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03 August 2013

Too long... Find Your Voice Workshop Lesson Four

Life seems to have a habit of getting in the way.  I am behind on lessons for the workshop but I'm determined to get them all done.  They just might take me a while.

Lesson Four was definitely a difficult one for me.  It was all about storytelling style.  For my crafty project I decided to go with a simple page layout and then telling the same story with words. 

First the picture



The words are quite difficult to read but it is about my daughter who is home for the summer but will be going back to Uni at the end of the month.  She is moving into a flat this school year with a year long lease so she won't be back for summer next year.  It's a difficult time for me but a proud moment too as she is learning to fly!

The following are the story I wrote that expand on the page above

    It just seems like yesterday that she was a little girl.  Now she’s getting ready to move to another town and into her own apartment.  I’m not sure where the time has gone.  I remember when I fell pregnant for her.  She was a surprise.  We already had two children, two boys just three and one.  We had just signed on a two-bedroom mobile home.  There was no way we could see ourselves fitting into the home for long.  I remember crying being both happy and scared at the same time.  The birth of my younger child hadn’t gone so well and I was scared to have another. 
    All through the pregnancy I was worried.  I can’t say I enjoyed it too much.  The thought of childbirth scared me.  I think that’s why I put off going to the hospital for so long.  It was December 18th when I went into labour.  My MIL and FIL took hubby, the two boys and myself to a neighbouring town to see the lights for Christmas.  I knew that I was in labour but having gone through it twice I knew it would be a while.  Besides, the thought of going to the hospital scared me.  Not sure what I thought I was going to do!  I couldn’t avoid it forever.
    We got home and, after I had got the boys settled, I tried to lay down and sleep for a while.  It didn’t work.  I even tried relaxing in a bath and that didn’t work.  I hadn’t got to do any of those things when I had the boys.  Finally we had to call MIL and have her come over to watch the boys while hubby took me to the hospital.  It was December 19th. 
    Labour was pretty intense as we drove to the hospital.  The roads in Kalamazoo down to the hospital are bumpy and I felt every bump.  I could barely sit down by the time we reached the hospital.  I was wheeled straight up the Labour ward.  I couldn’t sit by this point.  I remember being in the lift, sitting in the wheelchair holding myself up by my hands.  The orderly looked quite nervous.
    Up in the ward the nurse asked if my water had broke.  I said no and stood up to get up onto the bed and it broke.  Despite having two kids I’d never had my water break naturally.  It was a very strange feeling.  From there on I remember the experience to be something out of a comedy show or a funny film.  I shouted the baby was coming.  Hubby said no I had to hold on.  I said no I couldn’t the baby was coming.  The nurse helped me off with my trousers and up onto the bed.  She hit the emergency button.  From there it was only minutes until our new baby arrived.  We had chosen not to know the sex of our new edition so it was a lovely surprise to discover she was a girl.   Waist up I was still dressed in my winter coat bundled off to fend off the Michigan winter weather. 
    She made such a dramatic entrance to the world this lovely surprise of ours.  Over the years there have been challenges – when we were told the doctors were pretty sure she had one hip notably lower than the other (it turned out not), when doctors thought she had eye problems (not), and when she didn’t start to talk as early as she should (yes, she had speech problems).  There have been lots of joys too – when she took part in her first grade presentation and she had to say the word ‘cloud’ that she couldn’t say.  She practised and practised and on the day she managed to say the word! The joy when she took part in plays in middle school and did behind the stage work.  The joy when she became editor of the newspaper in High School and the happiness I felt last year when my Mum came over from England to watch her graduate from High School with a 4.0 grade point average.
    Now that she is getting ready to move out I think of all these things and lots, lots more.  I had never been one of those people that wished for a daughter but I am so, so glad that I had her.  I am so very proud of her accomplishments and the decisions she has made.  She is turning into a glorious woman.

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