More Josiah Pics

Here are a few pictures that we took today.


This is Josiah sleeping in his "Moses basket". A friend let us borrow this so that he would have a place to sleep while we were in Thailand. It is really nice for traveling. We can just put his basket in the trunk if we need to go somewhere for the night; we take it out of the trunk before we let him sleep in it :)


Mom and Josiah


Josiah getting a kiss from mom.


Making faces.


Bad hair day.

Josiah with some other new babies

Here is a picture of Josiah with a couple of other babies; all of which were born within a couple of weeks of each other in Chiang Mai.

From left to right, Tommy, Mary and Josiah


Although you might initially think that this is Maggie S from that show, it is not. This is a picture of Josiah in a sleeper from Grandma Lyons. It is kind of like a lungi (see http://wwwgocciaadventures-mel.blogspot.com/ for what a lungi is) for kids.

Just In...Delivery Room Pictures!

The hospital where Josiah was born does lots of things for the new child and their family. They made Josiah a pillow cover that has his footprints on one side and his birth information as well as attending Doctors on the other side. They made a birth book with his footprints, picture and birth information written down inside. They took many pictures and arranged them in a picture book for him as well. Today they sent us a CD containing delivery room pictures. These are pictures which we had not seen until today; we wanted to share them with you.

Although this picture is slightly blurry, it shows Josiah the moment that Dr. Suppachai pulled him from his warm home of nine months into the outside world.


This picture is of Aaron bringing Josiah to Melanie; this is the moment that she saw her son for the first time.


This is Melanie giving Josiah his first kiss.


This is the first picture of the three of us ever taken.


This is mom with her son.

Josiah and Mommy

Here is a picture of Josiah and Mommy taking a nap after a long night.

Hell Notes and Travel Necessities

Here are some interesting items we found in the Chinatown area of Chiang Mai yesterday. They are Hell notes and travel necessities.

Hell notes are of Chinese origin but are used throughout Asia. They are burned with the body of the deceased in order for their spirit to have spending money in the afterlife. They are usually in very large denominations in order that their spirit will be able to afford the posh life which they desire in the afterlife. The term hell does not mean the same as the western definition of hell. It means paradise or heaven to Asians. When missionaries from the west entered China, the Chinese were told that they were going to "hell" if they did not become Christians. The Chinese saw hell as the Christian term for the Chinese heaven or afterlife and thus still use the term today.

The notes are also called Heaven notes or Paradise notes. They can be in any denomination although they are usually very large. They also have different people on them such as JFK, Chairman Mao, Stalin and etc.

For more useless but interesting information on hell notes, background, designs and how to use it, you may go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell_bank_note.

This picture shows the front of several stacks of hell notes.

This picture shows the front of several stacks of hell notes with one stack of very large notes and a package of travel necessities.

Here is a look at the reverse of the hell notes and package of travel necessities.

Here is a picture of the contents of the travel necessities package.

This is another picture of the contents of the travel necessities package with a view of the inside of the Check Book and Travel Ticket.

Josiah

Here are a couple of pictures of Josiah in his diaper so that you can get a better idea of what he actually looks like.



Below is a picture of Josiah the way he sleeps when he is not swaddled. He likes to sleep with his hands near the side of his head. In most of the sonograms, Josiah could be seen with his hands at the side of his head just as he is doing here.

Josiah's Dr. Follow-up

Today Josiah went to the Dr. for his follow-up appointment. He is now above his birthweight of 2930 gm (6.46 lb) to 3040 gm (6.7 lb). The pediatrician stated that he is doing very well and that he is a very healthy boy.

Below is a picture of Josiah doing his Strongbad impression.

Thank you Dr. Suppachai!

This is a picture of Dr. Suppachai Sirisukkasem with Josiah. Dr. Suppachai was not only the Dr. who provided Melanie with her pre-natal care in Thailand but also performed the c-section delivery of Josiah. If this is not enough for us to appreciate his services, than perhaps the fact that he was instrumental in the preservation of Josiah's life is even more appreciated. For those of you who do not know, when we were in Thailand this past January, Melanie (8 wks pregnant) was having heavy spotting and we thought we were going to lose the baby. Dr. Suppachai prescribed medication, strict bedrest for two weeks, regular weekly exams and ultrasounds in order to preserve the baby. As you can see, with Dr. Suppacai's assistance, many prayers and ultimately God answering our prayers, Josiah is a healthy and handsome (all right so I am a little partial) boy. Josiah has gained another 45 gm (1.59 oz) since yesterday.

