To Zion

I recently discovered this song, though it is years old. It was written by Lauryn Hill to her first son, Zion. Though our circumstances are completely different, the way that she describes carrying him and loving him is beautiful and powerful...and has made me cry...a lot.

I am blessed to be carrying Baby Girl Myrick.

"Unsure of what the balance held
I touched my belly overwhelmed
By what I had been chosen to perform
But then an angel came one day
Told me to kneel down and pray
For unto me a man child would be born
Woe this crazy circumstance
I knew his life deserved a chance
But everybody told me to be smart
Look at your career they said,"Lauryn, baby use your head"
But instead I chose to use my heart

Now the joy of my world is in Zion
Now the joy of my world is in Zion

How beautiful if nothing more
Than to wait at Zion's door
I've never been in love like this before
Now let me pray to keep you from
The perils that will surely come
See life for you my prince has just begun
And I thank you for choosing me
To come through unto life to be
A beautiful reflection of his grace
See I know that a gift so great
Is only one God could create
And I'm reminded every time I see your face

That the joy of my world is in Zion
Now the joy of my world is in Zion
Marching, marching, marching to Zion
Beautiful, beautiful Zion"

can't stop

I can't stop watching the sonogram. I tell Sam that I miss her. He says, "how can you miss her? She's inside of you and you've never met her?" I can't explain it, but I love watching that video! I love her little arms and hands and legs and feet. She only weighs 8 oz and yet she is a whole person...part me, part Sam...crazy.

Sonogram

Hopefully, you can make out the baby at times. We'll edit the post soon to tell exactly what you are seeing at what times. But a lot of it should make sense.

The Fortune Cookie Was Wrong

We're having a girl. So now we can start saying "she" and "her" instead of "it."

Fortune Cookie

This past Sunday, we went out to eat with people from Mosaic after church. They wanted to eat at Pei Wei, an Asian restaurant in town. It was the first time that I'd eaten any Asian food since I became pregnant and I became "scared" of a lot of food...mostly meat, for some reason. But it was tasty. When I had finished, I walked over to get a fortune cookie. My friend Emily (the other pastor's wife), asked me if i'd get her a cookie. I handed her the one I was about to open and I grabbed another one. These cookies have a "fortune" on one side and a word or phrase on the other side, that they've translated into Chinese, for you to learn the language. I broke open my cookie to see only the word translated. All it said was, "boy."

Firsts

I felt the baby move for the first time last week. I was sitting at my desk at work, chatting with my mom, and the little thing just tapped on the inside of my stomach. It was exciting. I called Sam and couldn't get him, so I sent him a text message that just said to call me. He called back, sounding worried, but I just told him that I'd felt the baby. He hasn't felt it yet, and it'll probably be another few weeks before that's possible. But I love these steps along the way that keep the process exciting...the first sonogram, the first kick, when we find out the gender...I'm sure there are more, but i'm just focused on the next one for now.