Still Waiting

Well my mom and Shelly took a hint from Mercy and were late arriving as well. They got on the Aerosur flight in Miami and taxied out to the runway and then had to turn around and go back due to some problems with the plane. They ended up spending the night in Miami. But they made it safe and sound (minus all my mom´s checked baggage) late last night and we all got in bed about 1:30 this morning. We´re just glad they are here. We´re now going to the airport to see if her luggage has made it and to show them a little around the city.

As for Mercy she´s still reluctant to show her face....or any part of her body. My doc called yesterday and changed my appointment to in the morning. So maybe I´ll have some news then if not before.

Stay tuned.

Due Date

Well my due date has come and almost gone and still no sign of Mercy. Thanks for all your encouraging remarks, suggestions and emails but most of all thank you for continuing to pray for her quick birth.

My mom and my friend, Shelly, arrive from the States at 8:00 in the morning. We´re all excited to have them coming. Ben was beside himself with anticipation. He said it was like Christmas Eve so he dubbed today Grandma Eve. How cute is that? They´ll be staying with us for 2 weeks. Surely sometime before they leave they will be able to hold Mercy. I have an appointment with the doctor on Thursday morning if she´s not here by then. I´m a little anxious about what she might say so keep up the prayers.

Keep it Up!

Thanks to all of you who have responded and are praying. I´ll try to keep you updated. I recently read of someone who blogged through her labor....I´m not sure I´ll do that, but I´ll try to keep you as informed as possible. (Jake says that blogging through labor is dedication; Joe says it´s crazy!)

So far no labor and no baby, but keep up the praying.

I´m about to go out for a walk....the first time I´ve felt up to that in a few weeks....and a bumpy car ride. (I´m trying all the old wives tales I can!) Of course here in Bolivia in our truck on the cobblestone roads all rides are bumpy ones. I have a few contractions whenever we go anywhere. Just pray that they´ll keep going and bring on the baby.

A Plea for Prayer

I´m sending out this plea for you all to pray that I would go into labor ASAP...like as soon as you read this blog...pray now that I would go into labor now. I´m ready. I´m feeling a bit desperate at this point. I know it´s not quite my due date. I´m still 3 days away, but my doc thinks little Mercy is not so little. Big surprise there. Those of you who know my babies know that they´re all big ranging from 8 pounds 3 ounces all the way to 9 pounds and 9 ounces. I was hoping that the high altitude here would keep her from getting too big, but I´m not sure that´s gonna happen. Anyway, the other complications that come from having a big baby are exaggerated here in Bolivia. The tendency toward c-sections is great. They are routinely performed for all kinds of reasons that I personally see as unnecessary....including the baby´s size. For this reason and a lot of other reasons I am hoping to go into labor soon (read: now).

I´ve just recently come through some other medical issues and out-patient procedures with this pregnancy that I will spare you the gory details of, but I now feel ready to go into natural labor and just have her born the old fashioned way. So, will you please pray with me that that will happen? Quickly. Immediately. Now.

Thanks to each of you for all your love and support throughout this pregnancy and now thanks for your prayers that it will be over soon with a safe (and my prayer is easy) delivery for both me and Mercy.

Here´s a pic of my big belly. Believe it or not this is the least amount of weight I´ve gained in a pregnancy....less than 20 pounds. Usually I gain between 25-35. According to Joe it´s just all in my belly.

That´s What Friends Are For

For those of you who remember that old song from the 80s that´s what I´m thinking of today "In good times, in bad times I´ll be on your side forevermore.....that´s what friends are for". The reason I´m thinking of this song is because of all the awesome friends I have. After my last whiney blog I´ve had several friends check up on me and one sweetie even brought me and Joe by this special American treat......

A & W Rootbeer and ice cream to make a rootbeer float. For those of you who don´t know root beer isn´t always an easy thing to get in Cochabamba. Thanks, Angie! She settled on root
beer floats after scouring the city for Frapacchinos like she doesn´t have anything else to do....she´s a missionary with tons of ministries not to mention the mother of 4. What a great friend! I´m very blessed. A great big hug and thank you to all of you who´ve cared for me, who´ve prayed for me, who´ve brought me meals (thanks, Glenda....they were delicious), who´ve given me baby showers, who´ve sent me encouraging comments and emails and who´ve just been my friends. I truly appreciate each of you. You all enrich my life. Thank you for being my friend! I am blessed.

It´s Been the Worst of Times; It´s Been the Best of Times

That´s what these last few weeks have seemed like. We´ve had lots of good things happen....like all the conferences we´ve been able to participate in, the move to our new house, closing in on the birth of Mercy, our 24th wedding anniversary, etc. But along with the good times have come plenty of hard times as well. In many ways I told Joe this has been the best and the worst month we´ve had since we moved to Bolivia over a year ago now. We have lots of ´yucky´ stuff going on with our house in Virginia. In addition, we need to pretty quickly answer the question of what we should do with the house there....do we sell at the bottom (?) of the market or do we try to hang on to it, rent it and ride it out for a while longer? We´ve also had lots of friends and supporters who´ve had to cut their financial support due to the economy in the States. We´ve had lots of sickness here including a virus that ran through our entire household beginning the week we were moving. I´ve had additional yuckies that go along with the end of pregnancy in an old woman. I´ve spent much of the last two weeks in bed. There are some health issues going on with family back in the States as well. Here we´ve had lots of political uncertainty (nothing new, but still disconcerting at times). I´ve had to temporarily drop out of language school and am feeling even more frustrated about my rate of learning Spanish. All of these things add up to a couple of weeks of real discouragement I suppose. I´m sure fluctuating hormones don´t help any of this. Mind you, I´m not whining just trying to be up front and share from my heart.

I guess the point of all this dumping is to ask you to keep us upheld in prayer. We are truly grateful for the love, encouragement, and support shown to us from our family and friends. You don´t know how it keeps us going during these hard times to know that you are ´on our team´ and lifting us up to the One who can in turn lift us up.

In spite of my grumblings, I truly am grateful to have been called to Cochabamba to serve our Lord in His harvest here. Thank you for allowing me to cyber-dump on you so that I can get it out and realize how truly blessed I am.

The Best Thing I Brought Home With Me Was......

a Bible...an English Bible. I've needed a new one for a while and should have bought one before I came to Bolivia a year ago, but in all the trying to get last minute details finished up that is just one of the things that fell through the cracks.

Of course I could easily find a Spanish Bible here and probably even a Quechua one, but I wanted one in my own heart language…in my native tongue. How many people in the world have that same sentiment? How many people would love to read God’s Word in their own language? It’s something that we English speakers so often take for granted….readily available Bibles in a variety of colors, textures, and translations in the language we most easily understand. There are still people groups in the world that don’t have the Bible or not the entire Bible in their language. According to Wycliffe Bible Translators approximately 200 million people don’t yet have the Bible in their language.

I’m thrilled with my new Bible. It’s funny isn’t it how a new Bible inspires us to read it more even though the words on the inside are the same? Well, it does me anyway. I just want to explore it all. My new dual colored leather cover beckons me from my bedside table and I can’t wait to finish reading it all the way through. It never gets old. After all as It says of Itself, the Word of God is alive and active cutting deep into our innermost being. It judges our hearts. It is also our only completely reliable source of the Good News that Jesus came to earth as a human, willingly took the penalty of our sin, and showed us how much the Father loves us. It will be an exciting day when the entire world has an opportunity to hear and read that in their own language as I can. I pray that I never take that privilege for granted.