My Mongolian Baby

Needless to say, this past week has been a whirlwind of excitement, sadness and just running around crazy. So, we found out we're having a baby and our lives have and will change drastically. Unfortunately, this means that I am not able to continue my service in the Peace Corps. The medical attention the US government requires a pregnant woman to have are not met here in Mongolia. So, we are going home.

Happy? Of course! Sad? Of course. Ultimately, we feel content in the work and service we've done here in the past 17 months. We don't have any regrets in that sense. We were expecting and preparing to leave Mongolia in 8 more months-- so having that change to preparing to leave Mongolia in 7 days is drastic. We have so much stuff we were stowing away for the winter, or clothes we wanted to wear out, friends and places we wanted to visit and projects and work that needed to be completed. But it's time for this Mongolian adventure to end and a whole new one begin! We're hopping straight from one adventure to the next--with absolutely no downtime.

I can't see this any other way than exciting!

"How did this happen?" You may be asking yourself. Well I found out the same way most women find out-- in the bathroom. It's just that my bathroom is quite different than most women's. This is where I found out:

How did I tell Justin? Well, that special trip to the outhouse was about a week ago. I knew Justin was teaching at the government building until 6:30, so I prepared dinner and got our TV show ready on the computer. Also, it's chilly here once it gets dark so I prepared a fire in the stove but didn't light it--so that it would be ready to light when it got chilly enough. Inside the door of the stove I wrote a note informing him of my pregnancy. Then closed the door up so it was not noticeable.

I imagined that after dinner it would be cool enough for a fire and I could ask Justin to light it-- then he'd see the note.

And that's exactly what happened.

He was so surprised and shocked and gleaming at the same time! I am very lucky to have my man. He is a wonderful one. I am very excited to take this next leap with him.

Once we found out we needed to have it confirmed in UB with our Peace Corps Medical Officers. So we were off to UB the next business day. When it was confirmed it was time to tell our families. I love giving surprises and what better surprise is there that your daughter is pregnant and coming home to you? I had my little sister help me out with this one.

My sister designed a cake and wrote in Mongolian 'I am pregnant. I am coming home.' (with my help). She gathered the family together and showed them the cake.

We gave hints. Hint 1 was the cake. Hint 2 was this:

"Check your E-mail"

They all ran downstairs to check their email.

In their email was a link to a Mongolian-English translation website and they were to translate the cake. And figure it out themselves...Which they did:

And that's how I told my family. I loved that my little sister was able to take these pictures for me! They speak volumes! I am so happy that they are happy and I can't want to be happy together with them!

Now, according to our Mongolian Fortune Teller friend that came and visited us last spring (check the blog post about that) this first child will be a girl. We'll have to wait and find out!