Challenges: Good and Bad

We all face them.  Challenges in our life, challenges we put upon ourselves.  Good challenges and bad challenges, but all which make us a little bit stronger, more of the people we're supposed to be.  I'll share a few of my challenges with you:

First of all, a challenge put in my life that I had no control over, nor a desire for:

1) A health challenge:

Last Wednesday I woke up with a dull pain in my abdomen.  I'll admit, I thought it was just constipation.  It's a normal part of being pregnant, I've discovered lately.  But as the day progressed the pain got worse, got sharper, and I was vomiting.  I called my ob, worried it was related to the baby.  She said to get yourself to an ER.  So I called the hubster at work, who called my awesome sis-in-law to watch our son, and then hubster and I rushed to the ER.  They couldn't give me anything for the pain until they figured out what was wrong.  Hours later, I got my diagnosis: Appendicitis.  Though there was risk to the baby to be under anesthesia, and since the uterus is so close to the appendix we were told there was a possibility we could lose the baby, the appendix had to come out before it burst and a burst appendix would definitely lead to us losing the baby.  The nurses gave me something for the pain, and hubster and I prayed together before I was whisked off to surgery.

To make a long story short, baby is just fine and I'm feeling much better.  So many of our friends from church have brought by meals and we have just felt so very blessed.  Hubster and I really believe God was looking out for me and baby. :)  The road to recovery was extremely painful the first few days, since being pregnant I can't take certain painkillers, but I am truly feeling so much better every day.  I really am feeling blessed, despite needing surgery while pregnant, and feeling so loved by my hubster, family and friends who have been so supportive.  And it's been a wonderful reminder to not take my health for granted.  Some people (even some I know and love) live in chronic pain every day, and I only experienced it for a few days and am ready to be done with it.



Next, two challenges I am putting upon myself.  Feel free to join me!

2) Better my blog challenge


I've decided to challenge myself to better my blog, and what better way than the Bloggiesta?  Here's what it's all about:


"Do you have things you'd like to do on your blog that you haven't managed to get to in forever? Do you want to do those things with lots of other bloggers from all over? Talk things over with them? Bounce ideas off them? Learn from them? Teach them too?  If so, you will not want to miss the latest installment of Bloggiesta! "


If you're interested in joining me in this challenge, it takes place the weekend of March 30th-April 1st and you can sign up here.


And finally...


3)  Get my work out there challenge


In a previous post I mentioned that I had finished my manuscript.  Whoo hoo!  That means, it's time to do something with it, besides just let beta readers read it.  I've been working on that fantabulous query letter with the goal of beginning the query process in the next few weeks.  Best way to keep me motivated to do so?  Gabi's DIY MFA Sub2Pub Challenge!  Here's what it's all about:


"The idea is simple.  If you commit to submitting a piece for publication and you persist for one year, the chances are fairly good that you’ll eventually get it placed somewhere.  The goal is to keep submitting the piece until either the end of the 2012 or until you get a YES, whichever comes first. Even if you can’t find a good home for your work within one year, you’ll probably get some good feedback on it and can revise or re-purpose it accordingly.  And if you don’t get any comments on the work, that’s valuable feedback as well.  It means you can give your piece a dignified burial in the file drawer, liberating you to move on to a new writing project."

If interested, check it out here! 

Anyone else experienced any challenges lately?  Or entering any of these challenges?  Or others?