Celebrating Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas celebration today! My best gift for Christmas is definitely Maya--I am soooo very thankful for her! I started the morning out by destroying the Carmel Pull Apart's that I had tried to make (i had to make the rolls from scratch because we don't have frozen rolls here, so this was a significant investment of time). They didn't really rise well, and then I burned the dickens out of them . I didn't really follow the directions word for word on the pull apart's or on the recipe for the rolls, so that may have contributed to their failure, but either way, they were INEDIBLE! Thankfully, our friend Laura shared her tea ring with us, that was hand carried here by her brother who is visiting for Christmas. They stayed the night with us last night (Christmas Eve) and we opened some gifts this morning and ate my Dad's favorite breakfast casserole, along with the tea ring and some irish cream flavored iced coffee! So delicious. Mrs. Doubtfire was on TV and we all enjoyed watching that and laughing at all of the adult humor in it that we had missed before when we were younger.

Then Laura's neighbor and our friend and her son all arrived and we worked on cooking dinner. We made BBQ chicken, Mac and Cheese, Green Beans, Rolls, Salad and a Birthday Cake for Jesus. The girls loved all of the food and we had a great time fixing everything together then eating! After dinner we read the story of Jesus birth together and cut the cake, followed by the opening of gifts. Our friend's son was so sweet and so appreciative and amazed by the toys and gifts we got for him. All day he loved kissing and holding and admiring Maya (who was a great sport and allowed us to pass her around from person to person all day). It is common practice among some groups here to promise your children in marriage to the children of your relatives from the time they are very young. Because our friend's son has grown up in this culture, he's used to this practice and has already told us that he plans on marrying Maya when she grows up! After the gifts and cake our friend and her son had to head for home, but we got to sing a bunch of Christmas carols with Laura's neighbor (she just left about 30 minutes ago).

Now we've washed all the dishes and picked up most of the messes and the guests have all gone home and we're chilling with Laura and her brother, watching A Christmas Story and eating left-over sweets.

We are so thankful that Jesus put on flesh and became a helpless human baby in order to make a way for us. We have so much to celebrate and be thankful for!

Christmas Eve

I think she's seeing visions of Sugar Plum Fairies . . .

Doesn't she look like her daddy?!

Bath Time

Hiccups

Maya and Daddy

This is my test run to see if I know how to post videos. This is not the best quality, and for most of you, not of much interest, but for family, hopefully it's good to see your newest relative in live-action . . .

What We Have Learned

Today is Maya's 2 week birthday and her Nana and Grandpa leave in the middle of the night tonight. We wanted to recount the things that we have all learned about her in the two weeks they've been here. . .

1. She has 4 major "expressions":
Creepy stare
Concerned
Chill
Content

2. She doesn't like to be naked

3. She doesn't like it when you hold both of her hands

4. If she's frustrated, she shakes her head back and forth furiously
(like a dog shaking)

5. She has already stopped doing the cry that she cried at first, which
we called the Velociraptor cry. Now her cry just sounds like a normal
boring baby.

6. We think she has 2 dimples. One we're certain she will have
when she smiles, the other we think we've seen when she's passing gas, but we're not sure.

7. She likes to poop right after you change her diaper.

8. She will poop or pee on you as soon as you leave her exposed without
a diaper or wipe within reach.

9. She's an extremely content baby--when she's not wet, poopy or
hungry she is happy as a lark.

10. She's a great little road-trip baby. She's already been on a
long road trip that included lots of changes in elevation, and she only cried once and it lasted all of about 15 seconds.

11. She likes the ocean and the mountains (she's already been to
both).

12. She can recite the declaration of independence (just curious to see if someone actually read all of these).

13. She holds her head up a lot already and likes to look around.

That's about all. We will all cry a lot when Nana and Grandpa leave
tonight. . .

Maya Has Been Busy

This is our beautiful baby girl. She is the most easy going baby you can imagine. We are the most grateful, thankful parents you can imagine. We have been so busy with Nana and Grandpa, showing them the town. Maya has done more in her almost two weeks of life than lots of people do in a lot longer. We've seen the famous Cedars, and some of the most amazing ruins in the world (the largest cut stones and the largest and tallest column pillars). We've eaten a late lunch on a clif overlooking the setting sun on the Mediterranean. We have spent time with our precious friends Dave and Sara. Tomorrow we are celebrating Christmas with Nana and Grandpa. We have watched White Christmas. We have been having a great time.

