Giving birth naturally was genuinely the most empowering thing I've ever done. There was this epic space of white-hot-infinite-silence that I entered at the end, after about seven hours of pushing, that made me come out of it a different person. I don't know how else to describe it. I will always remember that day as being extremely transformative for me. I felt strengthened and more confident in all of my abilities.
Though my husband and I had a sweet wedding ceremony, I have come to realize that the day we truly got married was the day Lyra was born. After doing that together we can do anything. I was really fortunate to have had the experience, as Lyra was a VBAC birth, and so many hospitals around the country are still actively against to the idea. I hope that as time passes more moms can get the opportunity I had. All births are special, my firstborn's birth was an emergency C-section and it was a right of passage in its own right!
So Let's see, what has happened during Lyra's first year of life? Quite a lot indeed! Here's the shorthand version:
1. Lyra was born
2. We got married (kinda twice...)
3. We bought a house
4. We moved to a new town
5. Ryan got his Master's degree in music composition
6. I rebranded my business and it is about to explode
7. We re-committed ourselves to a more sustainable life
8. Alex started kindergarten
Longhand version:
My husband and I planned a "non-traditional" wedding for September 14th, only for a very unfortunate "1000 year flood," to wash away our plans along with many of our Boulder neighbors' homes! We regrouped, and had a small wedding in October accompanied by our two children. Alex walked me down the aisle :) We wrote our own vows and had a small gathering of what family and friends could make it to our "do-over" wedding, and had dinner at our favorite Indian restaurant.
Then weeks later, we took a huge leap of faith and bought a house, totally out of nowhere really. Seriously, let's just be honest, it was off the cuff. I normally research and plan big things like that to death, so that was new for us.... Our rental house was the best we could afford and after the flood it was becoming a literal bio-hazard of old mold infested rapidly decaying lead paint. I couldn't stand to raise my children there a minute longer. We knew we couldn't afford to rent anywhere else, had virtually no money to buy, and could see the real estate sky rocketing in the town we wanted to live in, so we got an FHA loan and sprang before it was too late. We used the wonderful Dunbar Hardy as our Realtor. He found my mom's home, as well as my brother's, so we knew we were in good hands. He was so efficient and proactive and really got things done for us! I am SO glad we bought this home. It hasn't even been six months since we bought it, and real estate has already gone up so much that we couldn't get a good condo for the price we paid for this house. It was a fixer-upper for sure, but a worthwhile investment I'd say. We blew up IKEA, painted it top to bottom, replaced the trim, bought new appliances, and replaced every inch of flooring. Still to be done? New hot water heater, new furnace, new roof, new exterior paint, radon mitigation, annnnd I'm going to stop there before I have a stroke. But seriously we love it here. It has an awesome yard, I am growing viable vegetables for the first time ever (no way I was growing veggies in our lead poisoned dirt at the old house), and we all have our own rooms (no more sleeping in the living room for Ryan and I!)
Now I feel like I'm running on forever so I'll just end this and catch up on the rest later. Needless to say it's been an AMAZING and exciting year for the Connell family. I'm off to make strawberry buttermilk cake for Lyra's birthday party!
-Annie
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