3 weeks in...

Well...it has taken me a few weeks to get back on here.  Such is the life with a newborn right??!!

Let's start with a Silas update :)

After getting settled in at home, he has been great really.  The first few days were a little difficult in that he couldn't latch on to nurse, which was due to tongue tie.  He was such a sleepy baby and so chill that he really didn't fuss that much.  I was pumping so that he could get milk that way. We had his tongue tie clipped when he was 4 days old and ever since then has been nursing great.  He has been slow to gain weight, partially due to that start, but is doing better now.  He had jaundice the first week, but not so bad that he needed any treatment for it other than getting a little sunshine. He is the sweetest baby.  And a snuggle bug for sure.  He does great at night too :)  Most nights he will sleep a good 4-5 hour stretch then wake to nurse.  He rarely cries.  When he gets hungry or tired he will just wiggle around and grunt :)  He is just a laid back, chill baby. We are loving every minute with this little dude.

His big sisters love having him around too.  They both want a chance to hold him every day.  Evie will call him "My Silas" and go running to the couch and say, "My hold Silas" and scream if we don't let her hold him right away.  She loves to make sure he has his "dummy" (aka paci) close by at all times.  Evie has had a little rough time adjusting in some ways to having a baby brother around.  I think part of it is due to teething and just settling in to a routine where her big sister is gone all day and she shares mommy's attention.  She is 2 as well, so there are daily fits we get to work through too.  She is still a cutie though and we wouldn't trade her spunky spirit for anything.  It just can test our patience as we guide her in how to use her words instead of screaming at us for things she wants.

Sarah Kate started school last week.  I might have cried right after dropping her off the first day.  She loves school though.  She has already made some good friends.  She is quite the cutie in her school uniform too :)

What else...hmmm...

Let's just leave it at that for now and throw in some pics...

From a walk we took last week in Cucheth.  I love this time of year as the flowers begin to bloom.

First day off to school.  The school is about .8 miles from our house, so SK rides her scooter.  That also means if I walk her in the morning and afternoon, I walk 3.2 miles, which is great exercise for me :)

Hopefully it won't be 3 weeks again and I can get back to keeping up with the ole blog more regularly.  No promises, but it does sound nice!

Silas Jeddie has arrived!

I am beyond thankful first of all that today I am home with a sweet baby boy and not being induced right now.  The consultant (doctor) had scheduled me to be induced this morning if Silas didn't come on his own.  Instead...SIlas decided he wanted to be an Easter morning gift and came on his own!

So here's the birth story.  I want to share how it all went down not just to tell everyone about it, but for myself too.  It is fun for me to be able to look back at the blog years later and see details I might soon forgot.

So let's start with Sat. morning.  I woke up around 6 and started feeling like my waters were leaking.  No big gush or anything, but something was going on I knew.  I wasn't feeling any contractions and it was a slow leak, so I wasn't rushing around like crazy to get to the hospital.  My plan that day was to go with SK and take her to get her school uniforms and such that she needed to start school in a couple weeks.  We were planning to go mid morning with Ginger and Ansley (her daughter) to ride the bus to Leigh and go to the store there to get everything.

I decided to call the Labor ward first and see what they said I needed to do.  They weren't too concerned about me coming in quickly and wanted me to call in to the Antenatal clinic and make an appointment with them to just come in and get a little check (meaning just check baby's heart beat and monitor me for a little).  I tried calling and couldn't get anyone to answer.  I decided I was feeling ok and wanting to be walking anyway to get things going on their own too, so I planned to go ahead to Leigh and do the shopping with SK and our friends.

Ginger was good with going with me and Michael was on standby if I called him while I was out to come and get me if things progressed where I need to head on to the hospital.  So we road the bus on in to Leigh and walked about getting uniform needs and all.  I had contractions off and on while we were out but nothing consistent or hard enough for me to have to stop going about.

We got back from Leigh around 1 and ate some lunch.  I had tried calling off and on throughout the morning to get in touch with the Antenatal clinic but no one was answering there.  So at 1 I called back to the Labor Ward only to discover I had been calling the wrong place all morning.  So the Labor ward connected me to the right place to get an appointment to come in, but at this point in the afternoon they didn't have any appointments left for the day, so they reconnected me with the labor ward.  They then said to come on in to the labor ward and they would check me out there and see how things were going.

