Jude is coming November 16th!!!!!!

Yep! The official date is November 16th!!! We have a scheduled c-section for Nov. 16th - and we almost have all the money we need to pay the hospital!! God is so good! I have been going to one of the nicest hospitals in Hat Yai called "Bangkok Hat Yai Hospital" for the past 9 months because I felt that was the only option due to some stories and experiences that people had told me about at the other hospitals.

The Thai people do many things differently...One thing that they do in the hospitals here is after you have the baby they put the baby in an incubator for 6 hours (no matter if there are complications or not!) and they do not bring you your baby until the next morning. They also feed the baby formula even if the mother has chosen to breastfeed because they believe that it is bad for the baby to wait until the mothers milk comes in. There are many other beliefs that drastically affect your experience with having a baby in Thailand. (especially if I were having the baby naturally - such as delievery methods and restrictions and such)

So...I was going to this nicer hospital because they are more "westernized" in their thinking. And they would work with us on these things (I have two friends who have had children there). But...as time has drawn closer and the money has not been here to even have the baby I have started to go to the other hospitals to consider having Jude in a cheaper hospital. The cheaper hospital would have saved $200 dollars. So, I went to a hospital called "Sikarin" and saw the doctor (who was wonderful and spoke great English) but they would not budge on many of the things that are important to me...but because of money we scheduled the c-section for Nov. 16th regardless.

After I finished at this hospital and everything was set I went to "Bangkok Hat Yai Hospital" to tell my doctor and talk to another dr. friend of mine. When I sat down with my dr. friend and told her that I was going to go to a different hospital she called her director and he gave us 10% discount off of all hospital fees which made "Bangkok Hat Yai Hospital" just as cheap as the other hospital!!!!! So...in conclusion, I get to stay with the doctor that I've been with the whole 9 months...I don't have to worry about the cultural differences in delivery and procedure and everything works out to where I can still have Jude on the 16th!

Wow...I apologize that this post is about this "pregnancy" stuff...I know it's not so interesting... :) Just wanted to tell those who would like to know also I'm just so amazed that God has enabled us to be able to have this baby at this nice hospital - with a great doctor. I'm really huge now as you can see in the pictures below.

The people on the team here threw me a baby shower and it was soo wonderful! Amber made home made american food, MaryBeth made homemade bread and Katherine made me some brownies! It was sooo incredible - the whole night felt like we were in America...we even played fun baby shower games. I had the poopy (peanut butter) in my napkin...The guys all stayed with the kids over at Brian's house and hung out together. It was such a nice break - we all dressed up nice and just enjoyed each others company and celebrated Jude's coming!

They had pulled together and bought us a crib - I say this below but I'll say it here too...the Thai parents have their children sleep in their bed until they are 12 years old! So...they don't really have cribs like we do in america - so it is just a complete blessing that we have a crib. They are usually horribly expensive because they are imported but they found a pretty good deal on this one and went intogether to buy it. Another thing that will shock some of you is that they also don't have diaper changers. It's not a big deal - you can have one made..but we're just going to make due like the Thai people :)

So - I feel very ready for this little one to join us outside of the womb! I have never felt more confident that everything is in God's hands - it has been a miracle watching as little by little the money has come in to be able to pay the hospital for the c-section and even now I know the money is coming that will help us meet the needs of our bills, food, gas and other necessities. God knows our needs!

Everything else has been going wonderful - we are preparing for major outreaches in December because the schools here open up to allow people to come and teach about Christmas so we will be going to many many schools to tell the true meaning of Christmas and share the truth of the God's love and that Jesus is the only way to heaven...please keep us in your prayers.

I will try to write again soon! We love you all!