So much to do, so little time.

Last Saturday (over a week ago) I wrote up a to-do list that was boggling my brain it was so big. On Sunday Cute Child's rash started, and by Monday we were en route the Emergency Room at Gertrude Hawkins Childrens Hospital in Muthaiga (across town). The problem is that it was a. raining, and b. college students were rioting on the roads needed to get us there. Police rerouted us, but it took us almost 3 hours to get about 2.5km's. *sigh. Such is life. Meanwhile, our kid sat in his car seat wimpering, his hives spreading more and more.

Long story short, we're over 95% certain it was an allergy to penicillin, and one that he was almost hospitalized for. The doctor was so worried, and us too, that they had us monitoring his breathing, and getting and Epi-Pen to jam into his thigh should his breathing change, or it just stop altogether. !!! Talk about stress. By Friday Hot Husband and I just collapsed. Both of us ill. Me, from being 19 weeks pregnant, and not eating, sleeping, drinking, or stopping enough. And he, from trying to help me with Cute Child but also having a super stressful job and picking up an awful stomach virus that 2 of his coworkers have also been out of the office with. :( Unfortunately he's so bad, we may have to take him to doctor tomorrow. Argh! Cute child's hives are a ton better, they come and go as the chemicals from the penicillin surface, and the itching and extreme misery have abated. Poor kid. And I'm rested, and trying to not get too stressed about how we have 2 weeks (Hot Husband has job training in States for a week- the week before his family arrives for 3 weeks) to get furniture, and everything lined up for the big family visit.

It's overwhelming. I need couches, and a bed and mattress for the guest room. I need to do up lists and write website stuff for Cute Child's birthday presents, and what we'd like for the new baby. Meanwhile we have one week till we find out the gender of this new one. I can't even imagine what it will be like to have 2 kids. There has been so much drama with our health in the last month that it just seems impossible. It isn't, I know. Deeeeeep breath!!! Whew!

If running errands here were easy, it would be different. But they're not. Everything in Africa takes longer. Sometimes it's just impossible. Sometimes it randomly works. Sometimes, something you've done 10 times, just won't work that particular day you try. Going to the bank is my least favorite thing, yet it's something I'm going to have to do several times in the next couple weeks- and I am not looking forward to the hours and hours in line and filling out forms I don't even understand that await me. I'll survive, and it's really not all that awful.

Meanwhile, we've joined the prayer team at church, are starting to see ideas of the future, and have really had some awesome opportunities open up in training different Kenyan pastors here- first off shadowing the Vineyard pastor here and learning from him. He's a really great guy, wise, and very experienced- he grew up in DRC and the Middle East. We like his style- his approach to the gospel and to Africans is refreshing and very Christlike. No big names or titles, no yelling in tongues, no Westernized worship or ways, no prosperity doctrines. Simple beliefs in a loving Father, who heals, saves, restores, delivers, and speaks. We like.

We are thinking of getting a house cat. I know! Me. The dog lover, is considering a house cat. I can't believe it's come to this. But the rats, they won't leave us alone, and one got in the house the other day- fairly certain it's gone now- and it was just too much to bear. We need a mouser, a guard. It has to be trained, short haired, good with children, and excellent at killing rats, large insects, and anything else that threatens our family. In the meantime, we talked to our neighbors and can borrow their cat for the day if needed.

Some things have begun to shift for the finances. For one, the company decided to pay for the new babies labor/delivery and all the items leading up to that. A huge huge HUGE blessing. The day after the announcement we handed them several hundred USD worth of receipts! YAY! This means that if other things continue to come through as promised, we can go home for Christmas. Without them covering the baby, it would have taken a complete miracle for us to financially be able to afford a new set of roundtrip tickets for all of us come next January. For those of you praying- thank you so much! Keep it up we need more of this!

In the meantime, I have two questions.
1. What gender do you think the baby is?
2. What "blog name" should I give it? ____= Cute Child... what should this one be?