Meet the Family

These pictures are from April 29, 2008, the morning after Christin was born (she and I were still at the hospital). This was the second time for the girls to meet their new little sister--they were so sweet with her and loved holding her little hands and kissing her. Enjoy the photos!

Family Reunion

Sisters are for kissing

Look at her tiny feet!

Clara Anne loves holding Christin.

There she is, almost one day old (and finally clean! They didn't give her a bath until the morning of the second day!).

"Don't worry Mom, I've got good hold of her, all by myself."

"Oops!" A little too much love here from Chloe.


Family of Five--our first family photo!

Forgot to say . . .

Ok, so in my writing of the birth story last night I forgot a few details to share with you . . . one amazing one was the cost of this entire process. John had to pay a deposit, and when we wanted to check out on Tuesday afternoon, they started counting back money to him! He was astonished upon receipt of that money to realize that the total cost for the birth and my stay (one night) in the hospital was only 970 local dollars, or less than $150 US! Wowza! That's amazing! I usually spend around 970 local dollars in about two weeks at the grocery store!

I also wanted to praise the Lord again for his timing and faithfulness. You may remember that I was praying for this baby to arrive early, and at night. Instead, she was five days late, and during the day! But His ways our not our ways, and though things didn't go as we planned (especially with my doctor not being there) they definitely went as HE planned, and that was for the best. I am now very glad that my doctor wasn't there. The midwives did a great job and Christin was born safely, that was the most important part. We rejoice in His provision and in her new little life!

Stay tuned for more pictures, coming soon!

The Story of Christin's Birth

***Warning! Long and involved post! Proceed at risk of being bored!***


If you've been following the blog, you know that I had literally weeks of prelabor contractions. During that time we learned lots about what is called "prodromal" labor, where the contractions are more regular and pronounced than just Braxton Hicks contractions, but yet do not actually advance the progress of labor. We also learned lots about being patient, and I learned to not take my body cues very seriously!

All that being said, when Sunday night came I did feel like something different was happening. We had eaten a yummy Asianese lunch rather late and I didn't feel like eating dinner. I was having the strongest contractions yet and so after the girls were in bed we decided to time them for awhile. To lessen the boredom, we watched "Father of the Bride." (Just had to get that detail in there for posterity!) But, around midnight, the contractions spaced out a bit and weren't gaining in intensity, so we decided to try and get some sleep. John fell asleep immediately but I was awake for awhile feeling the contractions continue. Same story as so many nights of the last month!

At 3am-ish, though, I awoke with some rather strong contractions that seemed to be about 7-8 minutes apart and more intense than before. I woke up John and we timed for awhile, but the clincher was when I went to the bathroom and experienced some blood loss. That hadn't happened until I was 6-7 cm dilated with the other girls, so considering that and the more intense contractions, we decided it was time to call our friend Roby.

Roby lives nearby and had been waiting for this call for a month now, so she was happy to hear that it was us and that the time had come. She arrived about 4:45 and we were then on our way out the door to find a taxi. The sun was just coming up as we were leaving, and the air was fresh and cool with the promise of a beautiful day--the day of Christin's birth!

We arrived at the hospital at 5am only to find the halls and nurses' station completely deserted. No one was anywhere to be seen! I sat down and waited while John went hunting around. Finally he found a nurse who quickly got things going for us. My doctor's previous advice had been to get to the hospital, get checked by whoever was on duty to determine if I should stay or not, and then if necessary, check in and call her at that point. So this is what we did. The doctor on duty ushered me (and only me, not John) into the laboring area to do the check, and then upon examination announced that I was 1 cm dilated. I could hardly believe it! 1 teeny tiny cm after a whole month of work?!!! How could it be? What about the strong contractions and the blood and everything? Suddenly the day stretched out before me, long and arduous. If it hurt this much at 1 cm, what was it going to feel like later?

However, facts are facts. But this doctor thought it would go quickly since it was my third child. She thought I should be admitted, so began the process of asking me lots of detailed medical questions which my Asianese vocabulary wasn't quite prepared for. She wanted to draw blood to do some test (a very expensive test) because of my relatively rare blood type, and I protested, trying to understand what kind of test it was and why it was necessary. Finally I protested enough that she gave up and made me sign a disclaimer saying I wouldn't accept that treatment.

Then there were other issues. John had gone to the main building to register me and check me in, with the understanding that when he finished he would be allowed to join me in the labor room. However, when he got back they told me he could not come in. I had been trying to call my doctor all this time, and she wasn't answering her phone, and the nurses and doctor on duty refused to let him in, saying that it wasn't the policy of the hospital. I told them that my doctor had asked specially for permission and they replied very unhelpfully, "Well, she's not the boss, and we have rules to follow here." This discussion went on long enough, with me alternately trying to call my doctor and then talking with John via his cell phone, that finally I asked to be allowed to go back out in the hallway to be with him. They would not let me get off the bed. This was Dicey Moment #1: John out in the hallway, me inside, not together except through calling one another on our cell phones, me still having strong contractions and feeling emotionally tested there by myself. At this point, the percentage of the discussion in Asianese: 100%.

An hour and a half passed. During that time I further annoyed my doctor/nurses by refusing the "shave." My doctor had said it was standard, but if I really didn't want it I could refuse it, and I really didn't want it. When I realized what the nurse was doing, I told her immediately and in no certain terms to stop, and that my doctor had said I didn't have to have it. Well, that about did it for those nurses. They were pretty irritated with this foreigner who came in, refused treatment, wanted things her way, got upset when her husband got left outside, etc.

But all that changed with a 3 minute phone call. My 15 unanswered phone calls to my doctor were finally answered with a call to the nurse on duty. I never talked to my doctor, but suddenly the nurse was ushering me into a private labor room (previously promised to me), John was brought in to join me, it was fine that I didn't have the shave or the blood test they wanted to do, and I was free to move around as I wished, eat, drink, walk, or whatever during labor. There was even a birthing ball in that room! Even better, my doctor was coming on duty at 8am and so would come herself to check me when she came to work.

John proved himself to be a most invaluable coach for the third time. He rubbed my back, timed my contractions, encouraged me, helped me to walk a bit, reminded me to eat a few snacks (we had splurged on an imported bag of Craisins trail mix--cranberries, nuts, and chocolate chips!), and just generally took great care of me. My doctor didn't come in to see me until about 8:30, and then I happened to be in the bathroom, so the first time I actually saw her was about 9:45 when she came with the head of the department in tow.

They were both concerned because they thought the baby was too large, and so ordered another ultrasound, bringing the total number of ultrasounds for this pregnancy to an astonishing 8! So I went to have that done, then came back and the dept head examined me, and I was happy to find that I was already 5 cm! Hallelujah! They were also both concerned that the baby would come so quickly I wouldn't have time to make it the 15 feet over to the delivery area, so wanted me to get on the delivery bed as soon as I had reached 8 cm.

No problem there, but then my doctor and the department head started talking amongst themselves about John's presence. They began to say to me that maybe, after all, John couldn't accompany me into the delivery room. In classic Asianese fashion, they explained that "maybe" he would have to "wait a moment" while I did the actual work of birthing the baby, and then he could be with me again. I wasted no time in playing my "upset foreigner" card for the second time that day. Honestly, THE major reason we agreed to have the baby here was because my doctor reassured me repeatedly that John and I could be together for the ENTIRE process. When I asked my doctor with some emotion, "Why? You told me previously that you had gotten permission for this!" she replied by saying, well, just because this is [the country we live in]. If there ever was a bad excuse, that was it! This was Dicey Moment #2.

However, as I looked helplessly with tears at John while the doctors were discussing it, they relented and said, ok, if you really want him to be there, then that's ok. I reiterated that it was most important to me that he was with me, and so they grudgingly assented. Yikes! Glad we made it through that one! Percentage of conversation in Asianese at this point: 90%.

