The Rhythm of My Pregnancy: Finding Out and Heading out (Week 1-5)

Early on a Friday morning I decided to skype my mom to ask here weather it was normal to be late on my period, when taking the Malaria pills. I was only a week late so really didn’t think too much about it, plus I had started the year off with the Daniel fast. So I thought hey….change in diet will probably have some effect on my period. I mean apparently sports women don’t even have a period. Eek. Mom asked me two simple questions: “Are you taking the pill?” No because we had decided to get the pill out of my system so that when we do start trying for kids I would be cool. Second question: “How are your nipples?” Sho my nipples were super sensitive but I had concluded that I may have eczema on them.

So that was enough information for me to bring out the pregnancy test. I got home at noon because I was working a half day so that we could drive to Swaziland. While trying to pack and clean the house before we left I said to Avon casually “Babe I think I should just take a pregnancy test before we leave, just to be sure!” We had done this before and actually didn’t think to intensely about it. So I peed on the stick and continued about my business around the house. While Avon was taking the garbage out I waltzed into the bathroom where I left the test and noticed a double stripe! I hesitatively shouted “Baaaabe,” Avon irritably replied “What!” while carrying the garbage out. …”BAAABE, I am pregnant!” I said staring at him. Avon looked up with that look of …’Did I hear right! Then walked over and grabbed the test and started laughing hysterically which made me laugh too. This wasn’t quite what we had expected and it didn’t quite hit us there. So we said lets get another test just to be sure….a more expensive test, but really what difference is there???

The drive to Swaziland was pretty thought provoking. I kept looking at Avon and saying “Imagine!!! Something is growing inside me right now!” The whole concept was hard to fathom. I mean I hadn’t a clue of what would happen week by week..I know the basics like you ovulate on day 14 round about. It really got us thinking WHEN? Which was the actual day…. I also had to start rethinking the whole medication from the homeopath? I mean couldn’t he tell I was pregnant when he did all those inside tests on me?

Our plans for celebrating Avon’s Dads birthday on the following Saturday had to now include this news because we were not sure when we would be back in Swaziland again. Plus the thought of keeping this a secret from our own parents would be a huge challenge.

After a lot of silent negotiations we finally managed to get both our parents at a dinner table. Avon and I quietly sent a text messages congratulating our parents on being grandparents. As soon as we sent the message, both our dads reached for their phones and held them up far enough so that they could read the text. Avon’s dad said “Who is this messing around with me?” My dad was like “Did you get the same message as me?” They both turned their phones to each other, read the others message and looked up at us! …. Are you pregnant?”…Then there was screams of joy as our moms jumped up and hugged us. At this point I was like….Yo this secret is going to be hard to keep!

A Dancing Girl - Spirit of Hope

I am not much of a poet but since yesturday I have been really thinking about the feeling of Hope and just felt a strong urge to write it down...and it came out something like this -----

With out it life feels pointless, purposeless, and meaningless. That is why you know exactly what if feels like when you don’t have it you see this four letter word brings a point, a purpose and a meaning. I like to describer the word like the spirit of a little girl.

She is like the warm summers sun that greets you in the morning,
She puts a smile on your face and wipes the tears a way from your mourning
She has a mysterious presence that out shines the darkness,
She tells you that you look great and that you are uniquely flawless
She grabs hold of your anxiety and lets you swirls her around with joy
She reminds you to dance, laugh and she plays with you like a child takes pleasure in a toy


She is small, young and pure and can sometimes be taken for granted.
And if you forget about her she will leave you coz she will feel unwanted

So when hope comes to your door embrace her with pride.
Take her by the hand and show her your life inside.
Your life will be transformed with a different light,
You’ll get that job and finances will be sorted
You’ll be blessed with a child and not want to abort it
You won’t have to wait all night by the phone,
You’ll be comforted to know you won’t be alone

Let her in she is the radiant spirit of hope.

Doing life with a Difference

So at the beginning of this year our lifegroup (prayer group), decided we wanted to do lifegroup with a difference and try impact our community. We selected Philile Pre primary school in Deipsloot as our organisation which we would want to raise funds for. Situated in the heart of

Diepsloot Ext 12, Philile Diepsloot opened in March 2010 with 40 children.  The school provides daily meals and quality education.  The school has recruited 5 members of the community as teachers to date and has sponsored their formal training as part of a teacher empowerment pro gramme.

Our lifegroups plan was to try raise R25, 000 which will make us eligible for Cargill’s corporate responsibility program, where by they would double whatever we raise (max being R25 000). So with that in place we took charge on our mission to raise money.

1. Phase 1: Raise money through our network of friends, family and corporate.  We were kinda shocked at home may people were interested in donating and trying to get involved. We managed to raise R12, 000 within our network and Hyundai also jumped in and donated R25 000. So at this point we had already maxed passed our target fundraiser.

2. Phase 2: Philile Art work Sale. We chose to sell Philile Children’s Art work. Members of our lifegroup worked with the children at Philile and helped them be creative in their art. We thought we were impacting the community at this point but really the community was impacting us. The members who interacted with the children really built relationships with them and realised the huge gap that was needed in communities such as these. For myself I really stepped out of my comfort zone by going to Philile. After being smashed and grabbed by Deipsloot thieves….I couldn’t exactly say it was my number one destination to visit. But as I helped each child with their art I thought to myself…what if this was the child of one of your thieves????? Something humbled me right there and then.

Phase 3 is still on its way so watch this space. But here are some pictures of us selling the mugs to members in our community. If you are interested in buying a mug let me know – Mugs are R100 and each mug is personalised with the artists name. Your mug also comes with a child profile which talks about the child and his/her family.

Through a small initiative Philile Pre-primary school now has enough money to purchase 2 new containers for their school, which means they can double the number of registered children for next year J.  The whole process really made me realise that God uses ordinary people to do extra ordinary things.