I've never been a fan of self-promotion. In fact, I cringe every time I have to do it. But I've learned in working myself silly doing freelance jobs (singing, web design, guitar lessons, recording) that it comes with the territory. The only way to actually make an income doing this type of work is to build a network.

I'm a stay at home mom, but a lot of people don't realize that I do a lot of this stuff on the side.

Currently I'm teaching guitar two days a week, and have some talented students ranging from 4th-8th grade. I feel like I'm training up our future student worship band! I'm also working on a website for a friend's company. I'd share the link, but it's not finished yet and they might not approve. But I did this one and this one for our church.

All of these "jobs," have come by word-of-mouth (aka. my husband's). I'm thankful I married such a supportive man who believes I am close to superwoman and can do just about anything... haha, not really. But he is definitely my biggest promoter and encourager.

Lately, he has been encouraging me to promote my music more. And when I say "encouraging"... I mean, he just bribed me to write this blog post.

He's right though, I talk about music and write about music and even record little videos and share my music for free. But I haven't spent much time trying to build on my platform or really make an income from it. I guess it goes back to the self-promotion thing, and the fact that I'm pretty discontent about the music that I do have available.

Not that I think it's bad, I don't. I love it and the songs are very representative of a certain time of my life. Most of the songs on my album, "New Day" were written during college and my first year of marriage... five years ago. 

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I even look like a baby there, right?

But since then, I've written so many new songs that have been healing to my heart during this season of my life.

This season of marriage. And motherhood. And answered prayers.

I already have five I can name off-hand, that I would so love to record and share with you all. I've already shared a few on my youtube channel. But as cute as my little boy Micah is, I would love to offer quality recordings without his adorable cooing in the background. ;)

Like I mentioned in this post, I don't believe I'm the best singer/songwriter out there. I don't think you should be emptying your wallets for copies of my music. But I do believe I am called to do what I do.

And if you believe that too, I ask for your support.

My goal is to record a stripped down, acoustic album before the end of this year. Yes, in two months.

My hopes is that this music will bless your hearts and ears. I also pray that it will be a blessing to my family as we sort through paying for medical bills that have accumulated over this past year.

If you would like to help encourage this process, you can do so by one of the following three ways:

1) Purchasing my "New Day" EP on iTunes. Or order a hard copy here.

2) You can get a head start on Christmas and go download my acoustic "iChristmas" EP. (You'll also have the option of donating whatever amount you would like that way.)

3) And if you really love me, you've probably already supported me in both of those projects. :) In that case, I've provided a donation button below for those of you who feel led to contribute to my next acoustic album. You will be sure to get a copy of it for free as soon as it is finished!

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Whew, thanks for bearing with me through that!

I was once told by a music professional in the recording industry that I needed to "get over" my disdain for self-promotion. That I needed to "believe I was great and go out and sell myself to the public!"

I am still working on that. I don't know if I'll ever get to the point where it is a comfortable thing for me to do. But at the same time, I do believe in God's call on my life. And I believe HE is great enough to provide for all of our needs. This is one area of my life that I am continually seeking daily contentment in. The balance between taking action and just believing God will provide. I'm beginning to think both are necessary. 

This post is part of a series I’m writing for the month of October entitled “31 Days of Being Content.”  See all other posts in this series by clicking here. Or enter your email address in the sidebar on the right to subscribe to this blog and receive posts straight to your inbox!

Thank you to everyone for the sweet encouragement and prayers after yesterday's post! It means so much that you would take time out of your day to pray for us. People often make comments about how they appreciate my honesty on this blog. But I have to say, I really have you all to thank for that! The reason I share so much on my little space here, is because I know that people who really care read it. You have shown me that time and time again with your prayers for us. Why would I not be honest here?

So again, thank youfriends.

Today I thought I would share a little more about how we came to decide on the name Hannah Leigh. And as always, it will lead back to this month's theme of "being content," I promise. ;)

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The funny thing is we had a girl's name picked out when I was pregnant with Micah, before we knew he was a boy. But for some reason it was nowhere close to being on the radar this time.

It was a lot harder to come up with names this go around, because I wanted to have some sort of congruity with siblings. I know that's not a big deal for everyone, but it was just something I thought would be cool and sweet at the same time (hopefully my children will agree with that when they get older). So after thinking on it for awhile, we agreed on keeping the "ah" at the end of their names.

Which helped us narrow it down a lot.

And just when we were pretty settled and excited about a boy name, we went to the gender scan and found out we were having a girl! Haha, of course we were so excited about it, but also so clueless as to what the name would be. The only girl name that really stuck with us was, "Hannah."

I have loved Hannah in the Bible since I was a junior in high school. I remember reading her song to God after she had given birth to her son Samuel and being so touched by it. I even put my own music to the words and sang it at church. Then when I graduated, my youth pastor gave us all a biblical name that he believed matched our character and mine was, you guessed it, Hannah.

