Prayers for K4

Friends,


We're so grateful for you who love us and are lifting us up to God from the other side of the world!  Thank you!  We do have a few things that we have no efforts to make on our own that will see results.... we are entirely dependent on the Lord.  Would you pray for these points with us?


1)  Healthy Birth and Baby... {and timing}:  Our midwife arrives this Saturday!   Yesterday at church, Amy, my preggy friend who will also have a homebirth with our midwife Kara, told me she really doesn't know if she'll make it till then.  Amy has had a baby 2 weeks early before and Sat is that 2 wk mark.  I'm feeling pretty good, making progress... but I've got my gaze set out a bit past Kara's arrival.  (I'll be 37.5 when Kara comes.) Would you please pray that our babies would stay snug until Saturday and that they would be born healthy, be healthy soon after that?  


2)  Mail:  A dear friend has gifted us with an inflatable pool to labor in (with liners for Amy and for me!).  Family have also sent some packages that we really hope arrive on time...  thanks for praying for this! UPDATE:  The pool (and great treats, books with it!) arrived the same day I posted these prayer requests!  Praise, praise be!


3)  Birth Certificate:  You would not believe how difficult this is!  We've looked into a hundred (it seems like it) possible ways to get a BC for our baby and nothing has been promising yet.  We know we'll be able to get a Consular Report of Birth Abroad from the American embassy when we go to the capital, but that document will be unacceptable and unauthorizeable on the ground... where we'll be needing to get baby's visa application filled out pretty quickly.  This one has no solution I can suggest,  we're wide open, hard searching and waiting for this miracle to be discovered!  Give graciously, Lord!


4)  Helpers:  Amy and I will both be missing family for our births.  And for a homebirth, we'll have quite a bit of clean-up and care needed for a little while and it feels like a lot to ask of friends to help in all the ways I can think of needing help!   But we do have dear friends who are ready to come....  Please pray with us that the Lord will let our birth be a smooth time in our home and for the dear friends who have volunteered to help.  


We'll keep you updated :)

Sore Gifts

My husband has gifted me with this afternoon to tuck away with the Lord, to ponder and reflect, and to hopefully (finally!) finish this forever procrastinated family photo album, before our lives are transformed forever with the birth of our fourth child.  

I am absolutely raw with a myriad of keen emotions.  I’m a tangle of joy and thanks and wonder and desperate, trembly prayers....  our homebirth soon (midwife arrives in 10 days!), our nephew due in 8+ weeks, just after the first anniversary of his big sister’s homegoing.  Oh those days, these soon...  gasping, aching, surrendering prayers.   

You LORD, are Good.  You are Sovereign.  Anchor us to you with your promised sure peace.  

“Approach my soul the mercy seat where Holy One and helpless meet.  There fall before my Judge’s feet.  Thy promise is my only plea.  Oh God.... From war without and fear within, relieve the grief from the shoulders of crumbling men.”  The theology is sung into my heart (in this free download tune.)

The people we are here for have so few resources but we are wealthy beyond all imagining.  Such lyrics, sound theology set to tune to lift my head, fortify my anxious heart...  I’m grateful.    

And this child inside me... what a wonder!  What a gift!  I admit that I often have my eyes and heart set about one month out on the calendar, when I hope to be comfortable again and drenched in the bliss of snuggly kissing our littlest babe. 

But these uncomfortable days are a gift too.  Even my brainlessness and brimming emotion.  Sometimes I want to call these all handicaps and only look forward to shrugging them off.  There will be goodness at the end of this season but I want to cherish these days now too (most probably my last days ever pregnant....) definitely precious, wonderful GIFT.

Till then, may I treasure and cherish these gifts~

Kicks in the bladder, and crowding nudges on my lungs.  Oh these movements!  Deep throbbing and strong pressing against my insides and outward from my belly.  Sometimes I’ve almost felt immodest if anyone in public were to glance by my belly to see some of this action....  incredible, hilarious, uncomfortable, wonderful, life!  Oh to capture all the movement of these knitting needles at work inside me!

