Woah.

Every year at this time I listen to solely Christmas music. I am loyal to but one station, KOSI 101.1. It's a Denver station, but Fort Collins picks it up quite well.

Every year at this time KOSI does a marathon fundraiser for  the Ronald McDonald House. Every year I listen. They tell heartbreaking and heart warming stories of families that need to stay for weeks, months, or even over a year at this wonderful establishment while their loved ones receive care in the outstanding Denver hospitals. Usually the stories are of kids that are at Children's Hospital- those are after all the most heart wrenching and make people want to donate. It's a good strategy for them, really.

I always hear. I always consider donating. I never do. I always feel awful about not doing it- but I always have a reason why I "can't." We have student loans to pay for, house payments, we donated to _______ already, etc. etc.

This year though, I pushed all of those lame excuses aside. I called them up. It was incredibly hard to do because the guy just could not understand my name. At one point I am certain he spelled it Beipra. It was annoying. But, I stuck it out, got it correct, and made my very small donation. Feeling satisfied and hopeful that my donation might shine some good karma on me for the day that we may have to stay there, I turned up the music, content with myself.

The music did not play, however. Instead, it was time for another account of someones stay at the Ronald McDonald house because their child was at Children's. The announcer came on, "This next story is from a family that found out their daughter was going to need heart surgery before she was even born. Can you imagine the heartache!?"

Why, yes sir, I can. And also, "OHMYGOD- ISTHISREALLYTHEVERYNEXTSTORY!?"

They continued. The woman came on and described how at their 20 week ultrasound they discovered that their unborn daughter would need open-heart surgery to survive, so their family stayed at the Ronald McDonald House while their daughter received care from Children's hospital.

Hello, emotions.

I immediately broke down in to tears. I cry while listening to this fundraiser most years at some point. But, this year was no contest. It's a little unreal listening to people on the radio telling a story that you've rehearsed in your head a billion times as your own. It's not our story, yet. But it is likely going to be someday. And not just that, it was a story of sadness, requesting sympathy, requesting money.

And then, it was a story of hope and joy, too. The mom reported that they recovered from heart surgery and her daughter is "relatively healthy" 3-year-old. No one would ever know she had such a rough start to her life, she said. Wonderful. How wonderful. More joy. More tears. More hope. Nora can be that way, too, right? Oh boy, I sure hope so!

So, on that note- that's how I'm feeling. Pretty woah.

We've been keepin' on. We've been enjoying life thoroughly. And also, exhausting ourselves, which is what Kev and I do best. We're knocking things off of our list of "Nora Grace's Tales O' the Womb," we're preparing a lovely nursery, we are keeping incredibly busy, we are celebrating the holidays, taking birthing classes, and visiting the doctor constantly.

We saw the perinatologist in Fort Collins this week. Great news! Sorta. Maybe? Hopefully! It's too soon to tell, really. After steroid shots two weeks ago all hopes have been on Nora's lung masses shrinking in some way. After our latest ultrasound it looks as though the one on the right is a little harder to make out. It's certainly still there. They at least aren't any bigger. And, since they can't tell as well, it's completely possible that maybe that right one is shrinking a wee bit! Usually it would take 4-6 weeks, so a week and a half is not enough time to tell. Also, as baby's bones develop it gets harder and harder to see things on ultrasound. While also, you never really could make out the masses perfectly via ultrasound anyway. So, there are variables. BUT, there is hope! I'm taking it and running! You can too!

And, we have tacked on a few more doctor's appointments. Just to be safe they've started monitoring me twice a week. On Tuesdays each week we get an ultrasound to measure fluid as well as  Non-Stress Test (NST). Then, on Thursdays we get an NST. Then, we have all of our normal doctor's appointments, too. So, in other words, I've quit being paranoid about pre-term labor or watching too closely for signs of early labor. Turns out, they've got a close eye on me!

We've made it to 33 weeks! We have four weeks left before they'll induce! We don't have a date set- we will be picking a date on December 22nd, at our next adventure at Children's Hospital.

In the mean time, we are continuing to play and pray! And also sleep, because growing a baby is super hard work. We are starting to make sense of the things we need to take care of in order to be gone at the hospital for an unknown amount of time. We are figuring out what baby essentials we may need to get. We're watching birthing videos and also Christmas shopping. Life is happening! Yay!

We've had a wonderful shower, and I thank all of you that came and celebrated with us! Stay tuned for picture updates of the exciting last few weeks before Nora gets here!