Michael and I got things together at home and the girls situated with Emma Rose, who had to come home from working in the cafe so we could head on out.  We kissed the girls and headed off not knowing if we were going to be kept there or sent home to wait and see if labor kicked in.

Once we got to the labor ward they hooked me up to a monitor to check contractions and baby's heart rate.  **Side note--the midwife who was checking me in used an old school baby heart rate thing on my belly to hear baby boy's heart...like they do on "Call the Midwife".  I thought that was fun...haha.

She determined that it was my water leaking, but didn't do any sort of exam to see if I was dilating any.  She told us they tend to be more hands off and esp. if my water had broken that they wouldn't want to do any more checks than needed to keep from risk of infection and such.  *Def. different than what I have experience in the past, but I appreciated that.

While I was laying getting monitored I was getting some pretty good consistent contractions that were coming every 4-5 minutes.  It was coming in waves of lighter ones and some being stronger, but nothing that really caused me to be in pain too much.  Just enough where I was feeling them and knew they were getting more consistent and stronger.

They determined that I needed to stay at the hospital in the Induction Ward for the night and they would begin inducing in the morning if I didn't start progressing more on my own.  They took us then over to the Induction ward and showed us where my bed was and said we could go about the hospital as we wanted, but to just be back by 8:30 so the midwife could check in on me then.  So the Ward...hmm.  It was quite the experience.  It is a room with 6 beds in it, each with a curtain you could pull around it for privacy.  There was a chair (not the most comfortable for Michael we will say) and a birthing ball and that was it pretty much.  There were 3 other women in the room at this time.  One of the other women (and her partner) were watching an episode of "The Simpsons" and thought it was the funniest show ever.  I thought about offering our headphones to them as a subtle hint, but didn't.  Michael and I decided to head out and go walk the halls and see about getting some dinner in one of the places at the Main Entrance of the hospital.  **That also was different than what I have experienced in the past too...being told I could and should eat whatever while I was waiting and trying to get labor going.  So we went down and Costa Coffee was the only thing open (being a Sat. night and holiday weekend).  We were able to get some sandwiches and chocolate muffin and sit down there for a little bit before walking the halls again.  While I was walking I was feeling the contractions more steadily, so I knew the walking was helping.

We headed back to the ward and waited till about 9 or so for the midwife to come.  She checked the baby's heart rate and my blood pressure was all.   After sitting around there a little bit, I wasn't really feeling contractions, so we decided to go walking more.  At this point the hospital was a bit creepy to us.  Half the hall lights were off and no one was really in the halls at all, except for the wing where the labor ward was.  We still walked about though and I once again started feeling more consistent contractions, but not too painful at that point at all.

We got back to the ward around 10:30 or so and tried to watch a little bit of a show together and read a bit.  They turned the lights down around 11 I think and so we tried to lay down (or for poor Michael...he tried using the birthing ball to prop his legs on and get where he could sleep some.  Poor guy...

At about 11:30 I started feeling the contractions coming more frequent and increasing in pain.  At 12:30 I called the midwife to try and see at what point they would move me to a labor room (hoping it would be soon since my contractions were beginning to come so strong).  She asked if I wanted to get a bath to try and help ease the pain, so I went for that.  She also gave me some kind pill that I can't remember what it was called, but it was like a strong tylenol.  The hot water was great and gave some relief and helped me relax for a while, but the contractions were still coming about every 3-4 minutes.  And the med she gave me was completely pointless.

At 2:30 they were getting more intense so we called the midwife again.  At this point I had not been checked at all and just knew in my head I was feeling pressure and had to be at close to 10 cm. if not already there.  Well...she came and saw how strong my contractions were coming and asked if she could check me.  Yes.  Yes, please.  So she examined me and said I was 2.  2 flipping cm was it.  I wanted to cry.  I thought at that moment I wasn't going to make it.  She said for me to try and get some sleep and rest, to which I wanted to respond "yeah right!".  She left and said to call if anything changed or we needed anything.

