Tag: otherness

a family (a cat and person at computer)

A Family’s a Family No Matter How Small (or big)

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As my husband and I have been trying for almost 2 years to get pregnant with our second child (it’s been 22 months of trying to be exact), there’s been a lot of time to process and think (and rethink!) over my feelings.

Blogging has been an eye-opening way to chronicle my journey of trying to conceive. As I go back and reread old posts, I can remember the times when I felt hopeful, fully anticipating that pregnancy was going to happen for me at any moment. Then came the shock of hitting the 12-month mark with still no baby – of realizing that I had suddenly become a statistic, the 1 out of every 8 couples dealing with infertility.

After about a year and a half of trying, and after being evaluated and realizing we had some fertility challenges, I started coming to terms with the fact that my husband, son, and I might always be a family of three. I grieved, I accepted, I (mostly) made peace.

I love my family and think we’re pretty great! But I hate feeling like others view us as an “only” family. We “only” have one kid. If “only” our family was different, we would be complete.

There’s no one right way for a family to look – I’m always disappointed when I hear people say things like, “when are you going to have kids?” or “when are you going to get married?” 

What do you mean when? Why do you presume that everyone needs to follow some prescribed path like we’re playing the Game of Life, filling up our little plastic car with pink and blue peg people?

I recently came across the following tweet and have found it so validating:

Yes, a couple is a family. A person living alone can be a family. Roommates can be family. Pets can be family. The friends and people you choose to invite into your life are family. 

Having children is not the only way to be a family. 

As I continue to think about my life of being a mother to “only” one, my sweet son Calvin, I prepare myself for the inevitable comments from “concerned” observers:

Don’t you worry about Calvin becoming spoiled if he’s an only child?

Won’t Calvin be lonely without any brothers or sisters?

You should consider fostering or adoption. 

I think for the most part, people who say these types of things are wanting to be helpful. But I have to say I’ve never found these comments helpful in the least – they are invalidating, insensitive, and offensive. Having kids (or more kids) does not automatically solve problems or make raising a child easier. Most of these issues need intentionality and time to be addressed.  

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2022

My Word for 2022: Forgive

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After writing my last post, it got me thinking a lot about forgiveness. It’s been a topic that has been surfacing again and again in the last few months, and I’m thinking that I need to take note of it. 

I have a hard time with forgiveness. I’m sure everyone does to some extent, but I realized recently that my personality is wired to make it extra challenging. I’m an Enneagram 1 – and Ones are described as having a “strong, innate desire for fairness, accuracy, and order. They tend be bold advocates for the rights of others and when healthy, may challenge the status quo to make push for reforms and equality.” 

The book The Road Back To You calls Enneagram 1s “Reformers.” But another word that is also accurate is “Perfectionist.” Ones don’t like mistakes. They want things to be fair. Getting taken advantage of, or seeing another person get taken advantage of, is extremely aggravating for Ones. Ones often have issues with resentment and unexpressed anger.

All of that mixed together in one personality can make it very hard to forgive. I think a lot of Enneagram 1s also find it hard to offer forgiveness to themselves, due to their constant inner critic. 

Fairness and justice are wonderful things. Being an advocate for those who can’t advocate for themselves is awesome – and hooray to Ones for upholding those values. 

But it sure makes the world a hard place to live in sometimes. Life is not fair, it’s not always just. People are selfish and make mistakes. 

My personal focus for last year was “spiritual bravery.” I wanted to have more faith and courage in God. I wanted to release my desire to control everything all of the time. It was a good focus, and I’ve grown in faith and spiritual courage this past year. 

As I thought ahead to 2022, even though I was not super excited about it, all signs pointed to one word: Forgiveness. 

What were the signs, you may wonder? I had recently attended a Bible class at my church, and the teacher made the following statement:

“If you read everything that Jesus said in the Bible, and there’s not something that bothers you, you’re not paying attention.”

Randy Harris
Bible

He was specifically referencing Jesus asking us to forgive others, even those who don’t deserve it. (Matthew 18:21-22)

Then less than a week later, I found myself in a situation where I was really angry with a friend and needed to forgive her. I thought of a lot of reasons not to, and tried to rationalize with myself that she didn’t deserve for me to forgive her yet again. But then I remembered that Bible class, and I remembered what God calls me to do: forgive others. 

If I’m honest, I don’t want this to be my focus. (And that’s part of the reason why I am confident this is supposed to be my word for this year!) It’s going to be a challenge, and something that I am confident I will fail at many times.

But I know I need to be more intentional about fostering forgiveness, and I need to practice it more often so that hopefully down the road, it won’t be as difficult as it feels today. Honestly, I think the only way I’m going to make any progress at it is going to be through the grace of God, and his transforming power.

If you’ve grown up going to church or reading the Bible to any extent, you’ve probably heard many verses and sermons about forgiveness. So at this time, I won’t go into all the reasons why, from a Biblical perspective, we should forgive. (But if you’re interested, I found a site that goes into depth on 10 reasons why the Bible tells us to forgive – or you can always grab a Bible and do your own studying.)

My top reasons for wanting this to be my focus for this year do revolve around God and personal spiritual growth. But even if you don’t consider yourself a religious or spiritual person, there are still some great reasons to forgive others.

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An Open Letter to the Person Who Cut Me in the School Pick Up Line

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Dear person who cut in front of me in the after-school pick up line today,

What a sad day indeed to have witnessed such a calamity on this 25th day of August! I couldn’t believe my eyes when your red sedan swooped into the (very small) opening between myself and the silver van in front of me as we were inching closer to the school entrance. I honked, but you didn’t seem to notice. Perhaps I should have honked louder or more numerously than I did. Perhaps I should have gotten out and knocked on your window to let you know that you had committed a serious faux pas.

Have you ever been in a line before, dear red sedan driver? If you haven’t, I will gladly tell you how it works: first, you must take note of the end of the line (in this case, the last car in the pick up line) and then place yourself behind the last vehicle, thus yourself becoming now the last vehicle in line. Then you wait. (And wait and wait and wait some more.) As you are waiting, more cars will likely line up behind you (as is the proper way for a line to form), and then as the line moves, you will move up slowly to the front to pick up your elementary school student waiting for you.

The elementary student you picked up today has had lots of practice being in line – they were lined up waiting very nicely at the orange cone for you to arrive and pick them up. Perhaps you could ask this student how to properly wait in a line?

I admit, I did snap a picture of your car… and your license plate… as we ended up side by side in the two-laned pickup area. You didn’t seem to notice me, but seemed very focused on your steering wheel. I applaud your desire for vehicle safety (I can only assume that’s why you wouldn’t risk a glance at me.)

I also confess, that I had many ideas initially of what I could do with these pictures I obtained of your car. Post them to social media, maybe to the school district’s Facebook page? Make flyers and tape them up all over the elementary school? Make a “WANTED” sign in an old western style (that could be kind of fun!) Turn it into a meme?

It would, however, do me no good to provide you the justice you deserve, because then I would find myself becoming the type of person I don’t want to be. The fact that I entertained such vengeful ideas of reciprocation against you (as outlined in the prior paragraph) shows how easy it is to find oneself considering all sorts of evil against another person. How quickly we (I speak in terms of humankind) like to make enemies of one another!

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