Icky Stuff

Last night, Tasha and I sat through a 2-hour Pre-Natal class, which was really informative. Perhaps too informative! They 'forced' us to watched a totally unedited video of a woman giving birth and I don't think my mind will ever recover. After lots of icky stuff and unusual breathing techniques (pronounced "hoo, hoo, haaaa!"), the woman on the video eventually looked down at the half-delivered infant and declared "It doesn't look like a baby!"
NO KIDDING! There's no way that was a baby! If I'd been there, I would have sealed off the room with a big 'QUARANTINE' sign over the door and then called Mulder and Scully to investigate! It looked like one of those cheap horror movies with some grotesque creature torturing this poor woman, as some sadistic doctor and a roomful of cameramen watched on!
I'm not saying that I didn't know that labour would be painful/intense/messy, but as I watched the rather red-faced woman seemingly turning herself inside-out, I realized how unprepared I am psychologically! This isn't just a case of preparing the nursery (aka our bedroom) for baby's homecoming, or planning the route to the hospital, or packing the contents of the 'hospital-run' bag. This is a military-scale operation with tests of physical endurance and mental stamina (both of which I've no doubt I'd fail if it was me doing the painful part).
Okay, so I sound like I'm about to run screaming from the room. Actually, the effect of the intense and graphic experience last night is now starting to sink-in at a new level. Yes I'm nervous, but I'm also very excited and increasingly aware that nothing (not even a Pre-Natal class) can prepare me for the REAL experience. I'm sure that when our D-day arrives, it would probably be the same gooey, ugly, horror-movie experience in the eyes of anyone else, but I realize now that during that terrifying and wonderful moment, we'll see something beautiful that most other people would miss.
I won't sermonize this blog-post, but there's something really encouraging about seeing beauty through the ickiness!
Ryan

Introductions

Umm hello...is anyone there? ...testing, testing....one two...one two!
Well this is our blog! I'm thinking that if you're reading this, you already know 'us', but just in case you dont...
I'm Ryan Parkin (hence the blog title) and together with my wife, Natasha (or Tasha or Tash) and her ever-growing pregnant belly, we live in London, Ontario in the beautiful country of Canada. We moved here from England in 2005. In a nutshell, we're a Christian family, living out our faith in a foreign country.
To expand on that nutshell a little, I currently work as the Chaplain for a Salvation Army hostel and Tasha is (for 3 more days) the Youth Support Worker, also for The Salvation Army! (Her job comes to an end on Friday, which is a little bit sad but in a sense also convenient, as it coincides with her maternity leave!)
Well I won't get carried away with details right now, but let's just say that things are "in transition" in our lives at the moment, with impending parenthood and changes to both our jobs this year. Perhaps we'll take some time over the next few days to introduce ourselves properly and provide some more news, updates, photos and more exciting stuff for those of you who already know us and for those people who don't know us, but have nothing better to do than read our blog!!! No doubt this blog will focus a lot on Tasha's pregnancy, our child's birth and the growing-up process that little people tend to go through, but I'm sure we'll also take the opportunity to share things outside of the gooey, lovey parent process too!
Anyway, it's way past my bedtime, so I'll say goodnight....."Goodnight!"
Ryan