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.

Hat

I decided since my blanket didn't turn out so great that maybe I could try to make a circular pot holder and it turned into a hat! How funny! I think I am much better at making hats than blankets.

Freedom...well sort of

My doctor gave me a bit more freedom this week and told me since we were past the critical period, I could be a little more active, and the best part is no more bed rest! I cannot tell you how excited I was to hear this news. We even went to the mall that same day to celebrate, we left around 4:00 and didn't get home until 8:00. Marvin even let me wander for a while, something that he doesn't enjoy at all.

Yesterday we went on a picnic at a little undeveloped area with some trees, near our apartment. It was a beautiful day and perfect for eating outdoors. We spent some time studying in this change of scenery before we headed home.

Each day it has been fun to get out of the house for a little bit. Freedom is something to certainly celebrate. Now all we have to do is wait for the contractions to get a bit stronger. We can't wait to meet our Little Guy.

Night on the Town

Wednesday we decided to take in a movie in the "outside world". It worked out great as the taxi dropped us off right at the mall door near the elevator and we only had a short walk before we got to the theatre. (The beautiful thing about most movies here are that they are in the original language and have subtitles which means we can actually see a movie in English, what a treat.)

We were at the counter buying our tickets and the man didn't speak English so he gave us a pamphlet that had a listing with a picture of all the movies currently showing. We wanted to see the movie Becoming Jane so the first movie I saw that had a picture of a man and a woman I assumed was the correct movie, however it was showing at a different time than what it said online, but not thinking anything of it we purchased the tickets and decided we had time to eat dinner before the movie, so off to the food courts we went. As I sat down looking at the pamphlet I noticed I had pointed to the wrong movie, and Marvin was already ordering our food, oops. As soon as he came back I told him my error and since we only had 5 minutes to eat before the first showing it meant we would have to wait 2 1/2 hours before the next showing started!

After we slowly enjoyed our meal, we made our way down to Starbucks. We have to laugh every time we go to Starbucks because Marvin's name is very odd to the Turkish and they never know how to say it and of course at Starbucks they write your name on your cup. Most of the time they just hand Marvin the cup and pen and have him write it, but if they don't most of the time it turns out to be some version of Marwin! (It just makes us chuckle.)

It turned out to be a great evening and it was nice to have a break from the house. We thought the movie was great and we enjoyed squeezing in a movie before we enter the world of parenthood.

Things that Make me go HMMM?

1. Braclets? For some reason I feel a little unbalanced when I wear one. I guess I don't understand the point.

2. How terrible I am at crocheting. I finished a baby blanket that I have been working on while on bed rest. It turned out to be quite a project due to the fact that I tend to get smaller each row, which leads to lots of ripping out of stitches. I decided to call this type of crocheting using the "rustic" stitch. What do you think?

3. What I should do today? My doctor continued the bed rest, minus medication and it has been hard to find things to keep me busy.

4. How many watermelons can you stack on each other before the bottom one crushes or breaks? My guess is 50. (Do any of our engineering friends want to help us out with this one?)

5. How easily we forget how things taste. We recently found sliced cheddar cheese in Istanbul but I can't even remember what cheddar cheese tastes like. I also forgot how amazing peaches and grapes are. We buy fruit by the seasons where we live, so it will be another year before we taste the sweetness of a watermelon. I guess it is something to look forward to.

6. How pain is always so much worse when it wakes you up in the middle of the night. It seems like there is nothing worse than a leg cramp in the middle of the night, and then I started to think how labor would be quite the shock. This led me to wonder when our little guy would get the labor process going?

Week 33

Well we have less than a week to go before I am taking off medication. I am really surprised we made it this far. My doctor feels like things will progress rapidly after we stop medication due to the fact that I am continuing to dilate on bed rest. Monday she felt like he would come in the next two weeks and told me to take it very easy this week. I am experiencing some similar feelings like I did before I went into labor the first time, hopefully he can hold off until Monday. My doctor is going to be in Italy Thrusday through Sunday, but don't worry another doctor has been briefed about my situation just in case. So ready of not here he comes! We will keep you posted if anything new develops.

Isn't this Amazing

This is a picture of a picture of the 4D ultra sound we had done while I was in the hospital. Sorry it is a bit fuzzy but I think you can see the picture. It's amazing what they can do now. We can't wait to be able to hold and love on this little guy.

