Well things have been quite exciting over here in the Williams family! If you happen to follow us on any social media platform you've probably read a bit about the big life changes that have happened recently--like, oh I don't know, HAVING A BABY!! (Which, by the way, is literally the greatest thing ever). So here I go, I'll try to summarize a bit of what has been going on with us the past two months or so... bear with me!
Let's just get right to it! Late August is both an exciting and EXHAUSTING time in baseball season. At this point, we've been doing baseball every day since mid-February, and this is what we accurately call the 'dog days of summer'. Every baseball family can tell you that by this time of the year, they're dreaming of the off-season. With my due date quickly approaching at the end of September, I was lucky enough to have my mom and sister come out to Jacksonville from our hometown San Diego, and we shopped for all things baby!!! It was such an awesome time and at the end of their visit, I headed with them back to San Diego for a quick trip to celebrate my cousin's wedding (yay Teresa and Alex!!). At 34 weeks pregnant, I flew back across the country for what I thought would be the last trip of my pregnancy (haaa, little did I know...)
About a week after I got back from my San Diego trip, I was hanging out at our apartment and following Trev's game on my phone (no need to sit in that Florida heat when he's not pitching!), and after the game I get a text from him... "Pack your bags!!" This could only mean one thing... He was promoted to AAA New Orleans!! The next day, we each made our way to New Orleans, he flew there and I was able to drive with another player's wife who was also promoted!
I spent a week in NOLA with Trev, and it was exciting to explore the area a little bit and watch his AAA debut. We were able to make it downtown one night and have some beignets from Cafe du Monde (amaaaaaazing). By the end of the week I was pretty exhausted and excited to get back the Jacksonville (but not exactly looking forward to flying at 36 weeks...). Trevor had one more week with the team in New Orleans before he would be back home and we would officially be on baby watch!
One of my last nights in New Orleans, Trev was called in after the game to talk with one of the Marlins front office personnel, where he learned he was selected to play in the Arizona Fall League. This is an exciting opportunity for any player--several top prospects are selected from each organization to play in the 6 (or so) week league in Arizona in October and November. It's essentially like the all-stars for minor league ball, and a good opportunity for players to meet other prospects and also get decent exposure to front office personnel, etc. It was awesome... except for the little fact that we were having a baby (in Florida!) just a week before AFL started!
Needless to say, I was very excited for this opportunity for my husbands career, but also absolutely daunted by what this meant for us as far as having our baby and figuring out how to coordinate a move across the country... at the same time. There was a lot of tears, a lot of anxiety, and a lot of discussing different options, but my amazing husband was able to smooth the path for us and made the process as easy on me as possible.
He finished off the last week of the season in early September and headed back to Jacksonville, and thus began the game of waiting for our little guy to arrive! While packing our belongings, selling all our furniture, and coordinating movers and car shipments...
I started having contractions on the morning of October 1st, and after 17 hours of labor and 3 1/2 hours of pushing, our son was born at 3:32 am on October 2nd!
Isaac Anthony Williams
8 lbs, 13 oz and 22 inches
8 lbs, 13 oz and 22 inches
Two weeks of absolute heaven with our little guy in Jacksonville flew by so fast, and before we knew it, it was time to get movin'! We didn't want to fly with Isaac before he was two weeks old for fear of exposure and that he would get sick, and so our travel day was set for October 16. Truly, I can't express enough how amazing my husband was through the entire process--he coordinated and balanced every last detail to make it all go as smoothly as possible, and I was able to focus on Isaac and recovering from my difficult delivery.
So off we went! Isaac was an absolute champ on the flight and hardly fussed at all. I wrapped him up and wore him in my Solly Baby Wrap (if you're a new mom or soon-to-be mom, check them out! I'm obsessed!) and kept him covered basically the whole time through the airport and on the flight. Before we knew it, we made it to Phoenix and were moving into our new place. Side note: Baseball families--We used vrbo.com after a recommendation from Trev's agent and easily found a nice, furnished place for our 6 or so weeks in fall league. Definitely worth checking the website out for spring training housing or other moves throughout the year!
