“Serving overseas as a small-town boy from America is intense, stressful and humorous! Enjoy a light-hearted story with me from our last 20 years overseas!” – Matt
Who is the bigger baby?
Preparing for the arrival of our baby was a big deal for me as a soon-to-be-father. The process was more perplexing since that delivery wasn’t going to happen in Indiana. The process of having a baby overseas, where language, culture and medical practices are different, is not a calming situation. We were young, naïve and just happy to be blessed by the Lord to have a baby.
In a jet-lagged and fatigued state on our first day overseas, we were asked by our new co-workers how they could help us get setup. They were anticipating we’d need help in finding a plumber, an electrician or where the nearest grocery store might be. Instead we shocked them by asking, “Do you have an OB-GYN you’d recommend? We’re expecting to have a baby in 6-7 months.” Needless to say, 6-7 months was not adequate time to learn everything we needed to know about the language and culture, let alone about important medical procedures in that country.
Well, we met the OB-GYN who was a kind, friendly, soon-to-retire man. We quickly learned they had different bedside manner, like when he’d call our house at ten or eleven at night with the results of this or that routine test. Finally, the big day arrived, the due date, but our baby wasn’t ready to arrive, so we waited anxiously for a few more days. The extra time allowed him more and more time to grow and grow. It wasn’t a great fit for my wife who normally weighs around 115 lbs.
The baby finally was ready to arrive and I was allowed to be in the delivery room, which wasn’t an unheard-of practice for them, but not necessarily a common one either. Let’s just say that I didn’t do a good job of giving a positive image of hearty Hoosier men. After a few whiffs of the sterilization chemicals and blood, I started to pass out. No problem. The nurses wheeled over another delivery bed next to my wife’s bed. I laid calmly with nausea in my bed and she yelled and sweated in hers. When the baby was finally pulled out, he weighed 9lbs+, which was much larger than most babies born there. However, the way the nurses looked at me, I think they thought I was the bigger baby.
Something similar ever happen to you? Contact me and let me hear your story!
mattsmishaps@gmail.com Matt’s Mishaps, PO BOX 114, Grabill, IN 46741
