sisterly love

Emma and samantha love waking up in the morning and wondering what abby is up to.  We don't always get out of jammies as quickly as we used to, and sometimes we forget to brush hair, but the girls have sure had a fun time laying around being big sisters!

samantha loved that abby had pockets in her dress...and kept asking, "What will she put in her pockets??"  It's true...babies don't have many possessions!

Emma has been a great helper and loves holding abby...

Abby, up close

This afternoon, Abby should have been eating, but I couldn't get that girl to wake up!  After trying every trick in the book, I finally gave up and decided to take pictures before the little bit of babyness she has is gone.  

Special thanks to Kim M (um, I mean...Kim L!) for the truly great and fab Modest Mommy Cover, which also doubled as my backdrop today.  =)

Ten beautiful toes: (See story below, if you have time!)

Cute baby arm hair:

* Early on in this pregnancy, several ultrasounds showed the appearance of a band in my uterus.  When the doctor at the international hospital mentioned it could possibly be an amniotic band, let me dispense a peice of advice:  if you are pregnant and those words are spoken to you, DO NOT get online and look up information on it.  It's scary and not terribly comforting.  

The general problem with this band is that if it spans your uterus, it can restrict the baby's growth.  The most common result is limbs that have stopped growing, because they were cut off from further growth.  Of course, there are more serious cases, but missing and/or deformed digits was the most common problem.  

At that point, things weren't very conclusive and we just had to keep monitoring it.  We did frequent ultrasounds to track the band and monitor its effect on the baby.  As time went on, it seemed to be less and less of a problem, though it was always still evident in the ultrasounds.  

Meanwhile...in the last year, I think the area of my life where I've had the most spiritual growth and progress has been in battling worry.  It seems like every time things come up that typically cause worry, the Lord has really helped me be faithful in praying about it and letting go of my fears and what-ifs.  I'm thankful that He spent many months preparing me in this area before any problem was detected with this pregnancy, because I felt confident in trusting Him with the situation.  Sure, I was concerned.  I sought the best medical advice and did everything we could do to be safe and prudent.  But I wasn't worried.

On the train ride to go back for our first follow-up appointment after the discovery of the band, I was praying about what we would find on the grainy screen and what implications it might have for our family and lifestyle.  I felt a wave of peace settle in my soul and heard a quiet voice say:  I love Abby and I delight in her!

Abby!  We still hadn't decided on a name, but this was one we had looked at.  We were going back and forth between several, but I loved the meaning of Abby:  Joy of the Father.  My prayer time during the train ride confirmed that Abby was the name of choice for our little one, no matter how many fingers and toes she would have.  The Lord took joy in her, and no matter what, we would too.

So, like I said before, as time went on the band seemed to be less and less of a problem.  We - and so many of you - rejoiced with us at the great reports.  And even though I was trusting, I wouldn't be totally at rest until she was born.  Healthy. Whole.  In my arms.  

And it happened - a healthy (sturdy, even!) sweet girl, made in the exact image she was made to be in.  Exactly how He planned for her to be.  As I took these pictures today, focusing on her feet, her eyes, her tiny baby hair, I breathed another prayer of thanksgiving for abby's physical wholeness and offered another one for her spiritual wholeness to come.  

what to do when...

What do you do when, after just having a baby, your husband wakes up and says:

I'm taking the girls to the park.  Rest. Sleep.  Do whatever you want. Have a great time.  Bye!

1.  Take a shower.  A very long and a very hot shower.  Never get out.

2.  When you do get out, eat breakfast.  By yourself.  

3.  Read emails and news while eating breakfast (courtesy of our recent addition, wireless internet).  Think about writing emails.  

4. Wash dishes.  Seriously.

5.  Remember to kiss hubby when he comes home for these hours of quiet.  

Things are good here - abby is being a great little one for me!  I fed her last night and put her down at 11.  She woke up at 3 to eat, then woke up at 6 and slept all the rest of the time.  Yeah!

Even though she's only 4 days old, she looks about a month old.  Gone is the frail, breakable, newborn look. No, even when she was born she didn't look very fragile.  She's a sturdy little baby. Not chunky, not fat.   Just sturdy.  =)

The funny thing about having a baby overseas is that AFTER your baby is born, you don't just get to lay on your couch and chill.  After the baby starts a tiny mound of paperwork and logistical challenges...

...get the birth certificate translated...

...take your day-old baby to the photo shop to get passport pictures taken...

...go to the US Consulate to start the process of getting her passport...

...waiting and waiting and waiting in line at the consulate to get said passport...

Thankfully I have a very organized and detail-oriented husband who cheerfully and completely takes these responsibilities upon himself.  All I have to is hold the baby and show up at the appointments he tells me to show up at.  It's a great thing.  Have I said enough good things about my husband recently?! They're all true, if you're wondering...

Ok, well I'm afraid my few hours of peace are almost over and I've only started one measly email.  