At about 3:30, my contractions were crazy intense and then my waters fully broke.  Like full on gush, big ole mess broke. (Sorry if this is TMI, it is a birth story though...).  We called the midwife again and she came in first checking to make sure the fluid was clear.  She still wasn't too concerned about things being much different I guess cause she just offered a new pad and said to ask if we needed anything.  TO which I replied, "Yes!  I need new sheets."  She didn't realize with the room being kinda dark how much of a gush there was.  So then she changed my sheets and saw how much pain I was in.  She got new sheets on then decided she should check me again.  This time, I was 10.  So if you calculate that, I went from 2-10 in a matter of an hour folks.  I was quite relieved, but also like "holy cow"!  She said that we were going to rush right over to the labor ward and for Michael to get our stuff.  He grabbed as quickly as he could and she got me in the bed where she could wheel me across the hall.  All the while I am contracting every 2 minutes and moaning/groaning/screaming in pain and feeling such pressure.

We got into the Labor room (finally a private room where I don't have a lady on the other side of the curtain sawing logs (aka snoring) while I am moaning and trying to breathe through contractions.  She immediately told me to do whatever my body told me to do and just go with what it was telling me.  I start pushing around 4 or a few minutes before.  The first few pushes weren't too bad and I was feeling kinda confident, then he crowned and I know I screamed a couple times that I wasn't going to be able to do it and didn't want to.  Let's just leave that part at "it hurt...it hurt a lot" but I was able to hush up and focus on using the contraction to get him out and he was born at 4:12 a.m.

I believe he must have been sunny side up (from my memory of him coming out).  The midwife put him right on my chest and it was the most precious moment.  He took a few seconds to start crying, but then gave a good little cry and then settled right onto my chest.  He was very alert to begin with and his eyes were wide open for a bit in those first couple of hours.  Michael got to cut the cord and then I just got to have skin to skin time with him for a couple hours.  I ended up needing a couple stitches, but didn't tear bad according to the midwife.

After about 2 hours another midwife came in to give Silas a Vitamin K shot and Michael put some clothes on him and wiped him off a little bit.  I was able to get up and take a shower while Michael got some cuddle time with him :)

We then were told we could stay in our private room and be discharged from there or if we wanted to go to the ward and take more time we could.  Ummm...easy, I will take the private room and early discharge.  They came in at about 10 to start our discharge and we were home a little after 11.

So Silas's birth story is nothing like his sisters.  I am so thankful for it though.  It might have had it's interesting and hard moments, but overall it was an amazing experience and I felt well cared for by my midwife.  It was amazing to be able to not be hooked up to monitors and to not have the epidural where I was able to move about so quickly afterward.  Plus I really think labor went more easily and quickly without it.

So there ya go.  I will do another blog sometime soon hopefully of how it has been since being home.  How the girls are taking to him and all.

I will ask that you pray for him to figure out nursing soon.  He is having a bit of a time with it so far, but we aren't worried too much yet.  The midwife came by our house yesterday and another will come some time today to check and see how he is doing.  I will update more on that too on the next blog, but pray with me that we can sort that out soon for him.

I will have to work on getting pics on here, but if you are on Facebook or instagram I have posted pics on there and will try to get more up later.  We used our phones mostly so far, since it has been easier :)

And I wanted to say too how great a dad and hubby Michael has been too.  He was great and so supportive while I was laboring and has been so helpful since Silas arrived.  He loves our children so well and cares for me like a champ.  I don't think I could have done a natural labor and delivery in a whole new country without him, or I know I couldn't have.  I am so thankful for him and love seeing him hold his son and look at him with such love.

It has been a fun crazy ride the last few days that is for sure!  More blogging to come tomorrow maybe...which will be determined by my little man and how much attention he needs :)

Let's have a baby soon!

Well...here's the weekly update.

We went this morning and baby boy is still measuring on the small end, but growing and looked healthy so that is a praise :)  The ultrasound looked great and it was fun to get to see him 1 more time before we really get to see him.

