My has it been awhile! I don't even know where the time has gone...I've had great intentions about updating this, but time has always escaped me somehow.

Life has continued whizzing by. I wish I could say that my pregnancy has gone by very quickly too; however, that would be lying. Don't get me wrong, it's hard to believe that on Friday I will be 35 weeks, but stil, it seems like it is going to be an eternity until I am done with being pregnant.

The reality, though, is that I am sure the time will fly by because life is going to be pretty hectic up until her arrival. Between work, school, volleyball, and various weekend activites (not to mention my sister and sweet niece will be home again in a week and a half!) I feel like I'm not going to have any time to relax. I am sure I will find time for it, but when you're and obsessive compulsive planner like I am, it doesn't go over so well. Basically my schedule will go like this; work Monday-Friday with late nights twice a week, sometimes three. Once a week volleyball open gym, unless two of my clients fail a drug screen then volleyball is twice a week because working late will only happen one night. In three weeks I will have a missions committee meeting which means I will have something Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday night that week. Doctors appointments are going to be starting weekly as well; I am hoping to get by with one more biweekly appointment, but I am not sure how they will set anything up after my appointment on Friday. And then there are the weekends; my B-E-L-O-V-E-D weekends where I should be able to sleep as long/as late as I want and relax. The reality though is: this weekend I have a baby shower on Saturday for a stepcousin (something like that...), Sunday is small group with my high schoolers, next weekend Dan and I possibly could be making a trip to Indy to pick up our recliner rocker that we ordered for our living room and on Sunday is an after church meal for missionaries our church sponsors and being on the missions committee I need to go and after that is my second baby shower (more to come about my first baby shower if you can hang in there...), the following weekend (the first weekend of April) I have a wedding shower for Rebecca up north that I am planning on going to unless my doctor says I cannot travel and I will have small group on Sunday with my high schoolers and then we will have our small group from church on Sunday evening, and the weekend after that is Easter, and the following weekend after that a person from Nepal is going to be coming to our church to speak about the work he does there which will result in lunch with him due to the missions committee yet again, and then the following weekend is when she is due. Phew...I'm tired just from typing that all. I'm just praying I have the strength and energy to get through everything; not to mention I am going to have to figure out how to get all my school work done in there at some point and not to mention attempt to work ahead since my class this time around is not suppose to be over until April 29th.

Anyway, I digress; everything will come together as it always does.

On a lighter note, I had my first baby shower on March 3rd that my sister and my mom planned for Eliana. For those people who know me well know that I do not do well in a big group of people; as excited as I was to see everyone I was semi-stressed out about being the center of attention and not having time to talk to everyone who came there to celebrate. Regardless, the shower went well, and Eliana and I were so blessed by everyone's generosity through their gifts, their kind words spoken, and simply by their presence. I am thankful that Eliana will have so many people who are going to love her well. (And I am sure Dan is thankful too...)

Dan did make fun of me though because due to my Type A personality, after getting home that evening from hanging out with my sister, her husband, parents, and niece, I couldn't go to bed until I got everything put away. Thankfully he was patient and looked at the majority of stuff we got and he has even learned to say "Awww" or "That's cute" when I show him clothes.

And more specifically regarding Eliana, to my knowledge, everything continues to go along smoothly with the pregnancy. My belly is growing, which is frequently pointed out by my clients, which means that she is growing so that is a positive. Her favorite place to nestle herself is up in my rib cage on the right side; mommy doesn't like that so much because it hurts. And she frequently gets the hiccups. She isn't letting me sleep very well at night because her head seems to be pushing on my bladder and last night I just couldn't get comfortable and was awake for quite some time. I suppose I should get used to it, though. I have an appointment on Friday, but it is highly unlikely that there will be any other details to give because my appointments legitimately last about 5 minutes with the doctor.

And lastly, I don't have any funny parenting advice to share...I think I must be getting better at diverting the conversations or perhaps my clients are going further into denial that I am really going to be taking off for 12 weeks. Everything that I have heard lately is, "Ask Liz if she wants to change your diaper because she's going to need practice!" To which I want to respond; I have had plenty of opportunities to change children's diapers, I don't need more practice on yours. "Oh this is what you have to look forward to!" (Regarding a client's brothers poopy diaper...) And I almost said, you mean babies really do that??? But I didn't.

I did hear a story the other day that I cannot take credit for, but I still think it is worth sharing. Another service provider shared about an interaction she had with one of her clients. Both of them were pregnant with I believe their fifth child (the client was a number of years younger than the service provider). During their conversation, the client asked the service provider, "How long are you going to be taking off work?" The service provider looked at this as a prime opportunity to talk with the client about bugeting since she was going to be taking 12 weeks off which is what they had been spending a lot of time talking about recently. However, when the service provider was finished telling the client about how her and her husband had saved money so that she could afford to take time off and so that they could pay the bills from the hospital for the baby, the client looked at her and said, "You mean it costs money to have a baby??"

I wanted to keel over and die when I heard that story...and yes, it is a true story, I didn't make it up. But here's the reality, this client has four other children all of which have been paid for by her insurance (likely Medicaid) and it is a high possibility that she has received WIC so that she does not have to pay for any formula or basic foods in the home. And it is a high probability that she will receive it again. So there really is no reason for her to know that it costs money to have a baby. While these types of programs are great assistance and are definitely needed to assist families, it shows that there is little reason for people to want to get off of them. That is not true for all people, but when it is what someone has grown up with and has started raising their own family with, it's reality. And unfortunately, I cannot do anything to change it except pray that someday, somehow the cycle will be broken.