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Wednesday 11 May 2011

Chloe, new connections and the CVJM

I wanted to update our blog as to what else we're up to other than waiting for our little girl (Chloe) to arrive. I will talk briefly about Chloe at the end but wanted to give you some more ideas as to what Alan has been up to while I've been preparing to give birth. :)

As we stated a few posts earlier, we stopped our German class in April in anticipation of Chloe's birth. We met so many great people. Even our teachers were really nice so I miss being there. I love meeting people from different cultures and getting to know them better. God was good to introduce us to so many in just the two short months we were there. Hopefully we can return to class soon although I'm not sure they allow babies in tow?

I guess it was about 6 weeks ago now when Alan decided to organize a mens night with the church. He wanted a curry night and so five of them ended up going to the Indian Palace in Heidelberg for dinner. It was a smaller turnout than we had hoped but in a way it was good because that's where he got to know a man by the name of Peter who is a doctor, living in Heidelberg with his wife and three children. He isn't practicing right now but instead he is traveling around and advising different countries on health practices. Anyway, Alan and he got to talking and Alan discovered that Peter and his wife Karen had been missionaries in the past and that they had a lot of good connections in the Heidelberg area so Alan decided to volunteer to help Peter with some work he was doing around his house for a few weeks. The work ended up being landscaping and some brick laying work for a nice patio and I think it was good for Alan to be able to have the time to "get his hands dirty" again. He was getting antsy and God brought the opportunity at the right time.

Also from this work Alan was given contact information for the CVJM, Heidelberg's YMCA. He was interested primarily because he heard it was much more christian focused than the YMCA in England or the US and that they even held a monthly youth service and a weekly Sunday service. He decided he would go by and check things out and see about volunteering in some way and when he did he was welcomed with open arms. We were invited to attend their monthly youth service about 3 weeks ago on a Saturday night and it was awesome. So many young people, in the age range we want to work with, just worshipping and praising God. Mind you it was primarily in German which made it difficult to understand but the worship was great. Afterwards we got a tour of their facility and we got really excited about everything they have going on. Alan decided to go and volunteer the next week and so he went a couple of days and helped with laying a tile patio (similar to the work he'd just done for Peter and his family). He loved it. He came home every night just glowing, loving doing work for the Lord and loving getting to know the young people and trying to practice his German.

It was that week that we went to the doctor and discovered that Chloe was still traverse (at 37 weeks) and that she would need to come by c-section and that because she was already approaching 8.5lbs that the doctor wanted to schedule a c-section for 9 days away. We were floored by this, thinking we had at least 3 weeks still to go but we trusted the doctors wisdom and started making plans.

Well, that c-section was supposed to have happened this morning but instead our "precious little girl to be" decided to turn into the proper position for giving birth naturally. It was funny because we cleaned the house like mad, checked webster into a kennel, packed our belongings for five days at the hospital and went to check-in. We had to do a ton of paperwork, we met with the anesthesiologist, viewed the maternity ward, chose our room and had the babies heartbeat monitored by the midwife. We then had a scan to check Chloe's position and low and behold she had turned. I told the midwife that the doctor didn't think she would turn and that's why we were having the c-section but that we had prayed she would and wanted to have a natural birth if at all possible. She said she would call the doctor to see what he wanted to do. He said we needed to come over to his office so he could examine Chloe and when we did he just felt between my pelvis bone and said, "yup, there's her head and you wanted a natural birth so you're free to go and come back and see me in a week!". We couldn't believe it. Alan was so made up but I had mixed feelings because I had prayed a ton and gotten so much good advice from my sister and others that had had c-sections that I was now pretty much prepared to have one. Chloe would then be here and out of me in less than 24hours. Still, we went back to the kennel and picked webster back up, come home and unpacked and then called our families to let them know the news. I was exhausted but we're excited to be trusting God about what's ahead.

Awesome housegroup tonight. We just love the people in the church and how God uses them in our lives. There was a precious missionary couple there serving in the middle east with YWAM and we really loved getting to know them. What a powerful ministry they have in a country where christians are persecuted regularly for their faith. Please lift them up in prayer as the reason they have been here these last two weeks is because he was diagnosed with cancer and they have been awaiting results of their tests. They now have to go to Brazil for treatment but we're just praying God will wipe the cancer out completely so that when they show up the doctors are amazed that God has cured him and there is no longer any need for the chemo.

Anyway, we'll update again once Chloe is here. We are so thankful for friends and family that stand by us, support us, pray for us and genuinely just love Jesus and want to serve Him the best way they know how. We pray God will bless each of you and we ask that if you have anything we could pray for on your behalf that you will not be shy but that you will send us an email or a facebook message letting us know. Praise God for his continued faithfulness to us all.