Meet Hazel from Hazel Loves Design!!

Thank you Terin so much for allowing me to be a guest on your blog, I am super excited to be here! My name is Hazel and I am the voice behind 'Hazel Loves Design', generally over on my blog I have a tendency to show off loads of gorgeous design finds from across the globe and very rarely show off my personal life, but today that is all changing!

You see Jellybean turns the big 'ONE' on Sunday and it is a very exciting event in our household (as it should be!!). 

Brooklyn Oscar 

But to be honest I cannot believe that it has ONLY been ONE year since his birth, and at the same time cannot believe that he is ONLY ONE! Strange, right?

You see, so much has happened since he was born. But even more since the night he was 'created'. Jellybean was conceived on our wedding night, we were married on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, an hour north of where we were living at the time (Brisbane), on the 10th of October 2010. 

While in my first trimester we drove across three states, over three days through desert heats (more than 40c each day) from our home in Brisbane to our new home in Melbourne. For the first two months in Melbourne we lived with friends camping in their lounge on an air mattress, before moving into our own space. Not the best sleeping arrangements while pregnant!

We didn't know anyone in Melbourne with the exception of these friends, but it didn't bother hubby and I too much, we were happy to 'just get on with it' and enjoy the adventure. Meanwhile in February 2011, our family living in Christchurch experienced a natural disaster and full-scale emergency, when a major earthquake tore the city apart. 

For a few months every thing was hunky-dory, until in my thirty-forth week I woke up with crazy cramps and had to get rushed to hospital. Jellybean arrived the very next day! And spent the next three weeks in an incubator. 

Tiny Jellybean

During this time I came to realise just how crazy it is to live in a city with no family or support network, but it wasn't until Jellybean was three months old, and I was sent to the oncology unit for major surgery and told I wouldn't be able to even lift Jellybean for the next six weeks that hubby and I made the decision that being with family, was much more important than our overseas experience. 

So my Daddy flew over and escorted Jellybean and I home to Christchurch, New Zealand while hubby finished up with work (I wasn't even allowed to fly solo). A month later hubby joined us in Christchurch and we moved in with his parents. Taking the 'being with family' to the full extreme.

Again, everything was hunky dory, until December 23rd when four large earthquakes struck Christchurch on the same day, sending the city into further disarray. 

Now as we are coming close to Jellybean's first birthday and reflecting on all the last eighteen months has sent our way. I just can't help but be grateful for all the wonderful people in our lives, and most importantly for Jellybean himself.

What are you grateful for in your life?