Hi! This is Jenna Aurora Doucet! I am doing fine: am starting to "show" (at least I am about over the worst of the morning sickness; that was such a trial!), and I am steadily gaining weight!

By next month I should find out exactly what I am having. I am hoping for a little girl; Michael is wanting a little boy. As long as the baby is healthy, we will BOTH be happy, but even if he (or she) is born handicapped, we will love him/her and try to give him/her the best life possible!

I am eating like a horse: it seems that I can't ever slake my hunger! I have been eating incredible amounts of food, and when I am done, I am so bloated and miserable it is NOT funny! *URP!*

I am still receiving my disability check every month. I am still on total disability; there is nothing that can really be done to rectify my situation. I am still paralyzed on the one side, and I am still using my wheelchair a lot of the time. My husband also takes care of me, and he makes sure that I am kept active so I don't get depressed.

I don't really go anywhere much except maybe to church or to the store (or to my doctor's appointments and/or therapy). I sometimes go out to a movie or to the mall ONCE in a while, but I am still embarrassed at people looking at me when I am out in public. I guess being in my wheelchair does that: it brings extra (if unwanted) attention to me; I find it to be extremely uncomfortable!

Michael is still working at the bar on weekends and is now going to medical school to become a doctor on the weekdays; he is hardly ever home. I have my neighbor stay with me when Michael is away, in case I should happen to have a fall or some other kind of accident.

I have written to my friend Louie in Tennessee, but I guess she is busy with her OWN brood of fifty-three kids. She also works full-time and takes care of her husband and aging parents; so what free time for HER is very rare! I do hope she writes back soon; I miss her cheery, chatty letters that are so full of news!

We have had a very cold winter here in Alaska: brutal temperatures in the sub-zeros, wind, and lots of snow. We have also seen some spectacular auroral displays. Other parts of the continental U.S. have been warmer than average, but in Alaska it has been the complete opposite!

Well, now that you are updated on what has been going on with my life, I will let you go. I will write in here again from time to time. With a life like mine, there is not much to write about; my life compared to a lot of people's is especially mundane and boring! If I were able to work, I'd at least have something exciting to write about, but since I am unemployed and getting disability every month, well, the money I DO get doesn't last very long. It isn't long before we are back in the poorhouse!

~Love, your friend in Alaska, Jenna Aurora Doucet. :)