J was with me at the dr. office today and during the ultrasound we actually saw the fluttering heartbeat. It was quite amazing!

I went away to a retreat at Asilomar with my church. I was definitely blessed with having a roomate from Kenya. We shared so many things in our history and we had many stories to share about serving our world and those nearest to us. I told her about giving goats for Christmas and she shared a very moving story with me. S. told me a story about how a family she knew did get a goat. Similar to the ones that you can donate through various organizations. How the goat produced milk for that gave the family money to send the kids to school. Eventually one of those kids got into Harvard on full scholarship. The kid could have stayed in the US and taken a posh job. However the kid decides to give back to her village and try to make a difference. She brought in new programs, new ideas for the economy, and social services to meet the needs of the neediest of the village. She came back to put her education to use. All of this could only have happened because of a goat that was given as a donation to her family.

For birthdays and holidays consider giving a gift that really makes a difference. Check out the following:
Alternative Gifts International
Heavenly Treasures,
Network for Good
Heifer International

I can't help but share a little story. I was headed down with CW to LA to meet with a new client and while waiting at the airport we decided to get a box of dark chocolates. Nice sugar rush to get us through the evening. Well there we were at the gate, opening the box, reviewing all the pieces of luscious chocolates, tempted to poke through to see what each treasure contained. We sat there debating, guessing, playing some kind of psychic before biting into each one...some good choices some not so good choices. I can't say there were bad choices since this was dark chocolate. It was quite exciting binging on the chocolate and having a partner in crime. Although is it really a crime to give a pregnant lady a box of chocolate before heading on a plane for business meetings? Nah. What was really funny was this one guy telling us that we would have made a really good See's candy commercial the way we were playing the guessing the filling game. One of the gate attendants even shared a memory of tearing into a box of chocolate and only eating half of the pieces to just see what was inside. I think everyone in the waiting area just wished we walked around to share. We were so enjoying that chocolate even when we got on the plane. How evil was that? He he he.

Oh the pain. I just can't stand it. I use letter openers and slather on the moisturizer, but somehow every week for the past 6 months I've been getting papercuts!!! Argh.