Guess what we heard?!?!?!

Today Daniel and I went to see my midwife. Yes, midwife...we're having a baby!! And today, for the very first time, we heard baby Audi's heartbeat. I'm 12 weeks and 4 days today. The little one is due November 3.

You may also know that we are traveling to Nepal in a few weeks. And, yes, we are still going. My midwife has given me the green light and we've also gotten the green light from an American doctor who is friends with the folks we know in Nepal. She knows exactly what we'll be doing on our trek in the Himalayas and has lived and practiced medicine in the country for several years.

This baby already has such a blessing over his/her life. The doctors have not only said it will be okay for me and the baby to be in the Himalayas at 15, 16, and 17 weeks of pregnancy, they've actually said the timing is PERFECT! I love that about God - His perfect timing. He knew that this trip was planned. And He knew that little baby would be conceived at the perfect time to allow for us to go on this last trip together overseas before our family expands. Sure, we'll continue to travel after the expansion, but this will be our last trip for a while, just the two of us (technically speaking ;-))

Another amazing thing about baby Audi. Six people have had dreams about the baby, three of them being refugees that I tutor. I'll start with the one that came last summer - almost a year ago.

-I was tutoring Marian Omar and she said to me, "Miss," (they all call me and all other women 'Miss' rather than 'Mrs.') Anyhow, she said, "Miss, I dream about you last night. You have 2 babies. What do you call that? Twins?" "Yes!" I told her, but told her we weren't pregnant and definintely I wasn't having twins. :-)

The next three dreams were shared with us during the week before baby Audi was conceived.

-I called Habiba Omar, Marian's sister, to say hello. I don't tutor her anymore. As soon as she heard it was my voice on the other end of the phone, she said, "Miss, are you calling from the hospital? I dream you have baby girl and call me from the hospital. You say, 'Come, Habiba, see my baby girl!'" I told her we weren't pregnant and kind of laughed. However, I saw my small group leader, Nikki, the following night and she told me she had something to tell me.

-Nikki told me that she had three dreams about me in one night...and it was Friday night, the same night that Habiba dreamed I was pregnant. In all three dreams, she dreamed that I was pregnant!

-That same week, I was at Catholic Charities and a co-worker of mine and Daniel's came up to me and said, "Kim, I had this dream about you this week and you were pregnant. You had this cute little pregnant belly!"

We thought it was interesting that three people had dreams about me being pregnant, all in the same week, but we actually thought it was the Lord just encouraging me. I tend to be a hypochondriac and would occasionally say that maybe I couldn't get pregnant. And I was sad about the 'what if'. So, I believed God was just saying through those people's dreams that I would be able to bear children. End of story.

Well, 5 weeks later, I took a pregnancy test and....the results were:


After we began telling friends about the baby, we heard of two other dreams people had about the baby.

-Sakina, a Congolese refugee who is a strong believer and is one of my students, replied to my telling her that we are having a baby with, "Miss, I know. I dream you born baby boy."

-Izehi, a dear friend who now lives in Turkey, upon hearing our news told me that before she moved to Turkey over a year ago, she had a dream that Daniel and I would, in fact, not be moving to Turkey with her and our other friends who moved there, and she also dreamed that we were expecting a baby!

It's really so sweet to hear that the Lord is speaking to dear friends and sweet refugee students about our child. We are humbled and encouraged. We believe the Lord has divine plans for this child!

baby Audi at 6 weeks, 4 days

When we return from Nepal, we'll have another sonogram and find out if baby Audi will be a 'he' or a 'she'!