Well here it is;
This happened in late November at my house in Michigan – every word is true. I wrote this up the next day to try to keep track of the details. Now it’s time to share!
*****
I just added to the stories I have that no one else can tell. Check this one out.
We have this Romanian couple and their two children staying with us. The little girls are five and three; and don’t understand a word of English. The parents are hardworking, humble, intelligent, and just all round good people.
We met them through the church home fellowship. That’s when they first came here from Romania to have their second child. Some of the details as to why have only made known to me in the last 24 hours, I’ll get to this later.
So they’re coming over here to have their third child and are in need of a place to stay. Jana volunteers our place for them to stay. I’m OK with this. For those of you, who don’t know me that well, let me tell you a bit.
It’s a Christian’s duty to somehow do well unto others. I don’t feel right pushing my beliefs on others, I don’t knock on doors (oh please no), I don’t give money to organized religion, I don’t go on marches or parades, and I don’t get caught up in causes. So what the heck kind of man of God am I supposed to be?
Well there are those in the bible that feed the poor and those that took a jawbone to slaughter 10,000; so I figure I have some latitude. In the last five years I’ve managed to wrangle about 150 personal computer donations for home schooled children, everyone should have a computer. Another thing I do is open our home or help someone personally when I can (money, advice, whatever). Jana knew it would be alright to have them stay with us for a month or so while in the states.
Now the Romanian couple that were coming to stay with us are going to have a home birth, Jana told them they could have the baby at our home. WTF!!! I didn’t agree to have a baby at our house! Our third child, Joseph, was a home birth. Against my better judgment I went along with the homebirth and it ended badly. Jana lost almost half her blood supply, rushed to the hospital, emergency surgery, three weeks in intensive care, a third of her hair fell out, and on the horrid tale goes. So for the next three weeks I’m feeding a six pound newborn without a mom in the ICU while Jana was out. I didn’t shower much and I didn’t like the home birth much. I fear this. BTW; Joseph just turned 11. So figure I have a bad knee jerk reaction to this idea or the witch doctors who call them selves midwives without any real medical credentials.
After I made my opinion known, Jana comes to a compromise and they set up a birthing house with another member of the home fellowship. They set up a birthing tub (big thing like a hot tub) with all the stuff needed for the birth at the other house. I feel kind of like a jerk for saying it can’t be here, but my fears are close to home.
So a few days ago she goes into labor. The husband and wife bug out while we watch the two little girls. I had fun trying to mime the words ‘finish your dinner first.’ After 36 hours of on and off labor, the labor was off. The two of them came back and everything seemed like it had died down. So my mother, myself, and the youngest five kids go to see Bolt at the theaters (IT WAS AWSOME – especially in 3D with little kids).
We left and everything was fine, we come back and she’s having contractions. They make a few calls and make ready to get going over to the birth house. She goes up to the upstairs bathroom for a round of contractions. I keep saying; ‘go to the hospital.’ Her husband explains that if they go to a hospital without insurance, even a city hospital, they may not get a visa again (any outstanding dept might do this). Another reason they wanted to come to the states for the birth - her first birth was a C-section and in Romania they just keep doing C-sections after that. Also they tie her tubes after the third child. These are big reasons for coming here to have their children; plus the little ones can exercise US citizenship if they want to later.
One of my kids comes to tell me there is a leak in the basement. I go to check it out and I see the problem quick, the hot water heater is leaking badly. Lucky for me the hot water heater is positioned next to a drain and no harm done. I turn the cold water line to the water heater off and the leak starts to slow. In my head I start making plans to buy a new hot water heater and change it out in the morning; I’m handy that way.
Jana comes down stairs and says, ‘we need to talk.’ She explains that the contractions are now three minutes apart and if they try to move her the baby may be born in the back of a car. I find myself with little to say other than, ’sure, OK, of course.’ Now I get back to looking at the hot water heater, thinking ‘do I have gas in my solder torch?’
‘Why is there no hot water?’ my wife yells down to the basement. What? She’s giving birth in the kids bathtub and there’s no hot water. Oh crap! I go turn the hot water heater back on and just let it drain while providing some hot water to the tub. In the mean time, my wife… wait for it… wait for it… is boiling water while helping birth the baby!!!
My wife is boiling water while waiting for the baby to come. I still can’t stop laughing at it. No one I know has this story or one like it. And, the baby was born with in an hour. The child and mother are both very health. The midwife showed up and hour later with alcohol on her breath.
I still feel like the jerk about the whole thing. In the end everything went fine, but it still wigs me out to not have real medical people around for something major like that. The next day we had regular hot water again (after some work).
Joe