On to the doc.  After going over the ultrasound with us, we decided to go ahead and do a sweep and try to get my body to go in to labor on its own.  We shall see if it works soon I guess...he said if it works, it will happen within the next 48 hours, so now we just wait and see.

Due to measuring small and all, he really doesn't think it best for me to go past due date (hence the reason to go ahead and do the sweep today).  So now the game plan is to wait and see if I go in labor in the next few days or if not, we will do another sweep on Tuesday morning to give it another shot.  If that doesn't work, I am scheduled for an induction on the following Tuesday, April 7th.

So will you pray for us?  Pray that I go into labor on my own before the 7th.  I was induced with Evie and it went smooth, so I am not worried about having to be induced, except this go around will be with no epidural, and given that I think the labor might be easier if my body kick starts it instead of inducing it.  The Lord knows the day Silas is going to be born and he has got everything in control I know.  Pray I can rest in that truth.

So I guess we are officially on baby watch!  I am ready to be past the delivery part and holding our baby boy and have him here and healthy with us outside my belly.  We can't wait to meet and hold him!

I know I have been not so good at pictures on here lately, but have posted some on Facebook and instagram...that's just easier right now.  But the big camera is packed in the bag for when baby boy arrives, so more pics will come then for sure!

Baby update!

We had another appointment this morning with the Doctor and once again are thankful to be in his hands during this time and felt well cared for.  So the newest news...

The ultrasound we had done on Monday was great and baby was measuring great.  He was on the smaller end, but we know that was to be expected.  My fluid levels looked good and he looked good too :)

The doctor did say that my blood work did come back showing that my b-12 (what I get shots for once a month) was in the normal range, which is great news, but it did confirm too that my iron was low.  So I will continue on the tablets through the rest of the pregnancy and hopefully that will be all that is needed there.

The doctor does want to have another growth scan done next week and he will see me again next Friday.  With measuring small (and having IUGR previously...He hasn't called this pregnancy IUGR, but just monitoring it due to my history), he doesn't want me to go much over 40 weeks pregnant due to risks with that which I didn't completely understand.  So next week he said he would like to strip my membranes and see if we can get things going soon for labor.  If that doesn't help get labor going, then he will do it again the next week as well I believe to try again to get labor going.

So the prayer is now that I will go into labor before 40 weeks or right about then so that we don't have to talk about induction.  Will you join me in that prayer?

In news kinda connected to this, we got a call today that our shipment is here and ready to be delivered.  It should be delivered in Monday!!!!  That is a huge praise.  I have been praying that it would arrive soon so that we can unpack those things and get settled with all of that before baby boy arrives.  Plus there are any baby things we have sent from the states in that container as well, so that will be nice to have before baby boy arrives.

Yeah!!!!  So all in all today has been good news all around.  Pray for me as I continue to take care of myself these last days of pregnancy.  Pray my iron will go up and be at a stable point before delivery so there is no complication there.

Thank you for your prayers everyone.  We have felt them so much during this transition and are so so so thankful for all of them.

I will do my best to keep everyone posted with any updates as we get closer to meeting baby boy!

Pregnancy News...

So I am now 36 weeks pregnant.  Hard to believe we are about 4 weeks away from having baby boy! I went to the Doctor at Warrington Hospital yesterday to have a "consult" since I am new here and have had IUGR in a previous pregnancy and because of my anemia as well.  The midwife wanted me to go and see him to just have him check on things.

Well...to sum up how it went...I was dehydrated, anemic, and measuring small.  UGH!

None of these things were of major concern for him or us but just something to work on and easily fixed.  Along with my b-12 shots, I now have "tablets" of iron I am taking as well 3 times a day to hopefully up my iron before baby gets here.  I am ordered to drink at least 2 liters of water each day as well.  As far as the measurements go, he wasn't too concerned seeing as we tend to have small babies, but he is having me come in on Monday for a scan to see how baby boy is doing, then I have another appointment with him on Friday.

He was a great doctor and really put us at ease that all was ok and there was nothing really to be concerned about.

