8 months in, 8 months OUT

  

At the end of this week, we'll celebrate Carter's 8-month birthday.

It occurred to me today that as of sometime this coming week,

he will have lived more of his life outside of me than he did inside.

 It's unbelievable how much faster time has flown since his birth.

I went back into my photo archives this afternoon

and found my monthly pregnancy photos.

These were on display at my baby shower, but I'm

posting them here for some of my out-of-town

friends and family that never got to see me pregnant

and have asked to see these.

Month 1

Late October

Just found out.  Not sure what to think...

November

Hyperemesis Gravidarum in full swing.

Weighing 12 pounds less than the previous month.

Days of failed attempts before I could get out of bed for this pic.

December

Still sick as a dog, but starting to get excited

after seeing ultrasound pics that looked like a real baby!

January

Trying my hardest to keep down as many calories

as possible each day.  Still struggling, though.

Michael built a snowman and brought it inside for me.

February

Medication finally started to kick in and I was able

to keep the nausea under control most of the day

and start gaining some real baby weight!

March

Gaining weight like crazy.  For the first time

since October, I was able to leave the house

for something other than doctor appointments!

April

Feeling great most of the day every day.

So excited about our baby boy to be!

May

The last picture of Carter on the INSIDE.

I didn't think it was possible to love him more.

Until I saw him.

Unfortunately we never got to take a 9-month picture

because Carter was born almost 3 weeks early.

We had a beach ball and sand pail all ready to go, too!

Oh, well.  Better to have a happy healthy baby than

a complete set of pictures, right?

The quality of these pictures is awful, I know, but we

didn't have a decent camera at the time and I was way

too sick most of the pregnancy to even shop online,

let alone actually go out camera shopping.

I'm still glad we did them, since this will likely be my

only pregnancy and as miserable as I was for the vast

majority of it, it was still completely miraculous.

As unflattering as they may be,

I will treasure these pictures forever!

Linking up with Sunday Snapshot

at Ni Hao Y'all.



Notice

We received a very important Notice in the mail this week.

Our I-800A was approved!

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has reviewed all of our documents, including our home study report, and has determined that we are suitable candidates for international adoption.

Specifically, we have been approved to adopt one child from the People's Republic of China.

One child.  Our daughter.

For some reason seeing those words and the name of her birth country in writing on a document with our names attached to it gives me goosebumps. 

What was a dream for years is suddenly becoming very real.

This was the last document we needed in order to start the final steps in preparing our dossier for China.  Now we can begin the notarization, certification and sealing process on all our documents and hopefully have everything on its way to China before the birth of our son this summer.

Baby boy has been making his presence more and more known as he gets bigger and stronger.  Mike watches my giant belly twitching and bulging and rolling and says it looks like there's an alien trying to get out of me through my stomach!  It totally freaks him out and I try to explain to him how it feels and how difficult it is for me to sleep at night since baby likes to sleep all day and party every night!  He seems to think my already squished bladder is a very fun trampoline from about midnight until 5 am.  Every.  Single.  Night. 

He's been getting hiccups a lot lately, sometimes several times a day.  My whole midsection shakes like I have a major muscle twitch.  It's very distracting, but reminds me to take a moment to give him a rub and tell him how much I love him.

Looking forward to another shower this weekend to celebrate this pregnancy and the anticipation of both new additions to our family!

Baby Shower #1

Today was our first baby shower, for Mike's side of the family.  Most of the guests came from Pittsburgh and it meant a lot to us that they were willing to make the drive to celebrate with us. 

The theme for the shower was Disney/Mickey Mouse, which was perfect for us.  It's been our number one vacation destination since we were dating and I'm sure that trend will continue once the kids are old enough to enjoy the Disney experience.  There were so many cute and thoughtful touches in the decorating and the food that it was obvious how much work and planning went into each little detail.  We are blessed to have wonderful family members who are willing to do so much to support us in our journey to parenthood.

We were absolutely floored by the generosity of everyone who attended the shower.  And several people who couldn't attend sent gifts, too!  I think what really stood out to us was how many people bought things not only for the baby due in a couple of months, but also for our future daughter.  It meant a lot to us that everyone was as excited as we are about both babies.  They wanted to know all about the adoption process and how soon we might be able to get our little girl.  There were of course a lot of questions about how the pregnancy has been so far and when the bio baby is due, but most people are so familiar with building families the "normal" way that our adoption is more interesting to them.  We answered a lot of questions, which we were happy to do since we both love talking about our adoption.

Here are a few pictures of our wonderful afternoon:

Cupcakes by Beth with Mickey sprinkles

More yummy desserts

Baby Mickey crawling across the appetizer and drinks table

Mickey confetti on the tables

Pretty daffodils

Chocolate Mickey pop favors

Everyone enjoying lunch

Overflowing gift table

Mike's Mom and Wes

Carrie's Dad and Elisabeth

Opening gifts

Mike's side of the family

Many many thanks to Beth, Brad and Mike's mom for hosting such a fabulous event!

We love you guys!



Of Course We Are!

The very first thing I thought when I saw the positive pregnancy test was
"This can't be right.  Is this test expired?"

After several more tests, I became convinced that there was no mistake and my next thought was,
"Oh, no.  How is this going to affect our adoption plans?!" 

After years of trying to conceive a baby, it's hard to believe that I felt a little disappointed when it finally happened.  Not that I wasn't grateful for this miracle pregnancy and not that I didn't want this biological child, but I was afraid the timing might interfere with us bringing home our OTHER child.  The one who was already on our minds and in our hearts.  I didn't want anything to stand in our way, not even this precious new life within me.