So time passed and I was anticipating rapid progress from 5-10, just like 1-5 had been. My mistake. It took F-O-R-E-V-E-R to get to 6. About 11:00 or so, the midwife came in and announced that I should move to the delivery table, though I had not progressed any further in terms of dilation. My contractions were gradually moving closer together, and gaining slowly in intensity, which by then was feeling really, really intense. I did get up on the delivery table, and though it was not so comfortable I didn't feel like moving much anyway. Almost without asking they broke my water at this point, after which the contractions only got more intense. From about that point on, I felt like 10 cm was never going to come, and I was in transition with very intense, painful contractions that got very difficult to relax through. By 12:15 I was still only at a six, but then had a long series of such intense contractions that I could not stop my body from bearing down. Thankfully, it was almost over--I went from 6 to 10 in about half an hour, and by 12:50 was ready to push.

My doctor had not come back to check on me. All of this time, it was a group of midwives/nurses that were attending me. I kept asking for my doctor, but they said she was doing an emergency C-section and would come as soon as she was able. I think she showed up after about 3 or 4 pushing contractions, just as I was getting started, really. And when she came, she started making some dire predictions and saying things like "your baby is stuck too far up the birth canal, and your contractions are not strong enough to push the baby out. . . maybe you need some medicine to make the contractions stronger . . . the baby is in distress, look, her heart rate is too high . . . your baby is too big, we have to consider other options . . . "

Needless to say, none of this made me very happy. I was ready to do the work of pushing, for a long time if necessary, but her alarmist mentality wasn't helping. The baby's heart rate was accelerating with the contractions, but not dangerously so; another midwife present said she didn't think it was a problem. My doctor did start me on oxygen, trying to help the baby, and gave me no choice about starting a IV drip with Vitamin C--how that was supposed to help in that moment, I have no idea. (A westerner who is a nurse told me later that is because they don't allow women who have just given birth to eat anything citrus for a month--so they need the IV.) Anyway, my doctor then announced that she had better get the head of the department to consult with about my case.

Well, this definitely constituted Dicey Moment #3. I certainly did not want to endanger the baby, but I had just started pushing and so of course she was still far up the birth canal. John and I began praying desperately for the Lord to act quickly so that we could prevent drastic measures. We prayed for strength, for the baby to descend quickly, and for my contractions to have great effect. And the Lord answered, in an unusual way!

The midwife that took over for my doctor immediately began to coach me in a very positive way as I was making progress with the pushing. As I could feel some progress happening, it encouraged me and I pushed even harder. Then, as a total surprise, another midwife climbed up on a stepstool next to the birthing bed, and with each contraction bore down on my belly with her full weight behind her fists, literally pushing the baby down from the outside. It hurt like crazy but made my contractions about twice as effective. So with her pushing, me pushing, and the contractions pushing, we made excellent progress. Soon there was no question--the baby was descending, and descending fast.

There was a bunch of other nurses/midwives present--I'm not even sure who was who, but I do know this, my doctor never showed up again! That seemed providential in hindsight, since the midwives weren't so concerned and just took things in stride. Needless to say, without my doctor there, the percentage of Asianese being spoken went right back up to 100%! After about 40-45 minutes, and some vigorous stretching/rubbing of me in places I don't care to mention by many hands, Christin made her entrance into this world! Wow! The midwives did a great job of coaching me so that I stretched slowly and only had a very small tear. So she was born at 1:38--alert, active, coated with vernix, and flailing and crying.

We think she looks a lot like Chloe's birth pictures, and interestingly enough, Christin was exactly Chloe's birth weight and height--4.45 kilos (that's 9 pounds, 13 oz) and 55 cm (about 21 3/4 inches). Her name, Christin Arielle, was chosen because we pray that her life will reflect the glorious truth "Christ in her, the hope of glory!" Arielle means "Lion of God" and is also referred to in Isaiah as a name for the city or dwelling place of God. And of course, the C's and the middle names match with Clara Anne Danielle (named for her grandmothers and her uncle Dan) and Chloe Rachelle (named after a woman in the Bible who had a group in her home, and her mother).

After she was born, the midwives did all the usual stuff, except bathe the baby. Apparently the custom here is to wait until the second day, it's better for their health or something. They stitched my few stitches (without anesthetic, I might add--that was NOT comfortable!) and let me hold the baby really quickly. We then returned to the laboring room so I could nurse Christin and rest a bit before going to our hospital room.

About 3:30 our friend Roby showed up with Clara Anne and Chloe, and they got to meet their sister. Clara Anne was so excited and curious, wanting to kiss and touch Christin, but Chloe seemed a little confused about everything that was going on. I have some great pictures from their first meeting to share with you soon. At one point later, though, Chloe looked up and pointed, saying "Baby!" So at least she caught on to that much! Clara Anne really has been a sweet big sister already--loves to talk to Christin and touch and kiss her, and both she and Chloe seem excited about their new sister.

So, to finally conclude this very long story, we are so thankful for the safe arrival of Christin Arielle! She is such a precious little bundle and is doing great with eating, and getting better with sleeping (last night went 5.5 hours at one stretch, woke up to eat, then slept another 3 hours before I woke her to eat breakfast!). She definitely has the Wind lips from her father and the Bruxvoort (my side of the family) nose. She is so sweet and cuddly, loves to be held and looks at me sometimes with that cross-eyed look peculiar to newborns. We are enjoying getting to know her! PTL for her precious life!

Home Again

Well, we're home, back to our familiar apartment in our city. Our packing up and moving locations has gone well. We had safe travels yesterday, made it to the train with plenty of time, and arrived back in our city to find that summer has arrived with all its heat and glory. Wow! The temperature difference was quite astonishing considering we only traveled a few hundred km. So sometime in the next few days I will have to find the time/energy to unpack our summer clothes! We're all feeling a bit warm right now!

It is hard to believe, with all the changes of this past week, that Christin was only born four days and several hours ago. It does feel so good to be back, and Lou has already been a great help, but admittedly the time has felt a bit rushed. One extenuating (unexpected) circumstance is that since these three days (May 1-3) are a national holiday, many big ticket items are significantly on sale, and our local business partner here thought it would be a great plan to try and buy some of the needed office furniture during these days. We then thought, well, we also need to purchase some larger items (a kitchen table and chairs, a bedroom set, etc) since when we move we will leave behind our current landlord's furniture. So today, John was out all day scoping out the huge furniture stores on the north side of our city, with the plan that tomorrow I (and Christin) will join him and hopefully make some purchases.

This admittedly was not my ideal picture of settling back in, but hopefully after tomorrow things should calm down a bit. I knew there was lots of transition coming up, and this is just part of it! I am so thankful that we were able to settle on this new apartment, that we will be moving soon, and that so many details have come together. And it should be fun, right, buying new furniture?! (For me, not a real "shopper" type, I'm trying to convince myself of this!)

Anyway, all of this is my disclaimer to tell why I haven't found time to put Christin's birth story into words yet! I do promise that it will be my next post. I have to write it down soon, anyway, so that I don't forget the details!

One funny anecdote--I've already had my first time of forgetting that I had another baby! On Thursday morning we were getting ready to go down to breakfast at the hotel. I had just showered and the girls were just about ready, we were (as usual) having to hurry a bit since we often came just at the end of breakfast. So as I was rushing about, I said to John, ok, I'm ready, let's go (mentally checking that the girls had socks and shoes, we had bibs and juice cups, etc). John said, aren't you forgetting something? Sure enough, there was Christin on the bed, sleeping peacefully. I had TOTALLY forgotten her! Poor girl! Thankfully he remembered and so we went down for breakfast, all five of us.

More later from us!

Welcome Christin Arielle!

A first look at our precious new little one . . . what a miracle! Christin came out fully alert, crying and moving all around (and very cheesy!).

Moments after her birth.

The proud papa!

Here she's had her first meal; with a full tummy and her head against my heart, it looks like all is right with the world!

She's here! PTL!
I'm home (back at the hotel) from the hospital and am feeling great, and Christin is already sleeping and eating well. She's a Wind--she caught on to the eating thing right away! We're now making preparations to return home; we have train tickets to return to our city for Thursday. Stay tuned for the birth story--though we had a few dicey moments, the Lord was faithful and worked out his perfect plan in such wonderful ways. Thanks again to everyone for your thoughts and prayers!

Introducing...