I have a scant few pictures of emma's birthday party to post soon (um, yes...that would be the birthday party that was held in my hospital room) and I promise more will come of abby too!

finally!!!

You may be wondering if the "finally" means we finally have internet or if we "finally" have a baby...

and the answer is both!  

Yay!!  I feel sad that I'm letting so many of you know so far after the fact - we've had communication issues with both phones and computers, so please know none of you were slighted.  I'm at a friend's house bumming off her internet so this will be short, but here's a few of the highlights:

Abby Lynell Eggroll was NOT born on emma's birthday (the 21st)!  I'd been having regular but not terribly strong contractions most of the day (the 20th) but wasn't sure how everything would turn out.  She was born with just a couple of hours to spare, at 9:54pm on February 20th.  We had planned a pizza and movie party with some other kids that are here, so we headed to the party at 6:00 and wondered how long I'd last...

We left the kids at the party with pizza, cookies and the new movie Bolt and were at the hospital by 7:30...

...and by 9:54 she was here!  (More details will be supplied later, for those avid birth-story fans)

She was...drumroll please...you will not believe this...I couldn't believe it myself...NINE POUNDS and 12 OUNCES!  Whoa!  I was...um...shocked.  I think she was 23 inches, but I'm not exactly sure.  

Josh was my best ever friend and companion, as usual, and I swear that  I could never have a baby if he wasn't next to me the whole time.  I don't have enough money or enough possessions or enough love to say thank you in a big enough way to my fab husband.  

Here's a few pictures - more to come later:

Josh cutting the cord:

The happy, relieved and tired parents:
She looks just like emma and mantha did when they were born...but with a bit of her own look too, I guess:
The next morning, josh went to go get big sisters to come up to the hospital.  They were so excited!
So much to learn about little babies!

Anyway, I've just got a few minutes to post this, so I don't have time to check my mail or get back to lots of you...but we love you!  =)  And I miss being in communication - when did I start living and dying by internet access???!

The birth experience was really good, the hospital was great, everything went as smoothly as it possibly could have gone - praise the lord!  We've got no complaints, and a sweet new baby at home!

Thanks for praying for us!

no baby yet

Hey friends,

josh here. we don't have internet right now and haven't had it for a few days, so i'm using a friend's computer. we just wanted to let you know that Abby has not been born yet even though we're one day past the due date. when you read this, please pray for rachel that everything will go smooth because the doctor doesn't want to go past 41 weeks. thank you friends for your prayers.

josh

have you ever seen a cocoon?

I forgot to mention that, included with our trip to the elephant park was a trip to an orchid and butterfly farm.  (It's all about the group tour here in t-land!)

We were bummed to find out that it's too cold for butterflies right now in this part of thailand (what?  cold?) so there were only a few there, but it was cool to see the butterfly life cycle in action, and even cooler to show it to my girls. 

I personally have never seen a cocoon except in the pages of an Eric Carle book, so this was fun for me too.

So...refresher from elementary science class, yeah?

First you have the little worm (aka, the very hungry caterpillar...)

Then he builds his cocoon...(it looks like a big crunchy fall leaf to me)
(here's a whole flock of butterflies waiting to bust out, I guess):
and then he turns into a beautiful butterfly!  This was one of the few butterflies in the place, so I couldn't get close enough for a good picture, but I had to complete the life cycle.  
So, just in case you were wondering - caterpillar to butterfly, illustrated.  

You're welcome.  

josh's favorite reason...

If you were here in thailand waiting with us for Abby to come, you'd hear it a lot too:

"Man, I just love all the green!"

Josh loves it - and it's true. There's so much green here, and coming from our currently-cold home, it's such a sight for sore eyes!  

These pictures from our trip to the orchid-butterfly farm give you a little taste:

beach bums?

My stories, going back and forth from place to place, are they confusing you?  I'm sorry...

I'm just trying to get all these pictures and stuff posted before baby comes, so I'm bouncing around a bit.  These pictures are from our time in southern t-land, during part of our time with friends.  Our hotel is located on a beach...don't think "hawaii" beach...but there is sand, and there is water.  It's located in such a way from the hotel that I could reasonably prevent my kids from ever seeing the sand, and therefore never asking to go to the beach...

...so that's what I did.  =)

Fortunately for E & S, thanks to wade and helen, they got a trip to the "beach" after all.  One evening before dinner, they invited us to go seashell hunting with them and their older children.  If I could only describe how happy my kids were! (they didn't even know there was a beach! hahaha)

At first, Samantha didn't want to step off the concrete.  The sand felt "weird" on her toes, she said...

...but I guess she got used to it.  
They enjoyed rummaging through the sand looking for treasures:
Emma found a billion shells that all qualified as "treasures".  At helen's nudging, I relented and let emma choose 5 of her favorites to keep.
This year didn't leave us much free time at the beach, so maybe next year we'll go all out and find a great beach place.  But for now, we'll always have those 5 shells....

waiting for baby = riding on elephants

If Southern Thailand means beaches, Northern Thailand means elephants.  Sure, you can find elephants all over thailand, but they're not exactly in a natural environment.  They're being paraded down the busy, touristed streets of Bangkok...or they're plodding through muddy, manmade creeks in beach towns for the benefit of tourists.  It's a little sad, but I guess people pay the money, so whatever.

