I am Blessed!

Over at He sows & She sews, Gretchen has started a blog carnival just talking about our blessings.  How has God blessed your life?  Have you looked closely into your life....are there little or big things that you have not noticed but are blessed with!  Please post your blessing and then share your blessing with everyone so that people can be blessed.  Mondays are sometimes a rough day and when we start our week counting our blessings our outlook just changes.

I have been struggling big time lately.  I am 17 weeks pregnant and at 12 weeks I was told to wait till I had my health insurance card before coming back.  Our secretary was in the states when we became eligible for our health insurance and then we were at the TMF conference so the ball just didn't start going till later than we expected.  We are now realizing that this will be an adventure....because we are the "first" foreign pastor being employed by a Chinese church getting paid in Taiwanese dollar so we just have to go through all the proper channels and it's going to take a little bit longer than we expected.

I guess I am what you call a high risk pregnancy.  I don't ever feel that I am but if I were talk to the doctor I'm pretty sure they would consider me high risk -- just because of my c-section and the risk of of all that involved.  Like I said....I've been fine and don't feel high risk but just would be considered it.  I'm also getting nervous because I'm 17 weeks....I've been to the doctors 3 times but I didn't have any of the "normal" stuff done -- blood test, urine samples, etc.   So I am anxiously waiting to meet with my doctor (who will hopefully deliver me) and get all my "normal" pregnancy visit stuff done....also be able to ask if it is possible if I can try to do another VBAC.

My biggest struggle is being in a foreign country and the doctor telling me -- sorry you've had a c-section and even though you've had a successful VBAC we want you to have another c-section.  The reason why I don't want to have a c-section is I just don't have the family support here to figure out how to recover from the pain of major abdominal surgery and also successfully raise three children.   When I had Little N  I had to have a c-section and it took me at least 6 weeks to recover and feel like I could carry on with normal day to day life without being in pain.  When I had Little M -- I was sore from delivering a baby but I just didn't have the on going pain which required me to take pain medicine.  I also was able to spend time with both my boys and not feel like I was restricted due to pain.

My blessings are that this week I am able to go to the doctors.  I am so thankful because I will be able to ease my concerns and worries about am I doing everything that I possibly can to be healthy for me and this unborn child.  I am also thankful that I will finally be able to talk to a doctor who will deliver me and they will be able to tell me definitively yes I can try a VBAC or no I am not able to (hopefully I can get a reason for why I wouldn't be able to).  I am also blessed because my secretary is able to help me navigate and get me registered into the hospital system and I will have a friend able to sit with me as I figure out if going to the doctors is different from the states or not.  The unknown is always a scary thing for me!!  So I am thankful for people that are willing to help go through this experience with me!

I am also blessed with going to the grocery store (we bought some fruit that I am excited to blog about and try) and being able to have a meal out today.  Sometimes it just nice to eat out and have something comforting -- the little boys & I had McDonald's (which we haven't had in probably a month) and John tried some Chinese food which was all steamy and hot -- which made for fun pictures! (I'd rather not eat to hot (in temperature) foods when the it's very warm out -- so I was happy for a hamburger, fries & apples!