Baby Update--39 Weeks

Well, today was a busy day. At noon, I had my appointment. I'm still at a 2, but the doctor said she could feel the head when she checked me. I gained 7 pounds in a week, but I guess that's what Thanksgiving can do to you. I made such good mashed potatoes that I couldn't stop eating them. I would have eaten more of my apple pie, but that got burned. (Long story--ask me later). The doctor is hoping I'll go into labor this weekend. I think she's only saying that because she is on call this weekend. We'll just see what happens in the next several weeks.

At 3:00 this afternoon, I had a maternity massage that was so wonderful and relaxing. If you've never had a massage before, you really should get one. The massage lady told me she had to be careful and not do deep tissue massage at certain spots because it could start contractions. I told her it would be okay if it did.

At 5:00, we had a baby shower for us up at UT. They must really like James a lot because we got a lot of great stuff. There were maybe 20 people there. James' professors went in together and got us a nice digital camera with a 512 mb memory card. James must be doing his job right for them to like him that much. Now all we need is video camera.

Anyways, it's been a great day. Very busy, but great. Christmas is coming soon. Can't wait to see you all. Everytime I look at all of Lena's clothes, I keep making a mental list of cute clothes to dress her in while in Midland. She's got such cute clothes it's going to be hard to make a decision of what to dress her in each day. Even all her gowns and footed sleepers are cute it's hard to decide. I guess I better wait till she gets here.

Love you all. I love hearing about everyone's stuff going on in their lives. Keep blogging.

April

Brasil, Day 3

Well, we finally made it to Campo Grande. The reunion of ex-students has already begun. We had a wonderful day. I don't know when we will catch up on our sleep, but there is a lot to do and see here. The students at the training school are an impressive group in the classroom, but what they have done in Jardim Canguru is spectacular.

I preached at the Wednesday gathing tonight. The midweek service takes place outside. The whole group listened while it rained lightly. I really enjoyed it. I was terribly impressed with the work that has gone on here. The most impressive aspect of this church plant is the quality of men that have become christians. It didn't take long to see that they are leaders in this neigborhood. Everyone knows Mom and Dad. It is quite a legacy they have here.

Connor is great. He listened to hours of class in portuguese without one complaint and then played non-stop with the kids . They love him. He has gathered quite a crowd of fans. He is doing a great job of enjaging with kids and adults even though he doesn't understand very much. Zanatta and Leila are being wonderful hosts. We have had several good talks. My portuguese is coming along.

We are really tired and ready for bed,. Tomorrow starts early. Lee Ann check your email and tell the kids we love them and miss them. Grace.
Tod

Connor loved the animals.

This was the end of our grand adventure.

It is massive.

Impressive. They call it Devil's throat. Nothing about it reminded me of the Devil.

This the helicopter we rode in. You know how I feel about them (no wings to save you) but it was great.

Our boat ride was fantastic. We both loved it.

in the Jungle at Foz do Iguacu.

The Amazing Race, Day 2

The Amazing Race, Part II

Hey gang,

Day 2 was about as full as a day could be. We began the day in Rio. It is such a beautiful city. We left Rio about 11:00 and landed in Foz do Iguacu around 1:00 where we again found a wonderfully helpful taxi driver who spent the rest of the day with us, took us to dinner and then picked us up at 5:30 this morning.

We found our hotel then went to the National Park. First, we took the 10 minute helicopter ride. Connor and I loved it. It was spectacular. The falls are huge and show a different beauty from every different vantage point. We took about 100 pictures during the day (no kidding).

After the helicopter we went in the park and went on the river boat adventure. We had a blast. We drove through the jungle for about 3 kilometers, then took a walking tour and finally got in the boat. To boats take us up river through some powerful whitewater. It was like rafting backwards, without all the paddling. The driver took us right up into one of the waterfalls. We got soaked, but it was terrific.

After the boat ride we went further into the park. I remembered staying in the Tropical Hotel with Jim Gulley. It was winter when I was here last (21 years ago) and very cold. Today was warm and beautiful. We took the walking trail right out into the middle of the main part of the falls. The pictures are great but can’t capture the sound or the feel of the spray. Connor found some cool butterflies, several geckos, and a raccoon looking animal with little ones. We really enjoyed the day. It was about as much fun as a person can have in one afternoon.

We were tired, but not finished. After cleaning up a bit, we headed out to the Rafain Churrascaria and Show. The food was great and the show was fun. They featured music and dancing native to most of the countries in Latin America. We left a little early to get to bed because the plane leaves early this morning.

