With all of the focus on helping others, I had been neglecting what was going on with myself most of the time and when I woke up one morning I realized… I hadn't had my period in… a month! How could I have missed this!?
My hand went to my stomach, flat and unchanged, but suddenly the center of my entire universe. A month. Maybe more. I'd been so busy with the sanctuary, with new arrivals and Council meetings and building expansions, that I hadn't even noticed.
Panic hit first, sharp and immediate. I wasn't ready. We weren't ready. The sanctuary was still so new, still so fragile. And me, I was still healing, still learning how to be whole again. How could I possibly be responsible for a life when I was still figuring out my own?
But underneath the panic
