Our Home

I am FINALLY putting photos up of our flat (apartment) for anyone who is curious about how we live, as I am about pretty much everyone else! Please note that in the country we live in, we live VERY NICELY. Most of the country is shockingly different from this. We know we are very blessed! 

Our bedroom, aka "Mommy's room":

Our bathroom. The big white cylinder is the water heater.

Corinth's (and eventually also 2nd baby's) room- my favorite room!

The main bathroom. The blue bucket is Corinth's bathtub.

The laundry balcony. There are 2 doors to it, one from our room and one from Corinth's room. You can see our washing machine and air conditioner.

The second balcony, with a door coming from the dining room. The box on the ground is an inverter, which gives us limited power when the general power goes out (which is every day, but during hot season can sometimes before 12-18 hours a day!) Monkeys LOVE to hang out here!

The "office," aka "Daddy's room":

The kitchen! Behind the fridge on the back wall is the sink, and you can see the gas stovetop and microwave/small convection oven on the left. 

The living room:

The dining room:

 This is shot from our bedroom door, looking out onto the living, dining, kitchen area. The far open door is the office, the far closed door is our front door, to the left of where I'm standing is Corinth's room, and to the right of me is the bathroom.

It's a work in progress, but it definitely feels like home now!

Baby Update!

This will be a very short baby update! Tuesday, my friend (a photographer), my language helper (who is great at henna), and I went to take some pregnancy pictures. I did not get to take pregnancy photos the first time I was pregnant, because they were scheduled for after Corinth was actually born! Therefore, it was very important to me to have some taken this time. Part of these photos were family, but part were just me, in traditional local clothes, and with henna on my belly! It was totally weird to all locals who saw it, but I didn't care- it was super fun! Hopefully I'll get the pictures back soon so I can share some while I'm still about the same size!

Kyle and I went to the doctor this week, and everything looks great with Baby Ferg! He/she has moved up some, so is not in as much danger for early delivery as he/she was before! We are still going to the capital city early, just in case, but that was great news! Also, when the nurse went to do the ultrasound (which is done at every appointment here), she lifted up my shirt, saw my henna, and gasped! I looked down, forgetting that I had henna on my belly, and we both laughed at the same time! She told the doctor, who also thought that it was very funny, and said, "in all my years as a doctor, you are the first patient with henna on her stomach!" I take that as an honor! :-)

 We are thankful for a great pregnancy so far! 28 weeks and counting!

This IS Life...

If you know me well enough, you know that I don't really care about many things politically. One political/social issue I DO, however, very much care about it fetal life. This post comes with a story.


Today, my language helper and I were, well, learning Hindi. She got a phone call, and after she finished the call she explained to me what was going on. She said that her cousin had missed her period for 3 months in a row. She had taken several pregnancy tests, all showing negative. She went to the doctor in her village and the doctor said it was probably just gas. (...I don't understand that part, either...) She wanted a second opinion, so she came to our city to go to a doctor here. He gave her a pregnancy test, and she is, in fact, 3 months pregnant. However, the doctor told her that because she has high blood pressure and 1 vein in particular with a high BP, the pregnancy might be risky. ...might be... The doctor advised "termination." That's what it's called here. Termination. Since she already has a son and a daughter, she decided "termination" would be best, and so today she had surgery to "terminate."


TERMINATE=ABORTION.


TERMINATE=MURDER.


Even my language helper, this woman's cousin, believes that it is murder, but that it is best for everyone because of the high blood pressure.


I wanted to say, "Call her and tell her to stop! Call her and tell her to have the baby and we will adopt him or her!" But I couldn't. It's not really that she doesn't want the baby. She doesn't seem to care either way. She just has high blood pressure. I can't do anything about that... I told my language helper I would pray for her cousin, and she said thank you. What else can I do? I prayed, and will continue to pray, that this woman mourns the loss of her baby, a human being. I pray that she fully understands what she has done. I pray that she seeks God's forgiveness over this heinous sin. I pray she comes to know the true God, and that she is forgiven.

