march update

Here I am again after nearly three weeks in the house. It’s been very difficult being inside for me, but God has taught me patience, trust in Him, and sensitivity to those who are stuck in their homes and beds for one reason or another.
After 13 hours of labor in the hospital, Santiago was born march 13 at 3am. I was in the public hospital, the best public hospital of all, so I’ve heard. I was in one room with two other women. We are kept to labor and push in one room and when the head is visible I had to walk across the hall, climb up myself onto another bed and push the final two times, and there is where they clean and fingerprint the baby. After that I was put in a recovery room with three other women and was going to be discharged from the hospital at noon, only 9 hours after giving birth, but later they decided to discharge me later that night.
Now I’ve learned how different my experience was from giving birth in a United States hospital, but at the time I didn’t feel uncomfortable there. All of it, including two vaccinations for the baby and iron vitamins for me, cost us about $7. The best part was having our missionary nurse friend Rhonda there with me throughout the entire labor and delivery. She stayed with me all through thte night and let me squeeze her hands, HARD, during every contraction. I think she had just as long a recovery as me!
We are doing better now, getting a little more used to the baby each day. I’ve learned that life will never be the same! For example, the other day I wanted to take the baby outside on the porch to rock him in the rocking chair, while reading a book and eating ice cream. First I had to take out the rocking chair, then dish out my ice cream. Great, I sat down and he started to cry. I never did finish my ice cream. Most of it melted by the time I could actually eat it, and I never even opened the book!
Santiago has proven to be very active. Today he slept about two hours, all day! And he hardly slept last night. I think I’m going to have to stop eating so much sugar! I was told that all newborns do is sleep. Hopefully he’ll sleep more in the night, but I’m not holding my breath.
Santiago has an appointment to get his U.S. passport at the U.S. embassy april 28th and beto has his visa appointment april 29th. Please pray for both of these.