Prayer for Cora

I have been saddened and burdened, like many of you, for Baby Cora who was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer this week. I have been amazed at the network of prayer that has emerged from people around the world blogging. I have no doubt that Cora and her parents are being covered during this horrible time of shock and grief. Joel and Jess were students at KSU during my time on staff with Challenge. She is close friends with many of my dear friends. If you want to stay updated to pray and pray some more here are a couple of blogs to look at: www.corapaige.com and http://themcclenahans.blogspot.com.

Twenty-Five Random things

Straight from Facebook-gotta love the multi-task on this one.

ONE: I started this and made it to about 10, hit save, it didn't save. I am starting over.

TWO: I am scared of large groups of birds. Thanks Alfred Hitchcock.

THREE: I love reality TV current favs are: The Bachelor (guilty pleasure), The Biggest Loser (oh, joelle!), The Amazing Race (starting a new season soon).

FOUR: When I lived in China I was given a cat for a birthday gift. I was scared of cats. I named him Boaz (we had some amazing adventures). I am still a bit nervous around felines.

FIVE: I am often making random conversation with complete strangers.

SIX: I am a notorious eavesdropper. I try not too. I just have the capacity to follow to 2-3 conversations that are happening at the same time.

SEVEN: I love games. Current fav: Ticket to Ride, come over and let's play!

EIGHT: My thumbs look like toes-I have learned to embrace them.

NINE: I am always thinking outside the box about how to get a good deal. You'd be shocked what you can get if you just ask.

TEN: Game show bloopers crack me up! So do Headlines with Jay Leno.

ELEVEN: Brent and I have started recycling and have cut our trash service down to 2x a month and only send off 4 trash bags in a month. Amazing!

TWELVE: Brent is outside trying to fix our car's bumper that is jacked-not sure how it happened.

THIRTEEN: Wo hui shuo zhong wen. (I can speak Mandarin, Chinese)

FOURTEEN: I only want 2 kids. The only way I see this changing is if our second pregnancy is twins.

FIFTEEN: I am a blog addict. There, I said it. The blogosphere could keep me entertained for days.

SIXTEEN: I failed my first driving test at age 16. I guess I failed it as I was leaving the parking lot. Left turn out of a right hand lane=automatic fail. Passed the second time.

SEVENTEEN: I have NEVER had a cavity.

EIGHTEEN: I love blankets-when I am at home I always like one in any season.

NINETEEN: I love art museums.

TWENTY: Some of my favorite art I have produced has been for other people.

TWENTY-ONE: I lip-sync'ed to Amy Grant's "Find a Way" in 4th grade. I created a choreographed dance to go along with it. I wore a poka-dot top (low cut in the back) and pink shorts. I'm glad that no one had a camcorder. It was brave. It was bold. It was BAD.

TWENTY-TWO: I think Canada is great.

TWENTY-THREE: I have started to feel baby girl moving.

TWENTY-FOUR: I enjoy drinking hot water.

TWENTY-FIVE: I am so grateful for God providing Brent as my husband. He is a wonderful, supportive, tender, God-loving man. I am filled with joy about this miracle every day.

Delta comes through.

I decided this afternoon to give Delta a call regarding our airline incident 2 weekends ago. I tried to explain myself well and be pleasant. I called up customer care and after only a few minutes was talking to someone, telling them what happened. I also told the woman that after reading the contract of carriage (basically a legal document telling you what they will and won't do) that I thought we might not have gotten some compensation that we were due. After a few minutes she looked into our flight and we should each be getting $100.00 vouchers for a future flight. I felt pretty glad about making the call and heeding my mom's advice on still trying to get something from the experience.

Whirl-wind

It has been a full 2 weeks in our home. 2 weekends ago we were in North Carolina where B married some good friends. He did an amazing job (as usual). The traveling part of the trip was not so fun. In fact, we missed the rehearsal due to 'technical' problems. Translation: stupidity on the part of the airline. Because of one delay we missed our connecting flight and sat in the Cinncinati airport for 4+ hours. We did score a free meal out of the deal (not much compensation if you ask me). I was on the phone with my mom who loves figuring this stuff out and she still thinks we could a free ticket or $ because of the delay. I'm not sure I want to put that much energy into it. We were able to make it at about 10 pm that night and B even got to go to the Bachelor party for a while. The wedding was beautiful, the reception extravagant. I didn't take many pictures, just wasn't feeling it. This is a picture of B and the groom. It was incredibly cold-the coldest it had been there since 2000.