Josh really loves the meaning of names. So the fact that Hannah means "grace of God," was pretty perfect. It is because of God's grace that we live. We are thankful for His grace on our lives that allows us to be able to have and raise children.

The middle name "Leigh" was probably the easiest part. It is my middle name and has been in my family for years - both men and women have the middle name "Leigh" or "Lee," so I knew I wanted to pass it on.

Names can be hard. And if you haven't noticed, people are pretty sensitive about them too. The responsibility of naming a child is not something we take lightly. Josh and I don't always have the same "taste" in names either, so that's been fun. I could handle a unique name probably much better (ok, a lot) than he could. But the truth that we both agree on is that names should mean something.

Believe it or not, but I learned a very important lesson on contentment when picking out a baby name. My opinion is not the only one that matters. When I take time to consider others (in this case, my husband) I am not only showing I value them, but I am learning to be open to suggestions, and to have peace in the decisions I make. And in this case, the decision we made to name our baby girl, Hannah Leigh, is one I am very content with.

This post is part of a series I’m writing for the month of October entitled “31 Days of Being Content.”  See all other posts in this series by clicking here. Or enter your email address in the sidebar on the right to subscribe to this blog and receive posts straight to your inbox!

Today we had an appointment at Shands to check on our baby girl. First of all, we confirmed that she is indeed a GIRL! I was thankful that it was very obvious. Not that I didn't trust the earlier scan - but you always read those "surprise" stories of girls turning out to be boys. So this scan definitely helped confirm what I knew in my heart.

We'll be welcoming...

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... this coming March! (Will be discussing more about her name and how we chose it in an upcoming post!)

Ultrasounds are always fun to me. I love seeing my little baby wiggling on that screen. Today she had her hands covering her face and feet just a kickin'. Thankful we got to see all five fingers and toes (or should that say all "20" fingers and toes?), her cute little profile and the blood moving quickly through her heart! It's the little things that awe me.

How amazing that God is forming her right now in my womb? I mean, I get just speechless staring at the screen of little, lively body parts wiggling around. This child is alive.How anyone can doubt the validity of life in the womb, is beyond me.

But now I'm getting off topic.

What I really wanted to talk about today is how this whole pregnancy has shaken my faith and goal of being content in all things. Today I showed up looking for answers. To diminish any concerns of having another child with heart issues. But instead, we were left with more questions.

As soon as we arrived I was told that we couldn't bring Micah back to the ultrasound room, which meant Josh would need to stay back and watch him. I always like having him there, it's his child as much as mine, and if anything was wrong he deserved to hear it from the doctor first hand. But this is life with multiple children, I suppose.

So I went back alone and waited as the nurse informed me that it was too early for them to do the echo they had planned and they would need to call my OB doctor to get a referral for a level 2 ultrasound instead. Once they got the referral, they went to work on measuring every little part of our little Hannah. Everything was looking perfect! Then as soon as they got to her heart, I could very clearly see the bright spot they were referring to. It's very alarming looking - but they just call it a "soft marker" and it could end up being completely normal. Then they got to her kidneys and noticed some fluid in her left one. This is considered another "soft marker."

The doctor came in and explained that all these soft markers mean is that there is an increased risk of Downs Syndrome. He recommended we do two more ultrasounds to check her heart (at 24 weeks) and kidneys (at 32 weeks). With all the medical stuff we've been through with Micah and this pregnancy, all we see is $$$ signs next to these tests. How will they even help? 

We were informed that we could opt for a genetic blood test that has a 99.5% accuracy of detecting Downs Syndrome. And our insurance would cover it completely (so that means, free).

This seems like the best route to go, since we'd rather not waste time (and money!) on more ultrasounds if there is a genetic problem that could perfectly explain these "soft markers." Now if there isn't a genetic problem, then I would want to follow through on checking up with her kidneys and making sure the fluid drains correctly.

Now to step away from all the medical hoopla. The real fact is that this doesn't change anything. We are still planning on welcoming another baby to this world and whatever comes along with it! Honestly, sometimes I wonder if life would just not be so much simpler without all this medical knowledge. I know it's helped save lives, but has it not also destroyed some? Without knowing all of these things about our unborn children, we have no choice but to be content with whatever God gives us. But sometimes discontentment comes with knowing too much. 

But, my child, let me give you some further advice: Be careful, for writing books is endless, and much study wears you out. Ecclesiastes 12:12

Wise man, that Solomon.

This post is part of a series I’m writing for the month of October entitled “31 Days of Being Content.”  See all other posts in this series by clicking here. Or enter your email address in the sidebar on the right to subscribe to this blog and receive posts straight to your inbox!