Anyeong Haseyo (?? ???)!
Wow. It has been 2.5 months since my last update, and in case you don’t know why we disappeared for a while, it’s cause we had a baby! On October 3rd, at 7:03pm, we welcomed Ruby ?? (pronounced Soo Jong) Loewen to the family! She was (and still is!) a very small baby, weighing in at 6 lbs (she’s 9 lbs now). I was actually afraid to pick her up at first! But she is growing well and is a very happy baby. So, I apologize, most of this update will be about Ruby in one way or another, since our lives have been pretty absorbed in her (well, moreso me).
Bringing Ruby into the world: Her First Days
I was blessed with a relatively quick labour for the first time (6.5 hours), and it was a natural, painkiller-free birth, which was an answer to prayer. I imagine my hospital experience was similar to one back home, except for a few details. For every meal, I was served ??? (Mi-yok Guk), seaweed soup, which has lots of vitamins, but to tell you the truth, I didn’t like it much. The rooms were kept uncomfortably hot, and I was expected to wear thick socks everywhere I went, even though it was in warm October, and the rooms were already warm. I didn’t wear socks, but then I had this old lady tell me I should be wearing socks, at one point. She also, at another time, told me I should be wearing long sleeves. From our personal experience, elderly people in Korea don’t hesitate to tell you when you are doing something wrong, and that fact continues to be proven to us, more examples to come. Anyway, I was lucky to have 3 Korean friends present for the birth, who could translate or be a support, and they brought food (VERY important, especially since the sea weed soup just didn’t cut it for me).
Checking her out of the hospital was funny. She was the only Western baby there, and we were the only Western parents there, and yet, the nurses still made sure they matched my arm band to her leg band, just to make sure that she was ours. Wherever we went with her in the hospital, people literally stopped in their tracks to look at her. Blond-haired, blue-eyed babies are very rare but very popular in Korea.
The very day we brought her home, she had quite the homecoming party. Around 20 people from church ended up coming over, unexpectedly, and people took turns holding her, food was brought and served (not by us!), and the gathering was closed in a prayer. Normally I would have been quite overwhelmed for the FIRST day home from the hospital, but I was actually quite euphoric and running on adrenaline, that I didn’t much mind. And it was quite touching to know so many people care about us and just couldn’t wait to see our new baby.
Grandma’s visit
We were lucky enough to be visited by my mother, who flew all the way to Korea to see her new granddaughter (…and us), also my brother who also happens to be in Korea. It was wonderful to have a helping hand around the apartment, someone to cook meals occasionally, to bathe and hold Ruby, and of course for motherly advice, which every new mom needs. A double bonus for my mom was that folks at church got wind that she is an artist, and some wanted to buy her paintings, so she brought some along for that purpose. Before she came, though, I had a lot of surrogate Korean mothers, who would come over and help with breastfeeding advice, bathing, and other things, so that was heart-warming, too.
Child Dedication service
Last Sunday was a special Child Dedication service, as there are lots of new babies this past year; Ruby, plus 2 other infants, and 2 toddlers. We were all called to the front, and each family had a different leader say a prayer for us, then we were each called to read a promise. It was written in Korean, of course, so when it was our turn, we needed someone to translate it on the spot, but we quite botched it up. You put together a translator who was caught off guard to translate cold turkey, lack of sleep (mostly on my part) and too many words translated at a go for Will and I to remember at a time, and it was quite a comedy of errors on our part; Sentences needed to be repeated for us to catch the whole thought, Will and I would add words or leave out words, always at different times from each other, of course, and I even laughed at one point, at our expense, which unfortunately ended with a snort (I don’t think it was very loud, though). Regardless of our clumsiness, Ruby was otherwise properly dedicated. Then we parents were given a beautiful little bouquet of flowers, and we were then prayed for.
Life with Ruby
It truly is a blessing having her in our lives, despite the sleep deprivation, feeling like a failure at times and the drastic life shift, which all parents can relate to. Being 2.5 months old now, she is smiling and cooing more often, particularly when looking at us, which just makes it all worth it! Life with Ruby means I can’t go anywhere now (presuming I have her with me) without at least one elderly woman telling me she’s cold, or wanting to see her, or patting on the sling to make sure she’s safe in there…or something. Life with Ruby means that generally when I’m most ready to nap during the day, she will be hungry, or bored or restless, and when I’m wide awake ready to play with her, she will be fast asleep. Life with Ruby means unpredictability; If she’s in a good mood, she could be fatigued, sitting in a pile of poop and be as happy as Pooh with a honey pot, but if she’s grumpy, she could be getting lots of attention, with a clean diaper, satiated with milk, and yet will cry like a child that just dropped their ice cream cone. Life with Ruby means going to church and getting much more attention than before, and not needing to hold her until we leave to go home, because there’s always someone else who wants to hold her. Life with Ruby means I now get to sit in the special mother’s section at church, with all the other mothers, where we play with each others’ babies, and feed our own babies during the service. Life with Ruby means less Chuncheon Check-ins…at least for now!
Everyone at JVC simply adores her, and even a little girl at our church changed her English name to Ruby, inspired by our daughter’s name, of course.
Other things: Will’s various doings
Since I am the primary care-giver of Ruby, Will has taken over my V-School classes, and my guitar/cooking class is on a temporary break. Aside from his usual classes and mine, Will also has been meeting with students on a university campus to help with English conversation, as well as leading a Bible study to YWAM (Youth With A Mission) missionaries, preparing for service. He continues to lead his Bible study class at church, which is still a success, preaches occasionally, and nurtures our relationships with fellow church members. He continues to venture to the Korean Anabaptist Center in Seoul, working on their website, still attends weekly cell group meetings, and has started hockey again.
All in all, we are doing well, taking each day as it comes, and every day we thank God for our many blessings.
From L to R: Ana eating the seaweed soup; The welcome home party; Just after we brought her home from the hospital; Daddy looking at his daughter; Will holding his baby girl; Our first encounter with Ruby; Feeling a little tired; In her cute little hat; Mom and Ruby at Soeraksan; The family at the statue park; Really satiated after a feeding; Reaching somewhere; Almost smiling for the camera; Mom and Ruby; Daddy and Ruby in the sling; Looking up at her toys; Ruby fast asleep; In the sweater I knit for her; Looking surprised!; Finally smiling for the camera; Mom with Ruby in the sling