One night specifically, laying down to look at my love beside me and feeling a foot push my skin up at least an inch and travel probably 6 inches across my belly!  I couldn’t stop laughing for a long time...

The big kids’ inquisitiveness about baby brother / sister??

Their trust that Jesus knows just the right time to open the door for the baby to come out

My dear JJ sending an inflatable pool to labor in- YOU are such a gift JJ!  and thanks for the pool too!

Sharing pregnancy with a friend here, when both of us will be missing family at our births, and prayer time with her this week

A healthy pregnancy these 36 weeks

The dear friends who are gladly ready to watch the big kids when the time comes

Maternity clothes hand-me-downs and gifts

The past two days of feeling strangely strong and flexible with only occasional soreness

Sore moments that make me slow down (and walk like I’m 95!)

Old neighbor friends calling this week to check on me

And grateful for these excerpted words from this dear mentor about giving thanks... these words from the Word that are life changing for me... for you?

"It’s only in the uncomfortable places that we can experience the tenderness of the Comforter...

Counting the gifts, one thousand gifts, isn’t a pop culture kind of gratitude. It isn’t a new age kind of feel-good exercise. It isn’t trendy. And it definitely isn’t comfortable.

Counting one thousand gifts is to live the radical thanks of Christ. It’s about an exercise in the age to come coming now and finding comfort in the Comforter. It’s the culture of believers really believing, the culture of God and the Blood of the Lamb.

Counting one thousand gifts is about eucharisteo. That is Christ's command. Eucharisteo, that Greek word that expresses what Christ did at the Last Supper: take the bread of pain as grace. Give thanks for that which is hard. Endure the cross, all in view of the joy set before."

K4's songs

I have a sweet playlist put together for K4’s birth.  Along with the song above (a free download), here are two more of my favorite songs on the list....  I’d love to hear if you have suggestions for any more.

Almighty Fortress:  Christy Nockels,  “Life Light Up” CD.

“We will keep our eyes on You.  We will keep our eyes on You.  Almighty Fortress is our God.  A sacred refuge is Your name....Our God is jealous for His own, none could comprehend His love and His mercy”

The Lord Is: Sovereign Grace, “Psalms” CD.

“The depths of Your grace, who can measure?  You fully supply all my need.  You restore my weary soul again and again.  You lead me in Your righteousness and peace.  You’re with me through every dark valley.  There’s nothing that I have to fear.  You are there to comfort me again and again, protecting me, assuring me You’re near.  The Lord is, the Lord is my Shepherd.  I shall not want.”

If Stickers Were a Love Language

... and even if they aren’t, this is one well-loved little babe.  We are all so excited to meet our littlest one in just about a month now.  

Isaiah likes to land a good kiss on my tummy every now and then and he tries to explain the matter to John.  He points to my belly and tells John “Baby.”  But clearly this little guy is in for a huge surprise when Baby arrives.  

We’ve never had more of a “mama’s child.”  John is the cuddliest snuggler of our big three and the enormous protrusion in my middle does not deter him in the least from wanting to sit straight in the center of my lap, even with his neck bent out, head laid back on my chest.   This pic makes me laugh every time I see it and I honestly expect it to be at least a bit prophetic of John’s initial emotions when meeting K4.  

This was the first shot we got of Isaiah meeting his little sister....  perhaps there will be some resemblance?  

Far more than these tough first few days of transition (especially for John!), we really look forward to our kids  growing in sweet, deep friendship!  

The Color of Smog and Smiles

Maybe this is just a symptom of winter... winter in a polluted city?  Color seems nearly gone from the scene.  The sky is usually grayish brown and most everything is some shade of the same.  Even tree leaves and grass (in spots where you find it) are mostly layered in soot from burnt something (often something toxic, like plastic) that people gave up in efforts to be warm.  

The only usual exception within our apartment complex is kids.... Their clothes and laughter and smiles.  We’ve met some fantastic new kids recently and they sure do sparkle like gems against this drab background!   This week we've been gifted three new friends, fun kids in our complex... hopefully I can get some more pics of these new friends soon.  