I pray for women all over the world, especially here in my new country, and there in my old country, two countries where abortion is SO widespread. I pray that women (and men) would know that life starts at conception. That there are heartbeats, fingers, blinking, thumb-sucking, and breath even in the womb. This is not a "thing" to terminate. This IS life.

The Owl

You and I know the owl as a wise, knowledgeable creature that other creatures go to when seeking advise or knowledge on a subject. When someone compares you to an owl, it is usually a compliment.


Here, however, owls are thought to be the dumbest and least intelligent of all animals, because owls do not know to sleep at night and be awake during the day like all other animals. If someone compares you to an owl here, it is a huge insult. When buying fruit in the market, if the fruit vendor tells you an outrageous price, the response is a saying that basically means, "do you think I look as stupid as an owl?!?"


My mom sent Corinth and I some craft supplies when we first arrived in South Asia. In the package was a felt owl for Corinth and I to decorate. After we decorated it, we hung it up in our living room, where everyone could see it. Several local people who saw it said, "You know that the owl is a very stupid animal, yes?" We politely replied that yes, we knew, but that in our country the owl is thought to be very wise.


I say all of this because this is one thing that Kyle and I think about often. We are just like the owl. In America, we know how to do things well, efficiently, effectively, and with purpose. Here, however, we so often feel stupid because what we think is right is so far from being right, and we often do things that others think of as unintelligent. It's a reminder that, while we or our abilities have not changed, the way people perceive us, and the way we function in society, has changed. And that's okay.


I left the owl up for a long time, because it was okay with me if people thought the owl on my wall was stupid/unintelligent. I knew better. That is a smart, capable owl who is just in a new place! :-)

Baby Update!

While we were in Delhi, I went for my mid-pregnancy appointment to the OBGYN that I plan to use for delivery (assuming I make it to Delhi!) Everything went great! I got to sit there for about 40 minutes and watch my baby while the ultrasound technician measured and checked everything on Fergie 2. In our country, it’s illegal for the doctors to make known to the parents the gender of the baby. This is because boys are highly prized and girls are often seen as a curse from the gods, and are often aborted if found out about (and sometimes simply discarded after birth). I don’t understand this part of the culture at all, and mourn over the lostness of this sad mentality. However, because of that, we will not be finding out the gender of our baby. At first, that made me really nervous. Now, it just makes me somewhat nervous! J I’m pretty darn sure I know what we are having, but for this Type A planner to not know is just a little out of my comfort zone. However, I think about how every other woman in this country doesn’t know, and how our parents didn’t know, and it makes it a little more bearable! Anyway (rambling!), the ultrasound was great, the hospital was nicer than I expected, as was the doctor, and I left with a very positive attitude about everything. Fergie 2 is healthy and measuring exact to the day! The doctor still wants me to come 6 weeks early because of how early Corinth was, but our company only sends us 4 weeks before, so we’ll see what happens with that. Pray that the right decision is made by the people who make those decisions (not us!). I will be taking weekly baby belly shots and putting them on Facebook if you care to see the bump as it continues to grow! For now, I’ll leave you with 2 pictures- the first of which is from the day I found out I was pregnant, and the second is today, at 21 weeks! J

Bumpless belly pic!

Right before my morning run (back when I lived in a city where I could run... sigh)

 

 21 weeks- over halfway there!

(Side note- I will be wearing this same outfit every week. Reason? I don't wear western clothes at all here, so I don't have very many, and the clothes I DO wear here look ridiculous for belly pictures!)

Post-Christmas!

Merry Christmas again! Things were quite different for us this year! (Not that we've ever really had a 'normal'! Every year we've been together has been totally different!) Let's see...

