TALK ABOUT LAST MINUTE

Monday, July 26, 2010

Saturday night Ginny had the sweetest prayer…”Dear God, touch baby Julia and cause her to flip over.” What a great image of the loving hand of our heavenly Father.

As Sunday rolled around, Jeff and I were both were being to lose hope that Julia would flip. At 39 at weeks she was still breech. Sunday afternoon, I began my upside down exercises. Jeff held a frozen piece of meat to Julia's head and then he began gently and gradually trying to turn her. It took about 15 minutes of slow, steady pressure and…..voila! She turned!

Today (Monday) we went to our scheduled ultrasound appointment. The arrangement last week was that if Julia was still breech then we would schedule a c-section for Tuesday or Wednesday. But the ultrasound confirmed that she had flipped. Praise God! As soon as we got back to the guest house Micah came running up to me asking, “Baby Juli-la head flipped over?” When I told him yes, he gave me a high five.

Now we can realistically think about a birth here at the guest house. Jeff has been busy gathering his supplies, sterilizing his instruments, he has made 2 runs to the pharmacy and he has setup the birthing room. I have been washing bedding and getting clothes, blankets and other things ready for baby.

Before the BIG arrival

Before the BIG arrival, we welcomed two small arrivals into our home. While we were in the states Ginny said that she was saving up her money to buy a pet when we got back to Paraguay. Well, last week she decided to invest in two hamsters. She also bought their cage and some accessories. I was very proud of her for waiting and being decisive and for not freaking out when 95% of her money was gone. We all have enjoyed Spot and Hyper.

TO TURN or NOT TO TURN

That is the question....

Our plan all along was to have Jeff deliver this baby at home (well, at the SIM guest house in Asuncion), but an ultrasound (at 36 weeks) just before we left Texas showed that Julia hadn't flipped head down yet. So, we began praying hard and Jeff found a bunch of exercises I needed to be doing in order to help her get into position.

A week after arriving in Paraguay, knowing that she still hadn't flipped, we went to the OB (i was 37weeks, 4days). He wants to see me next week (I’ll be 39 weeks) and if Julia hasn't flipped, then we’ll schedule a c-section. It will be my first c-section and actually my first surgery.

In the mean time, I’m still doing these funky exercises and praying! The kids prayers are so sweet too. They are all so excited about meeting baby and ask all kinds of curious questions (sometimes too curious).

Things I like about medical care in Paraguay:
Hearing my weight in kilograms
In and out of the doctor’s office in 45 minutes
Calling for an appointment and getting in that same day
4D ultrasound
Medical care is given to us free as a professional courtesy


38 1/2 weeks


doing exercises to get baby t o flip

WHAT ARE WE DOING NOW?

We are all enjoying being back in Paraguay. We are staying in Asuncion (where our mission has a guest house) until baby Julia decides to be born and then a week or so after for me to recover. We are encouraged one minute by our returning language skills, but frustrated the next by how much we’ve lost. It is cold here (southern hemisphere/winter time) which means we are reacquainting our pallet with mate (hot form of terere). We are back to hanging up laundry, hand washing dishes, chopping up our chocolate for cookies, throwing toilet paper in trash cans, and making our own maple syrup. The kids are playing hard, getting dirty and enjoying seeing their missionary kid friends.

REUNION with TEAM MATES

July 14, 2010

We had just 24 hours to unwind from our travels before joining our team at the annual Spiritual Life Conference Friday through Tuesday. We had a fantastic time reuniting with all our team mates. The kids loved seeing their friends again and played so hard. Jeff and I cannot express enough how blessed we are with AWESOME team mates!

We had a great family - husband, wife and 4 of their 5 children (3 of whom are teenagers) - from the states that came down to do a VBS with the missionary kids. Dave Bremners was our retreat speaker. He and his family were missionaries in Paraguay for years and has now been in SIM leadership in the US for 3 years. It was great to have him back among us. He brought his wife and 2 (of their 3) teenaged kids. It always means so much to me when teens are willing to invest in our children because our kids soooooo look up to them!

A serious picture of our team mates


And now the crazy side of our team mates:

Ginny and Joshua in the middle


Ryan on the left...sleeping


Jeff with Micah on his sholders


Can you spot me?


At the river for play, bonfire, skits and s'mores

GOING HOME!

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Saying good-bye is always hard and no matter how many times you have to do it, it never gets easier. The kids are going to miss their grandparents like crazy. We were blessed to have a year with them...they were gracious to open their house to us.







In spite of our sadness in leaving, we were all so excited to board the plane at DFW (3pm) and begin our journey home to Paraguay. We first flew to Orlando and then we boarded an all night flight to Sao Paulo, Brazil. One this flight we had an individual TV with several movies, TV shows, cartoons and games to chose from. Needless to say, this kept the kids very well entertained. In Sao Paulo we boarded our last flight and at 11:00 we arrived in Paraguay. 9 bags (out of 12) and both car seats arrived and we were greeted by our director and his wife. As we were driving down the pot-hole filled, seemingly disorganized, solicitors at the window, people swerving for overgrown trees and slow ox carts streets of Asuncion I had such an incredible peace. Ryan summed it up great when he chimed in, “It just feels right to be here.”

I praise God that we not only have been called here but that we truly love this country. I also praise God that our children have no problem calling Paraguay home and that they share in our love for the language, culture and people.





Wasting no time catching up with friends.

