Well, I haven’t posted in a little while… this past weekend was a busy one! My best girlfriend treated me to a lovely girls’ night slumber party at the Stephen F. Austin Intercontinental Hotel! It was sort of like our last blast before mommyhood kicks in. We had a fabulous weekend that was really - let’s be honest - all about the food. Lunch at Julio’s, dinner at Z Tejas, a tiny splurge at Amy’s, and then breakfast at Trudy’s - mmmmm, migas! What more could you really ask for in a girl’s weekend? Oh, okay - there was also lots of great conversation and catching up - that was pretty cool, too. Overall, it was a splendid time.

Then on Sunday afternoon my hubby and I went to a wedding shower, and in the evening a wedding! (Two different couples, of course.) Both were a lot of fun, especially the wedding - we got to see a lot of people we hadn’t spent time with in awhile, and the wedding itself was beautiful - very Christ-centered and full of His grace. It was a truly lovely day - but boy, was I exhausted at the end of it all! The daily high temperature is getting up to about 95 degrees fahrenheit now, and I am starting to understand why everyone told me it was so great that I won’t be pregnant through the hottest part of the summer!

There is a lot going through my brain right now, but I have been hesitant to write about it, for lots of different reasons. The baby is due in 17 days, and I find that childbirth is consuming most of my thoughts. We have taken Bradley Method childbirth classes in preparation to have a natural childbirth - meaning, no drugs or interventions if we can at all avoid it. While plenty of well-meaning people have told me I’m crazy for wanting to avoid pain relief in childbirth (maybe you’re one of them!), it’s really important to me. But as it draws closer, I find myself becoming fearful that I won’t be able to do it, and that I will crumble under the intensity of it all and start begging for drugs.

If you’re a praying person, please pray for me concerning this.

Please pray that through God’s grace and strength, I will endure the pain. Here is one way to pray: If you know us, you probably know that we want to move overseas someday, and we might possibly move to an area of the world where martyrdom is a real possibility. While I am not afraid to die for my faith, I have always feared the pain of being tortured for my faith. I am actually trying to look at the pain of childbirth as a sort of “testing ground” for that. Sounds weird, maybe, I know…but it’s true.

Well, I am supposed to be sleeping right now, so I think I’ll head back to bed. My sweet hubby doesn’t even know I’m missing - these middle-of-the-night sojourns are becoming more and more normal to me and I’m so glad that he can just sleep through them. At least one of us will still be rested when the baby gets here! Ha…