Thoughts on Birth Control

I'm sorry if I'm about to open up another controversial can of worms, but I had to share this. I started following a blog written by a young pastor's wife (I found her by way of a craft blog and took note primarily because of her name, Stacy Leigh, which is almost exactly my sister-in-law's name!).

She and her husband wrote this research paper about hormonal contraceptives and it completely echoes my sentiments on the subject.
You can read the paper HERE.

I quote a section from the paper, in my efforts not to offend anyone:

"This [paper] is not a condemnation of our brothers and sisters who have used or are now using hormonal contraceptives. We understand from experience that most Christian couples are lacking the information or have been given inaccurate or incomplete information to make a truly informed decision based on the Christian worldview.

Our mission is to inform, not to condemn. We ourselves rest on the grace of God through the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who are we to condemn those who have been forgiven and are still obtaining forgiveness just as we?

We simply ask that you read this with an open mind, a humble spirit, and a contrite heart. This is the attitude of all who seek God’s will and find it, and this is the attitude required to obey it." (Page 4)

For further reference, Stacy Leigh's blog is HERE, and her husband's is HERE.

Sometimes life is hard...

I've debated about doing this a few ways... but the truth is, when you are this far removed, geographically speaking, from most of your loved ones, this is the easiest way to do it. And so I'm really sorry to those of you who are thinking, hey, shouldn't I be getting a personal call with this info? It's true, you should be. Normally I would see a lot of you in person and be able to tell you then, but I just haven't been in the mood to explain the situation over the phone multiple times...
Anyways, I was so looking forward to sharing good news with you soon, and now I have to do otherwise. This past week I've had a miscarriage. I should have been about 7 weeks along. It has been a pretty mild process physically speaking, and I am very thankful for that. I completely attribute that to the fact that I've been covered in prayer by my awesome Bible study ladies (and a couple others). As most of you know, this is my third one, and while it is emotionally draining to go through again, it's also a little easier when you know what's going on and know what to expect from experience.
After the initial disappointment has faded a little, we've found ourselves doing what I imagine many of you who have gone through this have done... you think of the "positives"-- the things that you now get to do, which in fact pale in comparison to having a new life growing inside you-- things which nonetheless perk you up a teeny bit, under the circumstances.
Here's the things we've come up with... we get to go camping at Thanksgiving now (this is the best one for us, as our due date in early December would have prevented a trip home in late November)... we can try to come home to CA sooner... I get to eat fried eggs... I don't have to take progesterone 3 times a day anymore... and well, that's about it. I'd give these all up in a heartbeat for the alternative, but they do help a little in consoling us. And yes there are other food benefits to not being pregnant, we just happened to have breakfast for dinner yesterday and I was happy to have runny yolks. :)
I have also felt newly thankful for Gigi this week. It's quite discouraging to think of 3 out of 4 pregnancies ending like this, but Gianna is proof that my body can do it, in God's timing. I know that He has a perfect plan for our family, and I just pray that He allows us to have more babies. And that's my prayer request for our family! So if you think of us, please toss up a prayer sometime asking God to bless us again in the near future! We'll be sure to let you know when it happens.

Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD,
The fruit of the womb is a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,
So are the children of one’s youth.
Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them
Psalm 127:3-5

Waiting (im)patiently

I'm about 38 1/2 weeks now... I've been having stronger contractions the last couple of days, but they are still very irregular- sometimes close together, sometimes very spaced out. I go to the doc tomorrow afternoon, so hopefully I will have made some progress in the dialation category.
We're still trying to do a lot of walking-- went to the beach on Monday, and last night we had a nice dinner at the Cheesecake Factory (we had to bring dessert home because dinner was so good!), and then walked around the mall a little and around our housing complex too.

I also wanted to post some pictures from this season's first baseball games! We've been to 2 Dodger games (one with my brother & cousins), and an Angel game with one of David's old co-workers, Wes & his fiancee, Daphnie, and we met Dodger Andre Ethier and got his autograph at a furniture store (after waiting in line for 2 hours!)-- he was really nice.

Oh, and for those of you tracking David's spectacular radio-prize-winning skills, you can add one more to the list, and this one might top them all (even the $400/ea Dodger Dugout Club seats). Yesterday morning David won 2 tickets to ANY regular-season sporting event in the contintental U.S. and 2 round-trip plane tickets to go with it! We're contemplating going to a Red Sox/Yankees games at Fenway Park in September, but haven't decided yet for sure.

Belly Photos!

Rena took some awesome pictures of us at the beach in Newport. If you'd like to see the rest of them, click here: Pregnancy Photo Shoot