A Mission Trip for Missionaries

I had every intention of posting this back in May or June, but pregnancy and morning sickness really caught up with me.  I am posting it now, obviously.  :) Our missionary friends are in the U.S. on furlough and we really miss them, especially this time of year.  The following is just one of the fond memories we have with them.  

Early May we were honored to be invited along by some fellow missionaries on one of their out reach efforts.  The goal was to assist and encourage a national church planter, as he and his wife live and labor among a very closed neighborhood.  The neighborhood has permitted their children to come for daily after school tutoring and Bible studies, but the adults have been very reluctant to engage with Manuel and Glenda in anyway.  We offered very limited services; a very basic eye exam, dental care workshop, barber (turns out you can trust a bald barber), and ear cleaning.  I was able to weigh a few babies and go over warning signs in pregnancy with some of the ladies in the waiting area.  

All this gave the community a better opportunity to get to know Manuel and Glenda and to speak to some about spiritual matters.  We are thankful to our missionaries friends for allowing us to join them in part of their ministry.  It was a great ministry trip for our visiting niece and our kiddos.  They helped out in lots of areas.  Glamorous things like hauling water, sweeping up hair, and examining and cleaning out ears.  However, the best thing they did, the thing I am the proudest of is, they showed themselves friendly. Well done my young people.  

What do you think?  What makes short-term mission trips successful or not so successful?  What was the most important way you helped on your last mission trip?

New Visas: Ministry Monday

Image courtesy of pakorn at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

One of the less glamorous sides of long-term, cross-cultural work is immigration.  Last year we were finally able to go from tourist visas to year long temporary visas, temporary resident visas.  You can read about it here.  With temporary resident visas we do not have to leave the country to renew, but renew we must.  And the time for renewal has come.  Sam has spent much of the last two weeks buried under copies and copies of birth certificates, letters of invitation, passports and various other paperwork he had diligently been gathering for our renewal packet.  Due to changes in the process, some of our documents had to be translated this year.  Thankful, a missionary friend knew someone very good that could do it for us quickly.  In addition we have been working on getting Gracen a Mexican birth certificate and registered as a Mexican citizen.  This requires several trips to various offices and two witnesses to go with us for the final step, but it is now all completed.  Because Gracen is a Mexican citizen, we qualify for permanent resident visas, which means no more yearly renewal and more liberty for us.  We will now begin work on his U.S. documents at the American consulate.    

Image courtesy of scottchan at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Thankfully, only two trips to the immigration office were required this year!  Well, actually, they have accepted our packet.  We will still have to go in and get our cards and get finger printed and such, but getting our packet accepted is a big step.  Pray with us that the rest of the process is completed easily.  

Our little "anchor baby".  :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day!  

We were blessed to be able to celebrate with fellow missionaries that we love.  Everybody pitched in and we had turkey, stuffing, pecan pie...the works really.  And of course, we have so very much to be thankful for this year.  You can check out this post about Gracen's birth or this post of some of the fun ministry things we get to be a part of to see some of the awesome things we are so thankful for this year.

One of the things that is hard to find down here is sweet potatoes like the ones that grow in my grandmother's garden.  However, it might be that one of those sweet potatoes from my grandmother's garden ended up down here after one of our trips and it might have sprouted and then ended up in my garden.  Wednesday we dug up the area to see if we actually had any sweet potatoes under the ground...

Thought I would add this one, because, well, this is what is going on at our house and it's great!  Just have to share the cuteness!

Gracen's Birth

All photos taken by Anna Perez and are owned by Purposeful Wandering.  Use of photos is theft.

Two weeks ago today we passed through the waters on dry land.  As we watched the wild, angry sea swirl on each side, I wondered if it was there to scoop me up and whisk me away or if we would make the journey to the other side.  What we felt was the hand of God leading and the many prayers of friends and family.  Not only prayers, but many were working very hard to get much needed blood donated to replenish the liter and a half I had lost and in case another surgery was needed to remove my uterus, which no doubt would include even more blood loss.  There were times when I said out loud, "I'm scared".  Scared I was leaving behind my children and husband and newborn baby I had barely been able to hold.  Sam was a rock.  He reminded me my vitals were stable, my hands were warm, I was still alert and everybody was doing everything they could.  

Our beautiful boy made a spectacular entrance into the world after a very quick labor.  It was a little over two hours from the first contraction to when I held him in my arms.  

Did I mention it was intense.

It was not what I was expecting, but it was wonderful and overwhelming and we gave thanks for this fresh new life we were privileged to have in our home.  

Really intense.

After a bit Sam and I settled in to cuddle and admire him.  I felt great, he had done great from the beginning, all was well.

Then I noticed I was bleeding...a little too much.  We tried emptying my bladder, herbs, all the uterotonic drugs our midwives carry (oxytocin, misoprostol, ergometrine), we began an IV with oxytocin and reexamined the placenta for completeness.  Despite my uterus maintaining tone, I continued to bleed off and on and we decided to transport.  On the ride to the hospital I felt prompted to pray aloud and thank God for the midwives, our baby, this trial, for his guiding hand.  After six completely natural births, I received my first epidural!  I know, I have things a little backwards...I always have...never have been able to do things like everybody else.  I prayed aloud again in the O.R. as the doctors began trying to save my uterus and my life.  

