Gabrielle Shalom: Hours before the birth

(we have decided that I will stay in hospital about 5 days, what insurance allows, to take advantage of all the help here with the baby. This means David and the other kiddos come visit me once a day for a few hours and love on their meimei (little sis). This also means that when I am not nursing, holding, loving on Gabrielle, or sleeping, then I am resting, or like now, trying to get posting/capturing in because when we go back home, it probably won't happen. I am SO thankful for this time here in this place to rest and praise God and enjoy Gabrielle).

Each of our children's births have been unique, even though all 4 have been C-sections. This was the first time I was not in labor going in. The difference means I actually had time to ponder all that was about to transpire, and I won't go into the medical details, but it is not fun. When in labor, you are begging for relief, when going in without pain, your asking for pain. I can honestly say that I was 100% more calm than I thought. The night before I had normal 9 month prego sleep without anxiety, and God's grace abounded in every conceivable way. I KNOW that so many people were praying for me, and He answered!

We fed the kiddos donuts they had picked out the night before! Our friends arrived at 7:30 a.m. sharp to help.

Bella: pink frosted

 Tobin: glazed twist

 Sophia: chocolate covered

We arrived at 7:45ish to be admitted to the hospital.

 Getting my bracelet.

Do you need a wheelchair? No, thanks. 

The only laboring going on in this room was trying to find a vein for my IV. This happens every time, and I forgot to warn the nurse. She may have set the record, 5 pricks, 3 nurses. I should have told her to go get her best vein finder. She kept apologizing. My hands were bruised up a bit. These hurt worse than the spinal I received later.

the corridor. 

 David was just trying to break the rules.

 We knew they let us have a camera in the operating room. Here I am prepped and ready, and filled with drugs. This is not natural child birth, folks, but it is what it is and I am so thankful for it, and my doc who is super skilled!

Gabrielle was minutes from being born. While all the prep was going on, I was taking my mind off of it by going down my list of prayer needs in my head, this was so helpful. Really. Without trying to be super spiritual or anything, this was a calming thing that got me focused on others, not my immediate situation.

Tobin's mess: Sept 16th

Because I am a little off my rocker, it will bother me if I don't capture this post about Tobin, which occurred the day before Gabrielle's birth. Then we will get back to sweet, precious, little new Gabrielle. All in time my friends. 

We let the girls wash their teddy bear and baby doll. Later on David let the girls wet his own hair and comb it as he sat at the computer, like a hair dresser. Therefore, Tobin had to get a piece of the action. Water play is always fun. His was in the bathroom, we were letting him do it, just not quite sure what he was up to the whole time. This is what we discovered:

 Yes, yes, pure cuteness.

Though everything is not smooth sailing around here, as to be expected. Tobin is not getting enough sleep, and is in some big transitions, but he is doing okay despite.  This really is more a typical day, or part of one:

One day as David was correcting/disciplining Tobin, David said: 'Tobin that was not loving' and immediately Tobin busted out in song: 'His lovingkindness oh how free!' We thought this cute and funny and clever, so we told the anecdote to a few people. Tobin caught on, the next few times he was in for discipline he started singing. Not so cute now buddy, but nice try!

He is still stealing all the hearts of the Thai staff up at the hospital at the many different offices David has to go to get all our paperwork in order....

Correction: She's not THAT small

Correction: Gabrielle Shalom Coker's length is not 28 cm (11 inches) but 48 cm (18.9 inches), oops. She is small, but not THAT small.

I did correct it in my original post, but just wanted to post this as well! I am enjoying loving on this little precious one. More updates to come (hopefully).

Announcing...

We are over-joyed to announce the birth of our daughter Gabrielle Shalom Coker on September 17, 2013 at 10:06 am in Bangkok, Thailand. She weighs 3.0 kg (6 lbs 9 oz) and is 48 cm long (18.9 inches). Lorraine and Gabrielle are doing really well and resting. God has been our strength and help in a very real sense today (Isaiah 41:10). I’m amazed at his provision. Thank you for praying!

Gabrielle [pronounced: Gab-ree-el] is a feminine form of the name Gabriel, which means "man of God," "God has shown himself strong," or "God is my strength." Gabriel was the angel who announced God's coming Kingdom to Daniel (Daniel 9:24) and the very coming of that King- our Lord Jesus (Luke 1:11-20; 1:26-38). 

Gabriel was God's spokesman and servant who stood in the presence of God (hence to serve him; Luke 1:19; see Dan 7:10) and was commissioned by God to announce Good News (1:19), namely Christ's forerunner and his coming (Luke 1:32). 

Shalom [pronounced: shuh-lome] is the Hebrew term for peace. It is not the mere absence of conflict nor just an inner feeling of peace. It is a relational peace that denotes well-being, wholeness, and completeness. God's shalom restores the brokenness that sin brought between God and mankind and between people (and brings wholeness and rightness into these relationships).  It is through Christ- the prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6)- and the cross that we can come to experience this shalom with God and with one another.

So, in naming our daughter Gabrielle Shalom, our prayer is that she would be a woman who finds her strength in God- a woman who serves him and proclaims the Good News. Our prayer is also that her life (and our family) would be characterized by shalom- shalom with God and shalom with others. Please join us in praying that God would bring about these hopes and desires within Gabrielle Shalom's life.

