The Baby Is Here!!

Baby Girl was born Monday September 29th at 2:50pm. She was 6 pounds, 9 oz and 19 inches long. She is absolutely beautiful and has dark hair, which is surprising considering that all of our other kids are tow-headed.

My delivery was a little more exciting than we had hoped. Right before the baby was ready to be born, my mother started having chest pains and feeling sick. She was rushed to the ER downstairs and missed the entire thing :-0 In spite of this, God was very good and gave me a peace throughout the entire delivery. Mom's blood pressure was 205/110, but fortunately it was determined that she did not have a heart attack. She was just stressed and had overdone things the past few weeks. After a few hours, she and Dad were able to come back upstairs and see their new granddaughter :-)

I did have some blood pressure issues during delivery and am still somewhat swollen. I have also had some post-partum issues with bleeding, so they gave me Oxytocin even after delivery to slow this down. We came home tonight because with Mom sick, we were having too many issues with childcare. My OB made me promise to stay down and get some help, so Jason is doing his best to coordinate things and allow me to rest. I plan on taking it easy, since I do not want to go back ;-)

Heading for the hospital now. . .

and I will post an update when I can. We are looking forward to meeting our newest family member.

Blessings to you!

Almost to Thailand

For those of you following Derry and Angela's journey to Thailand, here is an update from Angela:

Hey all! We made it into Korea and are now waiting on our flight to Chiang Mai. It will only be a 5 hour flight. We are doing good, both tired and cranky. The food hasn't been bad and we LOVED flying on Korean Air (highly recommend it!). Derry says 'don't buy 'Subway' sandwiches at the airport in Korea.' We have seen some interesting things and they will be blogged on our website soon!

Some how we skipped over the last part of Sunday and the first part of Monday. We left LA on Sunday and around noon and arrived in Korea on Monday around 5pm (all their time of course!), and we will arrive in Chiang Mai on Tuesday morning! It sounds so confusing! My watch is still on US time and I look at it sometimes and think about the things that our families would be doing at that time (especially the Stamm family who we lived with for a month!).

God has truly taken care of us on this trip. Little things like letting us get in the first class line to get our tickets (still flying economy) and us getting to sit next to each other on our Korean flights (our itinerary didn't have us sitting next to each other when we got it).

We love you and wanted to let you know we are okay! We don't want our mommas to worry! =) (Love you mom!)

PS- by the time some of you read this we will be in Thailand! (12:05pm your time!)

Angela & Derry Gambill

www.gambillsgothai.com

http://dagambill.blogspot.com/

Please continue to pray for my brother and his wife on this new journey.

Jones Family Update

Jason went back to the primary care doctor on Thursday and was given a pill to help with blood sugar (we were hoping for insulin!) and *more* pain medication. The doctor feels that the pill will do the trick and will be a more stable option than the insulin, which sometimes causes a quick drop in blood sugar. We wanted the quick fix of insulin, considering how long he has been going through all of this. The doctor is also hoping that with the new medication, healing will speed up and that in a few weeks, the pain medication won't even be necessary. Hopefully, he is right, but I guess we will just have to wait and see.

There have been several evenings this week when we thought we were headed to the hospital to have the baby, but then things would taper off and I would eventually get back to sleep. Unless she comes before then, we are being induced on Monday. Personally, I hope she comes before then, but if not, I only have two more days to wait. My parents are out of town this weekend, which would complicate things somewhat, but I'm sure we could handle it.

Please pray for my parents and my entire family this weekend. My brother and his wife fly out of DFW first thing tomorrow morning. They are on there way to Thailand to work with the North Thailand Christian Mission and are not expected to be back in the states for at least two years. This is why my parents aren't here this weekend ;-) My mother is very emotional because this is her "baby". Also, my brother and his wife are not assigned seats together for their last two flights from California to Korea, and then from Korea to Chaing Mai, so we are praying that someone will be willing to trade with them so that they can be together.

Jason Update

Jason went to the surgeon yesterday. We got mostly good news. The surgeon feels that from a surgical standpoint, he is doing well and that he has done all he can do for us. The bad news is that his pain is still not controlled, so now we are being referred to a pain management specialist. We are also being referred on to someone who can hopefully set Jason up on insulin. We have been told that a pain management specialist can sometimes find non narcotic ways to handle the pain, and we are hoping and praying this is true for Jason. He cannot return to work on narcotics. We are also hoping this is a short term situation and that the pain will eventually resolve itself. Perhaps the insulin can help with this, since we know he must still have a great deal of healing to do internally. Please keep us in your prayers as we move forward with these new options and specialists.

Counting Down. . .

We are looking for baby to be born some time in the next week. If I do not have her before then, I will go in next Monday morning to be induced. There are so many things I want to get done in the next week, but I have run out of energy :-( Trying to delegate isn't working so well for me either, so we will see what happens.

Our church threw a baby shower for us yesterday. We were overwhelmed with blessing. There were so many people there and the food was excellent. We carried home some nice presents--pretty outfits & bows for baby, an Arbonne baby gift set, diapers and wipes, a lovely hooded towel, some personalized burp cloths, receiving blankets, an ABC scripture memory book, and a cash gift (from 38 different families) that will allow us to purchase a swing we have been wanting for the baby plus tons of diapers & wipes. We are very blessed.

Hard Decisions

I have had to make many difficult decisions over the last year or so since Jason got sick. Many times, he couldn't be a part of the process because he was too sick or medicated to think clearly. Other times, he simply deferred to me and let me make certain decisions. Right now, we have a very difficult financial decision that has to be made. There is a definite deadline for the decision (October 6th), and there is no clear right or wrong answer. We have gathered information, sought counsel and now I am praying about what to do. Jason understands that a decision needs to be made, but he is not really feeling up to making this decision. He will go with whatever I advise.

I have always had people tell me that I should never make important decisions while I am pregnant. Unfortunately, there are *some* decisions that I have not had the luxury of postponing :-( Today I have had an epiphany: Making important decisions while you are emotional, sleep deprived, trying to take care of a sick husband and young children, and getting ready to give birth at any moment is like driving while intoxicated. Your judgment is impaired. Please pray for me to have wisdom, clarity and peace about the decision(s) that I need to make.