Sitting on the couch at the Sun River place, I am looking out the window at rain falling on pines and letting life catch up to me . . . or catching up to my life? . . . I’m not exactly sure which.

The photo with this post was taken back in early November and will always be a favorite as it is the very first photo we took together after learning I was pregnant.

I find myself oddly reticent to discuss this little life within me. I wish it were possible to just wait until the baby arrives to tell everyone, but alas, it’s quickly becoming something I can no longer keep to only myself and my closest associates. ; )

I dread having anyone, friend or foe, reach for my stomach to touch it. If I make it through the next six months without an assault charge for using Judo skills I don’t have on some unsuspecting, over-zealous well-wisher who tries to touch me, it will be a miracle.

Our families, Carl’s and my own, are so very here for us. We come from a lot of love and there’s a lot of love waiting for this little one when it arrives.

Thankfully, we also have many smart, loving friends who are happy to join us in this adventure just as they have for all the other adventures through the years! : )

Of course, I’ve turned to books in my time of need for info, but in this, I’ve been oddly and terribly disappointed. If you are pregnant or thinking about it, beware! There is quite a bit of drivel out there—much of it opinion pieces with little or no actual science behind them or, even worse, badly interpreted research presented with an obvious slant. The only one I’ve found worthwhile (so far) is “Expecting Better” by Emily Oster. It’s an easy read that goes from before conception through birth and has a wealth of helpful, well-supported information.

I’ve come into yet another, previously undiscovered, layer of the love between my husband and myself. He is more in more ways than I have the words for at present, so I will have to write on that later. Suffice it to say, I am beyond content and confident in my choice of father for my children.

And lastly (for now), the day I went in for my first ultrasound, was the exact same day I was declared cancer-free four years earlier. There was something more than lovely about seeing our first child, for the first time on the same day I was given a second chance at living myself.   : )