SILK ROAD ECOTOURS!

My husband has been diligently working on a Masters in Business (he just finished a statistics course in Chinese!) and language study (every day our brains are swirling, studying our 3rd language and hoping to keep it straight from the 2nd).  He's a fantastic husband and dad and friend and he's becoming a real businessman to top it all off!  I'm so proud of my man.


This company will hopefully grow into a great way for us to live and work here (hoping to be on a business visa once Matt graduates from the current student visa arrangement), introduce new people to this land and these people, and be a blessing to local people where we are and in less commercial/urban areas too.


Take a look if you get a chance-

www.silkroadecotours.com

Sunday

We all love trying to make it outside for some family time together on Sundays.....  

 Our new apartment complex has a great playground.... 

So Grateful!

And isn't Matthew doing great with his photography?  These are all his shots. I don't have the patience that our new camera requires but I'm so glad he does!

 the half dozen of us... with the littlest one still inside, 

but not for long now! :)

 Isaiah and his waggy tongue!  I love this goofball!

And Saturday...  I think our little man has turned the verbal corner.  He's been saying several words for a while now (We've woken up to "I oooove uuuu" a few times recently) but yesterday he seemed to add to his word repertoire exponentially.   When our Chinese friend left our home, I told him "John, say goodbye to Ayi (Auntie)" and he translated it...  "Zaijian!"..... And then he looked at our other guest who was across the table from him and said to this friend in his minority language "Hosh."  That's 'goodbye' in three languages.  Pretty good for the 20 month mark!  We delight in the Lord's grace in our kids' lives and learning! 

And finally...  here's K4 at 33 weeks

update on our littlest one

(Note:  I've tried to make this post flow straight for you, but my pregnant head isn't lining things up very well...  thanks for flexing/flowing with me here!)

First, here's the big thing:  God's provision for our birth plan.  

We have been praying for months for the Lord's leading and provision for where to have this sweet baby that's growing in me.   We knew He wouldn't leave us hanging, but time isn't long now and we have three big kids (if almost 5yo and under count as big!) to plan for along with the zillions of other very weighty medical, cultural, financial, logistic, timing factors to consider.     

I am a passionate believer that the birth of a baby should be beautiful.  It should be.  I know it isn't always but I believe we're wired to hope deeply for life, to hope urgently and desperately for beauty in life from the start.  It makes the grief of when a birth isn't beautiful all the worse, but we persist to hope still.   For my longing for a peaceful, beautiful birth, it just won't work to go to a local hospital.  

The plan that the Lord has provided for the birth of our wildly loved K4 is both beautiful and humblingly, trust-demanding.  

My best friends in town have all told me that our city rates as "not very modern" among China's cities (still, we've got 7 million people!) and I think it shows the clearest in its hospitals.  I've visited four in the past few months and none of them has left be smiling.  Smoky waiting rooms, disgusting bathrooms, more people than I thought would fit, no men (fathers) allowed in the communal delivery rooms, very poor facilities, very high c-section rates and even higher infection rates with it, and medical practices that I simply have a very hard time accepting, submitting to (that honestly seem downright wrong a lot of times.)

I love China and I want to live here long, serve here humbly and joyfully.  And to aid toward this end, we decided to try all we could to find housing in the capital to be able to deliver at the private hospital there where May and John were born.  But only a few doors looked open, and eventually all of them have closed completely.  

The past month or two we've prayed more and more that the Lord would make us open, possibly to something new, something we hadn't been looking for.  We were imagining going to some strange city where we didn't know anyone....  or, we didn't know what to imagine.

But then came the unexpected message back from a friend, the wonderful midwife who delivered Marian: "I have a friend who is interested in coming."   I cried when I blubbered to Matt on the phone, "Even if this ends up being another closed door, I'm so encouraged to know that this is even a possibility for us."