Hello Friends!
John here announcing some great news. Christin Arielle Wind arrived at 1:38 pm today, April 28, 2008. She arrived safely weighing in at a healthy 9 lbs 13 oz. She and Rachel are doing great. Thanks so much for all the many who were remembering us. To Him alone be the glory! For those interested in more details, look for Rachel to post concerning the birth and Christin in the next few days. As soon as Rachel is checked out and we have the birth certificate in hand, we'll be heading home. Probably Wednesday at the earliest but hopefully Thursday at the latest.
Love John, Rachel, Clara Anne, Chloe, and Christin

Be Still, My Soul

Yesterday afternoon our family went for a walk along the seashore. This seaside city has over 40 km of walking path along the ocean, and so we took a taxi to a particular spot and then had fun exploring along the coastline. The girls thought it was really fun to climb on the big rocks (they must get that from their father!) and I enjoyed finding a flat spot to sit and enjoy the ocean view. We found a great promontory point where there were very few people and lots of larger ocean waves crashing in. As I was sitting there, with the fresh breeze in my face and contemplating the power of the ocean and the force with which it crashed over the rocks, suddenly my heart was moved to worship again. I was reminded of His power, His might, His sovereign control over all things. My worries and stresses about the baby and her arrival (or lack therof) quickly faded into the background as the words of the great hymn, Be Still, My Soul, came to mind.

I remembered that this hymn was a great comfort to me when I was pregnant with Clara Anne. Being a first-time mom and new to another very foreign culture, and especially because I was sick for such a long time with Clara Anne, there seemed to be lots to worry about. But the truth of this hymn really encouraged me and so I thought I would share its verses here; I trust it will encourage you too! The text was written by Katharina von Schlegel in 1752, translated by Jane Borthwick in 1855. The tune is Finlandia.

Be still, my soul! The Lord is on your side:

Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain;

Leave to your God to order and provide;

In every change He faithful will remain.

Be still, my soul! Your best, your Heavenly Friend

Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

Be still, my soul! Your God will undertake

To guide the future as He has the past;

Your hope, your confidence let nothing shake;

All now mysterious shall be bright at last.

Be still, my soul! The waves and winds still know

His voice who ruled them while he dwelt below.

Be still, my soul! The hour is hastening on

When we shall be forever with the Lord,

When disappointment, grief and fear are gone,

Sorrow forgot, love's purest joys restored.

Be still, my soul! When change and tears are past,

All safe and blessed we shall meet at last.

Yes, that is John, carrying Chloe and holding Clara Anne's hand, clambering over the rocks! By the time we left this spot the tide had come in enough to cover with water the places where they were climbing.

Maybe it's not just me . . . maybe you have something on your heart today that you need to tell your soul, "Be Still!" The waves and winds still know his voice who ruled them when He dwelt below. PTL!

For Everything there is a Season

And apparently this is our season of waiting. :)

Little girl Wind is taking her sweet time, and I must say that waiting on her has been really hard for me--harder than I anticipated. Of course I knew theoretically that my prelabor contractions (begun five weeks ago now) wouldn't necessarily lead to an earlier birth, but it was hard to believe that it could go on this long. In the intervening weeks, I feel like I have been through every emotion: hopeful excitement, disappointment, discouragement, thankfulness, times of renewed hope in the Lord, fatigue and weariness from the physical challenges of carting this baby around . . . you name it, I feel like I've experienced it, and thanks to pregnancy hormones, sometimes in one day I've vacillated wildly between the highs and the lows!

It has been no less a spiritual battle for me. Trusting HIM, waiting on Father's perfect timing, knowing that all He does is good, curbing my impatience, submitting my plan to His plan, seeking to keep a thankful heart--those are also key elements in this recent time.

Thursday night I hit a real low. I was having contractions, enough to keep me awake, about every 5 minutes. Before bed we prayed that they would either intensify, so that I could have the baby, or weaken, so I could sleep. They did neither. They stayed maddeningly consistent, just strong enough to wake me each time I would doze off, but not progressing in intensity. I tried everything--a bath, pacing the floor, trying to distract myself reading--but to no avail, I didn't manage to fall asleep until after 3:30am. Then Clara Anne woke up at 6, needing to use the bathroom, and like clockwork, my contractions started up again, again preventing me from sleep. Finally at 7ish I got up and went into the bathroom, turned on the light, and cried it out with the Lord.

I've been reading through the Psalms, and my reading for yesterday morning was Psalm 57, which begins, "Be merciful to me, O God . . . be merciful to me!" It was the perfect reading for how I was feeling. I expressed my true feelings to the Lord, confessed my sin of worry and fear (because with every day that passes I am fighting worry that there will be a problem with her size at birth), and asked for His peace.

The transformation was not immediate, but I was finally able to get back to sleep for an hour before the day began. After breakfast and some family time together, John sent me off to Starbucks for a little more quiet time while he read stories to the girls. And, at Starbucks, I just happened to run into my good friend who lives here and has been a support to me this whole time. She then just happened to invite me to a foot massage yesterday afternoon. Wow! Father knew what I needed yesterday!

So though this has been a season of waiting, it has also been a wonderful season of rest for our family. I need to remind myself of the blessings that we've experienced this past month as well. Before we left, John was so busy with the new business stuff, and when we get back, it's going to be full steam ahead. As soon as the baby is born, we'll probably head home within 2-3 days, and then we'll be right in the midst of choosing furniture and things for our new apartment, packing up our old apartment, John's business will be starting up, we have to make a trip to the capital city to get a passport and visa for the baby, and then of course adjusting to having three children! So this restful month has been a real blessing. We've really enjoyed our family times together and I certainly don't want to take that for granted.

All that being said, we will try to wait patiently. I see my doctor again on Monday (if the baby doesn't come before then) and we'll see what she says. Today is a bright, clear day, though with a chill in the air, so perhaps we'll get out and walk for awhile. Be assured that we will post the news about the baby as soon as we have any to share! For now she seems perfectly content inside, but I hope that will change soon! Until next time . . .

A Date with Clara Anne

Since I have no new baby news to share, I thought I might as well share some recent cute pictures with you. Since being here in this city, with such easy access to Starbucks (literally a 3 minute walk out our hotel door), Clara Anne and I have had two special Mommy-Daughter dates out for coffee.

It has been really fun to take Clara Anne with me and she has been such a big girl with her hot chocolate drink. The weather here has been rainy and cool for the last several days, so hot drinks are still the most appealing. Clara Anne especially likes the whipped cream on top of the hot chocolate, and eats it off very carefully with her spoon before sipping the drink. We take a big storybook with us (it's an anthology of many popular 20th century stories) and I read to her as we enjoy our drinks.

The last time we went we also had a serious talk about Clara Anne becoming a big sister to TWO younger sisters, just as soon as Mommy's tummy squeezes out the baby. We talked about how things will be different, and how important it will be for Clara Anne to set a good example to her sisters. I also emphasized to her how I was so proud of her for being a big girl and learning to play nicely with Chloe, which they have been doing much better with lately.

The following conversation also occurred:

Me: So Clara Anne, when do you think the baby will be born?

CA: At the hospital, Mommy.

Me: No, when will she be born, not where, Clara Anne?

CA: I don't know, Mommy.

Me: Are you excited to meet your new sister?

CA: Yes, Mommy! Maybe I can teach her how to walk!

Me: Yes, Clara Anne, but that will be awhile. She first has to learn how to hold up her head, roll over, crawl, and things like that before she can learn to walk.

CA: I can hug her and kiss her, though, Mommy. She'll like that!

I agreed that the baby certainly would like that and we sipped our drinks companionably together. It was a special date with Clara Anne!

Your Predictions, Please!

Well, it is 9:26 am on April 20, 2008, and baby girl Wind has still not arrived. Last night I had sustained and strong contractions, about 60 seconds long every 2-3 minutes, that increased in intensity until about 2am. After that they started to space out and so we went to sleep, but more strong contractions woke me up 3-4 times an hour, but not enough to feel like it was the real deal.

