Graveyard Shift

This week Cameron is starting his new shift for the year. He will now be working in a different part of the city and his hours will be from 8pm - 6am. That means my low-man-on-the-totem-pole husband got the lovely graveyard shift. It's really strange to wake up or be awake for my new day when he hasn't yet slept for yesterday. I think it makes him mad when he comes home and I'm up already. What can I say? He's the one that married an early bird. If I recall correctly, when I married him he was an early bird too. I know he'd rather have a daytime shift over graves, but we are going to make the best of our reality.

When preparing for this shift change, there was quite a bit of frustration over it on Cameron's part. He was frustrated mostly over the part of town he'll be working in because it's not quite as busy with "fun" stuff. I took that time to think of a list of positives for this graveyard reality. I was really proud of myself when I could come up with one he couldn't refute. Here's what I came up with, in no particular order:

1. We get to eat dinner together. With his last schedule we only ate dinner together 3 days a week. 
2. He gets to come back to Sunday Dinner. He couldn't come for over a year and this is a really special family dinner we do with my mom and that side of our family. Our niece, Taylar, has been asking for a long time when he'd get to come back since she missed him. A few weeks ago she asked her mom when Uncle Cam would be coming back and she told her "just 2 more weeks." Taylar said, "That's not a lot!" We are all pretty excited to have him back at this family tradition. 
3. You don't have to wear sunscreen. My husband shaves his head, which leaves him susceptible to major sunburns on his head in the AZ sun. He liked this one. :) 
4. It won't be as hot. He liked this one a lot too since he wears so much gear. 

I think those were the only ones I could come up with that he couldn't find something wrong with. He's worked 2 nights of it now, and he's had a great time. I'm thinking he'll really like it when he's into the swing of it. The only concern is how his body will deal with the wacky sleeping schedules. We'll just have to figure out the details as we get into it. 

Lots of people look at me really concerned when they know that my husband works at night. They often ask me how I deal with it. To be honest it doesn't bother me. I rarely get spooked by noises in our house. I am a great sleeper, so that's not an issue. I always tell people and remind myself that we'll just make it work. We can't worry too much about how many issues an opposite schedule could bring up. We just have to take a step forward and work with it. I do, however, wonder how it will work when we have a little one. I will be braving four nights a week alone with the little one. That will be interesting but I can't wait for those sleepless nights. 

***Tomorrow is the big match meeting day. Don't forget to pray for us and the birth mom. I think it would be really strange to sit on her side of the table and try to decide on parents for the little life inside of you. I know this meeting can be is always stressful. I know that I will be sweaty and red-faced and shaking. What a lovely sight for the possible mother to your unborn child! Thanks to Christina for buying me deodorant before our last match meeting. Her daughter, Bailey, tells her that "Miss Kim needs deoder." You two are so thoughtful. 

I'll keep everyone posted about how it goes, good or not quite as good. 

Fearless Leader

Yesterday we went hiking up north with my mom and step-dad. The trail was supposed to be about 7 miles long. So we grabbed lunch and waters and set out for a fairly quick hike. Well, the trail was not well marked and we got really turned around since you have to cross back and forth over the creek a bunch of times. We got lost. We got very lost.

I was really nervous the whole time once we were officially lost in my mind (after lunch). I could just see us being the ones that have to be life-flighted out of there or they'd have to send in a team of search and rescue people to find us, but there'd be no way to find us because we were somewhere totally off the path. I hiked on for hours thinking about all the terrible things that would happen. I seemed to be the most nervous of everyone in the group. I think they were nervous too, but didn't want to admit it.

We ended up making it out with sore feet and thirsty mouths. We ran very low on water the last hour or so. We got to the car and drank the water we left in there. It was boiling hot and the best drink I'd had all day.

As we hiked yesterday, I watched Cameron. I watched how he responded to the whole situation. When we were deep into the hike with no idea where we were, I made him look into my eyes and I asked him if he was nervous that we were so lost. He replied with, "no, but we need to get out of here." He was steady all day. He was a protector yesterday. He was also selfless. He went without water for over an hour at the end so that other people could have sips. I just love that he is a wonderful husband and leader of our family. I know that he will be an amazing father to our children.

I realize that this post may seem dramatic about being lost, but we were seriously lost. Our hike ended up being 6 1/2 hours long. We probably went somewhere around 14 miles or more and it was supposed to be a 7 mile trail. So, it was dramatic. We thank God for leading us out.