Nesting

Well since we have been here I have had this strange desire to straighten the books in the bookshelves and yesterday I finally did it. Can you tell which ones I was able to reach? I figured Marvin wouldn't be too happy if I attempted the top shelf. The beautiful thing is I was able to do most of it sitting down. I only had to stand up to straighten the second to the top shelf. We hope that this little bout of nesting doesn't predict out little guy is coming this week, he still needs to hold on one more week. It's such great news to think we made it to week 33! PTL!

My Big Ideas

Marvin loves it when I start a sentence with, "I have a really good idea" or "You know what I was thinking?" or "I was thinking it would be good to....."

Usually these sentences require some work on Marvin's part, most of the time more than I orginally thought they would take. I am a very big picture thinking, so I often forget about the details, so usually my great ideas often involve a lot more work than I orginally anticipated.

So knowing this about me, you can imagine what Marvin was thinking when I said, "I have a really good idea, but I need your help." This time my great idea was to freeze a few meals so that we wouldn't have to cook once the baby comes, but since I can only stand for 10 minute stretches cooking is pretty much off limits, thus I needed the help of my amazing husband.

I broke up the cooking in two different days, and tried to help with as much as I could do, but the first day Marvin ended up cooking all afternoon. The second day went a lot smoother, but Marvin was very glad that it was finished. Right now our freezer is stuffed with a wide selection of meals, calzones to soup, thanks to a guy who humors my great ideas.

The excitement of our lives

Well Marvin bought me a curling iron!!! I am so so excited to have something other than lion hair! He even stood in line for 30 minutes waiting to buy it. Apparently the store he bought it at was having a huge clothing sale and Marvin was one of the only men in line. He felt a bit out of place, but I certainly appreciate his time getting one for me. My curling iron broke before we left Nineveh and we thought we would just pick one up here. What we didn't know is that they are all so expensive, thankfully Marvin found one that was on sale. This has rocked my little world the last couple of days, and was a big pick me up.

Marvin has been talking about the start of college football all week. It is so fun to watch how excited he gets, it's like he is a kid waiting for Christmas.

Bed Rest

Bed Rest....well I'm not going too crazy yet, but I am counting down the days till my next outing, a doctor's appointment on Monday. In the times when I long to do something other than stare at the walls of the rooms that have become too familiar I remind myself of the task ahead. Keep our little guy put for the time being. It has been a pretty uneventful week, PTL. The doctor lowered my medication to 4 times a day instead of 6 and the last couple of hours before I take a new pill I have a few stronger contractions, but I am starting not even to notice them. I am not sure if that is a good or bad thing.

I have really enjoyed my time in the good book and feel fortunate to have this time to dig deeper and spend more time with our Father. I know moms of young children don't have the luxury of these lengthy times. I know I will look back on this time and feel so thankful for the things he taught me.

I knew it would be hard having others do things that I am used to doing such as cooking and cleaning. I have really been shown how prideful and stubborn I am through this whole ordeal. A few days into bed rest I was wrestling with this issue and I decided I was going to watch a DVD on our computer but I had to bring the computer into our room. I noticed Marvin had fallen asleep and instead of waking him I remember there was a card table that I could slide it to our room with ease. I opened it up in our room but then thought a better place for it would be near the outlet so I raised it up and pop, I nailed the light. Of course the shattering glass woke Marvin up and he wasn't too happy that I decided to set up my own "entertainment center" without his help. But he caringly told me "you have to let me do things for you." These words stuck to my heart.

As I sat there crying, it reminded me of the sin in my life and how so many times I try to do so much on my own. Now as I look at the empty light it has become an Ebenezer. My own "stone of hope", reminding me that I can't do it on my own, it's okay to cry out to Father with my fears and struggles regardless of how little they might seem to me and it has been a constant reminder of the strength only He can provide.

Varying Degrees of Honestly

Well we developed these "honestly" levels yesterday, in light of losing a wallet in a taxi.

Good Samaritan

Finds the wallet and feels compelled to find the owner, leaving all the cash and credit cards.

Whisper of a Conscience

Finds a wallet looks through it, takes the money as a "reward"and then returns it.

