Well, it's been an eventful week full of countless contractions!  I'm praising the Lord that I have made it to today, 33 weeks!  I didn't think I would make it this far!--But how many times have I said that throughout this whole process?  Let's be honest, I didn't think I'd make it one week after being admitted to the hospital!  My trust and faith has always been in the Lord though.  I knew if it was His will, that He would get me as far as He wanted.  So far, I know He wanted to bring me to 33 weeks!  Praise Him!

This last week, my body was going into labor mode on overdrive with many contractions and other labor symptoms.  I didn't need to go to the hospital, however, because the contractions were not regular enough, and other tell-tale symptoms were not present.  So I just hung out at home, praying that everything would stop so I can make it to April.  I had a doctor appointment yesterday in Ames, and he was hesitant to check me to see if I have dilated more, just because sometimes the actual act of checking can trigger more contractions.  So, instead they just did all the routine measurements and procedures, gave me my weekly progesterone injection and sent me on my way!  What amazes me is that I have not had a single contraction since they gave me my shot!  At least now I know the shots work!  I've been getting them weekly to prevent preterm labor since I was 16 weeks pregnant (so, 18 shots so far), but it wasn't until yesterday that I actually saw the benefit of submitting myself to those nasty shots!  I have to continue getting the shots until I am 36 weeks pregnant, so I have 3 left!  Yay!!

I am getting more and more anxious for April 1st, when I can go to modified bedrest, instead of complete bedrest.  I plan on making my own toast in the morning, taking a normal shower, brushing my teeth at the sink, making the bed, taking a walk around the house, etc.  At that point I will be 35 weeks, still not term, so I will not overdo it, but I look forward to having permission to do all those things.  Please continue to pray for me in one specific area: my physical comfort.  As I have stated before, I can only lay on my sides all day, and my sides and back are absolutely killing me!  It is for mainly that reason alone that I am looking forward to spending more time vertical! 

We have been enjoying some spring weather in the last week!  Monday and Tuesday we ate our meals outside on the porch.  I was able to spend my "sitting up time" out there as well during the afternoon on Monday.  It was around 70 degrees, but to me it felt a lot warmer than that!  I thank God for the nicer weather!

I wanted to give you a brief update on our missionary support.  We are now up to 71% of our need!  We praise the Lord!!  I had to stop for a moment and realize that we are almost 3/4 of the way to our goal of 100%!  And actually, even better, we can be on the field at 85%, so we need only $700 more per month in order to go on the mission field fulltime!  I am amazed and thank the Lord for that blessing!  Andy recently completed some repairs on our truck that we will use to pull our trailer home while on the mission field.  So, we are continuing to prepare ourselves and our vehicles/home for whenever the Lord tells us it's time to go fulltime!  We are excited to think about when that might be!  Could it be yet this year??  We expectantly await your provision, Lord!

This weekend Andy will go to Montevideo, MN for a meeting at a church.  He will leave Saturday afternoon and come home Sunday night.  My mom will be staying with me overnight to help me with meals and things.  I think we are both looking forward to our "sleepover!"    She is used to taking care of me, I guess!

Thank you for your continued prayers!  We have so much to be thankful for!

P.S. I forgot to mention that we have an ultrasound appointment this Friday with Dr. Drake back in Des Moines to check and see if the baby is doing okay.  They will check to see if he is keeping to a good size despite me having gestational diabetes.  They will also check to see if he is still breech, which I think he is.  They might also check to see how I am doing, whether I am any more dilated or not, but I don't know that for sure.  I will let you know how that appointment goes!

P.P.S. I also forgot to point out that you can subscribe to our blog!  That is a feature that I just found and, hopefully, placed in a good spot for you to see here on our blog site.  The benefit of subscribing to our blog would be that you would be notified by email each time I update the blog.  If you would like to subscribe, simply scroll all the way to the top of this page, on the left hand side of the screen you should see the word SUBSCRIBE and a space for you to type in your email address.  Next you will receive an email on your email account asking you to confirm that you do want to subscribe to this blog.  I have subscribed myself just to test that it works, and I can assure you that your email address is not stored for our use, or any other use than just to update you that I have posted a new blog.  I just wanted to make you all aware of that feature as some of you have asked us to notify you when we update the blog.  This way, it saves us some time.