My friend Natasha from Raising Men challenged me to write a story about how my life has changed since having a baby and so today I’m writing about how CHANGE came a-knocking on the Durrants’ door a few months ago, not once but twice and how we not only let it in, but we made it our new best friend.
In November last year Shane and I found out that we were going to have our very own human, we were pregnant with our first child, a baby girl and we couldn’t be happier. Starting a family was one of the biggest things to happen to us since we said ‘I do’ in 2008 and we were so excited and apprehensive, because we didn’t really know what to expect and it was literally the most important thing that we were going to undertake to date. Nine months came and went and between them I faced a lot of changes, not only to my ever expanding belly and face (shoo my face was flipping fat in the end), but to my mind too. I had grown to love the little person inside me so much and I didn’t even know what it felt like to hold her in my arms or look into her eyes. She was born on the 29th of July and even though she’s only been with us for 9 weeks, I can honestly say that she is the most wonderful and most important person in our lives.
With a baby comes many changes, which is no doubt the truth. I mean there are the obvious things, like your sleep routine being anything but a routine, you can’t just pop out to the shops or anywhere for that matter without planning ahead, you have to work around a baby’s schedule, a schedule that at times in non-existent. Some days all you literally get do is feed, rock, change and chat to your baby several times over and then before you know it it’s 7pm and you’re still in your pj’s (thankfully I don’t have many days like that, but every now and then Nina decides to not sleep during the day, at all). There are emotional changes too, for the first 2 weeks of Nina James’ life I had about 4 major cries and I’m talking those hard cries, where your face could scare off a starving coyote it’s so ugly. I sobbed and sobbed and when Shane asked me why I was crying, the honest answer was because I felt too much emotion towards Nina. I just couldn’t comprehend the amount of love I felt for our baby, it was just so overwhelming. I also felt a little scared that I wasn’t always going to be able to protect her and the thought of anything happening to her made me super sad, but luckily after a while I managed to reign those emotions in, although sometimes I still look at her now and feel very teary, because she just makes me so damn happy. Being a mom has also changed the way I love Shane, I never thought it was humanly possible to love him more, but I do and I feel more protective over him and Nina. They are my everything and if I had a choice to do absolutely anything in this world, it would be to spend time with just the 2 of them. Nothing else.
Nina James hasn’t been the only major change in our lives since November last year. Before her Shane and I had 2 other ‘babies’ that took up pretty much all our time, made us happy, made us cry, made us angry, made us (me) fat (too much cake). We had 2 restaurants, Wolves and The Good Luck Club, we started these businesses literally from scratch and over the last 5 years have taken them from figments of our imagination to actual real life things and we’ll forever be proud of our little holes-in-the-wall here in Illovo. In November last year we made another huge decision that would completely change our lives. We were approached by a husband and wife team to buy both shops. At first we were not that open to selling them, after all they had played a huge part in our lives, they gave us an identity and something to nurture and care for, we had grown them from the ground up and the thought of passing them on was quite daunting, not to mention sad. But eventually, after loads of discussions and a few bumpy rides on the roller coaster of emotional emotions, we decided that we would sell and take the opportunity begin something new, find a dusty piece of ground and start once again from the bottom up.
This change, together with the introduction of our baby girl into our lives has been the beginning of an adventure that we’re still on, but one that has me feeling very excited about what more the future has to hold for us. The last few months Shane and I have been thinking about what our next step is and even though we’re amped to see which of our ideas will become a reality, we’re also a little nervous, because change is a scary thing, but I’ve always said, a little fear is good because it pushes you to succeed, I think if things come too easy, you run the risk of taking them for granted. Success doesn’t just land in your lap. It should be wooed, swept off its feet and then loved and cherished the day you get to call it your own. And for that to occur sometimes change is the most important factor, because things don’t just happen if you’re not willing to let them.
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2 Comments
Angie, THIS has got to be my most favorite line you have ever written “Success doesn’t just land in your lap. It should be wooed, swept off its feet and then loved and cherished the day you get to call it your own.” I must say I am a little sad to hear that you and Shane are selling Wolves and Good Luck Club, I have so many great memories there and you and Shane bring a special atmosphere to both those places BUT I am so excited to see what your next brainchild is and to support it however I can.
awesome story! cant wait to see your new adventure, im sure it will be super cool! good luck!