New Licenses

Well, Chet and I took one of those dreaded steps when you move to a new place and decided to face the DMV for new drivers' licenses this afternoon. I have to brag on our local DMV because it was probably the smoothest, most pleasant DMV experience either of us has ever had. Things flowed smoothly (in spite of the fact that we had Mary Joyce with us), and the staff was extremely friendly. So, we are now holders of Florida drivers' licences, and that is another one of those big steps out of the way. I hope the tag office runs as smoothly.

Baby Watch Update for Monday

Provided Miss Katherine has not decided to come on her own, we are scheduled to induce early next week. I will go for a non-stress test on Friday, and then will check into the hospital Monday, August 6 at 9 p.m. If things go according to schedule, Katherine should arrive sometime on Tuesday the 7th. At least we have a finish line in sight now. :-)

Sunday Night Update

It is almost 10:00 on Sunday night, and Miss Katherine has still not made her appearance. I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow afternoon, and at that point, they should schedule a time/date to induce. Other than that, I have no huge updates.

I did, however, just finish making the latest collage for our China travel group. These girls are growing up so much, and you can just see the little personalities in their faces. They are all growing so fast!

Quick Update

Kim K. asked for an update, so here goes:

Today is the estimated due date for Katherine, but she has chosen not to make her appearance just yet. I guess that's why it is an "estimated" due date. So, we're still waiting... I guess after the referral wait, we should be pretty good at this by now... :-) For now, life is going on as usual around here, as much as it can, anyway.

Our Sweetheart

Here are some recent pictures of our little sweetie. She is now 19 months old and will soon be a big sister. You can really see her personality in these--all sides of it. :-) In that last one, she did put the laundry basket on her head herself, and she was playing her piano and singing loudly while wearing it. That's our girl!

Playing in a Box

Boxes are so much fun to play in, and here are a couple of pictures of Mary Joyce playing in the box her diapers came in. You have to love the picture on the side of the box, too. We think that little girl favors Mary Joyce just a little.

By the way, the diapers are Publix Premium. They work great for a store brand diaper. We really have had less overnight leaks with them than we have with Luvs.

Stroller Saga--Mission Accomplished!

Here it is, all put together--the infamous double stroller. Evenflo was actually pretty quick to email us an instruction manual once their business week started again. This thing is a monster--huge... Thankfully, it folds down smaller and more easily than you would think.

On a related note, we now have the swing and bouncy chair put together, too, so I think we're actually caught up on all of our baby equipment assembly for the time being.

Baby Update

I had my weekly doctor's appointment today--only one cm dilated and less than a week from my due date (Friday). If Miss Katherine hasn't decided to join us by next Monday afternoon, we will be setting a date for induction. I can see benefits to both. If she comes on this week, I stay uncomfortable for a much shorter time, but if we end up having to schedule, it will be a lot easier to get the out of town family members down here in time for her debut. Oh, well...God is in control, and she'll get here when the time is right.

Our Continuing Baby Equipment Saga...

Those who know us probably remember the whole saga of Mary Joyce's crib and what an ordeal it was to actually get the crib to the house. Now we have a double stroller story...

The stroller was a gift, but it was of the variety where we were given the money, and we placed the order for the stroller. We waited until we were pretty settled in here, and then placed our order from Wal-Mart's online store. They have a new feature where you can have certain items shipped to the store for pick-up instead of having them shipped to your home, and this cuts out the shipping and handling charges. Seemed like a good idea, and our local store was said to be set up for this, so that is the route we took. It was supposed to arrive between the 13th and 19th, at which point we would get an email from the store letting us know to pick it up.

On the 20th, we got an email saying that our order was delayed. Chet called the 1-800 number that we were given and found out that the stroller was actually at the local store; they just hadn't logged it into the system yet. The email that we got was one that automatically goes out in situations like that. Okay, huge sense of relief... We decided to pick it up last night after supper.

We went out to eat at our favorite local pizza place, and then walked out to a car with a flat tire. (Joy...Did I mention it was raining, too?) Chet got the tire changed, but the spare wasn't in much better shape than the other tire. No trip to town next door for Wal-Mart last night. (Our other vehicle is a Ford Ranger--no room for 2 adults and a car seat in there.)

Chet got up this morning, and went and picked up the stroller (and got the tire fixed). This afternoon, he got ready to put the stroller together, and there was no instruction manual in the box. We dug around online, but haven't come up with anything, even on the manufacturer's website. Their support people don't work on weekends, either. So now we are the proud owners of a double stroller that we can't put together until someone sends us a manual.

Nothing huge or earth-shaking here--just a series of events that we have to laugh at to keep from pulling our hair out with frustration...

By the way, the stroller is an Evenflo CitiTour in the Tattersall pattern. Does anyone have an instruction manual? :-)

Baby Watch Update

Okay, this is my last post for the day unless Baby Katherine decides to make her appearance today (and then Chet will post at least an announcement). Not much news on the baby front. I've been having Braxton-Hicks contractions and some others that I feel like may be pre-labor, but there hasn't really been any progress in the last 2 or 3 days. We are just going on with life as usual, at least as much as we can, and are trying to get everything set and ready around the house. My bag is packed, the doctors' and sitters' phone numbers are easily accessible, the sitters' instructions are complete, the baby equipment is here (with the exception of the double stroller that we have to pick up later today)... Now, we just need a baby... :-)

Mandy's Moon

My favorite online shopping site, especially for adoption-related merchandise, has to be Mandy's Moon. You can find items there that you cannot find anywhere else, and many times, you can have them personalized. Mary Joyce's first two Christmas ornaments came from this site, and recently, I ordered her "I'm the big sister" shirt. I was able to personalize it with an Asian big sister and a Caucasian baby sister. How fun is that?!?

