A basketball in my belly

I got concerned...that maybe this baby was huge and I still have seven weeks left.

I compared notes. In reality, my stomach will stick out a lot farther when we're done here.

Here's me 12 hours before my water broke with Trent.




Here's me at 33 weeks with miles left to go. Same outfit, for proper researching.



Hmmm...in those last pictures it seriously looks like there's a basketball in my belly and that I might be faking this whole thing. Slightly awkward.

A Change Gonna Come

31 weeks

I find it significant that of all of the things President Monson chose to talk to the world and church about last fall conference, of all the things pressing and challenging and worrisome, that President Monson chose his General Conference talk to speak on "enjoying the journey."

I have thought a lot about that, because, like I said, of all the things, that's what he chose. It must be important. It must be "pressing". It must be "challenging and worrisome" to him. And so I've tried to take it a millimeter more to heart each day. If something can sink in, even if just a millimeter at a time, then that's progress. And I think that's how it has to be with me. Slow but progress.

I am so task-oriented. The day slips by and I score myself and my success on accomplishments. But like the song so profoundly says, "You're gonna miss this." And it makes me cry.

You're gonna miss this.
You're gonna want this back.
You're gonna wish these days
Didn't go by so fast.
These are some good times
So take a good look around
You may not know it now
But you're gonna miss this.

I want to take it all in! Now! And enjoy the journey.

A lot of you don't know, but three months before the end of my mission, I was told to pack my bags and get ready to fly home early. I had fallen into a rain gutter drain as if I'd walked off a cliff. One of the slats of the rain gutter was missing and I had walked with my foot square between those slats, with nothing to land on but to fall. I fell into the rain gutter until my legs stopped me. (I actually fell up to my garments. Miraculous really. No skin broke. And no broken bones either. ) My leg was bruised purple and black around my entire leg above my knee and I could barely walk. I had been in my bed for two weeks with my leg elevated when the doctor said I would need to be operated on. My mission president knew the church wouldn't allow me to be operated on in Venezuela, so I had to leave and receive the operation in the U.S. I had served nine months in this city of Merida and these people were more than family to me now. And now my time was being cut short.

I bore my testimony in their stake conference that next day, and realized and talked about how we must 'tener gozo en la jornada' or 'enjoy the journey'. I realized that you never know when the journey will end. You must ENJOY it. EVERY DAY.

I started to learn that lesson then. And I need to learn that lesson again now.

(In the end, I went back to the mission home, saw another doctor, and they told me I didn't need to be operated on and that I could stay in the mission. A little bit of an Abraham and Isaac experience. I had to be willing to leave, but in the end I didn't have to. I went to a new city and finished my mission.)

In eight weeks I will have a new little baby. I am still wondering how I am going to love another besides Trent, but I hear that just comes automatically with the new baby's birth so I'm counting on that. I am excited to meet her. Things will be busy. I don't know how often I'll get to shower or talk to a friend. But "you're gonna miss this." And there's a reason President Monson chose Enjoy the Journey as his topic to the world.

There is nothing in life as constant as change. A change gonna come. Enjoy the journey. Cause I'm gonna miss this.

Trent plus Tie

Just when I thought I couldn't think this kid was more adorable...
he goes and puts on a tie.

Love this boy!