Yes, we are expecting!

For those that haven't seen us of late, yes Karen is expecting... in fact she is 7 months pregnant! All of us are extremely excited. Erich now gives two hugs and kisses at night before he goes to bed - one for mommy, and one for baby! :-)

The Mandarin Orange

We find ourselves waiting, and learning patience. For the past few days (particularly since Karen's official due date on Dec. 11th), we have been rehearsing the same routine:

Wake up; maybe today?
Irregular contractions are
seeming contradictions:
Indications of certainty yet
moments of ambiguity,

Is it coming today?
Probabilities are high, possibilities nigh,
But alas, virtue lies with patience.

Well, for the record, baby is still in mummy's tummy.... 3 days overdue. Another day passes, maybe it will happen tonight? The anticipation is killing us.

Meanwhile, funny stories are emerging. Karen went to get a mandarin orange from the fridge the other day. As she peeled the orange, she sat down on her favourite chair, mouth watering as she briskly peels the skin. Plop! Half the orange falls on the floor. Poor Karen is so big she can't even see the fallen orange let alone pick it up. It was a very funny moment indeed. :)

Ready or not, here comes...

We went to see the specialist today about Karen's placenta. Our last two ultrasounds have shown that Karen's placenta is dangerously close to her cervix (about 1.5cm) ... so they are recommending that Karen have a C-section. Dr. Rob Anderson is the specialist - very knowledgable and down to earthy fellow. We've heard several good testimonies about him, so we are feeling much better about this than a few months ago.

It seems they already had it planned out. They've scheduled a C-section at St. Pauls for Friday, December 2nd, 2005. We will get to meet "pie-filling" (our little baby) at last.

Pregnancy in full bloom!

Karen is now about 28 weeks pregnant and as cute as ever. We've been calling our little one "pie-filling" as in the "filling" in sweetie pie. :-) The baby is very active, and says hello to both mommy and daddy at regular intervals in the day.

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Photo: Karen rests comfortably in our newly renovated library/office.

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We're both excited and "scared" at the prospect of being parents. It is such a big responsibility yet a very noble and humbling one. We both had our second pre-natal class today and learned much about the second stage of labour. The miracle of life is really quite awe inspiring when you think about it. That little thing inside that is kicking and saying hello to us everyday is a new living being, just ready to be nurtured and ready to explore the world. Wow. Just hard to imagine.

Life has been a bit on the stressful side as we write this. Renovations ("nesting" as they call it in pre-natal class) has been going well -- we've finally finished every room except the baby room....and to be quite frank, we're a bit tired of the whole thing now. But Jonathan hopes to get it done soon anyway in amongst all the other things (family, ministry and work) that we've both been trying to finish before the baby comes. Well, it's all in God's hands.

On a more interesting note, Karen's grandparents from Germany have been in town the past few days and will be staying in Vancouver for the next few weeks. We're brushing up on our Deutsch. We've managed to say a few things here and there, but mostly it's conversing through Hans or with gestures.

Anyway, Karen is calling me to bed. Until next time,

Guten Nacht!

Expectant Twins!

The expectant twins! Karen and Katherine show off their babies to be... Karen is at ~15 weeks and Katherine is at ~34 weeks.