SHE IS HERE!

Well folks, she is here! Maya arrived safe and healthy via C-section Friday night around 8:15 p.m. weighing in just over 9 pounds, about 20 inches. We got back home today and we're all doing good! pics to come and the whole story too! The abridged version is that God is so faithful and though nothing went as I had hoped or planned, He is good and we are all doing good!

One Last Pregnant Pic

Well, just a few more hours before Maya is on the outside. This is the last pregnant picture. Unfortunately, I think the look on my face says it all . . . tired, uncomfortable, nervous about the induction and delivery tomorrow, etc. We'll head to the hospital around 8 tomorrow morning and the next time you hear from us, Lord willing, we'll be posting baby pics! Please pray for us as we experience this very big first, cross culturally, and in some cases, in our second language. We want to be a light to the staff that we deal with tomorrow. I really want to abide in His peace, but honestly, tonight I'm really struggling with worry. Worrying about being induced, all the things that could go wrong, all the things that they do "differently" here that I really don't want them to do (both to me and to Maya), and even things like worrying about whether I will love her and how unprepared I feel to become a mother. Please pray that I will cast my cares on the One who cares for me, and not let the enemy steal the joy of this amazing experience. THANK YOU!

Here Comes Baby

Well, at my Dr's appointment on Wednesday, my blood pressure was high again, i'd gained 3 kilos in a week (that's 6.6 lbs.-- she thinks it is fluid retention, I'm not sure she realizes it could be Thanksgiving), and she was very concerned because Maya's approximate size now is 4.5 kilos (9.9 lbs.) and my due date isn't until Monday. She also told me she was planning to be out of the country from Monday through Wednesday, which completely stressed me out because sorry, but I do NOT want a strange Arab man delivering me!!!! (and I really like my Dr., she is so sweet and really listens to us when we have questions and concerns, and is willing to humor my longing to deliver as naturally as possible, and not have some of the procedures done that are pretty standard here). So she was ready to admit me Wednesday to induce if I had any protein in my urine (i'm 2 cm dilated and she stripped my membranes while she was examining me). Thankfully I didn't and she was at least willing to talk options. I told her my parents are arriving on Friday night, so she was willing to settle for inducing Friday morning. I was disappointed by the whole thing (I really wanted to go all natural and not use any drugs or induction) but I guess the risks to Maya and to me if we keep waiting are too many. My blood pressure is too high and has been consistently high, and she is soooo big. Maybe i'll go into labor in the middle of the night tonight and won't have to have pitocin in the morning?! Please pray for us. Cross cultural delivery should be very interesting. . . I'm sure we will have stories to tell soon. Please pray for my parents as they take the very long trip.

By the way, there's no internet at the hospital, but we'll get news and pics posted as soon as we can. . .

You Put Your Right Foot In . . .

Hokey Pokey Homework

A fun and funny thing happened the other night. Our "building guard" lives on the roof of our building in a very small apartment with his family (they are not locals, they are from the country we lived in before). His job is multi-faceted--he does everything from cleaning the stairwell weekly, to running errands for residents in the building, to collecting the money for the generator from all the tenants, to taking everyone's trash down the street to the dumpster and so much more. He is very helpful and kind (any time he sees any woman carrying anything, he stops whatever he is doing and insists on at least getting you loaded into the elevator, and he always helps unload groceries from our car up the stairs to the elevator, and then helps unload from the elevator into our apartment). He and his wife and family are not seen as being of the same class as the people who live in our building and many times I have seen the wife especially be snubbed by the women who live in the building, but we really love this family (probably because they are so much more friendly than most of the people who live here) and we have visited in their home and they have visited in ours. All that to say, recently we had a fun opportunity to be helpful to them in a way we've never helped them before. The dad and his oldest daughter (we'll call her princess because that's what her name means) and his little boy rang the doorbell, and we discovered that they had come asking for help with Princess's English homework. (kids here usually study in either a French language school or an English language school, or at the very least, study English as a subject from the time they are very little, and school is very hard and very demanding and sometimes parents do the homework for the children) When we looked at the pages they were having trouble with, we were very surprised to find that the lesson was the words to the Hokey Pokey! So, matt started out reading through the lyrics (many, many times) while guard man and Princess learned to pronounce any new words (and I tried to keep the little boy from destroying my house or injuring me--he's a bit of a tornado). After about 15 minutes of going over the new words over and over, and having Princess read the words over and over, it was time to teach them the dance. One of our American friends was over at the time, and she happily joined in the fun with us as we all did the hokey pokey (except guard man, who followed along reading the words from the book). We discovered that between the 3 Americans, we all had learned different hand motions to the line, "That's what it's all about". I ended with a snap, Laura ended with a double high five to the person standing next to you, and matt ended with something else that I can't remember at the moment (oh, it just came to me--it involved a clap under the leg somehow). Wish you could have been there. Wish I would have thought at the moment to take a video clip instead of just pictures. It was fun to be needed in a place where we are usually the ones who have the need, and to be needed for something as fun as the Hokey Pokey!

