Harvest Time!

I realize that the title of this post sounds more appropriate for November than it does for January. Let me explain. My Mom bought me a devotional book by Beth Moore called Praying God's Word Day by Day. Here is part of the prayer for today:

Please help me be willing to sow the seed of Your Word and to water it with my tears, believing you in the midst of my pain. If I do, You will be faithful to fill me with joy again. You will faithfully bring a harvest forth from my life. My suffering will not be in vain.

You, the God of all grace, who called me to Your eternal glory in Christ, will restore me and make me strong, firm and steadfast after I have suffered a little while (I Peter 5:10).

Can I get an AMEN? I know that my joy will be restored. I know that I am spiritually stronger now than I was when I began 2007. Do I still wake up with a broken heart everyday? Yes. But I can, without a doubt, say that God has walked every step of this journey with me (as many of you have) and he isn't going to bail on me now. I am ready to bring forth a harvest in my life.

Greg and I are going to be a part of a study that focuses on open neural tube birth defects. I'm not sure what all we will have to do. Isn't Greg lucky that I volunteered us for this? Luckily giving blood samples doesn't bother him!! I was so excited to find out about a research project that we could work with. I hope that in some small way we'll be able to contribute to the prevention of others going through the heartache that we've experienced.

While I'm on this subject, I want to do my part in getting the word out that January is National Birth Defect Prevention Month. And guess what else? January 8-14 is National Folic Acid Awareness Week. I know that you are sooo excited!

Before I totally lose anyone who is reading this, let me just tell you this one thing: If you are of childbearing age, have not had your tubes tied, and your husband hasn't been under the knife, PLEASE strongly consider taking extra amounts of folic acid as part of your daily routine.

Olivia was not a "planned" pregnancy. We had thought we would wait at least 2 more years before adding to our family. But little "surprises" happen. Taking extra folic acid isn't bad for you. You cannot overdose on it. To put it crudely, you pee off whatever your body doesn't need.

Had I been on extra folic acid would it have prevented Olivia's birth defect? Probably not. Most likely it wouldn't have. But many birth defects can absolutely be avoided by taking folic acid. I know that you have all heard this before. I used to read Take Folic Acid and would stop reading the rest of the paragraph. Thinking blah, blah, blah, it won't happen to me. But here I am. It did happen. It does happen.

By the way, in honor of Birth Defect Awareness Month (just kidding), Greg and I will be gone all next week with some friends on a cruise. I have a new camera (thank you Greg!) so I will try to share some of our pics when I get back. Have a great week!