And the possibility is becoming reality.  This sweet midwife has purchased tickets to fly around the world mid March to deliver our baby here.  She had the perfect gap in clients at her midwifery practice in the states and she'll be staying with us for about a month and assisting with another birth of an ex-pat friend who is due 3 days before me. 

I tremble every time I think of it:  that the Lord would answer our prayers so generously as to provide this graciously! That she would fly this far, stay this long, for us, for this precious little one (and one more)! And every time I pray for this, I cannot help but pray that this birth would somehow bring more life along with it.... salvation life for friends near us here.  I'm asking the Lord for grace that somehow they would hear and see God work in this birth, see Him set Himself before their eyes as True Life, Giver, Lord that He is...  We pray it will be so.  

I know there will be some of you who, out of love and concern for us, will disagree with our decision to have a homebirth here.  It's true, local backup care is enormously undesirable and we hope not to need it, but if we do, we will trust the Lord to lead us through that too.  (Babies are born here all the time.  It can be done!)  We are grateful for your love and we have peace to go with what the Lord has miraculously made possible for us and what we believe he has provided for us for good purpose.  

There is no other circumstance in my life where I have felt that there is More. Trust. Needed.  I'm glad for that.  We So Need God.  

We are awed, humbled, desperate, delighted, grateful beyond words, and eager as can be to meet this precious little baby!  Thank you for your hopeful anticipation too and for your prayers with us and for us!

Here are a few more random pregnancy tidbits:

Last week I bought something for our littlest one- the very first, the only thing yet:  a pack of itsy-bitsy newborn diapers. It's so exciting to think that this little one will be arriving soon!  Less than 7 weeks now...  (actually, I'm mostly counting the days till Kara's arrival (Mar 12) - anytime after that is good!)

I had high hopes for this, my last pregnancy, that we would get a picture each week, but it hasn't happened.... at all.  I think we have to get some shots here before long so we can take them into the embassy along with baby's passport application, to prove that this little one really came out of me! 

Supposedly varicose veins are common on ankles during pregnancy but I'm quite sure my ankle could win awards...  "The Most Discolored Ankle" I've ever seen anywhere, on anyone.  Truly.  I've had a few days that the veins have lightened considerably so I'm choosing to be optimistic that they won't remain quite this dark/ severe post-birth. Yikes!

Calories feel hard to come by here.  Either for my idea of wanting to eat somewhat healthily (local snacks don't work) or for tiredness to bake another batch/loaf of... I'm very often, very hungry.    (This mama just can't quite fill my tank with fruit and raisins.)  I think I've gained about half as much weight as I did when I was pregnant with Isaiah in the states.  This little one feels like a wiggly brick tucked into the front of me.  Solid.  

And oh.... we are so grateful, so excited to meet this wiggler!!

my horn

I often write about Ann Voskamp, what she has written or invited others to write with her.  Sometimes when I share about it on our blog I have certain friends in mind that I think would most enjoy whatever post it is....  but today, her post is really for everyone.


I won't even try to sum it up for you, I just so hope you'll read and enjoy for yourself.  Honestly, a few lines in, I was wondering if it might end up being a fairly silly (cheesy) post?  But gladly, positively, I was wrong.  It was wonderful.


Ann hung a horn on her wall for the lesson she learned.... and I printed up an old song that came to mind.  These lyrics are posted on the wall near our table now, where I'll be reminded often to sing them loud, sing them bold to proclaim all this goodness to myself and to my kids.


May it ring loud like a glad horn in our daily fight for joy!  

I Give Thanks

(Brian Thiessen, Vineyard Music)

You have shown me favour unending 
You have given Your life for me 
And my heart knows of Your goodness 
Your blood has covered me 
I will arise and give thanks to You Lord my God And Your name I will bless With my whole heart You have shown mercy You have shown mercy to me I will give thanks to You, Lord 
You have poured out Your healing upon us You have set the captives free And we know it is not what we’ve done But by Your hand alone
We will arise and give thanks to You Lord our God And Your name we will bless With our whole heart You have shown mercy You have shown mercy to us We will give thanks to You, Lord