Now get this part...  He asked when we came in the room what brought us to England (knowing we were from the states) and so Michael answered by saying that he was working as a minister at a church here.  The doctor lights up a bit and says "wow, that's cool".   He then goes on to tell us that he goes to an Arabic speaking church in Manchester that is reaching out to the city there and has had Muslims come in many times.  He is from Egypt and his parents still live there, who are also Coptic Christians.  We got to talk to him off and on through the appointment about his church.  It was so amazing to us.

Imagine this.  We move to a country where it is less than 5% Christian and we end up with a Christian for an OB Doc here.  God is cool...isn't he??!!

So that is a little update on how things are going for me with pregnancy.  We will go on Monday to get a scan then see the doctor again on Friday and see how my levels are doing.  Pray that I won't be discouraged.   I was a bit emotional yesterday getting that report, just feeling like I haven't been doing a good job taking care of myself, but thankful too that the Lord has provided someone to help get my body on track for a good delivery hopefully.

We are still plugging away at getting settled into our home.  Our shipment should have arrived in port (wherever that is...) yesterday if it was on schedule, but we haven't heard any news about it yet.  I am hoping we will have it in our driveway in the next week or so...we shall see :)

I also had a bit of a panic with SK and her schooling situation a couple days ago.  I called the council to check on the status of her application since we hadn't heard anything yet and thought we would have already heard.  According to the girl I spoke with, there was no openings at any of the 3 schools and she would be calling that day around to schools outside of the village to find her a spot.  I am not good with just sending her to any other school where we would have to drive her outside of the village.  I was upset after that phone call, but Michael reassured me that all would be ok and God would take care of it and we just needed to trust in him about this.

The next morning, Michael calls down to Culcheth Primary School and is able to speak with the head teacher where he gets the news that there is not 1 but 2 openings in her level class and all would be fine.  She was going to call the council herself and sort it out for us.  So it looks like all will work out fine with the school stuff, I just need to trust Jesus more.  This whole moving process has been faith growing...I tell ya.  I am seeing how much faith I lack and how much I need more Jesus in my life.

So there is a little update on things over here!  Michael preaches tomorrow at church, which he is looking forward to!  "See" you guys again real soon :)

Random thoughts from our first few weeks...

Well...as of today, we will have been in England for 3 weeks.  It really has flown by with all the busyness of setting up home and doing all that has to be done to get settled here.  With my pregnancy brain and all, I can hardly think straight, so today I give you a random list of how things are going for us :)

*We have had sickness since being here.  First off was Evie with her GI stuff, then SK, then Michael, then Michael had a cold thing, and now I have a cold thing.  I am ready for us to have a healthy home again.

*I am learning more about what it looks like to cook here and what foods, I am used to finding easily in the states, are hard-to-find or non-existent here.  Take black beans for example.  I searched yesterday at the larger store (kinda like a Walmart) down the road in a nearby village.  No luck.  I finally found dried black beans, to which the girl checking us out made a comment that she had never seen these before and wondered what I used them for.

*Nesting is hard here.  I tire easily at 35 weeks pregnant and let me tell you...Ikea can wear a girl out.  Our crate, which we thought would be here by this week won't be here for another few weeks probably.  I just hope that it arrives before baby boy makes his arrival.

*I met with the midwife here in the village for the first time last week. It went well.  I will go soon for a consult with the OB at Warrington Hospital next week and also get to see the labor ward and such while there too hopefully.  Having a baby here will def. be different than the states.  If we have baby boy at the hospital, we will more than likely go home the same day.

*Setting up a home from scratch is a whole lot of work.  I am thankful for the help we have had and our friends here that did and are still doing so much to help us get settled and love on us.  We have also been blessed to have Emma Rose helping incredibly.  Let's just say the other night, she cooked Hungarian Goulash for dinner for us...along with a salad and roasted broccoli and some yummy bread with cheese stuff on top.  It was delicious.

*Being stuffy and pregnant is no fun.  There's nothing that you can take really to help...I have used some oils with a little success, but for the most part I just stay stuffed up.  Last night I resolved to sleeping sitting straight up on the couch in hopes of being about to not feel like my head was going to explode.