BEFORE LEAVING

July 2 Steve got married to Margaret. It was nice to get to know her this year.







Micah: “I don’t want spicy gum (Big Red), I want warm gum.”
Micah: “I want a pet carrot.” (Parrot)

Ginny: “I don’t really want to lose more teeth because I haven’t been able to whistle since I lost my two front teeth. There is no telling what I won’t be able to do next!”



Ginny was sitting on her bed looking like she was deep in thought. I asked her what was wrong. She said, “I am so sad. I miss Paraguay so much and I don’t think I can wait till next week to leave.” I asked, “What kinds of things do you miss about Paraguay?” She replied, “Everything. The food, our house, my friends, our animals…I get so bored in America and in Paraguay there is always something to do that I never am bored.” I inquired. “What kind of tings can you do in Paraguay that you can’t do in America?” As she told me, she was nearly in tears, “Well, there is so much dirt to play in and I love dirt. And you know those bars on our windows? We would tie all kinds of things to them and have so much fun.”

July 6 (my last night in town) I met a few ladies at Maggie Moos ice cream shop. They blessed me with things for Julia.

Happy 4th of July!

We haven't celebrated 4th of July in American for 5 years! This year we went to a parade and had a BBQ with our home group. That night we watched fireworks on TV.

PARAGUAY and the WORLD CUP

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Paraguay did the best it has ever done at the World Cup and it killed us that we couldn't be in country to celebrate...to hear the gun fire and fireworks, yelling in the streets and feel the pride after each goal! The kids wore their Paraguay jerseys as we watched games on TV.

Here is what some of our missionary friends have written about the excitement:

There are very few streets in Asuncion that do not have a clothes line hanging in the middle of them with a huge variety of size and style of “albirroja” jerseys, flags, hats, horn blowers, etc. There are very few Paraguayans who do not own a Paraguayan jersey. Most cars in the street display the team flag hanging out their window. The President declared a holiday for the first Paraguayan game and no one had to go to work!


After the game our entire town (and every city in the nation) began festivities with fireworks, spontaneous caravans and red and white decorated jubilee. The President has declared the two-hour Paraguayan games to be national holidays! Almost all businesses allowed employees to halt work during the game and for an hour after to watch the parade.

Our friends who are in Paraguay right now say just about everything comes to a screeching halt when the team has a game. Shops close, the streets empty, and it even seems that the dogs stop barking. Paraguay invests so much into their soccer team and so much is on the line when a game takes place: their country’s pride, confidence, and self image. For Paraguay, soccer is part of their identity! I can only imagine that this World Cup must be a big boost to the small country’s morale.

Harlingen, TEXAS

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

We arrived in Belton Wednesday (June 23) evening and took off again on Friday for Harlingen, South Texas. The family practice residency that Jeff graduated from was celebrating its 15th year and we were glad that we could be a part of it. Friday evening we went to graduation. Saturday we played at the beach all day and then had a pool part that evening (we were so tired!). Sunday the residency had a church service and a lunch following. Sunday afternoon and all Monday we hung out with friends. We stayed with three different families while we were there. It was a great time of fellowship.

While we were in Harlingen we did an ultrasound of Julia. We were disappointed to see that her head was not down (I am 35 weeks). Definitely by 37 weeks the head needs to be down. Jeff got on-line to find ways to help the baby turn. He had me do this weird handstand exercise in the pool and now he is talking about an ironing board exercise!


At the residency graduation with friends/medical school and residency classmates/missionaries


Jeff and I (35 weeks) at the residency graduation


Ginny with one of her very best friends, Grace


Some of the kids best friends - the Hills


Ryan and Oak

Hot Springs, ARKANSAS

June 20 – 23, 2010

Sunday, we loaded in the car right after breakfast and prepared for a long day of traveling – 13 hours – to Hot Spring. Arkansas. On our way through, we had ice cream with a friend I knew from youth group when I lived in Florida. We hadn’t seen each other in 17 years.

After taking numerous back roads, not seeing much life, and feeling like we were in the middle of nowhere, we arrived at 10:30pm at the cute little cabin (the Lone Cedar Cabin) we had rented. We had intentions of staying up to greet our team mates who we were meeting there…but we were exhausted and they were lost…..(they didn’t come in till 2am)….so we just greeted them the following morning.
The Floyds work in the same town as we do in Paraguay (they have been there 12 years!). They just arrived on home assignment last week and will be in the US an entire year. If not for this time together we wouldn’t have seen each other for 2 years. We had a wonderful time catching up on the past year of ministry, planning for the coming year while we are there and praying. The kids were delighted to see the Floyd boys again. They loved swimming, skipping rocks, collecting tad poles, and playing chess and other games back at the cabin. The canoe (Tyler called it a Kazoo) was the biggest hit. In the evening the boys tried to fishing in the stocked fish tank, but unfortunately had no luck. Ginny, Jean and I collected blackberries one evening.

Tyler: I can’t get that cup because there’s a daddy long-legs on it.
Jeff: Are you afraid it will get on you and bit you?
Tyler: No. I’m afraid it will get on me and it will tickle.

Wednesday we said our good-byes and we headed to Belton. Our original plan was to head to Houston in order to ship our car to Paraguay, but during our West Coast trip our air conditioner went out (it was VERY hot inside our car driving through certain states!) and so it will have to spend a few days in the shop in Texas getting that repaired.