(Photos: Grace and mommy smiling in the mirror; Grace about to feed a bunny at the “Bunny Park”—one of South Africa’s special attractions.)
“I waited patiently for
the LORD, He inclined to me and heard my cry.” Psalm 40:1
As a team on the islands we are memorizing Psalm 40
(we’re doing our best to keep up from here in South Africa).
As of today, we are 39 weeks and 5 days into our pregnancy. Most of the people that meet us (and peek down at my belly) say, “So, you’re waiting to have a baby.” People who have been around us make lots of comments like, “Still here!”, “No baby yet!”, “I thought you’d be in the hospital by now”.
Are we waiting patiently? For the most part we have kept busy. We came to South Africa with a hefty to-do list (most of which we wanted to complete before the baby arrives). So most of our time has been spent working through our list, trying to get things done ahead of the baby’s arrival. But the list is getting smaller and the time of expectation is coming upon us. Let’s just say, we’re no longer worried about the baby coming early.
Then on Monday night the contractions started, not very intense but increasing in frequency until they were around every 5 minutes. All our prenatal training told us to get ready to go to the hospital. So we got Grace ready and drove to our friends’ house and put her to bed there. Then we got in the car and headed to the hospital. We were in the hospital well into the day on Tuesday but the contractions started to slow and eventually petered out. We left the hospital with many calls of “See you soon,” picked up Grace and headed home.
We read in Scripture so much about waiting and trusting. We aren’t impatient yet. Okay, maybe we were a little impatient during that night in the hospital, but once it was clearly not the time, we were actually thankful to be able get a few more things done. Ask us again in a few more days.
PRAYERS ANSWERED
Tom is making steady progress on the website project. Grace has done really well through all the ups and downs and transitions. Megan and baby continue to be healthy.
PRAYERS REQUESTED
The contractions keep coming (though not regularly), pray for Megan and baby as the day of delivery approaches. Tom still feels under the weather with congestion and sore throat, but he is hopefully on the upswing. Keep praying for his recovery. Megan’s mom is coming to join us here in South Africa. She arrives on Sunday after two days of travel.