Looking for Advice

Hey guys. I need your help. I'm thinking about doing something for Christmas that involves either a family photo card type thing, and/ or doing some personalized gifts (i.e. calendar or something of the sort) that features our family (more like features our impending child, but we may make the cut on a few months of the year . . .). Do any of you have suggestions about who you have used for this kind of thing? There's just a lot of choices out there, and I was hoping to not be shooting in the dark deciding who to use. Thanks for your expertise!

14 days and counting . . .

Uh, i'm kind of surprised that i can still stand and walk upright. How does gravity not just take me down at this point? Although I'm still pretty nervous about delivery, I'm also feeling more and more ready to get the show on the road and get Maya out of my body and into the world. I keep telling her she can go ahead and come any time. So far, she's content to chill it inside. She just doesn't realize she will have so much more space to play out here! She is head down but at my last appointment I wasn't dialated at all yet. Still out walking several times a week, and the object of many many stares. For about the last week i've felt a lot more discomfort (not to mention having to pee constantly) and sleep has been more difficult, but I would take this over the early months of puking ANY day! My parents are getting all geared up to come and I am getting soooo excited to see them. They arrive here late on the 4th and Maya is due the 7th, so it will be interesting to see how the timing of it all happens. . . we'll keep you posted! :)

Not a Pound

After my most recent OB appointment (the one where I had gained 4 kilos and got scolded and laughed at for where I was tipping the scales) I was determined to do as the Doctor ordered and walk for at least 30 minutes every day and try to bring this mad weight gaining spree to an end. Well of course, every day was a little unrealistic (and on some days, 30 minutes was unrealistic), but I did manage to get a lot more exercise over the last two weeks than I have gotten in a long time, and today it paid off! At my Dr's appointment I was happy to see that I hadn't gained any weight. Based on the amount of food I have been eating, I am certain that Maya gained the weight she needed to over the last two weeks, (I'm acting like a hungry teenage boy!), it just happened that maybe I got rid of some weight that I didn't need! Anyway, i just thought I would share my victory with you. All looks well with Maya and the Dr. said she still has plenty of fluid that she's swimming around in. She is weighing in around 3.4 kilos now (that's 7.48 pounds) and the Dr. expects that she will go to term and weigh 8 pounds! I'm getting more and more uncomfortable and I keep whispering to her that it's okay if she wants to come early. . . . we've just about got everything ready for her. We still need to figure out how to put the base for our car seat into our car, but they don't exactly check your car seat out at the hospital here, like they do in the states. . . .