We began the week's festivities by inviting neighbors and friends to our party. Most of our neighbors welcomed us into their homes for chai or coffee, most for the first time, so that was a great way to meet and get to know many people we live around! This has been a struggle for us, so that was one way we really saw God at work!

Christmas Eve we had a party with the rest of our team in our city. It was fun! We had some American foods, including cheese (can't get much here, and what we can get is not very good!), meatballs (chicken), and beef jerky (thank you to the Walls Family!) We also played a fun game where you have to draw a scene on a plate that's on your head. It was pretty funny, and Kyle the Artist's plate was definitely the worst! :-) We also did a gift exchange which was quite fun as well. And, most importantly, we read the Christmas story and talked about how important it is to our lives.

Christmas morning, we Skyped with both of our families. Those were great, because it really eased the sadness of being apart at Christmas. We love our families very much, and miss them a lot! Then, our friend John came over and I made homemade monkey bread- first time ever using yeast!- and then we opened the rest of our presents! Corinth was beyond happy with opening presents and having so many new things to play with and wear! Thank you to everyone who sent things- it really meant so much to us.
 
After that, Kyle and I took turns being sick for the rest of the morning. I won the contest, he started feeling better, and I was in bed for the next 2 days. We debated on whether or not to cancel our Christmas party because we were both feeling so miserable, but he was getting better so we decided he could handle it without me. I spent our entire Christmas party locked in my room listening as 25-30 people gathered and celebrated in my living room!

Kyle did a fabulous job with the party! He said it went great! Most of our neighbors came, as did many friends. They loved the food, laughed a lot (I could hear everything!), sang Christmas songs while Kyle played the guitar, and Kyle even told the Christmas story in Hindi. It was such a success, which all glory can be given to God for!

We missed seeing and talking with many of you before and on Christmas, and want you to know that we love you very much!

Early morning smiles! She's excited!

 So happy!

 Merry Christmas! Love, the Fergusons

 Friends and neighbors enjoying the party!

 Food and fun!

 

Pre-Christmas!

Christmas is FAST approaching! Am I ready? No, I have a million things left to do! Am I otherwise ready? Yes, I LOVE Christmas! This year it is very different, not only because we are away from pretty much everything and everyone that we know, but also because our family is trying to be very intentional about celebrating CHRISTmas, and not presentmas, treemas, or american-secularismmas. Which do you celebrate?!? At first I thought, "this is dumb! I want a tree, and Santa, and lots of presents, and everything Christmassy." But it has been great!

We love doing Advent every night. I made a felt Advent/Jesse tree last year, and we have loved having our Advent time in the evenings. Every night, we have an ornament, story, prayer, song, and special candy. Corinth loves it, and several times a day goes up to the Advent box and says, "please. please. please." I love it! Also, we (I) have been crafting a lot. This has seemed to be one of the things that makes me feel most at home. That, and baking, which I have also done a lot of. If you know me well, neither of these activities should come as a shocker to you! :-) We also had an Elf-watching party (also, not a shocker!) and it was great! So fun, and really got me in the Christmas mood!

We are planning on having a team Christmas party Christmas Eve, and then having our own Christmas on Christmas morning. Christmas evening we are having a party for our neighbors and some friends. Hopefully this will be a good time of outreach and that many neighbors come! During those days we will also Skype with family, which we are really excited about! We have many things to look forward to! Please pray for us (especially for me) as this is our first Christmas away from home and I'd be lying if I said I would rather be here than home. I know God has us here, and I have peace about that, but it doesn't stop the longings of my heart for family!

Merry Christmas from the Fergusons, and I really hope you know Jesus and focus your time in the next week on HIM and the wonder that He loved us so much to save us. He is our Lord! Merry Christmas!!!

Yes, I bought a Christmas outfit! (After all, I am a teacher at heart!!!) :-)

 

Our Advent Tree! (It's more filled in now- only 4 days left!)

 

One of the many crafts we've done! This time, our neighbor and his mom joined us! :-)