Flying Solo

I'm four days into Jon's ten day trip to Rwanda, and wow, I miss him! He went with Eternity Minded Ministries, an awesome organization that goes all over the world to visit schools, orphanages, give eyeglass clinics, put on festivals with music and preaching, and do whatever else God wants them to do while they're gone.

Some of the things the team is planning on doing include helping with an eyeglass clinic (the team brought 4,000 pairs of glasses that they will give to people who have never before been able to read because they couldn't see properly), encouraging Rwandan pastors, visiting a school and an orphanage, and visiting an AIDS clinic to talk to the people getting treatment there. Anyone who's been on a missions trip knows that this could be what they end up doing, but you never know what might come up! He could be doing something completely different, like preaching in a church or sharing his testimony in front of a group of people. I'm proud of him, no matter what he does.

Anyway, I'm hanging out by myself, realizing how much I appreciate Jon's presence. He makes me laugh, helps me around the house without ever being asked, listens to how my days go, and basically just makes me happy. This is the longest time we've been apart since we started dating over four years ago, and I really don't like it!

Baby news: I'm getting rather enormous and can feel baby girl kicking ALL THE TIME. (At least it seems like it.) She's strong and healthy, as far as I can tell from the outside! My pregnancy has been pretty much a breeze, but I'm starting to feel it now that I'm a couple weeks into the 3rd trimester. It's getting hard to sleep, since I can't find a comfy position, and after working all day my whole lower body tends to feel numb and puffy. I have plenty of weeks left, but I really can't wait till this girl is here so I can sleep on my tummy again! Last week Jon and I shone a flashlight on my belly and moved it around because I read that babies at this point can see the light and may respond to it. Baby Richert seemed uninterested at first, but after a couple minutes of Daddy teasing her, she decided to punch him. That-a-girl.