Needless to say, it was an exhausting first two weeks with our little one! We were so happy to get to Arizona and get a sense of normalcy after a wild several weeks. We love Arizona for many reasons--seriously, you can't beat the weather here this time of year (it is an AMAZING change after living in the humidity for 10 months!) Trev also went to college at Arizona State and has lots of friends and former teammates who still live in the area, so coming back to the Phoenix area really felt like a homecoming for him.
A week after we arrived in AZ, we're totally still getting settled and acclimated, I get a text from Trev at the field:
"There is something going on... Our pitching coach just told me that the Marlins said not to throw anything off the mound. I can't even throw bullpens."
Uh. Okay...?
So after staring at my phone confused for a while, I figured there were probably two possibilities for what was going on:
Option 1) He was getting traded. When a player is traded, they literally immediately switch to be 'property' of their new team, and thus aren't allowed to be playing, practicing, etc and representing their old team in their old uniform.
Option 2) They didn't want him pitching in fall league anymore. The Marlins had just days prior acquired a new Minor League field director, who basically decides everything the minor leaguers do, including who plays in fall league. There could be a chance that this new coordinator thought that Trevor had pitched enough innings during the year and didn't want him pitching in fall league anymore. (I would have literally lost my you-know-what if this happened, after everything we went through to move across the country with a two week old!!!!!)
So for like three hours I was trying to not think about what could possibly be happening, and finally I got a call from Trev (it's always a sign that something important is happening when my husband calls from the field), it went something like this:
Me: "Hey, whats going on?"
Trev: "Well... are you sitting down?"
Me: *sits down* *begins having palpitations *
Trev: "I was just traded to the Pirates."
And we just sort of sat on the phone in silence for a few seconds before saying something along the lines of "Uh... Wow! Okay!"
It's not that we were totally blindsided about being traded -- going to fall league gives a player lots of exposure with other organizations, and it's not uncommon for it to happen. We were hoping that if we were traded, it would be to a team on the west side of the country. Being from San Diego, obviously it would be amazing to be traded to the Padres, but any NL west team or team that has spring training in Arizona would have been greaaaaat...
Okay, now get this. My extended family has a Facebook group where we can all post to share pictures, funny things, and generally just keep updated in each others lives. We're a devout Catholic family, and a lot of the time we'll post prayers or things like that on the page to share and pray together. When Trev was traded, my family was in the middle of a novena (nine days of one particular prayer for a special intention), and we had asked that the family be praying that we would be traded. Our prayers were answered on day 5 of the novena.
*I also just want to say that our desire to be traded had nothing to do with animosity toward or issues with the Marlins, but simply that we desired to be on a team that would keep us closer to home, especially after having the baby. We are grateful to the Marlins for drafting Trev and giving him a foundation and great beginning to his career!*
Now it gets better!! Weeks before Isaac was born, my sweet Grammie Ruth, who is a very talented quilter, made him a beautiful newborn quilt. Of all the different themes she could have chose for his quilt, can you guess what she chose? Pirates. PIRATES.
When we realized all of these things, it became very apparent that for a reason we have yet to know, we are supposed to be with the Pirates right now. We have been so blown away by the warm welcome and support we've received from the Pirates community and fans! While this trade doesn't move us closer to home, and we'll still be going to Florida for Spring Training, we are so excited to be with a great new organization and for the big changes to come in the next year. I am so thrilled to be exploring a new part of the country (AA in Altoona, Pennsylvania, AAA in Indianapolis, and the big league club in Pittsburgh), and to live in some colder weather after 10 months in the hot, sticky south!! Not only that, but we will be much closer to family we have in the midwest and east coast.
We'll be in Arizona for about three more weeks, as Trev now plays on the Pirates fall league team, the Glendale Desert Dogs. Then it's back home to San Diego for the rest of the off season before we begin our adventure as new members of the Pittsburgh Pirates organization! Thanks be to God for all these beautiful changes and blessings, and GO BUCS!