Connor is doing great and he is really looking forward to our arrival in Campo Grande and Leila and Zannatta. I am too. We love you all. Lee Ann, Bailey, Hutton and Reagan we miss you and can’t wait to tell you all about it. Lee Ann, make sure to check your email. I don’t know when we will make our next connection to the internet, but we will try to keep you posted. Grace.

Tod and Connor.

What's it worth?

My grandma, aka "Ma-mah" (referring to her 11 children), once said: "You couldn't pay me a million dollars to take one of mine, but I wouldn't give a nickel for another one."

Having 11 kids is just mind boggling. It's just such a huge number that it defies understanding. Frankly, the number 5 is gigantic to me tonight--especially in light of Anda's latest blog. 5 kids. 5 mouths to feed (how many gallons of milk every week?). Clothes to find, wash, buy, store and match. That's a lot of love getting expressed in a batch of laundry being washed, dried, folded and put away! Just for the record, I believe that those kids are blessed to have Randy & Anda as parents.

(to finish this post, go to www.undividedheart.blogspot.com)

Life with FIVE!!

Well, Rita and I agreed that it was about time for me to give a picture of our lives from my perspective. I can't believe that this time last week I was still trying to figure out if I was in labor or not!! I had been convinced early that morning that I would be being induced TODAY! God was sweet to let me experience all the fun of "natural" labor. Life in the hospital was pretty dull, boring, and calm...then I came home.

The first p.m. with Isaac was pretty rough - you know, he was fussy, Randy was almost completely out of it, and I was about to drop the baby while burping him, etc. because I was so exhausted. We really missed Grandma. But we survived night one.

P.M. #2 was a little better because RB and I had both taken naps that day. But we still missed Grandma.

And then came the 3rd night when we were even more acutely aware of how we REALLY missed Grandma. I'm sitting in my room rocking Isaac who has been a little fussy again when Luke walks in saying something hurts. We send him back to bed with some Motrin because he has a low fever. He comes back again still complaining and we send him back to bed again. The third time he comes in (around 1:30 a.m.), he is growing more agitated complaining of his throat hurting. Daddy goes into the closet to get his doctor light at which point Luke throws up on my bed (my side, of course). So here I am, holding a screaming baby, and dragging Luke by one arm into the bathroom to try and prevent any further mess. Some of you may not know that I have a bit of a strange and quite psycho germophobia (sp?) about stomach viruses, so now I am a nervous wreck and I'm quite close to losing it. Meanwhile, Randy cleans Luke up and takes him back to bed (he is clad in only underwear and runs into his mother-in-law in route to Luke's room. She has been awakened by all the ruckus). We change the sheets on our bed. Isaac finally calms down around 3 a.m. and we get a few restless hours of sleep before morning when we have to go back to the hospital to have his blood drawn to check his bilirubin. This is a.m. #2 of being in the E.R. getting blood drawn. Oh yeah. Josiah wakes up not feeling too great and by 9:30 a.m. he has thrown up also. Luke seems to be doing fine, but has developed quite a fever by midmorning. By 5 p.m. that afternoon, Moriah also has fever and is whiny and clingy. I still haven't slept, my parents have gone home and we're just WAITING FOR GRANDMA!!

We survived night #3 - barely.

Night #4 was a dream come true. Grandma showed up! I nursed, she disappeared with Isaac, and I got to sleep. Of course, it was his best night yet - he was showing off.

And then there was last night. Let me just pause here to say that Randy Brown should win the dad and husband of the year award. Here's a man who needs a minimum of 10 hours of sleep a night to feel functional (a feeling he rarely experiences) and he has been up with me almost every night, is taking care of our family during the day, AND trying to sensitively ascertain the emotional state of his postpartum hormonal wife at any given moment. He has been absolutely wonderful! Anyway, last night we thought everyone was doing okay. Moriah's fever had not come back yesterday and everyone else had gone to school. There was just this little issue of Luke's tummy still hurting. Randy gives him his last dose of diarrhea-inducing antibiotic that he had been on the week before and we send him to bed with complaints of stomach pain. Grandma is looking pretty tired so I send her to bed for a nap around 9 p.m. (she had a headache), Randy goes to the grocery store, and I start dealing with fussy little Isaac (he really is a GREAT baby and very easy - you just have to hear about the 1-2 hours of fussy time a day because it makes the story better). Isaac finally goes down around 10 pm. and in comes Luke to my room around 10:45 pm. His tummy still hurts. We give him some Tums and send him back to bed. Nurse baby around 11:15 and then Moriah starts SCREAMING around midnight. She has fever and apparently a headache and sweet Daddy stayed up with her and cuddled until the Motrin kicked in. 3:15 a.m. Luke arrives in our bedroom again and matter-of-factly announces that he pooped in his pants. We're talking a lot of diarrhea and Daddy saves the day again - he throws Luke in the shower while I nurse. Isaac had a great night. We're praying that the rest of the gang actually SLEEPS tonight!
The cool thing is to realize how God releases the grace to deal with all this at just the right time. Just please pray that God will protect us from any more SICKNESS! And that superDad will get some sleep! PRAISE GOD that Grandma is here - she is such a blessing and we are so super thankful for her help and encouragement. We've had fun sitting up in the middle of the night reminiscing (sp?) and laughing about baby memories.

