It's a Girl!

Our doctor gave us a guarantee, it's a girl or the delivery is free!  The ultra sound above is of the ribcage on the left side and the skull on the right side, facing towards the camera.  In addition to finding out the gender I (Chris) was also able to feel our little girl kick for the first time which was needless to say very exciting.  The belly continues to grow and every day she (baby) begins to kick harder. At least her kicks are more noticeable! We're very excited to begin to prepare for her arrival. We'll keep you posted on more baby stuff to come! 

Sea Monkeys

My brother's girlfriend gave me Sea Monkeys for Christmas...they are pretty awesome.  Thanks Paige.

Sundance 2009

Taking Chance,

The Clone Returns Home,

Cold Souls,

Afghan Star,

Sin Nombre,

Arlen Faber,

Brief Interviews With Hideous Men,

An Education,

The Reckoning,

Push,

Dirt! The Movie,

We Live in Public,

and various short films

Feel free to ask me about any of them.

I survived my night on call.

Okay so last night was not the quiet night I was hoping for. I did get called back to the hospital around 1:40 a.m. and I'm happy to say I know I can wake up, get ready, and be at the hospital bedside in thirty minutes! Of course it does help that no one is really on the road at that time in the morning! 

So I survived being on call, but between yesterdays events and last nights, it was a rather rough day. Although I'm happy to be with families and help them find comfort in painful situations... I don't really like being called in during the middle of the night. I'm sure most people would agree it's not too pleasant being waken from your sleep. So I'm thankful that I'm only on call once a week! 

Today is a new day! And Saturday! Yay!! Even though it's grey and rainy outside, I'm happy to have the day off to rest. I love my weekends! 

On Call...

Okay so I can't actually put a picture with this post because Chris has the camera for the week while he's out of town. But if you'd like to see the hospital I'm interning at the link is: http://www.methodisthospital.org/

I know that's not as exciting as a picture but feel free to look. 

So Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) has been quite the experience so far. Tonight is my second night on call, and so far the first that I have actually been called back into the hospital. It's tough work being with families who are suffering and going through painful experiences and even loss. Every day I process the things I'm doing in the hospital and ask God to give me the strength to respond during crisis, and the heart to carry another persons pain but also the freedom to release that pain to God and not carry it with me. That has been difficult, but I'm working on it. 

I feel very blessed to be welcomed into the lives of some of the families I have encountered. And I feel that even in the midst of suffering I can see glimpses of God's goodness. There's so much I don't understand about pain, and suffering, and death, and I don't think I will ever fully understand it. But I know and I believe that God is good, and that even in suffering He is present. Even in the silent moments He is there. 

This internship is really helping me to determine if God could be calling me into a chaplain ministry. And right now I'm still uncertain. But I'm fully committed to this ministry for the next 8 weeks, and right now it's one day at a time. After this internship is over I'll reassess and ask God to continue to guide me in the discernment process. If you feel led, please pray for me during this time. I know God is stretching me and teaching me in a number of ways. In the meantime... Please pray I can get a good nights rest and not get called back to the hospital tonight! 

Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE)

This week I began my internship as a Chaplain at Methodist Hospital of Southern California in Arcadia. It has been quite the week of orientation, and I still have one week to go... which I am so thankful for! The first few days of orientation were pretty intense, packed with a lot of information and also a visit to the hospital morgue. It was a little overwhelming, but I know the Lord will give me the strength to minister in this setting to patients and families experiencing crisis. I think this internship will be one of the most challenging things I have done for my degree program, but I'm excited to be learning in this environment. Below are pictures of my first two days at work! I'll probably be posting more on my CPE over the next 10 weeks until I'm finished. 

Please pray for God's strength, grace, and protection over me and the baby as I continue to work at the hospital. I have my first on call next week and I'm a little anxious about that! Blessings to you all! 

Baby's first movements!!

Exciting news in the Nelson household!!! So around the middle of December I thought that I had felt the baby moving, but it was so infrequent that I wasn't sure. Well as of yesterday little baby Nelson was moving around a lot! After lunch I felt this repeated little poking on the right side of my belly and it lasted for about a minute then stopped. A few minutes later I felt it again and it was the same motion!! Then after dinner the poking came back and lasted a very short while. Then when I woke up around 3 a.m. for my nightly bathroom run I felt the baby poking me again but this time on my left side! It was so exciting!! It's kind of like a little bubble is bursting in the place where I feel the baby! It'll still be a while until Chris is able to feel the baby's movements, so we're both looking forward to that day. Until then Chris just asks me to describe it to him! 

Stay tuned... I'm sure I'll have more exciting baby news to come!

Happy New Year!

Another year comes to an end, and as always I'm amazed at how the time goes by so fast. This year was our last year to enjoy front row seats for the Rose Parade (thanks to Chris for camping out all night starting at 10:30 am on New Years Eve!). As fun as the parade was, I'm happy to say that Chris is letting me decide how we spend our next four New Years Eve's since the last four have been camping out for the parade... and we'll no longer be in Pasadena! Thankfully Chris didn't spend the night alone, our friend Matt joined him for the camp out and they kept each other company! 

I hope 2009 brings lot of joy and happiness to you all. Cheers to the new year!