Christmas in October

Last night we celebrated Christmas together, we turned on some Christmas music made a little paper tree and boom it's Christmas in October. Marvin's mom made Calvin a stocking and it has a little history behind it. The fabric came from Marvin's kindergarten naptime mat. We love the fact that Marvin used it when he was little!

One of the highlights of the evening was when Marvin opened a gift from his mom, Pfernilssees. They are a staple snack during Christmas at Marvin's family. He was so excited, and they made a great breakfast this morning, yum!

Seeing the sights

Since my parents & sister made it all the way around the world, we thought they needed to see a few things while they are here. So far we have hit a few markets and seen a few historical sights with them. Calvin has been a trooper through all this sight seeing, he loves is baby bjorn and stroller so it makes taking him out with the family a lot easier. Surprisingly I have only gotten scolded a few times for having him out, well I think I was getting scolded a few older ladies scowled at me and shook their finger at me. Oh well it seems like they are having a good time. We will make the most of the last few days with them.

Close & Cozy

Thank You Marvin's family for the carrier. Calvin absolutely loves it, it puts him right to sleep. I highly recommend this little thing to anyone. It has been perfect for when we want to go out to crowded areas and it has been amazing when we have to use public transportation. I know it will see lots of miles.

Sweet Sounds

We love all the sleep sounds Calvin makes, so we thought we would share a few with you.

They're Here!

My parents and sister arrived Tuesday and we have enjoyed their company. Right now they are out checking out a little region close to our house. We took a little stroll down the the weekly market this morning and they enjoyed all the new sights and sounds. It has been a little rainy the past couple of days, but it is suppose to clear off tomorrow so we will be ready to hit the more tourist geared areas of town once the rain stops.

Grandpa got to hold Calvin first, but only because he made it to the door first. Grandma quickly swept him away as soon as she walked in. My sister has mananged to hold him a bit, but only because we place him in her arms.

Amazingly they made it here with all their suitcases and boxes still in tact. Last night we opened all of the baby things everyone sent. Let's just say our cup is overflowing right now. We appreciate everything everyone had taken the time to send. Calvin is certainly going to be warm and well dressed! It took over an hour to look through everything people had sent. We had a lot of fun looking through all the sweet clothes and we can't wait to read all the books.

This morning my mom helped me sort things into sizes. Here are a couple of pictures of the piles of clothes. We are certainly blessed. I hope to get some good pictures posted of Calvin with his Grandpa, Grandma & Aunt in the next few days.

I love my Stroller Great Grandma & Great Grandpa!

We tested it out yesterday and Calvin loves his new set of wheels, it put him right to sleep. It is the perfect width for maneuvering around the streets of Istanbul. We all want to thank his Great Grandpa & Grandma for such an amazing blessing!

Crazy Hats!

Shortly before we put Calvin to bed the other night we had fun trying on a few of his hats. The blue one was the one I made and the other was made by a pretty cool girl we know. We think he looks pretty cute, and provided a bit of entertainment for us

First Real Bath

Calvin's cord fell off last Friday which meant we could officially give him a real bath. It wasn't that pleasant, but we think we had the water a bit too cool for his tastes because the other night we had it a bit warmer and he was pretty content. We are continuing to catch on to his likes and dislikes.

Hi Grandpa & Grandma!

First trip to Europe

We had to make the long trip to the US Consulate yesterday. Marvin was able to find out that there was a fast ferry which could take us to within a 5 minute taxi ride from the boat docks, which left at 8:00 am. It was truly the fasted way to get there, unfortunately there wasn't a boat coming back to Asia at the time we needed so we had to take a taxi to a different boat dock.

We had planned out what time we needed to wake up, feed him, and leave the house but that didn't go as planned as we both slept through the alarm. Thankfully Calvin knew we had places to go and woke us up a little later than we wanted, but it all worked out.

Everything went very smoothly and Calvin nestled right in my arms the entire time. We were able to walk to a shopping center down the hill from the Consulate, sit down in a little cafe and feed him before we headed back home.

Our first excursion out took 6 hours, he was such a trooper through it all. We also were very thankful that we were able to get a document that we needed to apply for our visas yesterday. We weren't sure if they would let us do it since he didn't have his passport, but after asking they said it was okay. PTL we are so thankful we don't have to make that trip again.

Mr. Bright Eyes...well sort of

We needed to apply for Calvin's passport as soon as we could, but first we needed a picture with his eyes opened. We had the camera ready and a white sheet in place at all times and thankfully Monday we finally got a picture that fit all the right dimensions, so Tuesday we were able to head to the Consulate and apply for his passport. They said it would take 10 days or so before he recieved it, but we have heard it takes around a week. This is the first of many steps we must take before we head home!

