Eden Joi is Here!!

After 24 hours of "false labor" followed by 25 hours of unmedicated, natural labor, Eden Joi arrived by c-section on Feb 3 (41w3d).  Due to cultural differences in medical practices, my recovery has been a very slow one. Both of us are doing well, but last week was one of the longest weeks of my life.  

We've seen God's hand of mercy over and over again, both during labor, the surgery, and in the week we spent in the hospital. Too many to name them all right now, but we sing the Lord's praises for His kindness to us.

Eden Joi, our little miracle
Feb. 3, 2013 born at 6:31am
4220 grams / 9lbs 5oz
50.5 cm / 19.9 in

Out of Sight, Out of Mind?

Did you miss us?  I haven't blogged regularly for probably two years now.  There are two reasons.  One, I felt like I had blogged just about everything I could have about life in Taiwan. I felt like there wasn't much more to say about life here that I hadn't already said.  And, two, infertility was a personal struggle that I didn't feel comfortable blogging about in public.

[Interesting how--at least to me--being single was an ok thing to struggle with on my public blog, but not infertility.  Perhaps one reason is that when I first started blogging I was anonymous--I didn't know my readers and they didn't know me.  But the longer I blogged, the more I met readers and more IRL people started reading it.  So, it no longer felt like I was talking into an empty hole.]

Well, in May of this year, after nearly four years of trying unsuccessfully to conceive, Lawrance and I filed for adoption.  And, we are expecting a little girl in January of 2013.  However, this little girl will be from my womb!!  We found out a week or two after we turned in our application that I was pregnant!!  ;)  God has been gracious with us.  We are excited that he has chosen to bless us in this way at this time.

Here's how we announced to family and friends when we first found out.

I'm currently 24 weeks pregnant.  I'm going to attempt to revive the blog, and quite honestly it's focus will change . . . and that's ok with me since it is supposed to be our family's blog.