35 weeks and counting

"Holy Cow" and "God Wills It"

I need to post a new picture so you can marvel at how ginormous I have become, but just to give you a hint I'll share this little moment from my OB appt. on Thursday. There's one little nurse who is always moving at light speed, going from one exam room to the next, taking blood pressure and ushering women in and out. She's very enthusiastic, and I think she especially likes us because we are the token foreigners who can (sort of) speak the language. Thursday she had me step up on the scale and as she kept moving those little slider things further and further over, she finally blurted out, "Ma'sha Allah!" which is kind of a combination of saying "God wills it!" and "Holy Cow!". Then she said my weight out real loud, and then burst into giggles. We use kilos here and I had reached the 100 kilo mark (I'm too embarrassed to tell you how many pounds that is!). Apparently she doesn't weigh a lot of women of my size (women here are TINY!). The story goes down hill from here (i had gained 4 kilos since my last appointment, my Dr. kept saying, "I expect you to PUSH! This is gonna be a BIG baby!" and then my blood pressure was high (again) so i had to do (another) urine and blood test and go buy a blood pressure cuff so i can take my blood pressure at home twice a day). The Dr. also scolded me for not exercising ("You must walk AT LEAST 30 minutes EVERY DAY!) . . . but she did say that Maya looks fine, she still has the right amount of fluid around her, etc., etc. And, after taking my blood pressure 3 times during the visit, it was back down to normal before we left the office, so I'm still convinced it goes up just being in the hospital, surrounded by a waiting room full of irritated pregnant women who have had to wait way too long, and then hearing the nurse say "Holy Cow!" when she weighs me. . .

Baby Shower in Kansas

Do you know those ladies in your life (for me they are ladies from the church I grew up in) who have known you through every awkward developmental stage, every rebellious stage, every bad haircut and just about everything else? I think there is something really special about having ladies like this in your life. And my special ladies had a baby shower for me and maya on sunday via skype! There are several things that set this apart from the last (wonderful) skype shower we had. The biggest thing was just the blessing of getting to see ladies who have known me and whom i have known for many many years. ladies who took us to camp each summer (God bless you Debi!) Ladies who celebrated my high school graduation and my college graduation. Ladies who cried with me when I said goodbye and headed for East Asia. Ladies who squealed with delight when they heard about Matt and I getting together. Ladies who were there to see us get married (and blessed us in so many ways at that time of our lives). Ladies who cried again when we left for the Middle East. Even though I haven't seen these ladies in more than two years now, I know that these are ladies who have not forgotten about us. As each lady came over to the computer to say a greeting or share a special gift for Maya or share a word of encouragement, I was so blessed to be reminded (again) that I am a part of a BIG family.

Where we live, big families are the norm, and it's common for people to get together with their families every weekend. There are times when this has left me feeling very lonely, and very much like an outsider. But the Lord puts the lonely in families! Not only has he placed Matt and I in a group of people here in our city who really love one another like family, He was gracious and kind enough to remind me on Sunday of these wonderful ladies who though we are on the other side of the earth, remember us and pray for us and love us. They are the Body of Christ, and the way they loved and served us and just celebrated the excitement of our coming baby was such a blessing. Preparing to have our first baby in a strange culture, so far away has brought me to tears more than once in the last 8 months, but the Lord has been so faithful to remind me again and again that I am not alone, and not only has He given us His Spirit, He has also placed in our lives many many people who love and support us in so many unique ways.

Check out pictures of all the fun we had on my mom's blog:
http://thecedarsofpittsburg.blogspot.com/2009/10/skype-shower-for-kellie-and-maya.html

Thank you Debi, especially, for loving me like I'm yours and for planning the whole shower. I can't wait to see that sleeper with the tutu up close and all the precious socks you girls crafted for Maya. She is going to be one stylish girl. Seriously.

Vacation in Egypt

Our vacation in pictures

it doesn't get much better than bottomless chips and salsa

at "On the Border" in Cairo

Matt's eyes got really big when he saw his food come

and he got his usual chicken enchiladas

then we flew onto Sharm el Sheikh on the tip of the sinai penninsula where matt dove 9 times during the week and Maya and i snorkeled several times

we met up with good friends who love diving even more than mj

and we enjoyed the AMAZING artistry of God's creation under water

this was the view from our room up on the rocks

this is what the resort looked like

unfortunately our room was way up at the top--more than 120 stairs

more wonders under the sea

check out the red coral stuff! so cool!

these were some big daddy fish

this guy was ENORMOUS--doesn't he look grumpy?!

our group out on the diving boat.

THE END!

A Place to Lay Her Head

the best handyman ever

getting the lowdown

the finished product!

