9/12 Update:
Myomectomy (and uterine reconstructive surgery) instead of hysterectomy!! While the short-term recovery for the abdominal incision will be the same, there will potentially be less long-term health issues, as it is not as harsh on one’s body.

Met with Dr. Glassner at Mainline Fertility. I did not want to have a hysterectomy, and it took a great deal of tenacity - talking to various doctors - to find Dr. Glassner, who is so skilled (at least 300 myomectomies a year!) that his patients are able to get pregnant afterwords — granted, it is a high-risk pregnancy and birth is via c-section.

I am considering a tubal ligation during the surgery.

To some women who have never had a child and have “endured it all” to have a baby, a high-risk pregnancy is a risk they may be willing to take.

However, I do have five children already. I am concerned about jeopardizing my health (uterus is very thin and distorted because of the tumor - even though it’ll be “reconstructed”), the health of a baby during pregnancy, and the well-being of my family should something go seriously wrong with the pregnancy.

I do learn a lot from some of my Quiverfull friends, but I have also said that it cuts both ways. We must trust God for the number of children that we have - even when He is saying, “you have your quiverfull, it’s time to be done.”

I still have not decided what to do about this. I am asking the Lord for wisdom.

From a note I wrote to my pastor this weekend:

Dr. Glassner’s office had framed articles featuring him, from all over the world, as well as TV stills, on his walls. The impression that it gave me was, “this person is a recognized expert in his field.” In the time that I had the ultrasound and was waiting, he had thoroughly read my file. He knew the names of my children, husband’s name, exact symptoms of the fibroid, test results and even that we were moving to Japan later this fall. He wasn’t shuffling through the file while he talked - he had memorized it. He said he does at least 300

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What a brilliant sketch. I found myself both laughing and cringing at the remarkable character portrayals at the same time.

Way to go, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, for beating Palin and Clinton to the performance - so that it ever did happen in real life, the address on sexism would underscore Oscar Wilde’s famous quote all the more.

Colombian roast
Beep! A thunderstorm begins
Steamy happiness

HT to Douglas Wilson:

Present Your Bodies as Spiritual Worship (Exhortation)

Over the years we have emphasized the importance of ritual. Rituals are significant in the Bible, and they ought to be significant to us. We have also emphasized the importance of worshipping God with our bodies and not just with our minds. We have sought to resist the temptation that many Reformed Christians deal with, which is the idea that God gave us bodies as carrying cases to get our brains to church.

And of course, it would be better to have your mind at church and your body elsewhere, than to have your body at church and your mind elsewhere. But fortunately, we don’t have to choose, and under ordinary circumstances, we must not choose. And so here is a brief reminder of the doctrinal reasons for some of the very physical things we do in our worship of God.

We sing throughout the service, which should be strenuous, we kneel in confession, we eat bread and drink wine, and we raise our hands in the Gloria Patri. We worship God physically for three reasons.

First, we believe that Scripture requires this kind of thing of us.

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I’ve been going back and reading some of my favorite posts. Some of them have been especially convicting and encouraging to read, remaining true even in hindsight.

Here are three posts to whet your appetite for reading through archives. Enjoy!

God is Awake (Also published online at Nolan Chart)

The Great Physician’s Nurse

Nipping Biting

Some huge changes are in the works here at the Albrecht house - job/move and health related.

However, in my heart, I haven’t quite come to terms with them yet.

Even though I have a lot to write, I’m reluctant to “make them real” by posting them to my blog. Perhaps once these changes have corresponding calendar dates, I’ll be ready to write about them publicly.

One thing to note - I did turn in my Academic Package to become a Bradley Method instructor today. I will find out in about six weeks if it passed inspection

Stay tuned, and please pray.

Much love,
SJA

My friend Sally is letting me borrow The Red Tent. Despite all my interest in childbirth, I have never read it! I’m about halfway through the book.

Here’s a beautifully-written description of the burial of an infant who died after being a prematurely born:

“I held my sister, who was never given a name, and who never opened her eyes, and who died in my arms.

I was not afraid to hold that small death. Her face was peaceful, her hands perfectly clean. It seemed she would wake at any moment. The tears from my eyes fell upon her alabaster cheek, and it appeared that she mourned the passing of her own life. My mother came to take my sister from me, but seeing my sorrow, permitted me to carry her to burial. She was shrouded in a scrap of fine cloth and laid beneath the strongest, oldest tree within sight of my mother’s tent. No offerings were made, but as the bundle was covered with earth the sighs that poured from my mothers’ mouths were as eloquent as any psalm.”

I love how, within a few short moments, it seems like he was never gone.

Doesn’t help when songs like this one come on at 3:04 a.m. :

Throw Me a Rope
KT Tunstall

I want you between me and the
feeling I get when I miss you
But everything here is telling me I should be fine
So why is it so, above as below,
That I’m missing you every time
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One of my new favorite blogs to read is the Art of Manliness.

Two great posts I’d highly recommend reading are:

14 Ways to Affair-Proof Your Marriage The post is thorough, thoughtful, and well-written. I appreciated the reminder regarding sexual tension in mixed company - not to “rationalize it away.”

and

Write A Love Letter Like A Soldier (Dude! Her name was Sarah!)

(Still have all the letters Tom wrote to me before we were married….)

Happy reading