But in Northern Thailand, they have the best elephant shows, the most (is it really possible?) humane elephant camps, and if you ride elephants, you're doing it through the mountains, through the jungle, through real stuff that wasn't created to be an "elephant show".  

We've done the elephant gig almost every time we're in thailand, but our kids didn't remember much from last year.  So we were excited to take them to a really good place this year.  

We started out with an elephant show, full of tricks that delighted people of all ages at the show - not just the three-year-olds.  

This elephant is actually playing soccer!  It was pretty cool -he could kick that ball really far!
All the tourists go crazy watching the elephants learn to paint.  We were told that japanese, thai and european teachers spend a year and a half teaching them how to paint.  Even though the trainers were the ones putting the brushes in their trunks and changing the colors of paint, it was really impressive watching them.  
Each painting was going for about US$100...times 12 elephants...times 3 shows a day...no wonder they're willing to spend all that time training them!  There were some paintings in the gallery that were priced at over US$1000!  
One of the tricks was this dude getting a "traditional thai massage" from an elephant.  That looked a little like taking your life in your hands to me!
At the end of the show, you could feed elephants as a way of showing your appreciation to them.  We had bought some bananas and sugar cane (for about 50cents) on the way in and were glad we had it left over.  (I'm happy taking pictures and leaving these more manly jobs to hubby.)  Samantha was happy to feed the bananas - though we joked that perhaps in her fave yellow dress, the elephant might have thought she was a huge banana!
He looks happy, don't you think?
Emma handed out the sugar cane...
After the show, emma wanted to find this "baby"elephant (it was her favorite the whole show).  She was delighted to learn that he was three years old - just like her!  - and was distressed that we had no more bananas to get.  
So after meeting baby elephant and seeing all the tricks, it was time for the big event - riding the elephants!  Let me just tell you, in case you have romantic notions about elephant riding - if it were being offered in America, there would be a warning sign longer than the scariest rollercoaster! It is not for the faint of heart, and probably not for the very pregnant either...but, in the absense of safety laws, we went ahead for it.  

Last year, Emma rode with me, so this year samantha and I were on together:
Daddy and Emma rode together:
Mommy and mantha's elephant is in the front of our 4-elephant group.  Samantha thought it was very cool that we were the leaders.  
Then everything switched up and we were at the end.  (Also - there is nothing else holding in those little ones except that bar you see!  There's no hidden seatbelts - and on the downhill slopes, samantha was about to cry because I was holding her so tightly!)
I guess elephant riders make it into lots of pictures!  =)
Ten minutes into the 30-minute ride, Samantha admitted she had had enough and was ready to get off.  It made me glad we opted out of the 1-hour ride!  Soon enough, she was happily off and we were all getting our land-legs back again.  Our tour guide told us we could walk about 10 minutes into the camp and check out the elephant nursery - and see the newest elephant born to the camp.

This elephant is two months old, and unfortunately, could not eat bananas yet.  Emma and Samantha had to be content feeding their bananas to the mama elephant.  They haven't yet discovered that behind every cute baby is a hard-working mama who deserves some bananas every once in a while!
And for sticking a bill (the equivalent of 50 cents) in the trunk of an elephant, the trainers will get them to hang all over you for the craziest picture you ever took in your whole life.  Samantha is actually sitting on the knee of that elephant...
...and yes, that elephant's trunk is rested lovingly on josh's leg.  (I was surprised he agreed to do the picture, but I sure thought it was cute!)
So the day at the elephant park was really fun.  We were all tired and it's expensive enough that we'd only do it once a year, but it was really cool.  

every year, a little bigger

Every year during our time in t-land, there's a carnival type thing for all the children who attend with their parents.  Now that we've been going to this since Emma was 1, it's funny to see every year how they girls get more and more involved in what's going on.  This year was samantha's first year to actually care about anything that was there (though, judging by some of the pictures, you'd never know it!)

I remember the first year I coaxed emma to slide down this slide -she looked so tiny (and at 2 years old, she was!)  But samantha took it like a pro, even opted for a professional twist...the belly slide:

Emma jumped high and far, not afraid of anything:
This is the part where we couldn't tell if samantha would rather have gone inside and called it a night.  She wanted to try all the games, but we couldnt' get a smile out of her to save her life:
They got tons of little prizes - dumdum suckers, twinkies, mardi gras beads, dress up rings - totally the kind of stuff they love.  (I even played the Cake Walk game twice to snag some Twinkies...)
They thought cotton candy was amazing:


Here's samantha again, all smiling and bubbly, happy to be playing with the oversized bowling set (yeah right...)

This year, one of our children even stayed for the entire fireworks show - truly a first!  I try to convince myself that they're still little, but the signs all around me show how much they grow every year.