Surprise...more pictures of Josiah

Josiah is doing well and slept most of last night. He is still feeding well and has begun to gain weight. He lost about 190 gm (6.7 oz) his first two days following birth and gained 20 gm (.71 oz) his third day.

Josiah chillin' in his crib




Josiah displaying his lack of amusement to one of his papa's jokes

More pictures of the manchild

We apologize that most of the little one's pictures show him sleeping. We have included one with his eyes open.

Sleeping


Sleeping


Sleeping


Here is the picture you have been waiting for...eyes open! This was taken in the nursery after bath time. Josiah is about 15 hours old in this picture.

Some of Josiah's new friends

Josiah has had quite a few visitors in the past two days. Here are some pictures with his surrogate family.

Josiah with Grandpa Mike


Josiah with Uncle Jeremy


Josiah with Grandpa Jim and Grandma Trudy


Josiah with Uncle Jesse (Pee-Paw)


Josiah with Aunt Jessica and Cousin Birdie

It's a...boy!!!

For unto us a manchild was born in the city of Chiang Mai...

At 2:15 am, Melanie woke me up and told me that her water had broken. Twelve hours of intense labor (entire time having contractions 3-4 minutes apart) the doctor told us that Melanie had made no progress between 9 am and 3 pm Thailand time. Melanie was still 60% effaced and only 4 cm dilated. The choice was made to deliver via cesarean section.

Josiah (Yahweh supports) Evan (Yahweh is gracious) Goccia was born at 3:21pm on Wednesday 15 August 2007. He weighed 2930 gm (6.46 lbs) and was 50 cm (19.69 in) long.

I was able to be in the operating theater while the c-section was performed. Melanie was allowed to see Josiah but not hold him since she was somwhat sedated. I was able to hold Josiah within minutes of his entrance into the world. Since Melanie was sent to recovery and could not immediately hold the baby, I was given the opportunity to do skin to skin bonding. This is when in the absence of the mother, the father takes off his shirt and holds the baby on his chest. This provides an opportunity for the baby to bond with one parent during the first hours of life. It was an awesome priveledge to hold this amazing creation. I did feel somewhat guilty though since Melanie did all of the work and I had the chance to bond with the baby for over two hours before she was even able to hold him.

Melanie with our friend Jessica in between contractions. Jessica assisted me as a birthing coach and was a tremendous blessing.

Josiah and me about ten minutes after he arrived.


Josiah in his crib after he came from being cleaned, measured and weighed.


Mom and Josiah


The newly expanded Goccia family. Welcome Josiah Evan Goccia!

Strange picture of the week

This is a picture we took a couple of weeks ago. What is an antiques factory? Do they have a time machine?

Elephant Camp

Yesterday, I (Aaron) and my friend Mike went to an elephant camp outside of Chiang Mai, Thailand. We had the opportunity to ride an elephant through the jungle, watch an elephant show (where the elephants painted pictures, demonstrated logging techniques, gave a human a massage with its trunk as well as its foot, played soccer and did a few other interesting tricks), go to the elephant nursery, watch the mahouts (elephant driver) wash the elephants and just marvel at these huge and graceful creatures.

Mike and I on our 34 year old bull elephant named Poo Kau.


This is one of the elephants that painted a picture during the show. The paintings were sold after the show. This painting sold for about $60 US.


I sat near this elephant for over a half hour and just watched it. I took this when it was talking to me.


This is one of the elephants getting washed. The elephants really seemed to enjoy this time; they would lay down on their sides while their mahout would scrub them with a brush.


I really like this picture because it shows the length of the trunk as well as the inside. This was a mom whose baby was just a few months old.

Only in India...

Here are a couple of pictures that are a little stretch from the truth...but not too much.