I'm HOME!

I know that Will told you that yesterday, but I just had to repeat it: I'm home!

I don't know where to start with writing, so I'll just write a little and see what comes out. Right now, Will is out with the older two children and the younger TWO are napping.

As you know, Bogdan was born Saturday morning. I'm so thankful for that sweet home birth! After we got the other children sent off to friends.... (Oh, wait, I have to mention that all along I've thought that we wouldn't have any help with babysitting, unless the baby came on a weekend. Everyone works or is in school. How could we have any better timing than a Saturday morning?) So, after we got the others sent off, Will ran out for his appointment at the police about my registration, and I enjoyed Bogdan for a while. Then Will came back and started making phone calls. Right away, even before all that, he had called the nice birth hospital in Energodar that I had been planning on. They just said something along the lines of "too late, don't bother us." The very long story made short is that, hoping to be able to get a birth certificate easily, we ended up calling an ambulance that bounced us all the way to the regular birth hospital in Vasilevka. Bounced is hardly the word for it! Will was allowed to come along, and he actually held me onto the stretcher, while I held on to Bogdan.

I won't go into details of our time at the birth hospital. My overall impression was that the people were very nice and very knowledgable. Their knowledge and practices were quite up-to-date; nothing at all like what I've seen and heard about in some places! However, the conditions were almost unbelievable. The best way that I can describe it is that I felt like I was on a camping trip. Now, I am not squeamish, and I love camping, but not right after having had a baby. Just a few examples: running water, yes, but no shower or bath tub anywhere, and only one toilet for the whole building. Bright, overhead lights required to be on all night long; it was actually darker in our room during the day than at night. Visiting hours lasted all day long, but visitors aren't allowed to cross the threshold. When Will came (which was wonderful!), I had to leave Bogdan, and go out to the entryway, where I could talk to Will through a little window. That photo he posted? I took his phone, brought it in, snapped the photo, then carried the phone back to the visiting window.

Bye! They're waking up.