From Heidi’s perspective:

We thought some of you would enjoy hearing more of the “behind the scenes” information about our new little daughter’s birth. Things are definitely different when you give birth overseas! We had several things set up for when I would go into labor. A Lisu lady, a tribal group in China and Thailand (ironically the same tribal group that Isobel Kuhn ministered to–whom we named Susanna Isobel after), agreed to be on call for babysitting Rachel and Isaac for us. An American Christian OB nurse, Jan, who lives here in Chiang Mai and has made people in our situation her special ministry, volunteered to be a doula for me. And then, because we are completely reliant on public transportation to get around town, we had the number for the free hospital shuttle.

Sunday night, the 14th, Chris and I prayed specifically that if the Lord wanted us to get back to Cambodia by our target date in early November that He would bring the baby sometime during the night or before midday Monday. Well, after sleeping as well as a 9-month pregnant lady can, I awoke Monday morning the 15th to what I thought might be a contraction. It seemed a little different than the Braxton-hicks contractions that I’d been having for weeks. That was 5:35am. About 15 minutes and 2 not-so-painful contractions later, Chris woke up and I casually mentioned to him that maybe today would be “the day!”

From about 6am on we just casually got dressed and ready and I found that I was a little confused about what was going on in my body. I know that having short labors are supposed to be a blessing, but in my mind things were happening faster than I could understand….or communicate! Hard to talk through contractions when they are coming every 2-3 minutes! Somehow we managed to get in touch with the hospital shuttle, our babysitter, the doula, and took the traditional “before” picture of how big my belly was. Finally, around 7am, the hospital shuttle arrived and I was on my way to the hospital. Chris stayed behind waiting for our babysitter to show up (she had to drive across town). The doula told me that she would come and meet me at the hospital once I had been checked and knew where things stood….guess I sounded upbeat when I talked to her on the phone!

I arrived at the hospital shortly after 7 and still must have seemed to be under control. They had me stand on a scale, got my fingerprints for some special baby memorabilia, asked me about 50 questions about my health and previous pregnancies, etc. All the while I was having contractions every minute or two and I was wondering how much longer it would be before Chris showed up. Finally they checked the babies heartbeat and checked to see how dilated I was. I think they were absolutely stunned when they found that I was already at 7 cm! My relieved “Oh good!!!” made the Thai nurses chuckle. At least I was making good progress! They decided to forego the “mandatory” 20 minutes of fetal heart monitoring and quickly walked me to the labor room. By this time it was about 7:30. Chris contacted me by phone about that time and said he was on his way on a tuk-tuk. I told him I was at 7 cm and he was shocked! He arrived at my labor room at 7:45 and immediately started trying to help me. Jan, my doula, flew in the door at 8:15. I was still handling the contractions well on my own but that was soon to change. When they checked me again at 8:30 I was at 8 cm but starting to really feel the intense back labor pains. I requested for my water to be broken at that point and went from 8 to 10 cm in 5 minutes. It was intense let me tell you! I could also feel that the baby was turning and getting into a better position during all of this. After just 5 minutes of pushing, our beautiful little girl was lying on my chest! She was born at 8:49 am. God had clearly answered our prayer about bringing her before midday on Monday. ☺

We had our shortest hospital stay ever and were discharged just 48 hours later. It was the first time our baby was completely healthy and could stay with us in the room. While I was at the hospital, Chris had to get Susanna’s official Thai birth certificate done and then had to find a translation service in town to get the Thai birth certificate translated into English! Lots of paperwork for sure…all done while watching an active 2 and 4 year old! Today, on Susanna’s third day of life, she took her first tuk-tuk ride and visited the US Consulate here in Chiang Mai to get her passport paperwork started and her Consular Report of Birth Abroad paper (which acts as her official birth certificate). Once the passport is issued (probably 2-3 weeks) we will be able to return home to Cambodia.

I thank the Lord for the fast labor and delivery (third unmedicated) as well as the healthy little baby that the Lord has given to us.