*I am slowly getting used to not having a dishwasher.  And not having a dryer.  And a tiny washing machine.  It's just an adjustment to remember to wash a small load daily, then put the clothes on the drying rack each day, which also means more ironing, which isn't my strong suit.

*We also have to adjust our way of grocery shopping.  With a fridge the size of a dorm fridge, we don't go and stock up like we were used to in the states.  Plus we live about a five minute walk to the local grocery store.  So we go just about every day to get what we need for that day, maybe the next as well.  It's kinda fun, except for the whole being 35 weeks pregnant.

*Flowers are starting to peek out all around here and I love it.  The flowers here really are amazing.

*Michael leaves for London tomorrow.  I am slightly jealous I must say.  It will be good though as he is going to Presbytery and will be able to meet and spend time with other men in this presbytery.

So I guess we are slowly getting more and more settled into life here.  I love the village life and love the church we are a part of here.  God truly has blessed us and I am excited to see what all the future holds here in growing the Lord's kingdom.  I am excited we get to be a part of it and pray the Lord will use us mightily for his purposes.

Pray for me to get better soon.  I go back to the midwife in the morning and hope that will bring more clarity into what the coming days will look like as we get close to the arrival of baby boy.  Pray for Michael to have a safe time and good fellowship in London.  Pray as we wait to hear back from the council about SK's school situation.  We covet the prayers of our friends and family.  I know the Lord is caring for us and will continue to.  Thanks friends :)

Maybe I will pull the camera out later this week or next and actually take some more pics...maybe...

Landing...

Well...we have officially landed in the UK, but it feels like we are still landing and will be for a while.  If you follow Michael and I on Facebook you might have seen we have had quite the interesting start.  Since I am up before the crack of dawn and am tired of looking at the list of all the things that need to get done, I am gonna try and blog to update everyone on what is has looked like for us so far here.

Let's start with take off shall we???

On Tuesday (meaning a whole week ago!) we headed to the airport bright and early at about 6 a.m.  Evie complains on the way there of her tummy hurting :(  We get through checking our bags and security without too much trouble, which was good.  Then as we are waiting to load the plane for our first of 3 flights for the day, Evie poops and let's just say it isn't firm :(  (OH...and if you don't like to read stories of poop and puke..stop reading now...sorry--this is just honestly how things have gone for us and the story will include both things plenty unfortunately).  Continuing on...

Evie doesn't seem too upset, but a little uncomfortable.  The first flight goes alright for the most part.  Then we get off the plane in Chicago and Evie melts.  She is miserable and hurting and unconsolable really.  We scramble to tend to her and try to find some food for lunch.  At this point I wonder if we are going to either A). not be able to continue on with the travel or B). have a miserable baby for the remainder of the flights which I am sure everyone will love who are also on the plane.  Before loading she finally calms down a little, but complaining of her tummy hurting.  We load the plane and guess who poops?  Yep...Michael took her to the bathroom on the plane and somehow managed to clean her up and get seated.  As we are getting ready for takeoff, she poops again...and this one I believe almost everyone sitting around us could not only smell, but hear as well as it happened.  I took her this time to the bathroom and quickly tended to that clean up before we hit the run way.  After that Evie fell fast asleep for the entirety of that flight which was nice.  She woke up right at landing and you will never guess it...she poops again.  I am just thankful that it isn't running out into her clothes, meaning having to deal with poopy clothes while traveling...that part at least comes later in the story.... :(

In the next airport we find our terminal and get a little snack (which Evie won't really eat...).  The final flight is somewhat smooth other than both girls only sleeping about an hour max.  Michael and I didn't get any sleep and Emma Rose (who praise the Lord is traveling with us and helping with SK all along the way).  We land in Manchester around 7:30 a.m. and head to get our luggage.  We are all pooped at this point and still have to manage getting our luggage.  Oh, and we get our stroller at the gate and somehow they managed to break the bar off part of the stroller, which irritates me, but it still functions fine...gotta still call the airline about that...

