Waiting with joy

A tremendously happy time, this season. Watching and feeling baby boy move within me, wiggling and flipping and punching and kicking around. What a fantastic thought, that I go nowhere alone; he is my constant companion and silent witness. There is so much joy in the growing, settling reality that he is really coming, that this isn't a dream. One day I'll leave the house pregnant and I'll come home with a baby in the backseat instead of in my belly. It's exciting, fearful, sobering, wonderful, and unbelievable all at the same time. And pregnancy, well, I as I enter the last trimester, I think I can honestly say I have loved it so far. It feels unspeakably miraculous to carry and grow a tiny little life within the confines of my own broken body. My body is often a stranger, often an enemy, but in this year it has conceived and carried and nurtured life, and that feels healing. It wasn't a given, and so I receive it as a gift. We have settled back on staying in DC for now, and that feels greatly grounding, as well, to be able to picture what our life will look like after many weeks of limbo. For all of these things I am thankful: closing a season of ministry with CO, stepping into a summer of more flexibility and space to prepare for this next stage of life, for summer breezes, precious time with family visiting, a baby shower that enveloped me in love and support from many strong women, for the prayers of others, for God's leading in regards to Kyle's job, for the joy of Kyle's love, for a hopeful future, for heavenly hope, and for so much more....