White.

I love white. Stark white walls and white furniture all brought together with the warmth of teak accents. Serenity. Visions of my dream house.

WERE visions of my dream house.

I realize that white is just not a suitable environment for raising children in, unless you are happy to part with your sanity. On the other hand when the white belongs to someone else, then why not?

The time came for Shin and I to choose the hospital where we would have our baby. Actually, the time had passed, even though we were receiving daily reminders from the in-laws. With the scratch on the bumper a moot topic, they were again kind enough to lend us their car so we could go out and stalk some hospitals. We got a list from the city health insurance office, programmed the 10 places closest to where we live into the navigation, and we were off (with Shin driving of course)!

Too far. Too old. Too big. Too small. Too unfriendly. Too sunny. Too dirty. Too pink.

And then there were two.

The two places left on our list were very different. One was a large hospital while the other was a very small private maternity clinic. At that point I was leaning towards the small clinic, I liked the idea of having the same doctor for each visit and going to a place that was specifically in the business of bringing babies into the world. From home we did a little bit more stalking of the clinic via the Internet and discovered that they had their very own Ninja Doctor. I guess he's not really a ninja but perhaps he'd like to be.  The spiel he'd written describing his theories on pregnancy and birthing were all based on martial arts. In my world kendo, jujitsu and karate don't seem to have much to do with giving birth.

And then there was one.

As we were on our way to check out the final hospital I was so nervous. What if it also had ninja doctors? What if we had missed the window, and they were already booked up for February births? What if the outside was deceiving and it too was decked out in Pepto Bismol pink? I could barely breathe as we walked through the automatic doors...

A reception room full of white leather sofas and dark walnut coffee tables.

Exhale.

On top of the reception room of my dreams they have a wonderful English speaking doctor and midwife. I plan to bring our child here on play dates.

Oh, and we were the last February birth to be booked in.