what a weekend...

Forgive us for a terrible delay in our blogging. Noah and I returned to Lima safely a week ago and we were off and running! Unfortunately, on Saturday, we think due to something we ate, I began a serious bacterial intestinal infection which took me out for the next 2 days. Michael had to skip a few ministry events to care for Noah, while he himself was also not feeling very well. On Sunday, after church, Tito came over and played with Noah so that Michael could take me to the clinic. There I received an IV and fluids immediately and they prescribed me some medications that would be safe to take with my pregnancy. By Monday morning I was feeling so much better, Noah started back to school, and then Michael got hit really hard by a similar illness. Yesterday afternoon, he took himself to the clinic and got the same routine, but his exams revealed a viral infection! By God's grace, I was on the mend enough to take over with Noah and Daddy was done for the night (aside from watching an "Office" re-run).

Then today, Elita came early to watch Noah while we went to my OB appointment with Dr. Garcia. I'm four months along and officially able to determine the sex of the baby. So, like we did with Noah, we made a little note and envelope and asked the doctor to circle which one it was. Then afterwards, we went out for a lovely lunch together (this time it was ceviche!) and opened it together. She had sealed it well, placing inside a sonogram picture of the evidence and a list of Spanish baby names, which we discussed over lunch - but the jury is still out on that. Then we came home and told Elita and Noah, both of whom were delighted. If you want to find out (I know some people like to wait 'til the kid is born), you can watch the video of Noah.

(Forgive the un-candidness of Noah's reaction, that was the 3rd take)

After all this excitement, I noticed on Noah several little red bumps on his neck that had grown in number since the weekend, then found more in other parts of his body. We called the doctor right away and got an appointment to rule out chicken pox. Thankfully, it was just an allergic reaction to some bug bites. Being in and out of doctors' offices four times in the last 48 hours wears on you.