The Stack of Cards

As we come upon a full year since we arrived in Romania, Carolyn and I cannot help but look back over the last year and reflect on all that has happened during this time.  We are also forced to look to the future as we face a year of many changes and another trans-atlantic move.  It amazes me that only a year ago we arrived in this country with a few belongings and established a home. We tried to avoid accumulating any unnecessary possessions, but we still feel like we ended up with a ton of extra “stuff”.

As I look through all our stuff, one group of items catches my eye; and that is a collection of cards that were mailed to us from friends and family.  The reason this stack jumps out at me is because it’s so tall!  We have over five inches of birthday, anniversary, baby, encouragement, and Christmas cards (and even an empty envelope of which the contents didn’t quite make it!).  The time and effort that went into each individual card reassures me of deep relationships and love of those who want to show us that we’re not forgotten even across the world!  And that stack doesn’t even include the emails, care packages, and baby gifts that we received!

Felix's First Thanksgiving

Mom and Dad said it was time for Thanksgiving, but I was a little confused because I’ve been hearing Christmas music all month. The mall has Christmas trees, and snowflakes, and reindeer decorations – Mom and Dad said that’s because they don’t celebrate Thanksgiving in Romania.

Grandma came to visit us, and everyone I know who lives here from America was really excited about the feast coming up. Mom bought a green pumpkin that’s bigger than me; when she scooped it out it was orange on the inside and she put it in a pie. All day, I smelled chicken cooking (because Mom and Dad couldn’t find turkey anywhere), and Dad kept mashing up apples to make cider. I don’t know what those things taste like, but they sure smelled good. 


Our Baby's Birth

During our 38 week appointment the doctor asked us to come back either the following Tuesday or the one after in order to have a series of tests done before our baby was born. He was pretty casual about the test and seemed to think the second Tuesday was a better option for us but left it to our preference. So we prayed about whether or not we should go and we felt directed to go in on the first Tuesday. Although, I’d been having Braxton Hicks contractions for weeks, there had been no indications of labor, as confirmed by the doctor at our 38 weeks appointment.

So we went in on Tuesday morning (Sept 5th), which was 38 weeks, 6 days gestation. At the doctor’s visit, my blood pressure was elevated (140s/110s), the baby’s heartbeats were a bit lower than desired (110-120), and his movement and breathing on the ultrasound was very low as well. The doctor said that these symptoms could have multiple indications, but one was that the baby could be in distress. He did not see signs of true concern yet, but it showed that it could become concerning if we waited too much longer. So he recommended that we do an immediate C-section; we agreed, and felt peaceful about that decision even though it wasn’t our ideal preference.