Baby Picture

El Rancho

This weekend we went camping!!! One of our friends discovered a place outside of town, up in the mountains called El Rancho where you can camp, ride horses, have a bonfire, and even eat "ranch food"! One of our dear friends is leaving this week, and it was her birthday this weekend (and she's an American Indian which made it so much more fun!!) so we went to celebrate her and just to have a good time. The whole place was decorated with cowboys and indians, and they even had a real life indian there teaching people about indian culture. It was really fun, and quite surreal at the same time--it was hard to believe that we were here in the Middle East, camping, listening to country music and roasting marshmallows over a bonfire!!

my favorite cowboy

matt doing some "practicing"

I wonder what happened to his hand. . .

me and a my new friend

our campsite

20 Weeks

This week I'm 20 weeks pregnant!! That means I'm halfway there, and Maya is the size of a banana! Yipee! Last night I had my first really phsically uncomfortable-I can't sleep because something big is happening inside my body moment. I don't know what it was, but I was having a pain in my lower left abdomen that just wouldn't let up. I consulted my pregnancy Bible ("What to Expect When You're Expecting") and found that it was probably stretching ligaments or something. Or maybe it was that banana-child poking me in the side! Who knows. I'm guessing though, that this is probably just the beginning of many many sleepless nights this girl will cause! Speaking of sleepless nights, I have actually been struggling with sleeping, so please pray for us (when I toss and turn Matt tends to not sleep well either). I don't know if it's the Narcolepsy or having too much on my mind, but either way, I seem to sleep okay in the late night hours, and then toss and turn all through the early morning hours.

Bathing Beauties

If you think this picture could not have been taken in the Middle East, you would be wrong. Welcome to my world. It is a world of contradictions. Bikini clad women who have been the recipient of plastic surgery abound. And so do women covered from head to toe in black fabric, even covering their faces. I have decided the best comparison that I can make is that my city is either like the LA or the LasVegas of the Middle East. This picture was taken at a beach club where you pay about $7 for entry, and you then have access to the pools and the ocean for the day. There are some beach clubs that are for women only, so that covered women can go there and unveil, knowing they are safe from the chance of any men seeing them in their bathing suits.

My Sweetheart!!

Urine Collection

Being pregnant cross culturally has had some interesting moments. Like when our building guard told me that I look worse now than I did before, pointing to the break-out's on my face. Or the time when said guard proposed that his unborn son marry our unborn daughter. Or then there was the time when my Arabic teacher's dad (a man a little younger than my dad) came across the room to me and kissed my belly and talked to the baby (this is a Muslim man who lives in a very conservative part of the city). There have been some wonderful strange things that happen as part of being pregnant here too, though. We get to have a sonogram every month. Just because. Seeing our baby as she grows every month is so sweet!

Recently though, the strangest cross cultural pregnancy thing is that I have to do urine collection. And by urine collection, I don't mean that I have to pee once in a little cup. I mean that for an entire 24 hour period I have to collect ALL of my urine!! Do you have to do that in American? I don't think so! Or I've just never heard any pregnant women talk about it, but I really think I would have heard of such a thing before now! My Doc even said that if I am going out, I need to go before I leave the house!!!

While we were in the Dr's office, I completely forgot to ask the question, "WHY?" and like a good Arab, believed that the expert was in charge and it didn't matter why. So I proceed to the hospital lab to give them the lab orders, and to get a bottle about the size of a large bleach bottle to take home, to fill with my urine!!! Do these people know how often pregnant women have to pee? Who are they kidding! And what I really want to know is how much does my urine change over a 60 minute period? Why do both pee's need to be collected, if they are only 60 minutes apart?

Ladies who have had babies, I need your feedback, is this normal??

It's A . . .

Drum roll please . . . We are having a GIRL!!! She was upside down, showing her stuff for the sonogram. Goodbye shyness, hello wild child!! When I called to tell my older brother we were having a girl, he had this advice as a father of two: "You may have a girly girl (like his first daughter Olivia) or you may have a wild animal in a little girl's body (like his second daughter Annalee). I don't care which one we have, we're just pumped that she looks healthy and things are going great with the pregnancy! I've also started feeling her move! What a crazy feeling that is!! We've decided to name her Maya Grace. Maya is the Arabic word for water, and when we picked that name we were thinking about john 7 where our Master tells: if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me. . . streams of living water will flow from [her]. Her middle name is Grace, after my grandma on my mom's side, who I never met, but who passed on a heritage of faith that outlived her years. We are thrilled! Thanks for rejoicing with us!! I was thinking yesterday about water and how it's very hard to hold water. I thought specifically about sand, and how when you pour water into sand, it just sort of runs away from you. Then I thought about this from a parenting perspective and how we are just dust (sand), held together by his power, and we can channel water, and point it in the right direction, but we can't control it. What a lofty and important job parenting is. Don't hold on, don't try to control. Direct and channel! Whew! We sure have our work cut out for us! I also liked the thought that when you try to hold water in your hands, it doesn't stay for long before it leaks out, but there is an after effect-your hands are wet. It is our prayer for our daughter that she would embody the springs of living water and leave things "wet" wherever she goes. We are so blessed that He chose to give us this precious gift!