PART 1 ⇢

Hey y’all!

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, the main reason why I decided to start a blog was because of my beautiful, unexpected blessing, Ripley. With that being said, I wanted to dedicate a few posts to explain my pregnancy story. {P.S. this may be a bit on the longer side, so hang with me!}

First; let me talk about my husband, Cristian. We started dating on 11/11/11 {I know super cheesy and romantic, and it was all his idea! Lol} which was our freshman year of high school. We dated all throughout high school, and always said, “we HAVE to go to college at the same place, or at least within driving distance” because we spent almost every single day together and could not imagine being apart for so long! Well little did we know, that we would end up going to schools that were 800 miles apart and a 12 hour drive…on a good day. This decision was an incredibly difficult one, but we knew it was the decision that was best for both of us and looking back, I am so glad we did.

————– to go on a little tangent here…every couple is different and whether or not you decide to go to the same college as your significant other or not, is up to you. However, in my case, I am so thankful we decided to go our own way for college. If we did go to the same school, I don’t think we would have made all the amazing friends we did. Plus, we always had such good conversation in person or on the phone since our lives were completely different for the years we spent apart. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t always sunshine and rainbows, but in the long run, the distance allowed us to grow both as individuals and a couple. Not to mention that the times when we finally did get to see each other were all the more valuable.

I guess no matter how you look at this situation we were faced with at twenty one years old, one of the first, and most obvious blessings was the fact that we were no longer going to be twelve hours away from one another.

We both have always loved children, and were around them quite frequently. Cris’s mother owns a Montessori school which allowed us to see her students often. When we found out we were going to have a baby, the fear of an actual child was not our concern AT ALL, honestly we both were so excited about that element. It was more the fear of the unknown, considering we both had a year of classes left – naturally not having full time jobs either since we were still in school…so that was a huge stressor for us. I can’t speak for him but I was also so afraid of what people would think of us being so young, which turned out to be so stupid because raising a child at our age is empowering to me in a weird way. It fills me with joy to look at Ripley and realize that he is going to experience us in our prime, and share so many memories with us that we can’t even fathom at the current moment.

✰ There have been so many seasons of life where I’ve seen the Lord’s promises and goodness through my sweet Ripley. Just this past June, Cris walked across the stage of his college graduation holding our son. I look at the picture of Cris holding Ripley, diploma in hand; a sweet reminder to me that this life as a family of three is a good one. James 1:17 reads, “Every good and perfect gift is from above.” As I read this verse and think about Ripley; my soul sings in praise, raising a hallelujah for the best gift of all.

That something maybe .5% of people will ever/have ever experienced and I feel so blessed to have been able to witness and provide Ripley with that experience.

I’ll stop babbling about this for now and just end with saying that I never expected in a million years to spend my senior year of college raising my son, but honestly I wouldn’t have changed that year for anything in the world.

☄︎ Blasting off,

The Rocket Mama ✰✰