Excitement and Heaviness

We are at T minus six weeks! Baby's due date is quickly approaching and we are more excited with each passing day. We have a sonogram tomorrow, so it will be fun to sneak another peak at her. A lot of bonding has been happening lately as we can tell how she is positioned inside me, and T knows exactly how to apply pressure on my belly to get her dancing all over the place. We also get to sympathize with her as I feel her twice-daily bout with hiccups. Although I'm very eager for these next weeks to pass quickly, these truly are special days.

This weekend my sister had her first bridal shower which was a lot of fun. Between the two of us, our family has bridal or baby showers basically every weekend from now through mid-May. That's a lot of "showering"! It's always so fun to be celebrated in that way, but amazingly humbling at the same time.

I am aching for Spring to really settle in here in dreary Kansas. We have had sporadic days of teasing with sunshine and warm temps, but each time it has quickly returned to being cloudy and cool. Our plants are ready to burst with new growth, but they are patiently holding out for the sun. Everyone seems to be a little emotionally drained and ready for a seasonal "pick-me-up". May it come soon!

Along with the dreary weather, it has been a heavy week at the school where I teach. Wednesday night, one of my coworkers was caught in an unlawful sexual relationship with one of our students. Students and teachers alike were stunned, and it's still difficult to believe. Katherine was a great teacher, always seemed professional, and has a young family. I have found myself thinking about her so much this week, just wondering what internal processes have gone on inside her over the past months that led to this situation. It seems like such a vivid example of someone who was obviously living very compartmentalized...protraying one reality to the public eye, while living out a drastically different reality in her private life. My heart hurts, and tears could easily come as I think about how fallen we each are. Apart from God's grace, we are each just a couple poor decisions away from really falling hard. I could go on and on about all this stirs in me, but in general it affirms in me a passion for seeking to live openly and vulnerably with a trusted community of people who long to see my life lived consistently and in Truth.