Not so bad.

A few months back, when we discovered that I would be having a baby in Uruguay, I imagined various scenarios of childbirth in a foreign country from the absolute worst to the not so bad. I am so pleased, and relieved, to report that the birth of Silas Andrew was not so bad, actually it was pretty good if I ignore all the pain.

Those of you who keep up with the blog, and have read my post on the glucose tolerance test, were probably imaging the worst along with me. After all, when an exam glove is used as a tourniquet for drawing blood what could it possibly be used for in other circumstances. Well, when it comes to having a baby they take the sterility of the delivery room very seriously. Scott had to gown up completely. And I had to wear those fancy little surgical booties and cap. Quite the thing when you consider that we never once had to don the apparel of the doctors and nurses with the deliveries of our other children.

You also know that I had started labor late on Sunday evening and was having contractions through the early morning on Monday only to have them stop. Ugh. That Tuesday our doctor asked permission to give me a light dose of sintocin (sp?), a form of artificial oxytocin, to kick the contractions back in. I was admitted back into the hospital that morning and my I.V. was started just before lunch time. The kick start worked and I was quickly back to where I had left off on Monday morning; having contractions every three minutes lasting at least 45 seconds.

About 4 hours into my light induction it was discovered that I had not progressed. So my doctor upped the dose a bit on the medicine which caused the contractions to lengthen and intensify. My doctor checked me again close to 10 pm and found that I had only progressed to 4 centimeters. He decided to break my water which really intensified things, and an hour later we were holding a healthy baby boy in our arms.

I share all of that to say this: God's grace and hand in Silas' birth was evident throughout my pregnancy and in the labor & delivery. We paid the extra money to have my doctor there to deliver the baby. Had we not done this I would have had a c-section at 4 that afternoon. Instead, we had a doctor with a tremendous amount of patience who was willing to wait and see. As a result I was able to have another natural delivery and not have to deal with the recovery and future repercussions of a major surgery. I was also able to deal well with the very intense contractions with absolutely no pain killers. And silly as it sounds, I was able to give testimony of how God was the One who gave me the strength to labor so long and stay calm.

Scott and I are very thankful for our little Uruguayito. Neither one of us "planned" to have a baby at this stage in our lives or ministry. I thought language was enough to deal with, especially when pregnancy brain kicks in. Yet God chose for us to have another baby in our first year of our first term on the field. I had one of the easiest pregnancies and very rarely experienced the dreaded jelly brain. Because of Silas we have been able to share Christ with those whom we would not have had the privilege to meet. When Scott goes out into the city he is asked by complete strangers how our little one is doing. The Uruguayans see that God is very real in our lives and His Word is full of promises that we can claim, and hold on to for the unknown.

Praise the Lord that we can take His hand and follow Him wherever He leads and know we are safe within His will!!! Proverbs 3:5,6

Uruguayan Turkeys

Pumpkin and apple pie, banana pudding and cherry dump cake with fresh whip cream topped off our Thanksgiving meal this past Thursday. We had all the rest of the North American fixings - stuffing, sweet potato casserole, onion pie (this was new to us, thanks Judy for the great dish), a relish tray minus carrots and celery because we couldn't find any fresh and the black olives that we forgot to put out, deviled (fallen angel :-) eggs, mashed potatos, gravy and Uruguayan Turkeys. What a delicious meal!!! Even better was the fellowship with our dear friends, Bill and Judy Baltzersen, who gave up the holiday with their family to be here to help us with Silas.

In case you are wondering what the difference is between an American and Uruguayan turkey, keep reading. I hate to make our blog too techinical, but the biggest difference is that the great big beautiful imported turkey costs over $100 US dollars (!!!!) and those big fat juicy Uruguayan Turkeys (aka chickens) cost 10 dollars. Though we would have loved some real turkey, the Chic-fil-a cows will be quite pleased to know that we definitely enjoyed our imitations.

Our chickens look like turkeys when they are in my small Uruguayan oven. For the right perspective, that's a 9x13" pan.


After we feasted on our very north American fare we allowed time for everyone to share their thankfulness to God. It warmed our hearts to hear how thankful our children are to be here in Uruguay. This year has not been easy, the adjustments have been tremendous and the lessons difficult, but God's grace has proven to be more than sufficient! We look forward to another year on the mission field and to next Thanksgiving where we can once again give thanks for another wonderful year, to the One Who deserves all the glory and honor!

Our warming oven - also known as a Uruguayan BBQ.

Silas Andrew Borrmann Video

BIENVENIDOS, SILAS ANDREW!!!

Silas is here, our first Uruguayito (little Uruguayan) and he is the sweetest little fella. In case you can't see the statistics on his announcement, he weighed 8lbs 6oz, was 20 inches long and was born at 10:56 at night on November 6th. I'll blog later about all the Lord did for us in Silas' arrival. Thank you to all who prayed for a safe delivery and a healthy baby, God blessed us with both!!!

Changing his mind.

After an hour of strong contractions at 3-4 minutes apart we headed to the hospital. The doctor confirmed things were a go and for about four hours things were looking good then all of a sudden the contractions came to a halt. So here we are back at home waiting for Silas.

Honestly, it is a let down, especially when you've literally been up all night. But I can see the benefits of last nights "trial run"; mainly that the Lord relieved some concerns of mine over the delivery of this baby here: our doctor made it from his town to ours without incident, the preps they do for childbirth here aren't as bad as I imagined they would be, and though still difficult the language barrier is manageable.

Scott heads to the airport on Wednesday morning to pick up our friends, Bill and Judy B. Everything looks pretty much in order for their stay and we are so looking forward to seeing them - in just 2 more sleeps! Please pray for traveling mercies for them as they will have nearly 20 hours travel time ahead of them.

Andrew Smith

I thought I would post a photo of the little boy we asked you to be in prayer for but I can't get it to work here. He began chemo last night and was to begin radiation today. You can keep up with him, and see photos, by visiting his CaringBridge site. I'm not sure if his Mom, Sandy, will be starting her own CaringBridge site but there have been brief updates on Andrew's journal for her. Please continue to pray for the entire family.