This morning I had an appointment with my doctor, so dragged myself out of bed for the 8am appointment. The doctor did another stress test and all looks well. The kicker, though, was that when I clarified with her, "So, you're just finishing your shift now and have the next two days off, right? But if I go into labor you can be here, right?" (things we had previously discussed), she said, in typical Asianese fashion, "Oh, maybe I will have to be out of town." Trying to remain calm, I asked for more details. As it turns out, she wasn't sure either when or how long she would have to be out of town for a work-related meeting. But she tried to reassure me by saying, "I think your Asianese is very good, you don't need to worry if I am not here." It's not the language I'm concerned about, it's all of those details in the birth plan that we had worked out with her previously, and if we get another doctor, all bets are off!

So we are still waiting for Father's perfect timing, and truly pray that the time would include the doctor we've been working with all of this time. I feel like I especially need His strength for patience and to take the roller coaster of emotions in stride. Last night was the 5th night that we thought "it could be the time" and definitely had the most serious and lengthy signs of real labor. How much longer can this go on?!!! Today we plan to just rest, take things easy, and see what happens.

To finally get to the point of this post, I thought it would be fun (and a happy distraction for me!)if all of you would like to predict baby girl Wind's arrival date, weight, and length. Leave a comment and tell me what you think! And who knows, maybe there will be a prize for the winner!

Thanks to all of you for your prayers and support. We appreciate and love you, and are eager to share with you our happy news when the time comes!

Before . . .

As promised, here is the picture of the prominently pregnant (just hopefully not permanently pregnant) belly. It sticks out so far now that it's almost a separate entity from myself. Sorry this picture turned out a bit blurry!

And the view from the front, though harder to see the depth. I had hoped to post some "After" pictures today, but alas, I'm still pregnant. The sense of anticipation is building, though! One day soon we'll have some after pictures for you.

An Elevator Escapade

It was bound to happen.

As my girls (and our whole family) has gotten really comfortable living at this hotel, the girls have gotten braver and more independent as we go to and from our room. They know just where to go for the breakfast buffet, they know where our room is in relation to the elevator, they are comfortable with the big turning glass door that leads into the lobby. Clara Anne loves to push the button for the elevator, and we practice our numbers as we go up and down the floors. Clara Anne has even learned how to open our room door, which of course we have to be careful about.

But yesterday morning they got quite a surprise.

We usually take them in their stroller to breakfast, and they hadn't yet gotten in the stroller, but were walking alongside it, when John realized that one of the wheels of the stroller had fallen off again. (Its original problem came from trying to push it over some rough terrain near the horse-riding park.) He paused to fix it, but the girls ran ahead. I was just a step behind but when I got to the bank of elevators, the girls were gone!

I could hear Chloe screaming through the elevator shaft, and so knew that they were on a particular elevator, so I was standing there frantically calling the elevator again and again (and always getting one of the other four) as I heard Chloe's cries echoing through the walls. Finally John took the elevator down to the first floor, where some kindly "aunties" were standing with the girls, holding Clara Anne's hand and Clara Anne was holding Chloe's hand. Clara Anne seemed pretty unfazed but Chloe was still crying hard. I was still up on our 20th floor, pushing the buttons, but only empty elevators arrived. Happy Day it was when John arrived back with them both!

Clara Anne and I had a serious talk about not running ahead without Mommy and Daddy and certainly not getting on an elevator by herself! I explained to her how we had no way to know where she might get off the elevator and she had no way to find us again if she got on without us. She didn't seem too upset about the whole thing but Chloe certainly did not want a repeat of that experience!

So, all's well that ends well, but there were a few tense moments! I do hope a lesson was learned!

**Baby update!** I saw my doctor yesterday and she gave me a thorough examination (except forgot to get my weight, which I was not sad about at all!). She did an ultrasound again to try and determine the baby's size, which she thinks is about 10 pounds right now. Of course it is really hard for them to predict, but she was amazed/alarmed and wondered if I was still set on a natural birth or did I want a C-section? I told her I have the big hips to go with the big baby :), so I still wanted a natural birth. She also said that though I'm almost totally effaced there isn't any dilation yet. Actually, the hospital has been really busy lately and so she advised me to check in, so as to make sure I had a room if I went into labor. The only catch is that once you check in, they won't let you leave! And I definitely did not want to be hanging around the hospital, with labor hours or days or a week away. So I turned that down, and am just praying that the baby will come without too much more delay! My contractions are getting stronger each evening, and last night kept me up a fair amount, but nothing strong enough to consider real labor yet. So we'll keep waiting! The trick might be when I do go into real labor, we shouldn't wait too long at the hotel since it might go really fast.

And it isn't all bad. Today was a gorgeous spring day, I got in a couple of good walks, as well as a Starbucks Dulce de Leche Decaf Frappucino! We also had a wonderful, wonderful meal last night at an Italian restaurant nearby where we were so impressed with the food, the service, and the presentation. My parmesan chicken came with real Parma ham and a large, gorgeous salad, John's ravioli and sauce were excellent, and I had the best tiramisu that I've ever had in my life! To top it all off, today my friend Roby took me to a place to get my hair highlighted (something I had never previously dared to do in this country), at a place that she knew that did well with foreigner's hair. So now I feel a little brighter and more beautiful as I prepare for the big event!

Some of you have been asking, so next time I'll post a picture of my large and pregnant self. You have to have that for the scrapbook, right? If nothing else, to remind me after the baby is born that even if I don't lose all my pregnancy weight right away, at least I don't look like THAT anymore! Check back tomorrow!

Cherry Blossom Bliss (and other adventures)

This seaside city where we are currently living is famous for its extravagant display of thousands of Japanese Cherry Blossom trees in bloom every spring. Happily, we are here in town during the peak week of blooms. Yesterday we made a trip to this city's Central Park to take in the glorious display.

The cherry blossoms were indeed gorgeous. The main thoroughfare of this park was lined with the cherry trees, and the combined effect of them all together was simply beautiful. What wonderful evidence of our Father's creative hand!

The only drawback, and unfortunately a rather large one, was that the park was packed with hordes of tourists, who found our blonde, blue-eyed little girls in their double stroller just too irresistible. We found that we could not pause, even briefly, and stop the stroller because literally dozens of people would be crowded around the stroller in a moment, trying to touch the girls, take their picture, pose for a picture with them, etc etc. It was all a bit overwhelming for the girls and for us. We found ourselves avoiding some of the prettier sections of the park just to get away from all of the people! We had to say no to almost all the pictures--inevitably, if we agreed to one picture there were 10-20 more people that came up and wanted to take pictures. We could have spent the whole morning in a photo shoot!

We finally ventured off the beaten path and into a paid area of the park, which reduced the crowds considerably. We then could stop and take a few pictures--the girls and mommy! (Chloe with her fake smile!)

We then made our way through the zoo area of the park, which included this opportunity for John and Clara Anne to ride a horse together. It was the first time for both of them!

Our next goal was to make our way to a large tower, just next to the park, where visitors could pay to go up the tower and take in the view. We hiked uphill and down, but the only entrance we could find to the tower involved hundreds of steps, which was not feasible with the stroller. We finally did find a way up, but at the top decided it wasn't worth the fee since the air was somewhat smoggy. I definitely got my exercise though!

On the way home we decided to take a brief detour to the beautiful grassy square near our hotel to fly our kite, which we had dragged along with us the whole morning. The sun was shining, the grass was appealingly soft and green, and so we spread out some jackets, sat down and had a little snack, and John even perfected the art of flying the kite while lying down!

I think we've figured out how to really relax! It's pretty sad when you can't even be bothered to stand up to fly a kite! Fun times were had by all.

Now if only all those contractions I'm having would actually produce a baby . . . stay tuned!

Hotel Life

Hmmm.

So living in a hotel has been an interesting experience, to say the least. Because of the nature of our work and the travel involved, we've had lots of times in the past where we've lived in a hotel for significant period of time, but it's always been because we were attending meetings or training events. There's usually at least three weeks to a month each year where we are away from home and living in rented quarters--sometimes a hotel, sometimes a furnished apartment. Add in two months gone for Clara Anne's birth, two months gone for Chloe's birth, and we have really spent some significant time away from our Asian homein the last four and a half years!

