update

steve and i met with the women who will be our doulas during our pregnancy/birth. they rock. when we left, we were surprised to see that the car clock read 9:30. we had been there for 3 hours. wow. they were caring and open and we felt truly comfortable around them. one of them has gone through a loss. which sucks. i hate knowing other people have suffered as steve and i have. but it was nice to know that she knows. she knows my fears, my sadness, my hopes and my anxiety. her experiences where different than mine, but she knows the blackness of loss. it's comforting to be around other people who know and understand my darkness. i feel blessed to have met such wonderful women.

i've started taking some herbal remedies. i'm taking alfalfa for digestion issues and papaya enzyme for heartburn. i've also started drinking a bit of red raspberry leaf tea which is suppose to help tone your uterus. although i do continue to pray for clarity on anything i put into my mouth. i feel a bit more comfortable taking natural remedies and i have to say the the papaya enzyme is amazing. it totally wipes out my heartburn, but both papaya enzyme and red raspberry leaf tea is said to cause uterine contractions. in fact when i googled papaya enzyme, i'd say nearly 50% of the sites said to avoid it because it could cause uterine contractions and miscarriage...the other 50% said to take it. i started taking it sparingly. i have a hard time understanding how papaya could cause miscarriage but pepcid ac, tums, rolaids...and all the other drugs dr's hand out are fine...so, i'm going with my gut and through prayer. i know tons of folks take both and had beautiful pregnancies...so i'm giving them a whirl.

our thanksgiving-Christmas spectacular seemed to be a success. it can always be hard for steve and i to be around my family, but it went well. my nephew is getting huge. i hadn't seen him since before we lost Jorai. he's almost talking and he's running all over the place. he's cool and super happy. it's funny. it felt strange having Christmas the day after thanksgiving, but we were all together, minus my brother from arizona and his fam...but they don't come up any longer. bummer.

well, i think that's it. other than to ask for prayer. this week is a hectic week for me. our girls ministry is starting on thursday. please pray that we are in line with Christ's plan for this ministry and to be open to His guidance. we also have our welcome team appreciation gathering, which is long over due and i'm super stoked about. please just pray that all goes smoothly. thanks...