Images

Our appointment was days ago now, but I still can't get the image of that beautiful beating heart out of my head.  I also realized that I hadn't shared it with this community of supporters either, and wanted to do so:

 

I know it's a little bit blurry, but hopefully you can make it out.  Apparently the baby is upside down in this shot, if that helps.

While I'm sharing pictures, I also wanted to share something else.  My mom and our pastor both recently shared with me a concept called Praying In Color, which suggests that we use prayer as an art (or art as a prayer).  When words fail us, sometimes visual representations can fill the silence.  I don't consider myself "artsy" at all, but I figured that I'd give it a shot.  Almost immediately after learning that I was pregnant, I began to focus my prayers--in both words and images--on a healthy heartbeat.  I had read somewhere that the average 8-week heartbeat was 167 beats per minute.  Thus, this was my "prayer in color":

  

Since our baby's heartbeat was 168, it almost feels like God gave us a "bonus beat".  I've continued to draw out some other prayers...perhaps I'll share them later on during this pregnancy.  Like I said, not exactly "artsy", but I think that God still hears (or is it "sees"?) them just fine.

While I'm on the topic of images, I wanted to share a link to The Endowment for Human Development.  I happened to find their website a few weeks ago when I was trying to get a clearer understanding of what was happening inside of me.  I wanted to be able to pray specifically for "cell division" and "implantation" and all of the other scientific fetal development things that are sometimes challenging to grasp.  They offer a series of high-tech images and videos that are just simply amazing to view.  And to imagine...all of that is happening inside of me!

Today's blessing was a cool day at work...yes...on a Saturday.  Each semester, our office hosts a big "interview day" to transition our students from their pre-major into their actual selected major.  Essentially, my entire job is focused around preparing my students particularly for this day.  It's always so cool to see these students, all polished and prepared, and to remember what they were like when I first met them during Orientation.  It also gave me a chance to spend some time with one of my colleagues who I really appreciate and respect.  She's the only one who really knows and understands our experience, and I'm blessed to have her as a colleague.