I already got my birthday wish!

Today I'm 27 and pregnant (11 weeks 5 days to be exact)! What a great present from the Lord!!!! I'm beginning to sense that my years of quiet birthday mornings are going to be a fleeting memory. I will have to document so I can compare: Today I leisurly ate breakfast while watching the news, planned out the day with confidence that I will stick to the plans, and caught a few more Z's.

I can't help but imagine how different our lives will be by this time next year. I wait in anticipation for new sounds to invade the stillness! My mornings will be filled with feedings, changings, soothing, singing, kisses and hugs, baby talk, rocking, and scratching my head in confusion to what the baby needs and wants and wondering how everyone else deciphers crys and shreiks. I'm sure I will hear Jordan make the second or third batch of coffee, trip on a toy that conjures up a tune, and watch as the baby notices his every move as he walks around. I will probably be asking for a nap for my birthday instead of gift certificates and I won't be able to remember the last time I slept more than four consecutive hours...so I've been told.

Keeping all this in mind, my birthday wish for next year will be to have grace in times of change and to keep my expectations of parenthood great because I've heard they will be greater!!

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." -Matthew 11:28

Hospital visits

Jordan and I visited two more hospitals last night. Since we were in Korba, we decided to check out El Hayat, a christian hospital with good references from friends of ours who have delivered there and Cleopatra, a hospital I've been hearing about since day 1 from Americans living in Cairo. El Hayat is small, but very busy and crowded. They list their services in the front entrance and we were glad to see that they had a NICU, u/s, and Obgyn. The front staff seemed to be overwhelmed and they weren't able to help us. They told us to go to the 2nd floor and ask the receptionists there. We did and after some language barriers, we were told that they only have basic rooms, no suites. We saw one and it was definitely basic...it had 4 walls. Delivery happens in the OR. They didn't know if family members like my husband would be able to go into the OR with me. We did see the NICU which had two babies in beds and one in an incubator. The baby was a preterm and seemed to be doing fine. It was scary that they let us walk in to that area. Jordan and I tried to keep it quick so as not to spread germs.

The second hospital, Cleopatra, seemed much more "Americanized". Receptionists were helpful, it didn't feel overcrowded, and we have heard only good things about this hospital. We toured two suites which were big and much more patient friendly with a fridge, closet, and an electronic bed that looked very new. I felt comfortable because it was more like a hospital then a hotel. We got to see into the nursery and they had lots of beds, but no incubators. There is another room on the floor above just for preterm babies. There were flat screens everywhere listing the doctors and their hours for every service the hospital offered which was very helpful. We also walked away with a brochure of the doctors names and hours in Arabic which is fine. Luckily, we have friends from Broken Arrow, OK that live a couple buildings down from Cleopatra. It's nice not to feel so far away from people we know.

We plan to tour the famous El-Nada birthing center on an island on the Nile. Lots of foreigners have delivered there and we are anxious to compare it to Cleopatra which is currently at the top of our list. Unfortunately, it is so far away!! It could take us a couple hours to get there if the traffic is bad. To be continued I guess!

"4" Stones in Cairo

The Stones are back in Cairo! Jordan's dad is with us to help us move to our new place. It is his first international trip and we are thrilled to have him!! I still can't believe he is here. Cairo can be crazy, frustrating, and ridiculous, but with family here it becomes a little more manageable when your apartment doesn't have water during the day, your stove and dishwasher are broken, you can't eat out until the sun goes down(Ramadan), and every errand has about 2 hours of traffic built into it!

Luckily, we are using some of this craziness to our benefit. We are all still jet-lagged and we are staying up all hours of the night when the city is awake and the water is back on! At midnight we toured one of the hospitals called the American Hospital. Trust me when I say it looks nothing like America. It was cleaner than I expected and the Royal Suite was pretty spacious with enough room for Jordan and his parents and any other visitors to spend the night. I was already aware that I would need to provide everything like bed sheets, pillows, blankets, buckets, everything...so the emptiness of the room wasn't such a shock. We saw the Nursery NICU and saw babies who seemed to be surviving their Egyptian birth. They had incubators for babies in need, but they weren't being used. It was nice to see they had them just in case. The lady giving us the tour didn't speak English, but some how we managed to find out that they will do blood transfusions and they do both c-section and natural births. That was great to hear since 80% of doctors only do c-sections. We plan to tour El Nada hospital and Cleopatra hospital, but the American hospital is the closest to us.

Our house might be ready to move into by the end of this week or early next week!! I will take some pics and post them as soon as I can stand to be around the paint and bug spray fumes. There are so many bugs and they are HUGE! I will be at war with them for the first couple of months, but I will win!

Baby is doing great! I keep on getting sick and nauseous so that is a good sign! I still can't stomach raw vegetables very well which is crazy because I normally love them!! Our doctor in the states was really concerned with my diet and needs me to buckle down and get those veggies and protein in. I've just started showing a bit, so at least the baby is growing!! More milk and dark green veggies and the baby will be the world's healthiest unborn!

Nick on the camel

Nick's Egyptian Adventure!