Fast Week

This week has flown by. I shouldn't be surprised. I had three appointments this week, two and a half days of training at work, celebrating John's birthday and trying to crack down and get to work on my to-do list.

I did have some excitement this week. The first is something that has carried me through this last week and hopefully a little longer. To be honest, I have been lonely the last couple of months and it was really starting to drag on me recently. I had an epiphany last Sunday and started to once again turn my focus off me and back on God and my relationship and response to who He is in my life. In His graciousness and loving kindness, He responded to my need for connection in at least eight different circumstances on Monday. It was done in such a manner that it left no doubt that God was responding to me and my recent struggle. It left me soaring...In fact, I'm going to be writing about this situation and God's response in a blog posting for Women, Awake!, Northshore Baptist Women's Ministry blog. If you want to hear more about it, start reading this blog and look for my "Being Known" post in a couple of weeks.

Writing for this blog has been great for me. It has me trying to listen more for how God is speaking to me and in my life. It focuses me; it makes me be more reflective and assists me in writing about whatever in a manner to share with others. I would highly encourage you to bookmark this blog and read it. I'll put a link to it on under the blogs I follow. There are four other women writing as well and I am excited to read their entries as well. There will be three posts a week and I think my first three-part entry is scheduled for this next week.

Anyway, back to my week...as I was saying things have moved quickly. I had another prenatal appointment this week. Baby is growing and his/her heartbeat is strong. I'm still not gaining anything but am noticing that I am starting to show occasionally. As I was telling John last night, some days I show and some days I don't. It all depends on where Baby decides to sit that day. :)

It was fun on Tuesday to wake up at 5 a.m. and literally feel my baby's head right under the left portion of my rib cage. It was distinctly round, slightly large (about the size of a large orange) and semi hard. As I was drifting back to sleep, I felt the baby do something like a somersault. When I woke up for good an hour later, I felt the baby's head directly opposite of the previous position and towards my right hip. The baby's feet were tucked together again and could be felt slight above and to the left of my belly button. I think this child had a lot of room to move still. This should be changing soon...I am getting more and more excited to meet our baby. It'll be fun to actually get to see those cute feet and look into the face of the head I get to feel every once in awhile.

John is doing well considering he's still dealing with unemployment. His spirits are still good (as are mine). We honestly don't know when or where his opportunity will come from. We, of course, would like to know but are still trusting that God will provide for all of needs (especially with Baby coming) in His way and in His timing. In the meantime, I did ask John if he missed working other than for the reasons of stability and receiving a paycheck. He answered honestly no because he is filling his day with other activities that keep him busy (job searching, researching training, planning out new network or resume strategies, etc.).

One thing I've noticed is he's started to make an effort to help around the house. Part of this is due to my increasing tiredness and pain and part because he has the energy to do so and wants to help. He has been helping out with dinner or handling it all himself. It's been a lot of fun making dinner with him. I've been experiencing a lot of pleasure in talking while we do this and then sitting down at the table together to eat. I hope this is something that continues and we make a habit of eating dinner together at the table (versus on the run or on the couch). It's something I would definitely like our children to experience.

As I mentioned above, I am becoming increasingly tired and still dealing with my arthritis pain. I am praying for some relief from this as we have a lot to do and I need to be able to do some exercises that will help me prepare for the upcoming labor and delivery...ack...just realized we are down to approx 9 weeks! :)

Speaking of time, I should probably go. I do have a rather long to-do list and we are traveling to Portland this week (always disrupts the flow of our week). I need to write my sister's adoption reference letter for the Ethiopia dossier package and finish writing my next patch of blog entries for the Women, Awake! blog before our Bradley class tonight. There are a couple of more things starting to occur in our lives but are still in the middle of being played out. I'll have more next week on these. :) I want to keep you hanging and coming back for more. I will tell you that we have another growth ultrasound on Friday so the next blog entry here will have a new baby weight update and likely picture...