Birthday Eve

It is the birthday eve of our little girl. 'Am I ready' has been the question of the day. Yes, and no. Sophia, sounding so grown-up yesterday, did ask: "mama, are you ready to have a baby in two days?!"
In some ways I feel very calm, and this has been all the Lord, because when I really start think through the nitty gritty of the procedure and details and what ifs? anxieties and fear flood. But so far, casting all on Him in prayer has helped these to subside tremendously...

Here is what the last few days have looked like...
I took all 3 kiddos on a long outing to give David some real quiet time (he often would wear headphones and work from his desk while we did school, played, screamed, etc.). We went to Big C, Toys-R-Us, a kids play place (all these in one mall), ate yaki soba for lunch and 3+ hours later went home. This all was going pretty smooth until lunch time when Tobin refused food and whined/cried for fifteen minutes while we ate. Finally, after promises of no milk and no baa baa until he ate something, he ate his whole plate of noodles, even though he said he didn't like it.

In the afternoon David took the girls swimming, and then we all headed up to the mall for Indian food, something David and I have been wanting to do before the baby. First we hit the bookstore, where I finally found a baby book for the upcoming Coker gal. Previously I have had time in the hospital to start working on this. All the kids did eat some of the Indian food, and what is not to love about Butter Naan?

Today, I did a tiny bit of school with the kiddos, did dishes and laundry as much as I could, with clothes still hanging to dry in our bedroom (it has been raining a lot)! I hope to get those folded in the next few hours. We ate mexican for dinner because kids eat free on Monday nights. And we stopped to get special  breakfast for tomorrow since we will need to be out the door by 7:30 a.m.

We did have a few pow wows throughout the day with the folks watching the kids. I printed up a schedule/hints, etc. Mainly, we said: whatever works for you! They have 3 kids of their own, so 'if you need to watch videos and eat chocolate all day, by all means!' The kids all play really well together, things will be fine. I am mainly worried about Tobin's listening/obedience skills, and his ability to throw a really good punch.

Tonight, after sword fighting, bedtime stories were birth stories. And even though all 3 were C-sections, each has an interesting twist that makes their births unique. Then they asked about our own birth stories...yeah right, who knows? All I know is that in 1977 in February it snowed in Florida. David started to wax eloquent about it being a breezy fall day in NC, leaves had changed their color, and on and on when he was born...making it all up (though probably true).

If all goes well, I usually stay in the hospital 5 days. During that time David will be working on getting the birth certificate translated into English in time for our embassy appointment on Monday. That appointment is to get the baby's passport. This takes anywhere from 5 days to 2 weeks, usually. After that comes back we need to get a Chinese visa as well. Then we can head home.
But one step at a time. We need to have a baby first!

Delivery is scheduled for 10 a.m. Thai time. That is 11 p.m. Monday night for all you folks in the U.S.A, we will keep you posted!

Who needs Kidzania? Kids at play

While David was out one afternoon and Tobin and I were napping, the girls played for over an hour and a half. This is what I found: They had set up a Krispy Kreme shop, with cut out donuts, fake money, a cash register, a home-made box, a menu to check off, and even delivery.

They had small, medium, big, huge, and gigantic (these were their real categories).

 When I got up I had to visit their shop...

 I chose delivery, she was checking to make sure of my order.

 They love playing this! And I have to say it has kept them quite busy. Sophia did admit to all the nuances being her idea, but Bella has a blast as well.

Then today...

It was Sophia's turn to go with me to the doctor, but because we were helping watch another couple's two kids while they went to their embassy appointment, I had to get there and back fast. So our mommy date changed to haircut and snack in the afternoon. When we returned, we played outside for a bit and then David and I needed to discuss evening plans so we sent the kids to play in their room. It was quite quiet, we checked on them every so often. They were playing house in the closet. Sophia was the mom, Bella was ten years old and would help her cook, Tobin was a two month old. It was very funny. 

Then after a while we got a call to come look and they said it was Christmas time at their house:

 They had decorated well with clothes hangers.

Little tidbits

Bella:
"After we have mei mei we get to go back home and then Poppy and CC will come"
Me: "I am glad you are so excited!"
Bella: "I am so excited! More than all the numbers in the world."

Sophia has some loose teeth, and she is very excited about them. She wants them to fall out but she is a little scared too. I gave her an apple to bite into. She paused, closed her eyes, then took a bite. She said she was praying before she did it. Still no major movement yet. But she is so quick to go to prayer in everything, puts me to shame sometimes. 


Sophia also got a haircut today, just down the road. She did not want it cut at all (it is almost to her bottom). Then she just wanted an inch off. I had them take 3-4 inches off, promising her it would grow back fast! It looks really healthy. We did this on our mommy date today.

Tobin is still a big fruit cake, and all boy, cracking us up every day, and proving his two-ness (vying for independence) all the same. In this pic he had put his shorts on all by himself. But not quite. They ended up two legs in one hole and all the way up around his waist, so he looked like he didn't have any shorts on at all.