malaria, nightmares, & other prayer requests

amid the myriad of tasks i am trying to finish before we leave for our crazy month of traveling, i wanted to take a moment to share some prayer requests with all of you...

i know i shared some information with you about the ultrasound we had a week ago...praise God! the baby is well and kicking and growing according to schedule. it was such a beautiful site to behold...little feet and hands moving, a tiny little face... no matter what else we were told, i am so thankful to God for creating and continuing to sustain that precious little life.

we did receive some other news that day...i am only sharing it to ask for your prayers on my behalf. the techinician after scanning the baby and measuring him/her, turned to me and said she wanted to now check me out and see how "mommy" was doing. (still weird to think someone will call me that) she then proceeded to tell me that she wanted to check the fibroid tumor that had been discovered at my first ultrasound.. the fact that a fibroid tumor had been found three months earlier was news to me! i guess someone forgot to tell me...

she started scanning my side ad there it was. not very big, far up in the uterus, and not anywhere near the baby. whew! she measured it to see if it had grown, told me i'd need to come back and have another ultrasound to make sure it doesn't grow more before the baby is born and cause the baby any problems. then she kept scanning. apparently, my body is over-producing estrogen to the point that i no longer only have 1 fibroid tumor. the second one was a bit larger.

so...the tumors aren't dangerous to me at all...i can have them shrunk or removed once the baby is born. and they aren't necessarily dangerous to the baby...the only things that cause concern are if the placement of the fibroids in the way of the birth canal -mine are not...if they were, its an automatic c-section...so thankful i won't have to do that- and the second concern is if the tumors grow large enough to squeeze the baby. if they continue to grow to that point, sometimes it is necessary to induce labor up to a month early.

for obvious reasons, we are praying that will not happen. the tumors are large enought o be felt through the skin and are causing me a lot of pain. the treatment for the pain? eleveate my feet, take it easy, and use an ice pack. hmmm...doesn't mix well with traveling all around the globe, huh?

so i am asking you will just pray for the pain to subside and the fibroids to stop growing and just maintain their current size.

in other african news, we begin taking our malaria pills in a few days...malaria is the biggest medical concern when traveling during the wet season in southern africa. the pills sometimes have the side effects of depression, anxiety, and nightmares. when the nurse told us that, i cringed..all things i have already been struggling with. in that moment, sitting in that little nurse station at the university of washington's travel center, was the first and only time i hesitated about taking this trip. she described to me the horrors that could ensue if i were to get malaria while pregnant... it was rough. but i know in my heart, God is the one who is holding this little life...He is the one who created it when it was the furthest thing from our minds and He has sustained it and i really believe He has a purpose for this little one. so i am confident that the Lord will protect us from malaria and i have faith God will protect me from the side effects...He knows how much i can handle.

please pray with us toward these ends.

we are so excited to me on this journey with world vision. this is likely the first trip of several trips as we prepare to write a book and have our lives changed by the people we will encounter in zimbabwe. we covet your prayers for our physical needs, but even more so we ask you to pray with us that we will be able to clearly hear from God about what He wants to do with these trips and the book....

can't wait to show you pics and tell you stories.

be looking to hear from us again mid-february!