hard, and scary, and potentially life threatening as a matter of course. I could not possibly be pregnant if I had been showing up for class, not sick constantly, and looking even more healthy than normal.

It was a hard, but enlightening discussion. A conversation that wouldn't have occurred if we had waited the more typical 2-5 years after the wedding to be open to conceiving. 

Reality finally set in for them when I came back for the last semester showing considerably more than in the Fall, but it continued to be an uphill battle to be seen as a capable person.

I'm not sure I would have had the courage to go through a pregnancy then if I had known the fight I was in for, but God knew. That guy knew the consequences of placing someone who challenged so many assumptions right smack in the middle of that class. 

I was there on purpose. I continue to be where I am on purpose - it's just not solely my purpose. And that's a good thing. It's how God keeps me from whimping out. He gets me.