The most interesting/challenging was when Clara Anne was only about 3 months old and we spent a month in Singapore in a tiny hotel room at the YMCA there. But since we were in meetings M-F, 8:30-5, it didn't matter too much that our hotel room was small. I do remember those days though! We didn't own a pack-n-play then and so she slept in the hotel crib. The room was so small that with her crib and then the two single beds with a bedside table between them, there was barely enough room to walk. The advantage was that her crib was mere inches from my side of the bed! The other advantage was that she herself was still a really small baby and was happy anywhere.

So perhaps this is the first time that our whole family has been living in a hotel room without structured activities to go to everyday. I'm happy to say that it has worked out really well so far! Our room has a lovely sea view (only marred by the constant construction noise going on outside our window), and Chloe's pack-n-play is hidden in one corner behind the curtain. This is so that we can put her down for sleep and she is somewhat in her own space. She has been very good about not pulling the curtain back and so that's worked out well. Clara Anne is sleeping in the closet--it's a fairly large closet with sliding doors and is just a bit separated from the main room, kind of on the way out the door. She thinks it's great! It's like her own fort in there--she's got tons of pillows and blankets and her Doll to keep her comfy.

There's been some other great advantages about living in this particular hotel. Our room is spacious and nicely decorated, as well as clean and tidy-feeling with plush carpet. The hotel pool has been a big plus, since we've kept up the swimming most days, and the large buffet breakfast every morning has been wonderful! We've been eating a late breakfast, a little something snacky in our room for lunch, and then going out usually for supper.

I do have to confess, though, that we have gotten pretty lazy living here. The girls have been sleeping until 9-ish every morning (thanks in part to the hotel black-out curtains), we take our time with breakfast, and sometimes the main events of the day are a swim in the pool and a walk down to the square to fly our kite, or for John and I, a round of Settlers of Catan or a movie in the evening. It's been a blessing to rest and relax, though. I have gotten a nap and a trip to Starbucks in almost every day as well! So, don't hear me complaining, but . . .

Hotel life, with its advantages, can also be a bit deadening. We've relaxed so much we've gotten a little slack with our time instead of keeping priorities and being good stewards of that time. This isn't real life, you know? It's a bit of an unusual situation. But I am thankful for the time away, the time to prepare for the baby's birth, and the time to spend together as a family. I know that many fathers don't get as much paternity leave as John does, so I am thankful for the time that we've been able to have together; it's been really fun. We've enjoyed some good food, even found a marble slab ice cream place, and have done some special things with the girls too.

All that being said, when will this baby come?! I admit my eagerness and I also am getting really tired of prelabor contractions! This past week brought one day/evening where I thought perhaps it was time--I had been having mild contractions all day, basically uninterrupted, that then started to intensify in the evening. But alas, I went to bed and everything slowed down again. Then last night I had some markedly stronger contractions that were regular for awhile--but again, instead of intensifying they gradually slowed as I prepared for bed. I have always been able to sleep at night which is a bonus (well, that's relative I guess, but I've been getting decent sleep for late pregnancy, just some hip pain as I flip from side to side all night) but during the day and evening especially my body seems to be revving up. Today I joked with some friends that perhaps this baby isn't a good manual transmission driver--she can't seem to find 4th or 5th gear! We're stuck in 2nd or 3rd!

However, the fact remains: Sometime in the next few weeks the baby will be born! One of these nights my body will kick it into high gear. I'm only 10 days away from my due date now so we're truly approaching the brink. I do hope that all of this practice will mean a shorter actual labor. I have been making all of these things a matter of earnest prayers, so Father will do the best thing, I know. Trust . . . and patience . . . so hard!

Well, I think I'll go off to enjoy my large hotel bathtub and have a relaxing soak (something I couldn't do at home!). There's the update from our hotel room! We'll keep you posted if anything exciting happens!

Progress!

I'm happy to report that there has been some progress on several fronts this past week here in our hotel room. It's always encouraging to see progress! What kind of progress, you say?

The first exciting news to report is that Chloe is doing really well on the potty! She has seemingly adapted quite well to our new location, knows exactly where her potty chair is (in the bathroom), and has taken herself on numerous occasions. Most encouraging has been her ability to "hold it" while we've been out and about, and then come home, sit right down and take care of business. The most difficult aspect so far has been that she does not like to wear her nighttime undies (pull-ups). Though she knows she's not allowed to take them off, especially first thing in the morning when they are wet and/or dirty, I think she is tempted to do it anyway because she doesn't like the feeling against her skin. So we've had a couple of incidents of messes in her crib when she woke up and very quietly took off the undies without my hearing anything. Yuck. We've been keeping the laundry people in business!

As well, both girls are making good progress in their swimming/water skills! We've been swimming nearly every day, and Clara Anne particularly is really gaining some confidence in the water. Yesterday for a brief time she had her floaties off and was practicing holding her breath and putting her face in the water. I think it really helped that while we were at the pool, a class of young children (maybe 5-6 years old) came in and were happily and confidently splashing, playing, going underwater, and swimming around. She watched them pretty intently for awhile and then seemed to think, "hey, I can do this too!" It was so fun to see her be willing to try new things in the water. Chloe also is getting more comfortable and likes to get in next to the edge, hold on to the edge, and then kick her legs and float the rest of her body in the water. This is more bravery than she's shown before so that's encouraging, too. If we're here for several more weeks, we may have some little fishes for daughters by the time we get home!

And last but not least, all those contractions are making just a bit of progress in my body. I saw the doctor last week and she said I'm about 50% effaced, which is better than no progress at all! Of course, that still tells me nothing about when the baby will actually be born, but it's nice to know anyway. My contractions have continued, most often in the evening, but nothing too intense yet. We'll wait for the Lord and the baby to decide when is the perfect time to arrive!

So, progress is being made! We'll hope that the next week brings even more!

We made it . . . barely!

Greetings from our hotel room in the "city of birth!" I wanted to give you all a quick update on the happenings of recent days.

We had a bit more drama getting here than anticipated, mostly because of some unusually heavy traffic on our way to the train station yesterday morning. We left our house at the time we had agreed on, but then couldn't find a taxi, and once we did get a taxi we got out to the main road outside our house and just sat and sat in traffic. There's been some construction going on (when is there not construction going on in our city?!) on some of the other major roads and so our road was extraordinarily busy. Time ticked on and we needed to run for it at the end, but we did board the train with almost 10 minutes to spare, PTL!

We arrived safely and got checked into our hotel and I was feeling the need to lie down and rest since my frequent contractions were getting rather uncomfortable. The girls took a nap, John unpacked, and I timed contractions--about every 5-7 minutes, lasting about a minute, and definitely a step up in strength from what I had experienced before. We started to think . . . what if the baby comes tonight? We're not really ready! The doctor doesn't even know we're in town yet! Who will watch Clara Anne and Chloe?!

Thankfully, after an afternoon of resting and then a swim in the hotel pool in the early evening, the contractions subsided and we all got a good night of sleep. Of course it would have been nice to have the baby in my arms already, but I'm glad that she did not arrive last night! And of course, this prelabor is still no indicator of when real labor might begin . . . but I do hope I won't have several more weeks of this.

So this morning, we enjoyed the hotel breakfast, then went out for a walk in the fresh springtime. We bought a kite for the girls and had fun flying it, and made a trip to the store for snacks for my labor/hospital stay. I was able to talk with my doctor today and touch base with her--she reassured me that she would come to the hospital whenever I needed her, despite the fact that she is supposed to have the next two days off. All in all, I feel like we are much more ready tonight than we were last night. Now we'll just wait on the Father's perfect timing! Who knows, it could be 3-4 more weeks!

In the meantime, there's lots of things to do. There are several parks in town we'd like to explore with the girls, there's Starbucks just a two minute walk from our hotel, the hotel has a lovely pool that we have already visited twice (being weightless in the water is so refreshing for a nine-month prego!) and we're well-stocked with games and movies, too. John has a few things to do but not his normal workload, so we're all enjoying the extra family time.

I've probably mentioned it before, but my prayer for this baby is that she would arrive early, and at night. With Chloe it worked out perfectly--I was only starting labor when Clara Anne went to bed in the evening, and by the time things got more intense, it was late and so a friend simply stayed in our apartment overnight. Chloe was born at 4:21 in the morning, and John had plenty of time to help me get settled with the newborn Chloe in my hospital room and return home by 7:30am; Clara Anne didn't wake up until 8:30! She didn't even know that we had been gone. So we're praying for that this time as well. It would be ideal if she would arrive during the night so that our friends only have to come and sleep at the hotel. And the early part of the prayer is just because I am too impatient to wait until my due date! If you feel led, you can join me in those prayers!

