Water Under the Bridge

It's old news now, but I wanted to hold off telling this story for a couple of days, so that I would not dramatize it or over exaggerate anything. I have a tendency to do that, when storytelling, and I try to curb that very bad habit as often as possible.

Last week, we had two days planned where we had to be over the border at appointments. So Tuesday morning came, and we packed up and headed out for our first day, in the big city, where we had a passport appointment for Grace.

The day, as a whole, went down without a hitch. The heat and humidity was oppressive, and, I can honestly say I've never been that hot in my life. Poor Grace soaked through two outfits with sweat (the back of the car doesn't get the best air circulation,) and we had to make a mad dash for a photography studio to redo her passport photos. Turns out, when we got her first passport photos done, at a passport photo place, mind you, they gave us the wrong size. This usually wouldn't be that big of a deal, but the embassy's hours are 1-3 pm. And that is it.

Ha!

But we went as fast as we (legally) could, and made it back in time to submit all of the paperwork.

We had a late lunch at a mall food court, fed Grace in the parking garage, then made the two hour drive back. When we got to the border, Ian went into the office to get our visas cancelled for the country we were leaving. The officer inside asked to see me (sometimes, because of the culture, they will not ask to see the woman,) and so I, along with Grace came inside.

As soon as he saw me walk in with Grace, he demanded to see her passport. We explained that we didn't have her passport yet but we did have her paperwork (birth certificate from hospital and city, which is supposed to be acceptable.)

He said he could not let us through and he called in a higher ranking official who told us that under absolutely no circumstances could he let us into another country without having her passport.

You might think this would make sense. Usually I would say "of course, someone can't cross into another country without a passport!" But in this situation, the border is much more fluid than other borders, and the hospital told us we would only need the birth certificate. Plus, we had crossed back and forth 3 times already!

Ian followed the higher ranking officer backto his office and tried to reason with him.

"I have an 8 week old baby, she needs her bed. We don't have clothes or diapers. Please sir, think of my wife and baby! We don't know anyone we can stay with here!"

He basically told Ian "it's not my problem." He told us to come back once we had her passport, which would be in 2 to 3 weeks.

Frustrated and angry we got in the car and drove back into the country we had just tried to leave. We parked in a nearby apartment complex while I fed Grace and Ian made phone calls, letting people know the situation and trying desperately to find a place to stay. Of course there are tons of nice hotels, but we didn't have the cash to spend on that (believe me, we have reevaluated our emergency fund!) Finally we were put in touch with a guest house, given directions, and checked in.

As soon as we got in, Ian had to turn around and go back out. It was almost 10 and we didn't have any more diapers (problem!) and hadn't eaten since lunch.

I got Grace to sleep and she officially slept for the first time, not in her crib, but on a bunk bed!

The bottom one, of course, we aren't crazy.

Though, I don't think she'll be rolling her swaddled self anywhere soon.

Ian and I sat quietly, eating on the floor of our room realizing what a big deal this could be.

3 weeks, with only the clothes on our back and no way to communicate with our families back home. We decided we would probably go stay in the big city, 2 hours away, with some friends we had there, and we'd have to buy some clothes to get us through.

We weren't giving up yet though.

You see, the whole time I was pregnant, I had morning Dr.'s appointments. We crossed the border in the morning and returned in the evening. At the border, in the morning, we always got the same female border guard, and we had built a relationship with her. We had even brought Grace in to show her when we were first returning home!

She was also the guard who had let us (plus Grace) through, no problem, just like they were supposed to do!

So, the next morning, we got up, went to our Doctor's appointments like planned, then went straight to the border to try to catch our friend before her shift was over.

Miracle of all miracles, she was! I stayed in the car and she didn't even ask to see me or Grace, we got our stamps, then proceeded to drive over the border.

Coming home never felt so good!

Like I said at the beginning of this post, this could have been a much worse situation, but in the end, it all worked out. Praising the Lord for His hand on us during this time.

We can't go back over the border until Grace's passport is in, or we would risk not being able to get home.

I'm fine with 3 weeks of being stuck in this tiny town if it means I can brush my teeth, take out my contacts, and sleep in my own bed!

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Water Under the Bridge

A Detailed Post that May Bore You....

I don't usually do step by step or super detailed posts about doctor visits or other baby related things besides my "weekly," baby updates.

And really, it's been closer to every three weeks, ha!

Today however, I have baby Grace on my mind.

We had our 30 week check up across the border and our early morning started even earlier with me waking up around 5:15. I would have been annoyed but I realized that what woke me up wasn't an AC going out or our bower failing (it's happened,) but instead it was a feeling in my stomach that I could quite place.

But, about 3 seconds later, it dawned on me.... she was hiccuping!

All of the books say I should have started feeling the hiccups around 22-24 weeks, but here I was at 30 weeks and 3 days and hadn't felt a one yet. These were clear as day and lasted for about 4-5 minutes.

We groggily got ready for our day and hit the road to stamp out of border #1 (35 minutes away,) then drive back to border #2 (right by our house, so another 35 minutes,) to stamp into the country that has our modern hospital.

We almost got turned away at border #2 because the border guard didn't think we had valid exit stamps from border #1, but we found them and showed them to her (I never get a girl guard!)

Turns out they were just really, really lightly stamped.