No Conscience

Finds the wallet, upon opening it treats himself to the cash and goes on a little shopping spree.


So what ended up happening with our lost wallet?
Well we are very glad to tell you that the wallet was returned using the whisper of a conscience level of honesty. We were just thrilled to get it back that we had to laugh at the honestly of this guy who returned it.

Thoughts about the Hospital

Well we feel very thankful to be in a city that has amazing medical care. There were times during our little stay where Marvin and I looked around and thought, "Where are we?" It was surreal at times but the staff was great and we even made a few friends in the process. I went back today to have another stress test done and saw several nurses who cared for me. I hope by the time we have this little guy we might be able to say a few things to them.

Here's a picture of the room we stayed at. Thankfully we bought a couple of new pillows just in time. My body pillow was one of the first items I requested Marvin to bring from home. The little hospital pillow does nothing for a pregnant woman. There was even a little chair that folded out into a bed so Marvin could sleep right in the room. They even came every day to take his meal order. Unfortunately we always gave him a blank stare when he spoke to us, but he did his job and brought him something, and it was actually really good.

Marvin couldn't resist the sight of me trying to function with tubes in both hands. I really think that the IVs were the worst part of the hospital stay. My hands still hurt. I am very glad to be free of them right now.

Lastly here are my belly imprints. It was funny because they would die off a little but then it was time to hook the monitor back up again, so it made it easy for the nurse to find the right spot.

Overall it was a pleasant experience, for a hospital stay. We are so thankful that we left without having a baby quite yet. The air conditioning was a nice perk of our stay, but I would much rather be sweating like crazy than have our little guy make his debut right now.

Marvin has been wonderful helping me out with basic things like, getting up from the couch, etc since being home. I always knew I had a great husband but now he is just blowing me away once again. So we will take things one day at a time right now and celebrate each day our little guy stays inside.

The New Place

We are pretty excited about our new little place that we were able to rent before our quick exit last week. So how about a little tour?


This is our entryway and on the left side of the picture you can see there is a closet! I couldn't believe it a real closet! They are hard to come by in our part of the world, so this is an extra bonus of our new flat. There is also a padded door which will help keep sound and cold air out of our apartment.



Next let's enter our living room. Yes this flat come equipped with local decor. I think I becoming used to this type of decorating because when I saw the rug on the wall I had a moment when I actually thought, "Hey that would go great with our couch." We will see if the rug stays or goes.

Part of this massive wall unit will help meet our furniture needs in our bedroom. Locals will probablly think we are crazy for separating such a beauty but unlike locals we would feel better about having our unmentionables tucked away in our bedroom rather than in our living room.

You have now entered our bedroom. I am still trying to figure out how to make this room look a little less pink. Any suggestions?

This will be our little guy's room and will give us a snug little bed for a guest or a couch to sit and read a few books on.

Here will be the office, it's an enclosed balcony off of the living room. It is a perfect place to put a computer and a will give my introverted husband a little space to himself when he needs it.

Our kitchen is a bit tight on space but after an IKEA run today I think I found something that will help us fit everything into this small space. It's hard to believe but we will fit a stove, fridge and washing machine all in this small space. The door leads out to the balcony which has a bit more storage and a window which opens out to a few clothes lines for drying clothes during the warm months.

Last but not least our bathroom. It leaves a little to be desired, but it has a good faucet and with a little bit of decorating won't be so bad. Unfortunately we don't have a picture of our toliet room, fully equipped with a red toilet and car stickers along the wall, sweet! Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get stickers off of walls without goo gone?

We are really looking forward to getting to live here and feel it will be a great first home for our little guy. Out of all the apartments we looked at this one caught our attention. We are certainly glad not to have to go through the remodeling process again as there are only a few finishing touches here and there that need to be done. It seems like it will be forever until we get to move in, but in the meantime we will look forward to living here.

First Picture

Here is the first picture of our little guy.

In the top picture he is facing us and his little arm is up by his head.

The second picture you can see more facial features. We were very excited to finally get to see him on an ultrasound.

