News on Bean Number Two

We already told most of our families about the newest news on bean number 2 but I thought I would write a post about it partly because this blog is currently serving as our family journal as well as that there are still some people we haven't talk to yet. We went in for our first prenatal thinking we were 10 weeks which is the standard time for a first prenatal and an ultra sound told us that the baby is actually a little older than we thought. Only 5 days so not too much but that changes the due date to April 9th. Not right on our wedding anniversary anymore. Everything looks normal and healthy. We got to see the baby move and see/hear the heart beat. It was pretty cool. The baby is only 4.5 cm from head to rump but looks like a little human with long arms and legs, finger and toes and even the bone in the nose is there. It is really amazing. It was a last minute decision for Mike and Jada to come (just because of the long commute) but Mike was really glad he came, we did not know there would be an ultra sound. It is so magical seeing your little one. We are going to be back in canada just in time to schedule the 20 week ultrasound where we get to find out the sex of the baby. Nov. 9th is our flight. This baby can say that he/she was made in China. Jada was made in Canada born in China. We are really excited to be parents again. We love Jada so much and we know this new little one will expand our love that much more. When we were talking together about all the pros and cons of staying in China or returning to Canada I mentioned once that I didn't really want to have another baby here. I was willing to, I trust the chinese health care in Beijing, but it was a little worried knowing how different the culture is with typically the fathers not being allowed to be there and the high c-section rates and how they make you lie on your back perfectly still through your contractions (not fun). Jada was born in unusual circumstances so all regulations went out the window. She was born in an emergency room, all through contractions we were traveling from one hospital to another and transfering from one doctor to another to another, arguing with them about settling the bills (the only doctor that would take us was one whose fees could be covered by what mike had in his pocket at the time). They had mike there paying bills as I was pushing. So because of circumstances I was walking around during contractions, Mike was there, and Jada came so fast there wasn't time for anything but to just catch her. I know that if we had decided to stay here we could probably have worked things out to come to a compromise for everyone to feel comfortable. That is not the reason we decided to come home but I feel more at peace knowing we will be close to family and in an environment where I am more familiar with the way things are done and the language. It was a good experience to have Jada here and I am glad things worked out the ways they did. We were blessed alot. We came to China prepared, so we thought, we had a good amount of money for start up and $2000 extra that we were putting towards prenatal and birth costs. Starting up here ended up being more expensive then we had anticipated and it took longer than we had thought to find jobs so all the money we brought with us was gone by the time we got the first check from like 2 weeks of work that just barely was enough to pay rent and get us through june. By that time we were just months away from giving birth with $0 dollars saved. Yikes. We missed three prenatal appoinments. We had had 4 1/2 month of appoinments 3 missed and were going to have the last month of appointments in Canada. Jada was born at 35 weeks, we will never know if we had not missed those appoinments how things might have been different. If they would have noticed something that indicated a premature birth perhaps and what would have followed. We do know that there was someone watching out for us and our Jada because although things seemed to be heading for disaster right at the last moment there were tiny miracles that kept our heads above water. We found a doctor that we had just barley enough money to pay for(as we had just put the majority of our money towards plan tickets because we had decided to give birth in Canada), Jada was born perfectly healthy and with no complications, the ward all pulled in to help, jada's documents, passport and visa were issued just in time for our flight to Canada and all the visa stuff in Canada was resolved just in time to fly back to China and have enough working days to make rent. Many small miracles. Just a testimony that well things may not work out as we plan, if we live on faith things will work out for the best. And someday all things will be revealed to us. We did the best we could with our situation and God filled in the rest.