Baby coming soon. . . one last catch-up

Here Manon and I are, October 29th about to walk the entire city of Chiang Mai. Monty says I'm "glowing". Then he adds, "like a star about to explode!"

Our children keep sticker charts and when the chart is full they get something really special. In order to get a sticker they have to take initiative to be a blessing to others. We call it the "caught you being good" chart. They might get a sticker for doing chores without being reminded (until it becomes a habit), doing something really kind for one of the younger children, seeing a need in someone else's life and seeking to meet it etc. The entire time they are working on filling up a sticker chart they day-dream about the special thing they want to use their sticker chart for. Manon filled her chart and traded it in for an all day date with Mommy! I was thrilled she wanted to use all of her hard work to get a day out with me. She planned the entire day - she made me show her every back alley market or shopping place I knew in Chiang Mai and we just shopped and shopped. I helped her remember some bargaining phrases in Thai and she had fun with the $10 I gave her to spend. I was blessed to see her spend the majority of her money on others. She bought jewelry for all of the W girls back on our farm, candy for her brothers and a stuffed animal for her sister - how thoughtful!

We were having a great time stopping and enjoying our favorite Thai snack food and just looking at all of the beautiful things until I began having contractions about 5 minutes apart. At one point I was feeling so uncomfortable that I almost took Manon with me to the hospital to see how far along I was. I thought it might be an awkward way to end our perfect day together so I came back to the Juniper Tree (where we are staying) to get my bag packed and give kisses to all of the other little ones. Once I arrived home the contractions slowed down and now are 8-10 minutes apart. Monty said I should have made one more lap through the Night Bizarre so we could have our little guy sooner! He keeps teasing me because when I am out in town shopping, driving or running errands I always begin having contractions. Then, when I come home to rest up thinking that the baby will come soon, everything stops.

We think the baby will come today! Please pray for a safe and healthy delivery, strong baby boy and quick recovery for mom!
Here are the kiddos handling a python! They love opportunities to touch exotic animals.
The man kept wanting to put the python around Ezzie's shoulders, but he stood firm repeating in his most polite voice, "No thankyou, no thankyou, no thankyou!"
Henna carrying Big Sister.
Judah's swim lessons.
Big Sister being the swim teacher.
I love maternity leave because it is a great opportunity to teach the younger children some skills in the pool. When Judah was born, Manon learned to swim. When Ezra was born, Henna learned to swim - so now it is Judah's turn to learn. We all took turns working with him and within the first few days he could swim quite a distance but could not come up for air! Then, I taught him how to tread water and that helped him be able to pause and get a breath. Now he can swim the entire length of the pool! We bribed him with a toy - it boosted his desire to work hard.

Not only is maternity leave great for children learning to swim but it has also boosted Ezra's English abilities. He now speaks in complete sentences - even making a paragraph from time to time. We have also seen this with our other children as well - once in a mostly English environment their language takes off. They are also usually quite quick to pick back up the other languages that have been shelved for this month.