I'm an ark.

Seriously. I've got Noah in here, and there's enough movement that there may be several dozen animals, albeit quite small ones.

When people say that being pregnant is like being on a roller coaster, they aren't kidding. You're up, you're down, and quite frequently you think that some bit of you must have been left behind after a particularly sharp turn (i.e. feet. I still see them sometimes if I take really big steps. Or gracefulness. There wasn't much there to start with!).

I've had a really easy pregnancy so far, and we're heading into the home stretch with about 7 weeks to go. Some things are incredibly annoying, like waking up every two hours at night or the ever lovely stretch marks. Stretch marks, in case you don't know, do interesting things in the light. If you're turned at a particular angle, they are visible. If you're past that angle, they fade into your skin. It was a sad, sad day on Saturday when I realized that I do, in fact, have stretch marks all the way around my abdomen. I'm also not a fun of living on Tums. I didn't like SweetTarts anyway, and now that they're chalky I like them even less. I'm also losing brain cells or connections or something...I can't remember where I put things, am even more random than I was pre-prego, and can't seem to focus on much of anything. It's very disconcerting.

But even on weepy, cranky, very pregnant pregnant days when I have no idea how I'm going to be a Mom (aaaaaaahhhhhhh!) it makes me smile when Noah moves. Sometimes you have to sugar the kid up for this to happen, or eat something spicy, but he still moves. Usually a lot. I have no idea how he still has enough room in there to be doing flips, but he does.

And I'm lucky. I have a wonderful and supportive hubby and a house and a squishy rocking chair that I will be getting very well acquainted with after Noah gets here. Not everyone is that fortunate.

My girls are throwing a baby shower for a young Mom around here. She's got no church family and basically no support at home. She does have heart problems, low income, and they told her two weeks ago that she may have cervical cancer. (And then they promptly scheduled her next appointment for three weeks from then. Don't get me on THAT soapbox.) But she's working full time AND going to school full time AND obviously being pregnant full time. She's trying to improve where she's at. Yesterday at church we did a fundraiser- the girls made cookies, I brought up a ton of cookbooks, and we let people make donations. The cookies were good, a lot of the cookbooks went away, and we got far beyond what we thought we would be able to get for funds. There are some very generous and kind-hearted people at our church.

I'm so proud of these girls. They're taking care of this Mom (THE fundamental ministry is taking care of people), and it was entirely their idea. They're coordinating the shower, they're doing invitations, all of that technical stuff. It's amazing. We sell young people short so many times. They have more of a capacity and willingness to reach out than a lot of "grownups" but aren't given the chance.

This shower is on December 2nd. I plan on taking pictures and showing people what our kids are capable of doing. Maybe they'll change their mind about what this generation is like.