Life Changes: Welcoming Our First Child

Have you ever heard the song “Life Changes” by Thomas Rhett? If not, listen to it. It’s a catchy, upbeat song about Rhett’s personal life and the changes that have taken place over the years: getting married, having kids, his career.

I’m a big fan of Rhett’s music and I absolutely adore their growing family. I love learning about what’s going on with him and his wife, Laura, and their girls. I have so much admiration and respect for their decision to adopt their oldest, Willa. Adoption is such a beautiful and wonderful thing. It gives children a safe and happy home and a full chance of love and opportunity. 

I love this song because I can relate to it so much more now that I’m a mom. The song was released in 2017 when Matt and I celebrated our first year of marriage. We were looking to buy a house and talked about starting a family. We wanted to do some traveling before having a family, which we did, and before we knew it, we had a house and a baby. 

Isn’t It Funny How Life Changes?

Every time I hear this song I can’t help but think, “Now here we are…with a baby.” We created and are raising a beautiful baby boy. Sometimes I still can’t believe I gave birth to this perfect, tiny human. At times I can’t believe in the eight-plus years together, here we are. Everything we wanted, we have.

If you’re a parent, you know full well how everything in your life changes when you have a baby. You have new responsibilities and your baby’s needs become your top priority. You have to cope with sleepless nights, endless feeding sessions, and diaper change after diaper change. Any routine you had you can say goodbye to since you run on their schedule now. Caring for a newborn is only the first stage. Parents will be faced with new challenges as children grow. To say raising kids is a lot of work is an understatement. 

While being a parent is a tough job, it’s also the most rewarding. Children bring an increased sense of meaning to our lives. They infuse fun in our everyday and help us relive a part of our childhood. Their curious and creative minds encourage us to see things differently. They help us find joy and laughter in the little things. They teach us love and how to give affection without expecting anything in return. Children are pretty incredible.

Life is About Change 

I think sometimes we forget that life is about change. We get so caught up in the day to day that we don’t realize the changes that have occurred.

It feels as though in the blink of an eye Matt and I went from being a couple of 23-year-olds dating, still living at home and looking to advance our careers to now a happily married couple with a mortgage and growing family.

Understanding and Embracing Change

Looking back on all the changes that have occurred in my life, especially in the last decade, I didn’t realize how much has changed. I’ve experienced changes that have greatly benefited me and helped me come out better and I’ve experienced painful and unwanted changes.

According to Merriam-Webster.com, change is defined asto make different in some particular; to make radically different; to give a different position, course, or direction to.

What does change mean to me? Change is about movement, forward or backward. Change can be beautiful and it can be painful; it can be exciting and it can be nerve-wracking.

Change is inevitable. You can’t always predict, prepare for or control it. But, whatever change occurs, I believe we should embrace it no matter what. Change lets you seize everything life throws at you. It’s is also essential to growing as an individual. Change is constant and it’s not until we take a moment to look around that we realize how much change has occurred.

How has your life changed over the years? How do you embrace change in your life?