Proud Parents

For unto us a child is born…
Isaiah 9:6a

Miesha Noelle Hartley
born in Johannesburg, South Africa
At 12:12pm on 12-12-2007
7lbs 8oz, 20 ½ inches

Proud Parents: Dan and Janell

We were a week overdue and went to the hospital last Tuesday night to get induced. When the Doctor broke my water Wednesday morning they saw meconium in the amniotic fluid which means that Miesha had a bowel movement in my womb. They made the decision to do a C-section to prevent her from getting any of that in her lungs and we were holding her 90 minutes later. We are so grateful to God that she was born healthy! I am a little sore from the surgery and am moving slowly but other then that both Miesha and I are doing great. She is absolutely delightful and we are enjoying the process of figuring her out. We have deliberately planned a quiet schedule in the next couple weeks and we have great support from our missionary teammates and our friends from church who are bringing us meals.

A few of you have asked…Miesha is pronounced Mee’-sha. The meaning is "who is like unto God". Obviously the online vote was largely in support of the middle name Noelle and the meaning is "born at Christmas time" We agree with you all!

I’ll be posting more pictures in the next couple days.

Thank you for your love and prayers for us in our new adventure of parenting!

weird fruit

So, I was at the store yesterday and bought some apricots. I got home and ate one...it tasted funny. I just figured it was because it was African, not from the northwest. Then I looked at the label more closely. The store had marked them as apricots, but the label underneath said NECTARICOTS. Yup, it is a funny hybrid Nectarine/Apricot combo. Weird.

No baby news...I am just sitting around eating weird fruit waiting for her to make her arrival.

no baby yet

Being overdue is not fun. Our Dr. said that he will induce labor at one week past which would be the 12th of Dec. At least we have an end date in sight. I am very ready to carry her on the outside rather then the inside!

This was on last Tues at 39 weeks and 6 days pregnant!


We do need her to come out soon because we need the maximum amount of days to get her birth certificate and passport in process so it will be ready by February when we have tickets to fly to the states. We have a short window of time.

The city of Johannesburg becomes like a ghost town from about December 15-January 10 as at least 50% (if not more!) of the population goes out of town. The malls are practically vacant, no traffic... (Sound like your December shopping experience?!!) Everyone goes on vacation for like a month. Tons of businesses shut down for the month and last year we found out that most churches cancel 3 Sunday services. Yup, no Christmas Eve, Christmas, or New Years service. We seriously had a hard time finding a church to go to for a Christmas service! A little different here.

Something else that is a little different...listening to Christmas music in the car with the air conditioning on!

Promise to post when baby Miesha is born.

African Speed Bumps

In South Africa they have a couple of different names for speed bumps - most common is "speed humps" but my personal favorite is "traffic calming devices".

This photo is of an African speed bump - don't know about you, but this doesn't do much to calm me at all! And yes, that is a MASSIVE SNAKE!

This photo was not taken by me or anyone else I know...hopefully it is from a part of Africa God will not call us to visit!

Thanksgiving

This is Skyler Franzen and I on Thanksgiving evening. Her family had us over for a fabulous American style turkey dinner.

This is our "twins" picure!