My Favorite Question

There were a couple of new guys at the gym this morning.  As I was getting ready to clean the equipment I had just used, one of them said,

"You're not going to pop on us, are you? 'Cause we wouldn't know what to do."

I laughed and said, "No, I've still got 4 months, so your safe."

Then he said, "Is this your first?"

I said, "No, it's my 6th." 

Hee hee hee!  I love answering that question!!

How We Told

I never shared how we announced to the children that we were expecting a baby. 

They knew we were wanting to get pregnant.  They knew (at least the three oldest) what the trip to Chicago was about last May.

So they would ask from time to time if I was pregnant and I so often told them, "No, not this month."

Finally, I was.  And I didn't just want to call a family meeting and spill it out after that long of a wait.  I wanted to do something to make it even more exciting.

I wrote a scrambled word on 5 different pieces of paper. I then folded those up and attached them to clues which I hid throughout the house.  The clues were to the next piece of paper. 

Waiting for me to finish setting up...

This was the first clue to the storage closet under the stairs...

They had to wait to open the scrambled words until they found all of them and made it back downstairs.

I was going to show a picture of the words unscrambled but Blogger won't let me!

Anyway, the message was, "Mommy is having a baby" and the kids were very excited when they figured it out. Yea!! A baby!!!



It's a....

I had a sonogram this morning at the doctor's office and we found out that we're having a....

  BOY!!!

Yea!!! We're all so excited. 

Now we just have to make sure the name we've picked is going to be the one that sticks.  That's one of the reasons I need to know ahead of time.  Because we have totally changed one of more of the kids' names before they were born.

MIA

I feel like I've been MIA with only my few posts here or there.  The truth is everything takes me a little longer these day since my energy level has dropped majorly.  Of course, I'm not complaining.  Two things I will not do during this pregnancy: complain or waddle. 

On a scale of 1-10 my nausea is a 1 or 2.  I have a friend who is so sick she ends up in the hospital has to be medicated.  So, see, no complaining here.  Mostly I'm tired and extra hungry.  I'm still working out but have gained 5 pounds already! Yikes.  I'm determined not to get plump.  We'll see.

I have decided on a doctor.  My friend and her husband have their own ob/gyn practice.  I will not being SEEING them (if you know what I mean), but will see the midwife and other two doctors in the office.

They deliver at a much smaller hospital than the one at which I delivered the first five so I'm looking forward to that.  My first appointment is Thursday.  Then next week I go back for a sonogram.

Did you know insurance only allows 2-3 people to be with you in the hospital room when you deliver now?  I had 5 with me when I delivered Iris.  I definitely want Emma and Iris with me this time.  I didn't ask if that eliminated kids.  And all this time, I've been picturing 5 kids coming in to see the baby when he/she is born.  There will be 8. 

On the adoption front...We sent our dossier and three care packages with the agency director to Ethiopia this past Friday.  I forgot to take pictures of the care packages.  We included a photo album with pictures of all of us, stickers, bandaids, crayons, pencil, a small notebook, hair bows and headbands, toothbrush and paste, lotion, and beef jerky (we don't eat it but we'll work on healthy eating when they get here).  I think that's it.

This weekend we get to go to a gathering with other families in the area who have or are adopting from Ethiopia.  Isn't that cool?  What a nice support system they have in place.

~~~
I have so many posts I want to do on topics like chores, picky eaters, books I'm reading (ever so slowly), etc.  Hopefully I'll get to them soon.

Giving Thanks

Oh, give thanks to the Lord; call upon his name;

make known his deeds among the peoples!

Psalm 105:1

I wanted to share some fun ways God has been blessing us during this adoption process.

First off, not long into our paperwork, Roddy came home to announce he had gotten a raise. The raise was just to show his employer's appreciation for his hard work. The amount of the raise was 10% more than the amount we needed to send in with our contract.  Of course, we don't get the raise all at once but it was a cool confirmation of what we are doing.  Did you notice the 10%?  Remind you of tithing?

Then, we were praying for the large amount of money we needed all at once to send in with the contract and referral acceptance.  We had read, initialed and signed the 28 pages and post-dated the contract for August 20.  I had not looked at a calendar, just picked that date some time in the future hoping we would have the money by then and could send it in.  I think it was the next week when Roddy decided to sell his car.  He listed it on a Thursday.  One week and one day later - on August 20 - he met the couple at the DMV and received the cash for the car!

I didn't even realize it until I was going through the paperwork again to have it notarized!  How cool is that?  So with that cash and money we've saved and sweet friends have donated, we finally got to send those 2 big items in.

Then, of course, God has chosen to bless us with another baby!! So very thankful for and excited about that.  Well, it's been 6 years since I was first pregnant with Iris.  I had gotten rid of and passed on my maternity clothes - the few timeless pieces went to my sister.  I was thinking I was going to have to go to Goodwill and look for some clothes to wear because even though I am only 9 weeks, I am already out of all my pants and skirts.  I have nothing against Goodwill.  In fact, I love that place, but it would still be money going out out the door.

Well yesterday, my sister came by with 3 garbage bags full of summer and winter maternity clothes!!!!  Skirts and shorts, dresses and shirts and pants and capris!  I had so much fun trying them on and sorting them out by season.  Now I just have to take all the clothes I can't wear off their hangers so I have room in my closet for the new stuff.

The other thing that happened yesterday is that we found out we didn't have to wait for this certain government form to come back before sending in our dossier.  It does have to be done before we can travel, though. Well that certain form costs $830.  And the dossier has to be sent in with $1000.  We had enough for one but not both. 

So while I was excited that we didn't have to wait almost a month to get our paperwork moving ahead to get an earlier court date (which means getting the girls home sooner), I didn't know where we would get the money to send both of them in.  We were praying about it a lot throughout the day.  That afternoon, some certain someones very close to us, handed us a wad of cash making it possible for us to do both!! They didn't even know that we needed it right now!  I couldn't help but cry.

Isn't God good?  What an exciting journey He has us on!

Hallelujah!!!

9 weeks along

Estimated due date: April 3, 2010

(Technically, I guess this child is #9 since the girls should be here before he/she arrives.)