I should have taken a picture of us trying to figure out how to get all of our carry ons, 10 pieces of luggage and 2 kids and a stroller out to meet our friends that were picking us up.  It would have made a good picture, but I was too tired to think about that...

We finally get loaded in the 2 cars that we were picked up in (which...let me tell you.  It was a tight tight fit).  We headed straight to the cafe to get food and see everyone.  It was great to be greeted with hugs and cheers as we got out of the car.  It refreshed my heart after a long tiring day of travel.  After eating, we headed to our new home to check out it and get some rest.

Our church family here did such a great job of having beds set up for us and things in the kitchen so we could at least have somewhere to sleep and get by in the kitchen till we were able to make it to the store to get things and for our shipment to arrive.  All of us took a good little nap (trying not to let it be too long so we could work on getting over jet lag) then headed over to the Donahoo's for dinner and everyone in the church came to hang out at our house after that.

Can I just say what a blessing it is to have families here that have loved on us so well so far.  Truly.

The next day we were able to leave our girls with Emma Rose to play around the house while we went to Ikea to begin setting up our house with dishes and furnishings and such.

One thing I have had to learn to be ok with is the amount of time it is taking and is going to take to get our house feeling like home.  We still haven't heard anything about our shipment and as far as I know it is still at the port in SC...  that's a big bummer.  We are limited on what we can fit in a small car when we buy anything at the store and we are relying on friends here to cart us around to stores to get things.  Michael is going to look for a car today for us, so hopefully that will make it easier to get out to find things for our home to begin making it feel homey.  It is hard though, being 33 weeks pregnant and wanting to next and feel settled here before baby arrives and only be able to do so much in a day.

We have a couch and chairs as of Sunday, so that is nice :)  I plan to try and take pics around the house today and post those, even though the rooms are still quite bare with nothing on the walls.

As far as the kids go...Evie didn't really eat for about 4 days and ended up throwing up 3-4 times then SK got sick.  SK only threw up one time and has had a bit of an upset tummy on and off since then.  I won't go into all the details of that since I am sure you wouldn't mind being spared that part, but I will say that I never want to deal with that much puke and diarrhea again.  We have changed sheets and pj's in the middle of the night countless times.  OH...and did I mention that our washing machine doesn't work and we are waiting for a new one to come in that we have had to order???  Thankfully, the church here has more than taken are of us and are taking our nasty stinky clothes, sheets, towels and such and washing them for us.  That has been such a help.

It was great to get to worship on Sunday with our new church, though the kids were still not 100% and still aren't really.  Evie seems close to being back to herself, but SK is still recovering.

Pray they continue to heal and get back to themselves soon.  And protections for Michael, I and Emma Rose to not get it or anything else for that matter.

Also I was able to walk over to the GP "Surgury", which back in the states we would call the doc's office on Friday and turn in my paperwork to get registered, then fill out paperwork for the midwives group.  They were going to fax that paperwork to the midwives and I am supposed to hear back from them to get an appointment set up this week.

Pray for Michael as he goes to look for a car today.  Pray the Lord will provide a reliable car that is within our budget (or below would be cool :).

Pray that we would continue to settle in well and that our house would soon begin to feel like a home.  And in the in between we would be content with how it is and not be overwhelmed with so much to do.

Pray too for SK and getting her registered for school.  I am just realizing that I have missed a cut off date for registration for the fall and will now be considering a "late" register.  Pray that somehow the Lord works out those details for her to get into the school that is closest to us.

We also have an appointment today to get set up with a bank here.  Pray that goes smooth and we can get a bank account without hassle.

Praise the Lord with us that he has taken care of us thus far.  We have so many things we can be thankful for even in the midst of such craziness.  I have to step away from the lists and stresses and sickness to look at how kind the Lord has been to our family and provided for us.

We are excited too how the Lord continues to provide for our financial needs as well.  Since arriving, we have had another church join our support team, putting us at about 93% fully funded.  We are beyond thankful for that and trusting the Lord will bring in the rest of our needs in his timing.  You can pray and praise the Lord with us on that too.

Ok...that's enough for today.  I will attempt to take a moment today to get the camera out and take some pics of our new home (even if there is nothing hanging on the walls...