Anyway, I'm in no way affiliated with the site, other than as a satisfied customer, but I would encourage you to check it out if you haven't already...

http://www.mandysmoon.com

Pretty in Yellow

Mary Joyce is modeling a new outfit from the Georgia grandparents in these pictures. Here, I'm trying to get her to pose in the few minutes we had to spare before a Wednesday night church service. She obviously was not in the mood to pose.


Can you say "Daddy's Girl"? Just look at the expression on Mary Joyce's face! :-)


Our little girl is also an ice cream lover. We're not going to be able to get by with sharing ours for much longer. Soon, she will want her own.

Little Inspector, Part II

Mary Joyce continues to be the family inspector of all things for her baby sister. Here she is checking out the Boppy pillow, which seems to be pretty comfy. I suppose it is only fair, since the cats were the inspectors for all of her (Mary Joyce's) baby things before she arrived.

If we can get some time to assemble a few things, there will be even more for our little inspector to check out.

She is also modeling her new pink outfit from the Louisiana grandparents. :-) Thanks, Lao Lao and Papa!!!

A Morning at the Beach

These pictures were actually made a couple of weekends ago on a morning excursion to the beach, and really tell the day's story themselves. Mary Joyce loves the ocean. She had a wonderful time sitting in the water with her daddy and letting the waves wash over her. She really wasn't afraid of the water at all.

Our little neatnik, though, can't stand to have wet sand all over her hands, as you can see in one of the pictures. She will instantly go looking for someone to help her wash her hands off or to towel the sand away.

I love the picture of Chet and Mary Joyce's hands. First of all, it is just precious, and secondly, my close-up photos never turn out that well! :-)

Our Little Inspector

Someone was kind enough to pass along a bath chair for Baby Katherine. We had taken it out of the trunk of the car the other day, but only made it in as far as the great room, where it was sitting in the middle of the floor. Mary Joyce decided that she needed to try it out, so she climbed in. All was well, until she figured out that she couldn't get out. That required a little assistance from Mama. :-)

Tummy Picture, by Request

I'm a little pressed for time right now, but I did want to add one short post. Diane M., the wonderful moderator of our June 2005 DTC Yahoo group, asked to see a pregnant belly picture. This one is actually a couple of weeks old, but I haven't gained any weight since then. All my weight gain has been in my belly, so I hope that means it will come off more easily once baby actually arrives.

I'll do a bigger post with Mary Joyce pictures when I have time to sit down and do it right. :-)

It doesn't "always" happen...

I've included 2 very special pictures with this morning's post. One is the very first referral picture that Chet and I saw of Mary Joyce on August 1, 2006. As we were on the phone with Tina, our agency rep, taking down the information about our daughter, and repeatedly hitting the "Get Mail" button on Apple Mail, that was the first picture to come through. That was a moment we will never forget.

The second picture is the ultrasound picture of Katherine (on the day we found out that she was a "Katherine"). The experience of seeing our baby move on that monitor in the doctor's office was an equally special experience. Again, that was a moment we'll remember always.

We sometimes say that we are "living the cliche' "--You know, the one that says "If you adopt, then you will get pregnant." or "That always happens to people who adopt." In reality, at least from what I've been told, about 5% of couples who face unexplained infertility (no cause pinpointed, which was our situation) who do not adopt end up getting pregnant. That same statistic is true for those who do adopt after facing the same unexplained infertility.

In our situation, we truly believe that this is a "God thing." Mary Joyce is such a precious gift, and such an amazing fit for our family. Her personality makes her the ideal oldest "Preacher's Kid." We feel that God wanted her at home with us before He gave us any biological children. If we had had our "homegrown" children first, we might have ended up not adopting from China at all. (Currently, we do not qualify for the China program due to the assets requirement.) We do know that He has a plan for our family, and we are currently watching that plan unfold.

First Post in Blog Land...

Well, I've finally done it. I've started a family blog. We will continue to update Mary Joyce's Adoption Voyages page until at least our first Gotcha Day anniversary (and will continue to keep it online), but we wanted to be able to share with family and friends a little more frequently, especially since we've moved further away from loved ones.

For those who do not know us, we are Dusty and Chet, and we have recently relocated to sunny Florida. Chet is a pastor, and I am a stay-at-home mom. We are parents to a very active 18 month old, adopted in September of 2006 from Jiangxi province in China. Two months after returning home, we very unexpectedly found out we were going to have a baby the old-fashioned way and are currently awaiting the arrival of baby Katherine (due on the 27th of this month).

One thing that Chet and I do to minister to adoptive families is a web business hosting adoption travel journals. Our site is called Adoption Voyages, and there is a link to the site on the right hand side of this page. Please come and visit that site at anytime. We love to share in this experience with other adoptive families, as Mary Joyce's adoption was such a life-changing event for us.

The Adoption Blog links on the right are a combination of families that we know personally and those who we know via the very active China adoption online community. There are families listed there who are in all stages of the adoption process, from those who are waiting for referrals to those who are already home to those who are starting the whole process again. The community of China adoption has truly amazed us.

I'm going to attempt to add a picture to this post, so here goes... Stay tuned for more later...