Baby Belly On Vacation

For those of you who have requested it, here's the latest baby belly photo I have. This picture was taken on the dive boat that we took out on the Red Sea for Matt and some of his buddies to go diving and for me and Maya to do some snorkeling. Matt and I both just had birthdays, so this was a vacation and a birthday celebration, as well as what some have told us is now called a babymoon. Apparently that's when you take a last trip before having a baby. With ocean creatures on my mind, I have affectionately nicknamed Maya the baby octopus, for her amazing ability to bump me in numerous places in my belly, all at the same moment. She is getting big and I can really feel her taking up more space now, and kicking some strong kicks! She also has some funny patterns I have been able to notice (like when i lay on my side, she gets way up in my side and does something that feels like she's trying to tickle me from the inside). I think she really liked the snorkeling. One day when we were out on the boat the water had a LOT of big waves and the boat was rocking pretty hard while we waited for the guys to finish their dive. She slept through it but at one point I thought we might have to chuck our cookies in the beautiful blue waters while Daddy was diving deep below! I will write more about vacation as well as post lots of pics--one of the guys in our group had an underwater camera so he was able to capture much of the beauty of God's creation under water! So . . . to be continued.

Rocking Chair

My husband is so wonderful that he spent time on HIS birthday getting me a special early birthday present. Since our birthdays are only a few days apart, and my birthday will come while we are on vacation, he decided he needed to get me something special before we leave. So he used his free time on his special day to get me something special for my special day. He got me this great rocking chair for Maya's room! It is really comfy and I can't wait to start putting it to good use!

Nesting

I had read and heard from other women that "nesting" is a common behavior of pregnant women, but I was feeling a little nervous that I have not been doing anything that resembled nesting. I knew that I needed to start getting ready for Maya, but I had zero motivation to do any of the big projects I want to finish before she comes (like finishing the curtains in the office/new guest room). But, as soon as we had our baby shower and I knew we had all kinds of adorable baby clothes coming our way, I was inspired. First, I spent the better part of a day cleaning out the armoire in Maya's soon to be room as well as the dresser that will become her changing table (and finding a new home for all of that stuff!). So then the armoire was ready for all her cute little bitty clothes but I was unsure about how I would find baby hangers to hang everything on. If I lived in America, I would hop in the car and head to WalMart. Sometimes around here the most simple WalMart kind of item can be rather elusive and I was expecting to find that to be the case with the baby hangers. My plan was to go the "The 500 Store". This is kind of like the dollar store, but the day that I went there, they were mysteriously closed. On a whim I thought that a grocery store near the 500 Store might have hangers, so Matt and I went in , (me trying not to be too hopeful, so as not to be disappointed if there werent' any), but to my delight, we found these:

They only had a few bundles of five, so we bought all the baby hangers they had and for some strange reason, I was SO excited about these hangers! When we got home I hung them all up in the armoire and felt much more prepared for motherhood somehow. Then a group of visitors arrived bearing multiple suitcases full of adorable things for Maya from the shower that we just had. Bedding, clothes, hair bows, blankets, shoes and more! This girl could open her own boutique already!

And then Matt investigated what the uses were for several of the items we received:

What is a bottle brush for?

Why does she need a personal grooming kit?
Oh, now I see!

After doing mountains of pink laundry for the past few days (it was fun to wash such cute little things!) I decided today that I would clean all of the windows in our house, both inside and out. I don't know what came over me. They haven't been cleaned in a LONG time. Living on the 8th floor, this is no small (or always safe) task. It didn't exactly get done, and let me just show you why:

the door/windows in our bedroom

Windows in Maya's room . . .

And in the office/guest room

and the balcony door in the office/guest room

doors from the kitchen to the pantry/laundry room/storage room . . .

windows in the actual pantry/laundry room

sliding doors to the balcony from the dining room
sliding doors to the balcony from the living room . . .

and finally the living room windows.

So basically, I managed to wash the windows in the office/guest room, Maya's room, and the outside of our room. And then I was so tired I laid down on the living room floor and went to sleep. No wonder I have never tried this all at once before. This is a case of nesting gone wrong. Incidentally I have taken at least 2 more naps since then (as in 2 more naps all in the same day). I didn't even get 50% done! I should have gone to find more hangers instead!