We crashed when we got home and I was able to have some fun creative time last monday. My friends asked me to take some family pictures of them and it was a beautiful day so we went out to the Konza and magic insued. I think it was the color of the sky, the wheat, the little baby girl that was in such a great mood, the couple who are beautiful, that made it a great experience. My hubby acted as my lovely assistant getting smiles from the little one. Here are some of my favorites. The colors aren't nearly as bright when I download them into blogger.

This last weekend we went to Nebraska to speak at a Christian Challenge winter retreat. We were at a camp in rural NE with about 30 students. It was B and I's first time at 'retreat speakers' and thought nerve-wracking at times I think it went okay. I say okay because I am a tough critic of myself. B says I did great, but I wasn't thrilled about how my session went. I had a coughing fit during part of it and felt kind of distracted some of the time. I do feel I said what God was leading me to say, so in that way I'm sure it was what it needed to be. We got back to Manhattan at 5:30pm last night and we both felt like zombies. No more travel for awhile.

It's a....

Hey all, not much time to write tonight. We did find out this morning that we are having a GIRL! We are both excited and were able to see a healthy baby on the ultrasound (we are so thankful). We will have to do one more at around 20 weeks because they need a few more pictures of things they can't quite see yet because baby is too small. She was a very active one today moving around and just cute as a baby on an ultrasound can be. We love her already. Now what are we going to name her???

Woes of motherhood.

The cold I was hoping to 'beat' seemed to get more intense over the weekend. I don't have chronic sinus pain, but my heart goes out to those that do after 3 days of feeling like there is a knife going through my face. Sleeping has been a challenge because of drainage issues and then I start coughing, long story short, I don't sleep. Early on my pregnancy I got this list from the doc of medicines that are okay to use and over the last few day have glanced at it a few times. For some reason I just wasn't sure that these things were really okay. Last night after the 3rd night of not sleeping well, nearly choking on a cough drop, we finally decided I should take some cough medicine. In my mind I kept, thinking wow if I can't make it through this cold, how am I ever going to deliver a child? I felt like taking the medicine was 'giving in'. It was really so strange. My fear was that somehow this medicine that I might take once or twice might harm our child, though it is doctor approved. It made me wonder what all the things like this in the coming years I am going to experience with our child(ren). I want to trust God in the midst of my fears. I am so glad that he knows the things that concern me and He want to meet me right there. I want to meet him too. Oh, I did sleep much better.

My new buddy

These have been my constant companion the past 2 days. I probably haven't had a cold for 2 or 3 years. I guess I am due for one, but I seriously dislike constant drainage and a raw nose. Both of us have been sickly. B got food poisoning or some other bug and after hours of vomiting and diarrhea he laid in bed for another day. We both haven't showered for days and have been laying on the couches watching TV and dozing. I'm thankful that we have been able to do that, but hoping for a quick recovery. We've both been very thankful that all of this hit us this weekend as next weekend we will be headed to North Carolina for a wedding of a close friend. B is officiating and I am just along for the ride. I am looking forward to getting out of town, flying (hopefully, my fear of flying has subsided in the last few months), and staying in a hotel. The wedding will be awesome. I've never been to a true southern wedding. There are 7 bridesmaids, 7 groomsmen.
The other very exciting thing is that this Tuesday we get to go for our 'big' ultrasound. If baby is positioned right we will be able to find out the gender of our sweet one. I don't have any instinctual feelings about if it is a boy or girl. I have had 3 dreams about the gender. The first one I birthed an African-American baby boy and insisted that B was the biological father and that they should go ahead and do a paternity test to prove it. The next one was a baby boy, named Jack (not on our list, but a cute name). I have had one dream of having a girl but not as vivid as the first two. I have looked at some old wives tales and really go 50/50 on most of them. It is interesting that some people swear by them. I will hopefully post what we find out Tuesday or Wednesday as well as a belly picture. I haven't taken a single one yet and am just over 17 weeks. I finally feel like I have a little bump. Signing out. Sniff, sniff.