But they were there! So right through we went and we even had enough time to stop at the McDonalds there (no McD's on our side of the border so it's a super special treat!) Ian got 2 "sausage," muffins and I got a hash brown. I say "sausage," because it is a Muslim country so there aren't pork products for sale in restaurants so it was probably beef. Or something else.

But it tasted delicious.

On to the hospital I went. Ian drops me off and I enter the women's clinic (no men allowed there!) all by myself. I grab a number from a machine and sit and wait in waiting room #1 until the cashier calls my number up, checks me in, and takes my deposit for the visit (about 50 bucks.)

Then she gives me a new number and I go down a long hallway and sit in waiting room #2.

I wait for my number to be called again, and then I go to the triage area where a nice nurse takes my temperature, weight, blood pressure, and has me do the oh-so-glamorous part of pregnancy where you get the privilege of peeing in a cup. I get it tested for sugars and then am given a 3rd number and sit back in waiting room #2 until my number is called again.

This time (and right on my appointment time too, so punctual! they have you come in 1/2 an hour before your appointment time so that all of those steps can be finished.) I am whisked into my Dr.'s exam room where we have a nice chat about the wind and sand storm that we are in the middle of.

He tells me my weight is right where it should be, reminds me of a vaccine that I will have to get right after Grace is born (apparently my MMR vaccination isn't at acceptable levels. Who knew?) and talks about the pain medications the hospital offers.

I'm pretty excited about the fact that "happy gas," is an option. Happy gas and I go way back to my MANY dental extractions as a child. It works wonders on relaxing and calming me and it doesn't require numbing of your lower extremities. He talked a little bit about how the best patients are ones who come in with open birth plans instead of ones on either extremes of the spectrum ie: must have an epidural right away or no pain meds-whatsoever.

Luckily I'm a pretty "go with the flow," kind of girl and have learned to become really flexible and to lower my expectations on this side of the world.

He measured my belly and listened to the heartbeat (which he said was PERFECT!) She's still laying side ways but he assured me that we still had 5 1/2 weeks for her to flip until he would look into external methods of moving her. YAY!

He ended the appointment by saying that my pregnancy has been picture perfect so far, and that as long as I take my vitamins and be mindful of my food intake and exercise he doesn't predict any preventable problem. Double YAY!

Ian (who had been reading in the men's waiting room,) and I went to a local mall to pick up birthday presents for two kids we know then tried to track down Grace's coming home outfit. We were pretty unsuccessful at that, but were able to pick up 2 crib sheets and a mattress protector for 14 bucks total. Score.

We drove on over to another mall and treated ourselves to Chili's. Burger for me, quesadilla for him. Then we hit the western style supermarket downstairs in order to stock up on hard to get items such as beef (can only buy it there!) healthy cereals, and canned tomatoes.

We sighed a big sigh of exhaustion then headed to the border in order to tackle the great border headache of 2011.

We are supposed to go back through border #2, stamp out, and then drive 35 minutes to border #1 and stamp into our country where we live, before driving 35 minutes back the same way to our home. Confusing? Yes. And a big pain in my pregnant butt.

Sometimes however, the border guards don't care and don't make you stamp out of the country where our hospital is. They let us right into our little town while staying on the wrong visa.

And that's what happened today! It will make for a headache in the next week or so when we have to make a border run just to get on the correct visa, but today, all we needed was some rest, so we came right home and collapsed into bed for a 2 hour power nap before going to a 2 year olds birthday party.

I told you it was detailed.

And I also warned you it might bore you.

At least I'm honest, right?

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A Detailed Post that May Bore You....

Blessings and a Prayer Request

A wonderful weekend full of relaxation, rest, and, of course, good food, gave me much to be thankful for.

We're blessed with a great group of people here in our town that love and support us, even though we just met 4 months ago!

We're blessed that, even though we got sick, it wasn't bad and we are recovering nicely.

I'm blessed with a wonderful husband, who loves and serves me with all that he can.

I'm blessed with an awesome family that may not always like the fact that we are 'all the way over here,' but they love and support us anyways.

We are blessed with a wonderful Christian hospital in a land that is very unChristian. How I love to read the verse from Proverbs 31 that my blog is based off of, right on the wall in a hospital in the Middle East! So blessed!

And that brings me to my prayer request- Tomorrow is the big day! Doctor's appointment and gender ultrasound day! My request, if ya'll have a minute to lift it up, is that we will get through our border and checkpoint quickly and smoothly in the morning. We are technically still on the visa for the country that we are going into, so we are hoping that they will still let us into that country.

{it makes logical sense that they would, but we refer to this place as the "logic free zone," and last month we were almost made to stamp out of the country we wanted to go into, drive 45 minutes to the other border, stamp into and then right out of that country, then drive back to the original border and get a new visa stamp.}

Please pray that the guards will be in a good mood, that we can communicate clearly with them that we are just going to the hospital and we are not trying to stay in their country.

And pray, that if we are made to do the crazy stamp out/in/out/in, that God's hand will be on us, that we can get it done quickly, and that we have patience through the frustration. We're leaving with plenty of time, in case we are made to do that border run, but it would be such an amazing blessing to get through on our first try. We would even reward ourselves with a trip to McDonalds for breakfast!

Thanks to all! And I can't wait to reveal the gender on Thursday!

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Blessings and a Prayer Request