Just for fun, here's a few pictures from our kite-flying expedition today. The cartoon characters on the kite are everywhere these days--they're the official mascots of the big event happening here in this country later this year.

Up, up, and away! [note: what this picture does not show is the crowd of 40-50 people who had gathered around and were watching our family activities with great interest. Cameras were flashing, complete strangers were trying to hold the girls and they were protesting; finally we had to put a stop to it and tried to kindly discourage the excess attention. By the time I took this picture the crowd had mostly dispersed.]
Look, Mommy! Our kite is flying high!

Week 37!

For all of you out there keeping track (I know, probably just me and maybe my mother, too!), week 37 has begun! I was a little alarmed last weekend, when John was away, to find that the "Braxton Hicks" contractions I was having were coming regularly about every 10-12 minutes for a period of several hours Friday afternoon and evening. I called my friend Rachel and said, "What should be my plan?" At the time I was feeling really uncomfortable and was helping the girls eat supper, though I wasn't hungry at all. She very calmly said, "Ok, get your girls in bed, lie down, drink lots of water, time your contractions, and call me in an hour." I followed her advice and though the contractions continued, they did not intensify and I was able to go to sleep (a sure sign of pre-labor, not real labor) about 11pm.

Thankfully John was coming home the next day and so we discussed things. These prelabor contractions are so typical for the way my previous two labors have gone that I really shouldn't have been surprised. With Clara Anne, they started right on my due date and I thought I was really going into labor! To my surprise, she wasn't born until 5 days later! With Chloe, they started about 2 weeks before she was born (particularly noticeable on our daily walks to Starbucks from our apartment there in Thailand), and at first we were all excited, thinking she would come early. Nope, two weeks later, after many many prelabor contractions, found me complaining to John one afternoon, "I am so sick and tired of these prelabor contractions! They are starting to really hurt, and I just know this is going to go on for another week!" The pain factor should have been my first clue. Sure enough, she was born about 10 hours later.

However, these contractions have been more regular and frequent, and begun much earlier, than either of my previous experiences. Suddenly our plan to arrive in the birth city a scant two weeks before my due date was looking a bit risky. So, we've changed our plans and will now be leaving for that beautiful seaside city next Monday, a week earlier than originally planned.

John put me on mock bedrest this week in order to help me deal with the contractions and life as well. We've eaten a little simpler meals, I've been forbidden to take the girls out by myself, and John won the "Sensitive Husband Award" by suggesting that I get several massages this week. I think we're going to make it until next Monday! The contractions are still present but I haven't bothered to time them; in fact I'm trying my best to ignore them. Now I know from experience--real contractions will not allow you to ignore them! So as long as I can put it out of my mind, it helps a lot.

We were glad to have this one final week to wrap things up at home here--in fact, several big issues have made significant progress. The most exciting is that we have signed an agreement on a new apartment and will hopefully take possesion on May 1st! It needs some renovations so we do not plan to move in immediately (and with a new baby I will probably not be ready to pack immediately), but maybe by June 1st or so we'll be ready to move. Ahhh. . . ready to move to a bit bigger space . . . with an elevator . . . and hot water . . . and a bathtub . . . yippee! The new apartment is in a nice complex with lovely landscaping and places for the girls to play outside, which we don't have right now. We are excited about it!

As well, major progress is being made with Chloe and her potty training this week! She is now getting very skilled at releasing almost as soon as she sits down on the potty, without trying to stand up or cry about it--two of her previously most distressing problems. She has even shown some great initiative in taking herself to the potty several times in the past few days. I am so thankful for this, since we are about to be in a lot of transition and I wanted her to make as much progress as possible while we were still home. PTL for small miracles!

So we'll see what next week brings. Exciting times are just around the corner!

The Heat is . . . Off

Anyone else remember that corny song from the 80s, "The Heat is On"? I have kind of a vague memory of it and am not really sure what the song was supposed to be about, but anyway that has not been the case at our house anymore since last week.

You may remember that we have government controlled steam heat, which is turned on for the whole city at a certain date in the fall, and then turned off at a certain date in the spring. Many times in the winter, if the weather is mild, the heat inside our house would be oppressive and so we'd be walking around in t-shirts and shorts. Our lovely down comforter was sadly just too warm for most of the winter. We'd have to open the windows occasionally just to keep from roasting! I'm not complaining, though, since I would rather be too warm than too cold.

Now we're experiencing the flip side. The heat was turned off last week and the difference in our house is noticeable. Suddenly even John (who is rarely cold) was asking for more of the comforter at night. My girls stopped playing dress up in their swimsuits and Clara Anne asked for me to heat up her apple juice this morning at breakfast.

So, we'll probably have a week or two more of feeling a little chilly inside, and then the weather will catch up. It's been lovely springtime here--the redbuds and dogwoods are in bloom in various places around the city, the trees are sprouting new leaves, and a lovely white flowering tree right outside my kitchen window (we live on the fourth floor so sort of look down on the tree) has had more and more blossoms each day. Happy Springtime! I'm thankful for the cycle of seasons!

White Chocolate Cheesecake!

Recently it was my turn to host our weekly gathering of foreigners, providing the perfect opportunity to make my first-ever cheesecake. It was always something on my list of things I wanted to try, but seemed a bit mysterious, not to mention expensive. The mystique of things like springform pans, paddle vs. whisk vs. food processor, etc, made me think twice every time I thought about giving it a shot.

But recently the situation changed. First, our import store started carrying a fairly inexpensive brand of cream cheese, sold in bulk. I have this great product in my refrigerator at the moment. Second, my friend Rachel gave me her Williams Sonoma Baking cookbook which had several luscious looking cheesecake recipes in it, all of which required using a food processor, which I also have. Third, I was given a springform pan from some dear friends in Iowa last Christmas. It got slightly bent in the shipping but some careful bending on my part restored it to its lovely round shape.

So it seemed like now was as good a time as any to give it a try. I followed the recipe to a T, and it did not disappoint! I decided to make a white chocolate cheesecake, since it only required one pound of cream cheese (as opposed to some of the plainer versions which needed 2 pounds!) and I thought that would be cheaper. On that point, however, I was wrong. It needed 10 oz (2 cups) of white chocolate and that really added up! Note to self for next time . . . the versions with more cream cheese would have actually been less expensive. Oh well, when you're making cheesecake you can't quibble over the price!

The cheesecake turned out beautifully, creamy and rich with a subtle white chocolate flavor. The fresh strawberries on top were just for fun, but added to the whole experience. Everyone seemed to enjoy it--even my husband, who isn't a huge fan of sweets. Clara Anne ate the crust and the strawberries, but Chloe enjoyed the cake part as well.

I was pleasantly surprised that it didn't take forever to make--of course Lou helped me and did all the dishes afterwards, but still it was not as time-consuming as I expected. I was also happy to find that the flavors intensified by the third day; I actually ate the last sliver for breakfast on Sunday (it was made on Friday) with a cup of Decaf Verona and it was like a mini-vacation, there at my breakfast table. Yum! Sorry you weren't all here for it, but enjoy the pictures of my first cheesecake attempt!

Happy Birthday, Dear Lou!

Today, (only two weeks late!), we had a great birthday celebration at our house for our helper, Lou. It was fun to do a little something special for her, after all that she does for us, day after day! The girls enjoyed singing "Happy Birthday" in English and Asianese to start the day. We had a special lunch of homemade pizza and chocolate cake (Lou's first time to make the pizza entirely by herself) and we all shared something at the lunch table that we like or appreciate about Lou. I didn't give her a card or a gift, but did send her home with more cake to share with her friends, and a hug from me to tell her again how much she means to our family. A simple birthday celebration--yet she had tears in her eyes at the end of the day and said it was the most meaningful birthday celebration she's ever had! I didn't know whether that should make me happy or sad for her! I told her she shouldn't feel like we treat her TOO well, since we let her do a lot of the work and all of the cleanup as well :).

