twos, doubles, pairs, twins- we're blessed.

So we decided the time has come to officially announce our pregnancy on our blog.
Our original plan was to not say anything until the babies were born and then surprise announce it with pictures. In Kenya, it is culturally appropriate to not talk about pregnancy. People figure it out as you grow (and everyone in our community can now tell very clearly with me!), but I think there is a respectful quiet, because of not wanting to assume that all will be ok with the pregnancy. Once the baby is born there is much rejoicing, but pregnancy is much more subdued. You wear baggy clothes to hide the bulge, only mention pregnancy in terms of your own health, etc. But after our visit home for Christmas, we felt like we couldn't talk about our visit or 2010 without mentioning the babies.

And yes, it is babies. We are having twins. This was unexpected. I went in for the first ultrasound, and was suddenly very nervous when the technician asked, "are you ready to hear some news?" Well no, I wasn't ready to hear any news. I started thinking of everything possible thing that could go wrong in a pregnancy and didn't want to know, but the technician asked me again, "are you ready to hear some news?" What am I supposed to say? So I said sure. Then with a big smile he announced we were having twins. I was in complete shock. What?? Twins? I never expected it. We didn't think there were twins in the family. Later we learned there are in fact twins in my family and in Matt's!

Are they boys or girls? We don't know. We have been accused of pretending not to know so that we don't have to tell people, but we truly do not have the slightest clue of their gender. We tried to find out, but the babies were moving too much facing backwards and Kenyans don't place much value on finding out, so our technician said we won't find out. We're still hoping to know before they come, but we're making sure we have boys and girls names and Maasai names, just in case.

How is my health? How is medical care in Kenya? I am doing very well. I would call this an easy pregnancy. I never knew I could be so tired, but am thankful I have had few issues throughout. I have a team of obstetricians who are very knowledgeable, based out of an excellent hospital in Nairobi. MCC will cover all our expenses and we are confident in the care we'll receive, with friends who have already had children or other medical procedures done there.

We are incredibly blessed and know that God has been with us in this entire process. We are thrilled to enter this new stage of our lives and thankful for the support of MCC, family and friends.