Pregnancy update

On the 27th Sept we went for our final scan to check whether Yohaan is growing fine and fit. It is called Fetal health and development scan. No doubt I will be having scans more often now, but this one was a biggie. So off we went and as it usually happens in Dubai, was happily caught in a traffic snarl. And we waited and waited worrying that the hospital wont take us in if we were to be late....they make a very,very,very big deal if you reach late even by a minute and then routinely punished by being made to wait for an hour to get your turn back. Well, I called the nurse in advance to warn her and although we reached about 10 minutes late, we found ourselves waiting one and half hour with my bladder bursting! I mean, really bursting! I had been downing glasses of water in preperation for the sonography.

Never mind all that, we had a nice Arab doctor, who was slightly elderly so kept repeating all her findings twice, thrice! And Yohaan is doing great! So pleased am I. His size is still ahead by a week, as is his head size, but nothing to be woried about as the doctor kindly pointed out to me ''well, you have a big head''.....errr, hello? What about the coconut headed daddy standing around looking pleased with this info!! Daddy just smiled cheekily while I tried to point out to the doctor that it is not me, it's him!

The scan was very thorough, with the doctor mumbling her ''Mashallah's'' . Yohaan seemed very active that day , probably sensed that mamma needed to pee badly, who knows! He mostly refused to cooperate and wouldnt show his frontal face to us...so the doctor couldnt really check out his lips, nose etc. He kept putting his hand over his face. The scan also took a long while and I remember feeling drowsy and even bored! In a little while, I actually tuned out and found myself noticing the doctors nicotine stained teeth! I know I am supposed to get majorly excited everytime we have a scan and see the little one, but I think I am nearing that stage when I am just bored and feel people should move on and not talk of the baby all the time. It is weird I guess, but I blame it all on the hormones...anyway, all is fine with Yohaan and me.

Around 10 weeks to go and I cant wait...in the mean while Yohaan kicks, rolls, swishes and hiccups. Also, enjoys soft ballads and classical music every time we play it in our car. He seems to be eating,sleeping and doing everything else he is supposed to be doing well.

What a wonderful, wonderful God to have blessed me with this pregnancy!

India!!

I recently came across a comment on a blog from a foreign volunteer working in India amongst the poor and the needy. Very commendable and all that. But a statement from her infuriated me no end....the commentator called India and my hometown, Varanasi beautiful and ''ugly'' in the same breath!! Apparently, she went to many places and this was her finding on most of India. What's there to be annoyed about you might ask me?? Well, on the face of it nothing really. Any visitor to any xyz country is entitled to his/her own opinions and really, that should not bother us. Why then did this commentator manage to get my goat? Well, firstly because, she is a christian and therefore one would assume have some semblance of compassion and senstivity towards a country she has chosen to work in, on a voluntary basis that too! And secondly, because just like any nation of the world , Jesus loves India!! As simple as that. That nation, with it's more than one billion people, it's flora and fauna, it's languages, it's pulse- all has been ordained by God Himself and no human has a right to denounce it or any country for that matter, in a derogatory manner.

I am Indian, so naturally my hackles are raised on this commentator's views. But really, I am an expat too, living in the middle east. I dont serve in any ministry and I havent gone all out to be charitable and all that here. But I do love and respect this country. Which expat in this world finds it all easy and nice and ''like home'' ? It is not easy being uprooted, displaced and away from ''home'' but any amount of trouble, hardship or feeling of alienation does not give us a right to bad mouth the country we have chosen to put down our tent in. Me and my husband have a very comfortable life here, but that does not mean we are really ''home'', does it? We are aliens, foreigners, expats call it what like. These synonyms dont sound very good to the ears does it...We have had our share of problems and issues settling down here, but in this fallen world, which nation on Earth can claim any form of superiority on the basis of religion, world class medical care, elderly care, education, physical appearances, science & technology, per capita income,safety & crime, moral and social fabric , taxes etc? When we choose to make a particular country our home, please lets accord it respect and affection.

Experts and professionals volunteer to work in some of the world's most dangerous nations, but would negate all their good work if they were to bad mouth that very nation. I have had one foreign worker say to my face that ''India is like a toliet'', I was saddened and shocked. What kind of christian service and heart do you bring to a country which you think is like a toilet anyways? Does God think so too? I seriously doubt that. I am so sick of expats not just in India, but even here in Dubai who have no words of praise but constantly crib and complain about expat living. I am pleased to note that they are all in the process of migrating to whichever country they ''perceieve'' as being more suitable for them. Good luck and good riddance I say! One of the fruits of the spirit is to display patience, why cant we show some of it to whichever country we are living in? This is especially for expats who have volunteered to live and work in a particualr country....even if you haven't , please stop being petty and a spoilt brat and give it all a break. God loves every country and has a plan for every one of them. How dare we stand and denounce any of His creations!!

Whatever our lot, Prasie be to God, because of Him, it falls in to pleasant places!

Oh My God....!!

It is with great pleasure that I come back to my blog !! My last post was on 8th June 08....with promises to myself to keep this blog going , to give myself an outlet to vent more than anything else. But anyone will notice, I slacked off and didn't get around to posting any new stuff....so much for those promises! Well, as all my friends and family know everything happens for a reason and so it with greatest awe and pleasure I announce that Joey and me are expecting our first baby!!!!!!! And it's a boy! And we are naming him Yohaan- meaning God has blessed. Indeed He has and that my dear people is the reason for my long absence.....this pregnancy was most unexpected, well rather expected but still a huge shock nevertheless! I have been hit by a host of overwhelming feelings and it became simply too much. This space got neglected.

Now as I am more settled and in my final trimester I realised I must keep this going although this blog will become more of a mommy blog now!! I would like to thank a fellow blogger Mad Momma at http://thebratthebeanandbedlam.wordpress.com/ whom I absolutely adore and love to read. She has been such an inspiration from the day I bumped in to her blog a few months ago, right after my pegnancy was confirmed and I was surfing for baby related blogs. There are many others I read but she has kept me most inspired to become a fabulous mother that she herself is!! Thank you mad momma! You rock!

I will now be posting regularly, every little bit that happens to me, my husband and my Yohaan, as we preapre to become a family that Christ has ordained. My heart is awed and filled to the brim with the sheer joy of becoming pregnant...another post is called for detailing my testimony, as to how I did become pregnant in the first place, battling infertility for a year and a half. I hope it will be a comfort to those who are in the same boat as I was once. My heart goes out to such couples more than ever now. I shall continue to uphold you in my prayers and ask you to do the same for this mommy to be , the daddy and little Yohaan.

''Give praise to the Lord for His love endures forever''

In Him, forever grateful!