Voting 2008

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kri8G-lGYfg

6 more weeks

Feeling very eager now to behold our daughter. About six more weeks to go until due date, but she will be considered term in only four more weeks (even more, we can still deliver her at the Midwife Center if she were born in 3 more weeks, as long as it is after 36 weeks I think--otherwise hospital here we come!). Everyday feels like she grows so much...her new favorite move is pressing out one of her limbs in my right side. However she is contorted in there, she spans my entire abdomen!

Jon and I still have a few more things left to check off on baby planning, but we're feeling prepared overall. We're taking an Infant CPR class in a few weeks and still need to do baby shopping for last essentials which we'll probably get to this Saturday. In terms of American living, we rank with the simplest as far as baby items go. Except for the corner of our bedroom where we stash her clothes and blankets, you wouldn't think a baby will be living here in a month or so. No crib, no bassinet, no changing table, no baby bath, no stroller! It's actually kind of funny when I think about it, but I feel better starting off without much and acquiring what we need later as we discover that we actually need it. 

We do have a good car seat and diapers so at the least she will be safe and civilized ;)

 

An Affair for Clare

33 Weeks

I love my husband!

How is it that one day, one photo, one thought can bring joy and sorrow in the same moment... each compounding the other? The greater the joy, the more gray the absence of joy seems. The greater the sorrow, the more splendid the joy.
We are called as Christians to be a people set apart from the world, and this is where our cross and our joy lie together. The light makes the darkness so dark, yet it is the darkness that makes the light so extravagant.
***
"I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." (John 8:12)

Trax Farms 2008

Woah 31 Weeks!

I have a very silly husband who will use any prop to get a laugh...including my headband! This is his demonstration of what Clare looks like if she resembles Jon more than me. My instructions for the photo: "Okay, now look like a little girl." Anyway, we can surmise that when Clare is a twenty-something, she will look like some version of these two goofs. 

7.5 Months in Sewickley--our favorite hangout in PA!

Prostaglandin Abortion

I am at once deeply saddened and grateful at watching this short clip. Sad, in tears in fact, because beautiful children, willed by God to exist, are killed by their parents in such a gruesome way. Grateful because of our Catholic faith that upholds the dignity of these children. Father Frank Pavone is a saint for our time and has done so much to serve and love the unborn with his life. I pray that there is an end to contraception and abortion and a new love and culture of life that treats children as incommunicable gifts instead of products to be manufactured (in vitro fertilization, surrogate motherhood, etc) or burdens (contraception--especially as it causes early abortion) --both of which are rooted in selfishness. Don't have sex if you're going to be surprised or dismayed by a pregnancy! We are not dogs or cats that need to be sterilized! We have free will--exercise it for the sake of yourself and your future children! Don't rely on your false freedom to murder your child as a way to escape responsibility for your choices! We must protect our children, not kill them in their vulnerability.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDpcj1DUcTw

"Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you."

Isaiah 49: 15

7 1/2 Months

This image perfectly illustrates the two newest sensations I have had in the last week or so: kicking/punching very high in my abdomen (which usually makes for a good arm rest except when a kick shocks you in the middle of class); and one of Clare's body members lodging itself in my ribs so that when I bend slightly to eat it ain't so pleasant. No more sipping soup for me--that bowl's coming to the face!

Jon 'helps' me make chocolate covered strawberries..

"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness."

Lamentations 3:22-23