Irish-ness

I don't believe I have any Irish blood in me, but I guess it's possible if checked far enough back. I'm half English, and half French with a little Native Canadian.

But then I went and married me an Irish boy and took on his Irish name. Jon's lineage is all Irish.

And this little bootie reminds me that I have another Irish connection:

Jon and I were on a short term missions trip to Northern Ireland the summer of 2000. We stayed in the country for four weeks, traveling to different areas and assisting churches with their children's outreach programs. Of course everyone had the initial jet lag to get over, but as the rest of our team was feeling better each day, my fatigue was only increasing. I thought the nausea was related to Jon's (crazy) driving along those narrow county roads, in addition to being tired. As various clues began to come together over the course of that first week, Jon and I slipped away one afternoon and bought a pregnancy test.

It was negative.

Two days later, however, another test read positive! We were SO surprised! Even though it was kind of planned, we never expected for it to happen so quickly. It took me weeks to mentally process the news, but in the mean time it was impossible to keep secret. Or to keep anything down.

I remember awkwardly calling our parents from a pay phone, and telling the rest of the team a day or so later. By that time we were moving to another location and it was decided by our contact in that area that I would be billeted in the home of a doctor. For the remainder of out time I lay in bed or hugged the toilet.

I was out of commission for the next 5 months, as was the case to a slightly lesser degree with my subsequent pregnancies.

But the following March - the Irish month - our healthy Olivia was born. I was so in love! I knew right away that I wanted to do it all over again because it was so worth it!

The funny thing is, for the next four or five years I couldn't even listen to someone speak with an Irish accent without feeling nauseous!

So to celebrate our Irish-ness we looked for the color green in our little world, which for today included our yard, Olivia's riding lessons, and a quick stop for some ice cream. And I did it all without feeling nauseous even once!

It was a fun little photographic assignment...

Now if my Irish boy could only hurry up and come home already!


Katherine