Anyway, I wanted to share some birthday pictures with you all. Lou turned 30 this year, but like most Asianese women, her age is hard to guess just by looking. She's a young-looking 30, I think!

Happy Birthday, Lou! We appreciate you!

Sorry

Sorry about the formatting on the last post. I couldn't figure out how to change it!

Potty Training, Take 2

Over the last couple of weeks, Chloe has been exhibiting some strange signs whenever we try to change her diaper. She began to seem really scared of the whole process, and would cry inconsolably until the changing was over. At first, we just thought that she was a bit afraid of the height of her changing table, so we started changing her on the sofa or other places. But the crying persisted, and in fact got steadily worse. She just became unreasonably upset nearly every time we needed to change her diaper.

As John and I were racking our brains to think of what could possibly be the matter, the most plausible solution we came up with was this: since Chloe had already experienced some potty training, she knew that she should not make her panties wet/dirty. But, since she wasn't wearing panties, only diapers, she wasn't sure what to do and felt a bit uncertain. She then got used to releasing in her diapers again, kind of forgetting about it, but whenever we changed her diapers she was reminded of her uncertainty and fears that she didn't do the right thing.

Timing-wise, this is a terrible time to start potty-training again. My "window of opportunity" had passed and now we are only a few weeks away from traveling for the new baby, this last week was unusually busy for John and we had several extra activities, and I'm definitely not at the peak of my energy being so pregnant! [For those of you who are counting, I'll be 35 weeks complete tomorrow!!! I am starting the 36th week!]

However, despite the timing issues, John and I were both starting to feel that even if the potty training was a more involved process, we were worried that having Chloe continue in diapers was really going to confuse her. Sunday evening, I said to Chloe, "Ok, let's go get your jammies on," (no mention of diapers at all, though she knew that we always change her diaper before bed), and she absolutely flipped out--screamed in terror, ran from the room and tried to hide behind the couch. No amount of hugs, comfort items, or soothing talk could help her calm down until the diaper business was over. So this put me over the edge--we decided late Sunday night that I would start potty-training her again.

The last two days have gone well--yesterday she was 1 for 7 on the potty (and the victory came late in the day, just as an encouragement to me, I think!), and today she was 3 for 4. Progress is being made! I think we're in it now for the long haul--we won't stop again. It still upsets her to pee on the potty, for some reason, but I am seeing some progress there as well. We do have almost three weeks before we travel for the new baby, so we'll hope that she can really get into a good habit between now and then. Keep up the good work, Chloe!

Addendum . . .

Tonight as Clara Anne was taking a bath, I heard her in there singing at the top of her lungs. It was her own words and her own melody, and had something to do with "God has filled my heart with love, and He died for my sins, so now I can be nice to Chloe . . . ". There was much more, but some of it made no sense (not to me, anyway), but I appreciated her creativity and entertaining herself for about 45 minutes in the bath!

One final quote that I forgot to include last time came a few days after our lovely Easter egg hunt organized solely by my friend Rachel. (More about that in another post!) The girls have had a wonderful time playing with their baskets, and Clara Anne came in to the kitchen where I was working, holding her basket which contained one of her dolls. "Mommy, look, I'm going to put my baby in the river!" For a moment I couldn't imagine what she could be talking about. The Yellow River? The Mississippi River? So I asked, "Which river, Clara Anne?" She looked at me as if I was truly a bit behind the times and said, "The Nile River, Mommy!" as if to say, of course! Which other river could it possibly be?!

Let's just hope that once the new baby is born Clara Anne will not attempt to put her in a basket and send her down the river!

Clara Anne Quotables

It sometimes amazes me the progress that Clara Anne has made in speaking what she really thinks. She is able to express herself so well! (Of course, there are downsides to that as well . . . ) But here's a few recent quotations, before I forget them all!

"Mommy, that jacket is too small for your baby." Observed when watching me trying to zip up my spring jacket past my very large belly.

"Here, Chloe, here is some wine. You can drink it and remember me." While playing with cups in the bathtub, I think some ideas about the Lord's supper got mixed up with the bath water!

"Oh no! Mommy, Chloe bent this card, and I'm sorry to say, now I can't fix it." Can you guess who else in our house uses the expression "I'm sorry to say"?

"Mommy, I'm hungry. Is it almost breakfast time? Maybe I could have some hello dollies and some cake!" After a nap; just listen to that sweet tooth talking!

"When Jesus died, that made me very upset." After watching a brief children's video about Easter.

"Mommy, I don't like it when my hair keeps falling in my eyes. Can you comb my hair today? I better put some clips in my hair, Mommy!" This was a first! Usually the hair-combing is a battle.

"More hello dollies, please!" My first attempt at making this yummy treat this week met with rave reviews from the whole family!

Then of course, there are the lines that I'd like to forget, like "I don't want to" and "but, Mommy," although we do try to minimize those occurrences. Generally, it really is fun to see Clara Anne acquiring more and more language, and especially growing in her ability to learn Asianese and memorize Scripture, both important! Hope you enjoyed these quotes from Clara Anne!

Could I be any more embarassed?

In case you needed a laugh today (and I needed some humbling . . . ), here's two recent incidents from my life:

On Wednesday I was talking with my house helper and she mentioned that she was only two and a half years younger than me, since she has already celebrated her birthday this year. It came to me in a flash . . . oh no, her birthday! I totally forgot her birthday! "Was it yesterday?" I asked, knowing that it was on a Tuesday. No, in fact, it was last week Tuesday . . . the day that John and I were gone all day! So not only did I ask her to work about 14 hours on her birthday, she spent her birthday supervising children (a first for her) and English-speaking children at that! Oh dear, I felt so badly. So at my insistence, we have now designated next Tuesday as her birthday and we'll have a special lunch and a birthday cake. SO sorry, Lou!

The other incident occurred in the same conversation, if you can believe it. Lou was asking me about some deeper questions and as I talked with her I kept on referencing Paul's writings in the Bible. The only problem was, I kept pronouncing his name "bwoh-lwoh" instead of "bow-lwoh", calling him "pineapple" instead of "Paul"! Ooops. So, let's see, how many years have I been speaking this language??! There's always more to learn!

Flashback: Fun with Rice

I was sorting through some digital pictures today and ran across these gems. [By the way, does anyone else have a hard time keeping up with their digital pictures? I used to have a method of downloading them onto our computer, sorted by date, and then after a period of time, burning them onto CDs so as to have external record of them in case our computer ever crashed, but I'm about a year behind. Is there a better way? Help, anyone?!]

A few months ago, before our trip down south, it was my turn to host the playdate with Clara Anne and Chloe's friends Emma and Samantha. One of the activities that we did was supposed to help them understand the concept of 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, and 1 whole. I had a large container of raw rice and four baby food jars with the measurements marked around them with rubber bands. We then were going to fill our baby food jars up to the measurements and talk about the difference between them; i.e. is 1/2 more or less than 1/4? Well, that was the idea anyway.

The girls immediately had a great time putting their hands into the rice and using small cups and funnels to pour it into the jars. Invariably (I expected this) some rice was spilled. They didn't care whatsoever about the measurement markings on the jars, they were just totally enthralled with the feel of the rice, the fun sounds it made as it filled up the jars, and then the especially fun sounds it made as it hit the floor.

Knowing that only more and more rice would end up on the floor, we didn't really make any effort to sweep up as the activity was going on. But occasionally as the girls would fill their jars we would pour it back into the bowl; they seemed to not even notice and just kept on busily filling the jars. A few times we swept the rice that spilled on the table back into the bowl as well, but sort of early on we gave up the "floor rice" as a lost cause.

As time went on there became even less of an effort to keep the rice in the jars, in the bowls, or even on the table. One child (I can't remember who) asked to take off their socks and walk around on the rice-y floor. The rest, of course, had to follow suit, and then pretty soon there was a general desire (among the children!) to take off shirts and pants as well. The rice became sand on the seashore and the girls rolled around in it, tossed it in the air, got it into every nook and cranny, laughed and laughed, and just generally had a splendid time, as these pictures will attest.

