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