Sheppersons in Slovakia

I want to thank all of you who responded to the last update with our news of the upcoming baby. I had so many encouraging notes, I was not able to respond to all of them.

I think I have finally made it past “that phase” and each day I am able to do more and more, Along with each day growing bigger and bigger! I find myself feeling like the days are so long and it seems to me like I’ve already been pregnant 40 weeks, when in reality I’m only 19!

So far everything is going great with the baby-no problems. I have my next appointment just next week and we hope to find out the gender of the baby! Currently I’m seeing a doctor locally here in our city. It has been so nice not to have to drive to Vienna every month (and quite honestly, I don’t know how I would have been able to during the previous months with all the sickness). However, we still are uncertain of our plans for both the delivery of the baby and our furlough time home this summer. The timing of the 2 overlap (the baby is due in June and we planned to leave for the States at the end of May).
At this point, we see the options are for us to either come home earlier than planned (beginning of May) and have the baby in America or have the baby over here and cut our time home shorter than planned. School plays a big factor in both options. If we leave early from Slovakia, the girls will miss a lot of school (the school year ends June 30), and if we leave later, we wouldn’t want the girls to miss the first of school (Sept. 1), thus making our time in the States shorter.

We will be celebrating our 6th year in Slovakia this fall, and recognize the importance for everyone of these visits “home”. In light of that importance we are leaning more in the direction of going back earlier than planned -as long as there is no troubles in the pregnancy. But then of course the next round of questions begins: where to have the baby, where can we stay/live during that time, will we travel as we usually do or stay more in one place. . .???

Of course if troubles arise in the pregnancy we would not risk an overseas journey at all and make preparations to have the baby in Vienna. We are not anxious (at least not yet) about these details, but do want to get the word out of our needs for this summer. And that one by one need at a time, God will reveal His desire for us this summer. We see the first need as being a place where our whole family can stay for the summer (possibly from May-Aug). Please help us pray for these decisions. That God would speak to us and make His plans known. And thank you all again for celebrating this new life with us in these early days.