So there you go--the next time your kids are bored, try playing with some raw rice! Next on our plans? I heard someone say something about flour . . .

A Quick Trip and a Settled Peace

Many of you know that John and I had been seriously considering arranging for the birth of our third daughter here in our Asian country. Typically, we would fly out to Thailand for this birth, but we felt that going so far away, and needing to be gone so long, would really be a detriment to our work and family life this spring. The rule on the airline we use is that a pregnant woman cannot fly past 36 weeks, and so we would have had to leave a month before my due date, putting us in Thailand with basically nothing to do but wait for the baby. Then after the baby is born, we would need to apply for her paperwork (birth certificate, passport, and visa) before we could travel again--probably another 3-4 weeks.

The idea of packing up and moving our whole family for two months did not sound very fun, especially since a lot of that time would just be somewhat aimless waiting. (Of course there are ways to redeem the time, but being away from our work and in a totally different culture and using a different language makes us feel even further away from where we are called.) As well, since everything went so well with Clara Anne and Chloe's births, and this pregnancy has proceeded normally with nothing unusual, the "giving birth in country" option was looking better and better.

I also felt relieved that I was able to get such a thorough check-up in Hong Kong just a few weeks ago. If there had been anything, even a small thing, that looked suspicious with the baby (like evidence of a slight heart murmur or a cleft lip or something), we would have immediately changed our delivery plans. But thankfully, the baby looks to be very healthy, active, and a good size--no forseeable problems whatsoever.

But then, last Friday happened. Last Friday was the day that I took Chloe in for her brief visit to the doctor, getting her urine checked etc. My experience at the hospital was less than ideal--a doctor who seemed like she was bored with it all and would rather have been anywhere else, a waiting area with kids peeing on the floor, the cleaning ladies swishing dirty water around in pointless effort, and in general, a very dismal and depressing place.

While we were waiting the girls were eating some raisins and Clara Anne dropped one on the floor. "DON'T touch that!" I practically leapt up to prevent her from picking it up and eating it off that very unsanitary floor. I tried to keep them from touching anything, actually, since it just gave me the shivers to think about what germs were floating around there.

That experience really made me wonder, "what in the world am I doing planning to give birth to a baby in a place like this!" True, the hospital we would go to is affilated with an International Clinic, with (hopefully) more international standards of cleanliness, but I started to think again about all of the unknowns in this situation. Nursing care in this country is almost non-existent (usually families hire a helper or stay themselves with a loved one in order to help the patient to the bathroom, provide meals for the patient, etc) and so I found myself thinking about basic questions like "who will check me to see if I'm fully dilated?" and "Will there be someone to bathe the baby after she is born?" And, I admit it, I started to worry a little bit.

Enter John. He encouraged me to sit down with him last Sunday evening and organize our birth plan, as well as talk through all of the questions that still remained about giving birth in this very different culture. We came up with a list of probably 50 questions that we wanted to ask the doctor, whom we had met briefly once. Topping the list was "So can you get special permission for John to be with me during the entire labor and deliver?" as well as "What do you think will necessitate a C-section?" [My helper estimated that 90-95% of women in this country have c-sections, which I truly want to avoid if at all possible.]

We then realized that if things didn't, in fact, work out in this neighboring city with the International Clinic, we would have little time to plan a trip to Thailand unless we did it soon. (I'm already 33 weeks!) So on Sunday night we made some plans, on Monday morning we made some calls and bought train tickets, and on Tuesday we made the trip! The city is nearby, 2.5 hours by a fast train, and so we took the train there in the morning, had lunch with a friend who lives there, and met the doctor at 2pm. We were finished at the hospital at 3:30 and had time for a brief stop at Starbucks and McDonald's for some early supper, then were back on the train again at 5pm and home by 8. Amazing!

What was the result, you say? Well, everything went VERY well at the hospital. The main factor in our favor is that the doctor is very excited about having me, the foreigner, give birth under her care, and so she did numerous things throughout the time we were with her to show that. She introduced me to the head of the department, she got me in to see the labor and delivery rooms which are normally off-limits; she took me to a private place to do a brief exam of the baby (usually everyone stands in line and then crowds around in one room during examinations--no privacy at all), and best of all, she basically agreed to everything we had on our birth plan. There were only a few small sticking points and they weren't the essentials.

I think it really helped that this is my third baby. John did a lot of the talking/negotiating, and he kept saying "well, in the first two births it was like this . . . " and so we have experience on our side. It also helped that this doctor is very interested in western ways, and really wanted to accomodate us wherever she could. She had worked with some western doctors before and so I think she sees this as a great opportunity to actually help someone give birth "the western way."

All this to say that we left the hospital feeling very encouraged and with a settled peace that this is where we are supposed to go for the birth of our daughter. Many other factors worked out as well, such as our friend in that city arranging a business trip so that we could stay in his apartment rather than live in a hotel. The neighborhood where he and his wife live is very convenient for shopping and getting around, which is an added plus. Also, we are planning to take Lou, our helper, with us for the three weeks or so that we'll be gone. She'll stay in a cheap hotel nearby, and be available to cook lunch each day, clean, and watch the girls occasionally, all things that get harder and harder for a very pregnant mama to do! This nearby city is on the coast, so we can take long walks down by the sea and of course, visit Starbucks frequently! We will be able to function in Asianese, we won't need to travel internationally, and all in all, I think it's going to be a great situation.

So we returned home Tuesday evening (Lou had stayed with our girls all day) to find that (in John's words), our trip was smashingly successful whereas the girls' day at home was just . . . smashing. They had not behaved terribly well for Lou--didn't take naps, fought over toys, Clara Anne colored on the wall with a marker, they ate practically every snack available in the house (the final count was 9 containers of yogurt and 7 individual boxes of raisins), and Chloe got a huge purple goose egg on her forehead from running into a doorway while chasing Clara Anne who had snatched her toy.

BUT, on the flip side, everyone was alive, Lou was glad when I said she didn't have to come in until 11 the next morning, and Clara Anne got plenty of consequences for her misbehavior. If you remember, Lou is single and really hadn't had much exposure to kids until she started working for me. We had worked her into watching the girls slowly, an hour here or an hour there, but Tuesday was definitely a test for her! All day . . . and I'm sorry to say that I think Clara Anne took advantage of the fact that we were gone and so was somewhat manipulative and naughty. The language barrier doesn't help, but we certainly need to keep working on this with Clara Anne.

All I can say is, it certainly was easier to make Tuesday's trip without carting two small children everywhere! We are thankful for the new high-speed train that makes this journey, previously 5-6 hours, only 2.5, making it possible for us to go there and back in the same day. Now our plan is to travel to this city on April 7 and wait for the baby (due April 23) and then leave fairly soon after the baby is born, as soon as I feel recovered enough to make the short trip.

We are thankful! I feel strangely energetic this week after having the burden of that big decision off my shoulders. Obviously, there are always risks associated with childbirth, but I feel confident and peaceful that we have made the right decision without putting the baby at undue risk.

And if you made it to the end of this very long post, you've done well! Here's a recent pic to enjoy as a reward! It was taken last week when Chloe wasn't feeling so well, but the girls were both enjoying playing the piano "like Mommy" and singing along. Sweet songbirds!

Herself Again

Well, I'm finally logging in today to share the happy news that Chloe is pretty much entirely over her sickness. After consulting with our American doctor online, we ended up getting a urine sample from her and taking her to a local hospital to get that checked as well as her lungs checked. The doctor there thought that Chloe had a bacterial infection in her throat (her tonsils were inflamed and swollen). That diagnosis certainly fit her persistent fever, thirst, and reluctance to eat. Our American doctor thought it might or might not be an actual bacterial infection; he felt the safest route was to put her on a five day treatment of antibiotics to make sure. We started on Sunday and she is really and truly feeling better. It's so good to see her smile again! She's been happily bopping around the house these last days, full of energy and of course, fighting with Clara Anne. But we're happy to have her acting like herself again! This week was too busy to resume the potty training, and John has some important meetings at the beginning of next week, so perhaps later next week we'll try it again. A few more days of diapers won't hurt anybody!

Thanks to all of you who were thinking of Chloe last week. I am thankful for such a gracious answer to prayer!