I was also concerned about how Michael would react when I told him the news.  I know he is completely on board with the adoption, but I also know that having a biological child was much more important to him than it ever was to me.  I've always said I would gladly adopt all of my children and I absolutely meant it.  For some reason I don't have that biological drive to reproduce and pass on my genes.  I think there are things that I can give my children that are far more important than genetics.  Things like love, acceptance, knowledge, faith, morals, traditions and memories.  I often wondered if God had placed those feelings in me as a way to protect my heart because He knew we would be unable to have biological children.  Apparently not.  :)

Over the past year or so as we've been researching and preparing for our adoption, Michael has joined my way of thinking and he agrees that you can absolutely leave your mark on this world and leave a part of yourself in the children you raise, whether or not they share your DNA.  But somewhere in the back of my mind, I always wondered if he really felt as strongly as I do about adoption, or if he was just going along with it because it was the only option it seemed we had.  After all, we had spent years trying to conceive and had no indication that it was ever going to happen.

When Michael found out that a biological child was on the way, would it change the way he felt about our adoption?
All I could do was say a prayer and hope for the best. 

I took the pregnancy tests in the morning, while Michael was in the shower.  I was in complete shock, with absolutely no idea how to tell him, so I climbed back in bed and didn't say anything when he kissed me goodbye and headed out to do the grocery shopping.

While he was gone, I had time to come up with a plan to tell him the news.  I decided to secretly videotape his reaction.  I don't know if I'll ever have another opportunity to tell him I'm pregnant, so I wanted to capture the moment.  I set up a small camera on the kitchen counter and luckily he didn't notice it.

A good friend of ours had been in the hospital for several weeks and I had been taking care of her cats every weekend.  I was aware that there can be dangerous toxins in cat litter and pregnant women should avoid it, so I decided to use that as my way to tell Mike the news, since I needed to take care of the cats that day. 

I would ask him to change the cat litter for me and I was sure he would resist, as it would interfere with his plans.  I expected there to be a bit of an argument and at some point he would ask me why I couldn't just do it myself and I would tell him.  :)

Right after he left for the store, I got online and found a due date calculator.
4th of July.
I couldn't believe it.

I wrote on my stomach
"Baby # 1, expected arrival July 4, 2013"
so that I could lift up my shirt and show Mike when I gave him the news.

Here's how it went:

I have watched this video again and again and I always get emotional when Mike says,

"We're still adopting.  How cool will that be to have TWO?!"

Apparently my fears were completely unfounded. 

It didn't even cross his mind that we wouldn't still have a Chinese daughter.

His reaction was all I could have ever hoped for and I am so glad I was able to capture it so that someday we can show our little girl that when her daddy found out a biological child was on the way, the first thing he thought of was HER. 

She is wanted and chosen and she will be loved and treasured as much as any biological child.

Our Chinese daughter is so much a part of our daily conversations and our plans for the future that it's nearly impossible to picture our family without her. She's already a part of us and we wouldn't have it any other way.

So, as family and friends continue to find out we are having a biological child, the first question we are asked is almost always the same.

"Are you still planning to adopt?"

And I am thrilled to be able to answer the same each time.

"Of course we are!!!"

Surprise!

This December Michael and I invited our close family members over to talk about our adoption

and to give them these ornaments as early Christmas presents.

They were handmade by a family in China that is trying to earn enough money to send their children to school.  They use pliers to hand twist thin wire into the Chinese characters that represent the words Family, Love, Grace, Hope, Faith and Blessing, which all have special meaning in our adoption journey.  

We wanted to give everyone a way to remember our future daughter this Christmas and we think it will make her feel special to see symbols of her birth country on everyone's trees each year.

******************************************************

Our families hadn't been to our house since we announced our adoption, so we took them upstairs to show them a few of the many items we have already purchased for our daughter.

We showed them the crib

and the toys.

The clothes,

the shoes

and the hair bows.  

(Can you tell I'm excited to be getting a little girl?!)

Then we showed them the shirts we made for the three of us to wear while we're in China for our adoption trip.  We thought it might be fun to give our families a little quiz on Mandarin Chinese.  We showed them the fronts of the shirts and asked them to guess the English words on the backs.

We started with mine, which was the easiest.

Everyone guessed correctly right away.

Then we tried this one.

Bottle?  Nope. 



After a guess or two, they got it.

Finally we showed them this little one.

There were a lot of guesses.

Baby?

Child?

Little girl?

Daughter?

Finally I turned the shirt around and revealed the translation.

It was one of the best moments of our lives, watching everyone's faces as the wheels were turning in their heads. 
And then seeing their expressions as they realized what we were telling them.

Yes, after over two years of trying with no success, Michael and I are thrilled to announce

that we are very unexpectedly EXPECTING!!!  

A few months ago, as we were just beginning our adoption, I told Michael that I know of quite a few childless couples who adopted children and were later blessed with an unexpected pregnancy.  I told him that I really felt that God wanted us to adopt sooner rather than later and that if we did, maybe we would be blessed with a biological child as well.

I was thinking it might happen in a year or two, after we brought our daughter home.
Instead, we found out two days after our first home study meeting! 

We were already pregnant at our first adoption meeting and didn't even know it!  

How amazing is our God?!  I mean, seriously.
To find out less than 48 hours after our first meeting?
What an instant reward for following the path He had planned for us!

And guess when our little miracle's calculated due date is.

4th of July!!!!

How's that for a surprise American baby?