A Long Post About December 3rd

What happened at the The Grand House Opening.

Well, while I was cleaning bathrooms at the house on Wednesday morning I got the news that my sister-in-law, Martha, had started with some labor pains. She was well due to deliver her first child and we had all been waiting with baited breath.

I left my cleaning rag at the new house and walked over to Martha’s house. Yes, she had some pain in the morning but it stopped. Her older sister was with her so I left Martha in her care and said call me when she’s really in labor and went back to the house.

Soon after returning to the new house to clean some more bathrooms before the big walk-thru in the night, I got another call. This time it was from the local government hospital. My niece (O.’s sister’s daughter) had been sick for some time so since Tuesday I had her go for chest X rays etc. She was now in the government hospital getting her first morning spit tested. And yes, she has tuberculosis. Now the hospital person is calling me for all her house information because they have to come and see where she lives and then give her the 6 month course of medication.

This is all before the House Opening even began.

That evening when I was getting ready for the event, I started to feel sick. I drank some chai at someone’s house around 3:30PM and it didn’t settle right. I thought I would throw up. I needed to vomit, but I held it back. The last time I vomited a couple weeks ago, it was so strong I burst blood vessels in my face.

Well, you know how it is when you need to clear something out of your system and you don’t. I was breaking out in sweat, I felt feverish – on top of feeling lousy. I arrived at the new house by 6PM and thought, I can’t stay. I’ll stay for the ribbon cutting and go home, let O. do the testimony.

By this time the stomach problems had moved down into my bowels and I decided to use the bathrooms in the new house. I went into a bathroom for about twenty minutes. Prayed and prayed and got a little relief. I thought I might go down hill again after 10 minutes or so, but I didn’t. Praise the Lord. I just felt better and better and by 7PM I was totally fine and feeling great and gave the testimony I wanted to give. Another Praise the Lord.

Micah 7:8a “Do not gloat over me , my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise.”

Over all about 800 people came through the house and were fed. We never did get to show the movie, there was a sound problem, but the team we had come and sing was great and a big hit.

Praise God for a wonderful night and thanks for the prayers.

New Addition

We got a new baby in our family on December 4th. Hence, why all blog info has stopped for several days. After a long day (and night) at the house opening I decided everyone was taking Thursday off and sleeping in.
This worked until 4:11 AM when I got a phone call that Martha was truly in labor. So, we were all at the hospital by 5AM.

We got us another baby girl in our family at 11:45AM. It was a normal (read - non-caesarean) delivery. Which is HUGE. It is the first time in 9 years in this city that I have ever seen a child born in a private hospital delivered non-cesarean. A Great Big answer to prayer. I had even prayed that the Doctor wouldn't even mention caesarean - and she didn't. Normal from start to finish.

Martha and baby came home from the hospital tonight - which is a big relief because in India you have to provide all your own food for patients and since O. left yesterday morning to Rajasthan with our car, it was mighty difficult for me to get food, etc. back and forth to the hospital. Anyway. All is good.

No name yet for baby, but she was born with really long fingernails - she gets them from me - and I thought it very cool of her to use them to scratch her parents' initials on her cheek the first day. M. A. (Martha, Amar).

Me with E. and G. after a long but productive night. (Martha's Doctor is also my Doctor so I keep getting instructed to lay down, take a rest, go home. At one point my Doctor was sending messages up to me via visitors to the hospital. "Uh, your Doctor says you're supposed to be resting."