I feel like a broken record starting off with, "Boy, we've been busy." I just don't know how else to start, though. Things have been absolutely crazy around here the past couple of months. Bec and I often bemoan the fact that things are not going to get any less hectic, and we're becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. Things really are not getting any less hectic.

Nevertheless, I do want to update you on what's going on in our hectic lives. Since it's been so long (goodness, we're approaching two months) since we've updated our site, it would probably be best if I split this up topically rather than chronologically.

The Baby
By all accounts from doctors over the past two months, the baby is doing great. She moves around all the time now. Just tonight, Bec was saying that she feels like she has an alien in her stomach. The baby isn't just kicking any more-she's moving all over the place! In fact, every person who has done an ultrasound has commented about how much she moves. One lady said she was "fiesty." Another said she had "lots of spunk," and yet another commented, "she will have a great personality."

We call her by her name now almost all the time. Since they've confirmed to almost 100% accuracy that we'll be having a girl, we are comfortable calling her Audrey all the time. I often talk into Bec's stomach and say, "Hello, Audrey! How ya doin' in there? Are you being good?" I'm already trying to make her treat her mamma well.

We're slowling amassing things in the house for her. Her bedroom is painted and nearly emptied out. We're going to order our furniture tonight or hopefully tomorrow, and we've found scads of bargains on Little Suzy's Zoo paraphenalia. It's really beginning to come together!

Bec's Health
Last weekend was quite eventful for Bec. It all started Thursday morning at about 1:00 AM. She thought she was having contractions and some other pains, so we looked up her symptoms in her What to Expect When You're Expecting book. She told me the symptoms she was having, and they were all under the "Call Your Doctor Immediately" category. Sure enough, when we called the doctor, he told us to get down to the Women's Pavillion right away.

She was having contractions, so the doctor's first concern was to make sure that she wasn't going into premature labor. After initial checkup, the doctor decided it wasn't likely that she'd go into labor any time soon. However, they were concerned about why she was having contractions in the first place.They checked her repeatedly for a period of about 2 1/2 days, and they concluded that her contractions, though extremely painful, were not causing the baby any harm.

Unfortunately, there's little they can do to actually make the contractions stop. They're not really sure why she's having them, so making them stop is almost impossible. About all they could do was give her some pills and tell her to stay off her feet as much a possible. They even told her that the contractions may or may not go away. For some reason, there are women who experience contractions for the last 2 1/2 months of their pregnancy. We're really hoping this isn't the case for us.

The hardest part for us is that when Bec doesn't get enough sleep, the rest of her medical problems surface: joint pain, muscle weakness, muscle spasms, numbness, etc. Since the contractions often wake Bec up, she has been dealing with many of these symptoms again. These are just piled onto the pain from the contractions! Our biggest prayer is that she can sleep well enough to keep these other problems at bay.

The Internet Ministry
Thankfully, after two years of work, the new West Park web site is up and running. We launched April 27th with our brand new site, all built in FrontPage. I'm very pleased with the design and organization of the site, but I really wish the content were better. I hope it will only improve over the next few months.

With this launch, my role is scaling back considerably. As soon as we get all the kinks smoothed out, I'll be "on call" for technical issues. But besides those, I'm pretty much out of it. As much as I love being involved, I only think it's right to lighten up for when Audrey comes.

The College Class
The college class at West Park is going well. Bec and I are both leading Bible studies now. Bec is leading a Beth Moore study entitled "A Heart Like His" for the girls. I'm taking the guys through the life of Joshua. It's such a blessing to work with these college people. They are so nice and there is so much potential there just waiting to be let out. We hope we can open some of the students up to pour out their lives for Christ!

Well, in a nutshell, that's what we've been up to for the last 7 weeks. Hopefully it won't be nearly that long until our next post. Hope you're doing well! Drop us a line when you get a chance!