Pregnant in Sapa

(excerpt from Vietnam Diary)

"....How life can change in the blink of an eye... I am pregnant. Now my constant tummy complaints make sense...

We bought the pregnancy test from a chemist, equipped with the Vietnamese translation book and I was eager to check it immediately, I was only one day 'late' but had this nagging feeling...

When we returned to our hotel to do the test, to ensure the moment was a memorable one - the town (Sapa, in North Vietnam) was struck with a blackout!

How dramatic!

The receptionist gave me a candle. As I peed into a cup, the Cowboy bought in a candle in a coke can (romantic huh) and as the candle flickered we sat, silently watching a second stripe appear on the stick.

"Does this mean I am pregnant, or not?" Frantically, I grabbed the instruction manual.

The diagram indicated two stripes: Vung.

What the hell is Vung???

Again, the translation manual... I turned pages furiously as the Cowboy held up the coke can like a torch.... Vung, Vung, aha- Vung - it means -- Yes.

As we sat in a foreign country, in darkness - we looked at each other over the flickering coke can and ... were silent.

We had come to Vietnam for an adventure - this was not what we had expected.

The Cowboy and I had not even known each other for 9 months!

So I did, what I always do in a crisis moment - opened the book of wisdom - and we held up the coke can to the page which read:

"Hope is the bird that sees the light when the dawn is still dark"

We are going to be parents. I had NEVER been more in the dark in my life.