April, we are so ready to meet Baby Lena (I have to tell you that we really appreciate her waiting this long, though - your mom is wonderful)! We can't wait to hear about your appointment tomorrow!
God bless all of you with the joy and peace of Jesus!
Love,
Anda

Brasil Day 1

Hey Gang,
What a day. We got started an hour late in Midland because of the wind and it just stacked up from there. We left Dallas three and a half hours late for Sao Paulo and ended up missing the connection to Rio. After a cab ride to the other airport in Sao Paulo (Connor was a little bit overwhelmed by the sheer size and complexity of it all. I on the other hand was experiencing a kind of flashback. It is more a familiar sense than a specific memory, but it is interesting.)

We finally landed in Rio and thought it was too late to get to both Corcovado and Sugarloaf, but the hotel (a great one about 3 blocks fromt he northern end of Copacabana beach) found us a driver who agreed to try and get us both places. About halfway there I asked the driver if he went to church. It turns out he is one of the early converts to the Igreja de Christo started by Bryan Gibbs, Dan Morgan and Max Lucado. He knows everyone I know and thinks he has heard of mom and dad. 9 million people in Rio. How many taxi drivers are faithful members of the Church of Christ? We got him. Hutton, apparently the curse is international. I had a sense that God was in it all.

We went to Corcovado and watched the sun set. It was absolutely spectacular. I posted a couple of pictures. Then we went to sugar loaf. Ideal (our driver) was great. About halfway up I convinced myself that I had left the camera on top of Corcovado. I spent most of the time getting my speech ready for Lee Ann. It turns out the taxi driver had it. All is well. He wanted to pick us up in the morning to take us to the airport. We are a little weary, but it has been great.

Lee Ann, Bailey, Hutton, and Reagan, we love you and miss you. I hope I keep getting internet access to keep you posted. Grace. Tod

We also made it to Sugar loaf. We didn't think we would.We saw the lights of Rio from the top of Sugarloaf. Don't have a picture because we thought we had left the camera on top of Corcovado. See blog.

We didn't think we would make it to corcovado, but we got some some great help. See the blog.

After 3 hour delays we finally see terra brasileira.

Connor and I are starting our journey,

Number 20 arrives.

It has been a very exciting week. I arrived at Randy and Anda's Sunday night (again). Monday morning the doctor attempted to jumpstart the process by "stripping her membranes". Other than her legs hurting from sitting on the end of the examining table so long waiting for the doctor to come in, there really was no effect. Dale decided that he wanted to join the party, so he drove in Monday night. Tuesday morning we decided that God was still in charge and we would keep waiting. Later that morning some signs of labor being imminent began so we went to Babys R Us to get some last minute things done and walk, walk, walk. By late afternoon contractions had begun, and Anda was "pretty sure" something was happening. About 8 pm Randy and Anda went to Dillards to get some pajamas for the hospital. When they arrived home, there really wasn't much doubt and we began timing contractions. We were all so excited that the timing wasn't too accurate, but the contractions were coming quite regularly. A little before 10 they left for the hospital. When she arrived she was already dilated to 4-5. It didn't take long to get to a 9. After that, it was really waiting on the doctor to arrive and break her water. Isaac William arrived at 1:14 am. He is a doll. He is already quite filled out and quite long. I don't expect he could wear a newborn size for more than a few days. The nursing is going great, and all the siblings are adjusting. Anda came home on Thanksgiving with much to be thankful for. Ann and Dale fixed Thanksgiving dinner and it truly was a day when my heart was bursting with thanksgiving. Dale and I left for the lake Thursday evening, and came home to wash clothes and redo my suitcase last night. I will go back to Anda's when Otis and Ann come home and stay for a few days. Of course, we are keeping our phone with us at all times in case April makes a move. In between grandchildren responsibilities I am trying to get a little done in preparation for Christmas. What a joyful time! I don't know how I will get it all done, but who could complain? I truly, truly thank God for this wonderful, big family. Love you all, Mom

Anda got to the hospital at about 10:00 Tuesday night already dilated to 4-5. She did fantastic. God answered our prayers that she was able to go into labor without being induced. It really was more fun. 