That day was filled with times when my mind was clearer and I felt more stable.  In those moments, Sam and I put our heads together and stared at our new son and declared our love for one another as I tried to nourish the new life we had been given and enjoy my husbands embrace.  We all lay there together feeling God's arm around us and hands directing us.  We listened to the words coming from Sam's Ipad and we sang along.

"You broke my chains of sin and shame 
And you covered me with grace
And you mend my life with Your holy fire
You cover me with grace" - All Sons & Daughters

God gave wisdom to our midwives, to our doctors.  He sent friends to donate blood and friends to pray.  He also reached down and comforted us and, I believe, touched my body.  We are thankful for our chance to walk through the raging sea on dry land.  We are thankful to be able to look back two weeks later with both my life and my uterus.  We believe God did not have to show grace that day and we know we did not deserve the grace and kindness, but we are thankful for it.  

That day showed me many things, not all can be said here...one thing I can share here is how touched we have been by the outpouring of love and prayers for us.  Thank you! 

"And yes Lord
We are grateful
For Your grace
And for Your love

Yes Lord
We are grateful
For Your grace
And for Your love"  - All Sons & Daughters

And we gave thanks.

Preterm Labor: The 33 week scare

We wanted to say thank you one more time for all who prayed for the baby and I throughout the pregnancy.  From the first announcement you rejoiced with us, and we needed those extra prayers.  I had pretty extreme "all-day" sickness and even though I was tired and weak, little Gracen kept growing strong.

During the summer I felt well enough for us to take a trip to Honduras.  What a blessing to see all they are doing there and to get to be a little part of the ministry at hospital Loma de Luz.  You can read about our trip by clicking here.  

Upon returning we jumped full strength back into life here in Oaxaca.  The kids with school.  Sam with Bible studies, classes, and disciplining.  Everyone at the church was excited to see my growing belly and give it a little rub.  That's very socially acceptable here and even expected.  I didn't mind, we were so grateful for the new little life growing, we were happy to share the blessing.

The kids had settled into the new school routine and I was even getting my garden in order.  With all our comings and goings over the last several years, it seems getting the garden in order (a.k.a. weeding, lots of weeding) is a very reoccurring theme around here.

The kids had September 15 off of school for Mexican Independence Day, so I high-jacked a part of their day with gardening.  Do you know how much more weeding you can get done with 5 able bodied kids?  After I relieved them from their gardening duties I returned to the garden several times that day.  The problem was, with all the day's activities, I think I forgot to drink enough water.  As evening approached, I quickly changed clothes so we could head down town to see all the festivities going on for Independence Day.  We had a great time drinking coffee on the down town square (zocalo), people watching, parade watching, and we got a very close up fireworks display.  You can see it here.

It was shortly before midnight that we headed back to the car.  On the walk to the car I noticed I was having some pretty serious contractions that seemed close together.  By the time we got home, they were every 3 minutes and I had to breathe through them.  I got in a warm bath, started hydrating and contacted one of our midwives and our doctor.  Our doctor answered his phone, but he was out of town.  After trying a few more things the contractions calmed down and I slept for a while, only to wake up several hours later to strong contractions again.  This pattern repeated several times until late afternoon.

After consulting several doctors, we decide it was time to go to the hospital.  I went and took a shower and tried to get all my crying out, so I could be strong for whatever the next days and weeks had in store.  Because, the way the contractions felt, I was sure at a mere 33 week, our baby was about to make an entrance...and I was scared.  The hospital most equipped to take care of premies (the Civil Hospital), really doesn't have a NICU.  Take a deep breath and let that sink in a minute.

Up until this point we had kept our little trial to ourselves, but in that brief time I was trying to pull myself together in the shower, Sam sent out a cry for help, I mean an email asking for pray.  Your response was overwhelming.

Also while I was in the shower, I remembered an OB/GYN that I had worked with a few times and we gave him a call.  Not only was he in town, he was at the Civil Hospital where we were going to need to go.  What a huge relief to see a familiar face in all the chaos.

The incredible thing really was that after all those contractions, my cervix was still closed and long and the contractions did slow down and eventually stop after an injection of terbutaline.  I remained on bed rest for a week or two and we all breathed a huge sigh of relief as week 37 of my pregnancy came and went.  This has been what Sam has come to call the 33 week scare.  Little did we know it would be a good thing that we were a little familiar with the civil hospital, as I would end up there after Gracen's birth.  You can read about his birth here.


A note to all my midwifery friends.  I am aware of the studies coming out showing bed rest to have no effect on preterm labor, however, when it seems like every time you move you have contractions, you tend to try not to move.   No matter what the studies say, it seems even the best of us are susceptible to anecdotal evidence.