Sleepy Boy

We were hoping to go to the consulate today to apply for his passport but unfortunatley the best picture we had taken with his eyes open didn't quite meet the guidelines. So we had to wait until he opened them today to get a new picture, this was harder than you think. It looks like we have a big trip ahead of us tomorrow, Calvin will have his first ferry ride and his first trip to Europe! We are still new at this so we hope everything goes smoothly.

His Name

Many people have asked about his name so I thought I would explain it here. Calvin is a the name of a dear friend of Marvin's family, who essentially has been a grandparent figure in Marvin's life. He was married later in life to a sweet woman and they never had any children and Marvin family welcomed them into their family. Over the years Marvin has watched this man display amazing faith and dependency on Father. He has committed his life to serving him and has filled his heart with the Word. To this day it is the most beautiful thing hearing him quote huge pieces from the Word. We hope that one day our son will grow up to be an example of a faithful servant like our dear friend Calvin.

Jacob of course was chosen from the OT and his story has touched my heart this last year. We hope that someday our Calvin Jacob displays some of the same character traits of both these men of faith.

Sponge Bath Time

Calvin certainly does not enjoy being naked and let us know as we attempted to give him his first sponge bath at home. Here are a few shots of the festivities! Last night went much better as Marvin suggested that I hold him while Marvin washed him, he didn't pitch quite the fit, but he certainly didn't enjoy it.

He has Stolen our Hearts

We have been blown away at how this little tiny baby can just capture our hearts. It truly is a blessing to get to hear all of his squeaks and little noises. We have enjoyed getting to know him these first couple of days after his birth. He still remains pretty tired most of the time and we have had to set an alarm at night to wake him up to eat, I am sure this won't last long. Last night he woke up 2 times right around the time the alarm went off, but it still took a while for him to wake up enough to eat!

We have also decided he is our little koala bear. He certainly is a snuggler and will curl right up on your chest and tuck his little legs ups and grab on with his arms. It's pretty sweet and both of us have enjoyed our cuddle time with him.

The first picture I posted is of Calvin getting ready for his first outing to the hospital. We wrapped him up in a blanket, caught a taxi and we were off to the hospital. The end of Ramadan was Friday and it is a big holiday here, so Saturday everything was dead. The hospital was down to only essential personnel, so it made it a bit tricky making an appointment for next week, but we were blessed to run into a pro basketball player from America who was at the hospital with her translator and they helped us communicate. He is good to us.

His doctor's exam went well. He has a bit of yellow tinge in his face, this is not found on the rest of his body and the test results came back negative for jaundice. He dropped down to 6lb. 6oz. which the doctor said was normal. We were reassured talking to her about how he was doing and had a great chance to ask her a few questions. We are very thankful to have such great medical care here. We go back again on Thursday and hope to find out the results of some test in a week.

Home from the hospital

Less than 24 hours after he was born we were released to go "home". We were very thankful to be able to be dismissed so quickly, which means he is a healthy baby boy. We do have a follow up appointment for Saturday morning to check and make sure he is still doing well. He will have a couple of tests to see if they can figure out the cause of the extra amniotic fluid. We will keep you posted on any news.

We are enjoying our son, Wednesday Marvin was beaming after he was born and he made this comment: "I haven't smiled this much since the day we were married." He was a great coach and I couldn't have make it through labor and delivery without him. The whole process went incredibly fast, my doctor's husband's grandfather died and she needed to leave on Thursday to be with his family. So she called and asked me to come into the hospital to induce labor on Wednesday. She knew I would deliver any day, and honestly I think I we would have had him that day or the next without inducing. So here is the timeline of what happened

• We arrived at the hospital I was almost 4 cm, 9:00 a.m.
• 11:00 they started a slow pitocin drip.
• At 3:00 I was at 6 and still not experiencing too much pain.
• 3:30 my doctor broke my water and the game began.
• After this time escaped us and labor went quickly. When the doctor asked if I wanted any pain medication I was almost to 8 cm, so I got a shot of something, but honestly it made me pretty sick, I don't know if it helped a single bit?
• Finally at 5:40 He was born!

I am mending right now, as I tore pretty severely, but overall am doing great. We are all adjusting to each other and learning as we go. He is a pretty heavy sleeper and the hardest thing so far is waking him up to eat! He enjoys his sleep that is for sure. Here are a few pictures of the little man how has captured our hearts! Thanks for sharing in this experience with us, we have enjoyed all of your e-mails, we are certainly blessed!

Our first family photo!

At home this morning shortly after he has eaten, we love his little hand positions.

Trying to wake up to eat at the hospital

With Dr. Deniz our amazing doctor!

Where are we?

Well Marvin and I have been finding little parks to sit in and enjoy the beautiful weather here. I took along some language material to study and quickly found out that flash cards are a bad idea when it is windy. Marvin was great at helping me run after the ones that had escapes my reach. But the weirdest thing happened when we were going home. We actually stood in a line and waited for the bus to take us home. We were shocked to see that people waited for their turn. After living in a place where it is survival of the pushiest it was certainly a beautiful sight.