I have a choice between two hospitals and one birth center. Yesterday I had a checkup with my doctor and today I met a midwife.

Whose hands would you trust your own life and the life of your baby with?

Take your pick.

Male, strong, warm, rough-skinned hands with big-knuckled fingers, late 40s, fit, muscular, clean-cut, extremely businesslike, terse, clipped manner, controlling, always in a hurry, sees so many patients he does not remember your name, doesn’t care who you are, has never borne children and never will, and has no problem killing your baby if you want to, too.

Female, soft, wrinkly, bird-bone hands, short, tiny fingers with no grip, weak arms, late 40s, grossly obese, dandruffy, greasy, thinning hair, passive, withdrawn, not particularly personal … doesn’t ask if you want to kill your baby. Only 6 years experience delivering babies. I don’t know if she has given birth herself or not. I forgot to ask.

So, I either bare myself to a man who is a total stranger I’ve never met and do not trust (chances are the doctor on call when I go into labour is not “my” doctor), and meanwhile before every checkup subject myself to bombardment with posters and advertisements about how not to have babies and how to kill them if I don’t want them. They are in every room there, every bathroom, exam room, ultrasound room, the doctor’s office, etc.

Or, I give myself over into the care of a woman who obviously does not even care to take care of herself.

181 days down … 85 more days to go.

Humidity in Koganei (where I used to live) is 98%.
Humidity in Kennewick (where I live now) is 37%.

*shrivels, withers, dessicates to complete mummification*

I bet babies here are more wrinkled than babies in Tokyo. They’ve got to be. Poor baby.

Last week, Ben and I bought a house and we moved in last weekend with a lot of help from his friends and family. Here are some pictures I took before we bought the house. I’ll post some new ones when I get around to taking some. I can’t believe it’s already been a week since we moved.

The house is huge, the yard is huge, and I’m getting exercise just walking around the place and trying to clean up. It’s getting harder to walk now that my stomach is starting to stick out. *pants* We went to a wedding right after we finished moving. We’re pretending to smile but our backs are killing us.

The most exciting thing so far is that Ben and my lovely brother-in-law Sam are repainting the master bedroom from a sickly dull green colour (which is just wonderful for a blog, oh, yes! … but not for a bedroom) to a beautiful, off-white colour, a pale, pale rosy beige called Italian Villa. It looks darker here than on the wall. It’s actually a pinkish pearly white. I can’t wait to get a nice vase and some fresh roses, palest of pale pink. Mmm.

I’d managed to stay healthy since April, but came down on Tuesday with a cold. Today, the sinuses are clearing a bit but the asthma is threatening to act up so I’m gonna go lie down and pass out. Lately, the baby has been kicking like crazy. I wonder if that uses up my calories … I have a double chin now … I feel fat.

On a difficult day a couple months ago, I found a little bird. Somehow, it was comforting and depressing at the same time.

Not a sparrow shall fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, yea are of more value than many sparrows. Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. Matthew 10:29-32

… when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. I Corinthians 15:54-57

The baby has been kicking on and off all day. After being completely and totally freaked out last week by three days of almost no movement, it’s been a special joy to feel her inside.

“They’re sitting there. You baptised them. You say Jesus loves them. Give’em the bread, you lumpy anabaptist!”
– That Wonderful Cup, Credenda Agenda, Volume 18, Number 1

For more, see Teaching Children to Doubt (by Doug Wilson) and Paedocommunion, the Gospel, and the Church (by Peter Leithart)

“Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.”

And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them.

“Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.”

Mark 10:14-16; Luke 18:16-17
Matthew 18:16; Mark 9:42; Luke 17:2

My father recorded a series of lectures about Shakespeare and the Bible. It’s really interesting, and I’m not just saying that because Papa made it. If you liked Leithart’s Brightest Heaven of Invention, then you will want this, too. Every cent from the sale of these lectures goes towards buying land and a building for the Mitaka Evangelical Church (CREC) in Tokyo, the church I attended my whole life (till I got married) and my parents have been missionaries for over 25 years. You can order the CD online.

Just to give you an idea of land prices, a piece of land 10 square feet can cost $8000. The church is looking for land in the suburbs where the prices are a bit lower, but still it’s way more than this 120-member church can afford, with more than half its members being children who are still being homeschooled. If you don’t like Shakespeare but want to help anyway, donations are accepted as well….