this last week has had many high highs and a few low lows. we’ve had to stay in hospital a few extra nights to give our newest little member photo-therapy to treat his jaundice. it’s no big deal, but i have been quite disappointed that we haven’t been able to reunite our family for a week and i had a good cry over it yesterday. but today is a new day & at least i get to spend more precious one-on-one time with my little man.

we have had an incredible amount of support from our parents while we’ve been in hospital. mark’s folks stayed with him & the kids for four days, and my folks are on an “on call” basis if we need anything whatsoever. i cannot speak highly enough of living close to family!! it is the best. i honestly don’t know how you ladies raise your kids so incredibly well when you live so far from your families – truly, you are an inspiration & i know you don’t get much sleep or downtime at all which must be so hard.

since we’ve had so much help, mark has been able to come visit us in hospital on most afternoons and during the evenings. it has been so strange to sit in a room together, not at home (with no housework to do or study/work to complete), no talking/walking kids about, face to face in mostly silence (with perhaps a radio playing in the background in special care nursery). it has forced us to talk. this may sound strange, but at this stage in life with so much going on i really don’t think we talk (i mean really talk) much at all. our conversations are always truncated due to kids or work or because this needs washing and that needs cleaning etc. (how glamorous our life sounds!). what i’ve re-learned about our marriage is that being an introvert (which feels like it is exacerbated with kids) i generally don’t talk … when i need downtime it means serious alone time, but i’m married to a chatterbox. it took me a few days to get used to this aspect of mark’s character. at first i didn’t know how to react to all his chatting – i felt like a fish out of water. i even said to him, “you’re a real chatterbox you know!”. but as the days & nights have gone on i have fallen in love with this part of mark all over again. somehow he just knows how to fill the silence with all things that are lovely, noble and good. this has been especially good for me these last two days. i didn’t realise how much he keeps me up to date on our kids & families, the news (which i rarely read these days), all things education, our church, his thoughts on this and that. upon reflection of the last 4 years since kids, sometimes i feel like i’m ‘too busy’ for all this chatting. but when we go home i am going to make more time & space for it. it is a wonderful thing that my husband communicates – wants to communicate – with me about everything. there is nothing that he wants to hide or keep from me. in fact, it’s the opposite – he wants me to know all the little details. a friend posted the article ‘3 things i wish i knew before we got married‘ on Facebook yesterday. it is a great read if you want a little bit of encouragement and a challenge to continue to work on your marriage.

oh, and mark also likes giant prawns

xx