Isaac William Brown Born: November 23, 2005 at 1:14 am. Weight: 8 pounds 14 1/2 ounces. Length: 22 inches.

Mommy and Daddy with number 5. It never ceases being an incredible miracle! 

Randy is now the proud and wonderful father of three sons. Wow! Our number 5 will be an incredible father to his number 5. 

Grandma simply adores him already. I cannot believe the goodness of God. 

Aunt Trisha drove from Midland arriving at about 2:30 am to meet her newest nephew. I'm sure he is going to adore his Aunt Trisha as they all do. 

Isaac William Brown 

Here's the whole happy family! I am so proud of them. 

Otis' first comment was, "I've seen that face before!" 

McKenna and Isaac are going to have a special relationship. We tell her that this is going to be like Bailey and Reagan. 

Luke is going to be a great big brother. 

Moriah thinks he is great. So far she is quite content with his arrival. 

Josiah is going to take very good care of his new little brother.

Grandma got him dressed to go home on Thanksgiving Day. He looks pretty peaceful for one who is going home to 4 brothers and sisters. 

This little angel is ready to go home and join his siblings as part of a very blessed family. 

Pregnancy Update

You all probably know by now, but I went to the doctor this morning and at 38 weeks, I am 90% effaced and dialated to a 2. It's pretty exciting for us. But mom says I can't go into labor till next week. My doctor says the same thing since she is going to Massachusetts for Thanksgiving, and she wants to be the one to deliver. I'd rather wait till next week also. We have one more shower next wednesday up at James' work. James says Dec. 1 would be good, which is next Thurs. We'll just see what God has planned. Anyways, that's our baby update.

Happy Thanksgiving!

April

the family cheer!

Okay - here's the family cheer. Be forewarned: the whole deal is cheesy, but my kids know this stuff!

ALL OF US (while holding hands and jumping around): Who are, who are, who are we? We are, we are, we are the...the Fort Worth Browns, the Fort Worth Browns, the Fort Worth Browns!

Randy: What do we do?
ALL: Love Jesus!

Randy: What do we do?
ALL: Put others first!

Randy: What do we do?
ALL: Live by faith!

Randy: What do we do?
ALL: Be thankful and joyful!

Randy: What do we do?
ALL: Do our best!

(Gather up in a circle with hands in the middle) ALL: GO BROWNS!

(And Moriah always adds her own little "Good job!")

I'm not quite sure how the cheer thing got started - maybe McKenna and RB? Anyway - it's been fun and keeps our family values before us. Moriah is even starting to say them!

Still no baby news. Feeling great, actually. We'll see what happens Monday - looks like we'll probably have a Thanksgiving baby!

Love y'all,
Anda

Just a few more comments

I know these pictures aren't in perfect order. I promised Luke I would post some pictures of him.

I mentioned below how much fun I had at Randy and Anda's. I was so impressed with their "little" family. One of the things I like best was their family (team) "cheer" that they do every morning before they go to school. They all circle up with Moriah squeeling "Who-a, Who-a, Who-a". I am hoping Randy will blog the words. What a wonderful memory for their kids. They wanted Grandma to participate, but as a rookie to the team, I had a bit of a problem catching all the words.

Today I am going to start decorating for Christmas--never ever done prior to Thanksgiving. (I promise, Tod, that I will be smiling and counting my blessings as I put them up. Right now I am so thankful I can hardly contain myself.) I will return to Fort Worth on Sunday to help with the kids and see what is going to happen. I will probably go straight from there to the lake for Thanksgiving (if we are not in the middle of new baby time.) After Thanksgiving I will see where we stand with the arrivals. At some point it will be time to go to Austin. I can't imagine how it is all going to get done. I hope everyone is going to be understanding of the limitations effecting Christmas this year. Our new babies will be our greatest blessing (gifts) this year. Who could ask for more?

I love you all, Mom

These two were recognized in chapel last week. The things their teacher said about them--specifically their character--would make any Grandma soooooo proud.  

Pilgrim Luke (upper right) is performing his part perfectly--totally oblivious to the antics of his little sister on the front row. (This is out of order. Sorry.)

Reagan won the Bible Contest at Grandparents Day. You can imagine how that made us feel. 

All the kids at Grandparents Day bless us with such thoughtful and touching gifts. This jar is full of nice things about us. I loved every single word they wrote. 

Both her grandmothers think she is beautiful.