5 Wonderful Years

Yesterday Marvin and I celebrated 5 years of marriage. It is hard to believe that time has gone by that quickly. Anyone who is married can attest that it only gets better. I didn't quite understand that concept 5 years ago, but it is so fun to look back and see how closer we have grown together. It is fun to think that 5 years ago I didn't know about his sleepy "it's time to get up" sigh/stretch, or the way his eyes get big and smiles every time I make bread or his favorite foods, I didn't know that I would almost get goose bumps when I catch him staring at me and my pregnant belly. There are so many little things like that that make 5 years so much sweeter than the day we got married. We are so thankful to be able to journey together and I am so honored to have Marvin as my husband.

Every year we try to do something out of the ordinary for our anniversary. This year we decided to go swimming, it’s out of the ordinary here unless you want to go to the river. Some friends went to a pool at a hotel outside of our town last year and said it was awesome. So since it has been incredibly hot we thought that would be a great place to spend the afternoon. For a few hours we escaped Nineveh and entered an entirely different world. We had fun relaxing in the water and enjoying being outdoors for the first time in a couple of weeks.

Later we headed to one of our favorite restaurants in town that has little huts where you can eat at in the summer. It proved to be a great relaxing evening and we even had live entertainment that wasn't too bad. It was a perfect way to celebrate 5 years! We can't wait to see what is in store for us these next 5 years. Thanks to everyone who has supported us along the way.

Almost our Backyard

Last week we were able to go with the FOCUS team to a mountainous region about an 1 hour and a half away from where we live. We couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day, it was sunny and the temperature in the mountains was perfect. Our journey took us to the Blue Lakes, yes they are really blue, through a tunnel in the mountains, to the remains of a 13th century fortress located in the mountains, and we ended the day with a dip in some hot springs.

The entire drive the hills and mountains were breathtaking. The mountains in this region are jagged, rocky and many times include an insane incline. We saw a few cliffs that were literally just dropped off at 180 degrees. We also learned that the tunnel is new and we were able to walk on the old road on the side of the mountain, no guard rails just fear keeping you alert and attentive. I am very glad they build the tunnel; I think all of us would be a little nervous if we had to actually drive on this road.

The fortresses that we saw were build high on each side of the valley; enemies would be attacked from both sides of the valley. The holes in the towers were where they would shoot out of. This structure we assume is an old barracks as it is located right next to the tower. It is pretty cool to see how the walls are still in tact and we had fun imagining who lived there. You can see that there are a lot of rocks on multiple levels of this hill; we are assuming that there were multiple story buildings all along this hillside (our architecture student pointed this out.)

As you can see it was quite a hike up to this tower, and believe it or not I made it all the way up to the tower and was one of the first people to do so! (This was all thanks to my amazing husband who found an easier route up this hill.) After we started our ascend, the thought accured to me that this would probably be against all doctors orders, but we made it safely. The funny part is I actually tripped when we were on smooth ground, nothing was in my path I just fell right on my knee. I was pretty bummed because I ripped my jeans. Go figure I find a way to injure myself walking like normal! Well at least I only landed on my knee, PTL. It was a great trip and we are thankful to be reminded of the beauty that surrounds us.

First we had to cross the river on an old rusty bridge and we began to make our way up to the tower.
Marvin couldn't resist taking a few river shots.

The Accend

This little structure was right next to the tower, You can still see divided room.

Close up on Tower #1

Tower #2

View from Tower #2 The other side of the valley

Checking out the View at the Blue Lakes after our picnic lunch.

Who needs the Market

We love summer produce here, watermelons are starting to make their appearance, which makes me very happy. Last year I think I ate my weight in watermelon. I had it for breakfast lunch and dinner. It was my main dish for every meal last year. I don't think it would be wise to repeat this again this year, since I am needing the growing guy in my belly, but you better believe we will buy our share of watermelons this year.

Marvin just came inside from the garden and brought all of these wonderful garden treats. We love fresh produce and are super excited about fresh green beans again. We are taking advantage of this last summer of having a garden and so far everything looks great and we are looking forward to enjoying all of this produce.

4th of July Treats

Every now and then I get inspired to try to make something new, so with Cherries in season I thought I would try my luck at a few cherry desserts to help us celebrate the 4th of July. The pie turned out great, but the cherries bubbled over the blue on the flag, Marvin called it our rustic flag, either way it was tastey. I pitted 2 Kilograms of cherries, which is a little shy of 5lbs, in a few days to help make these little treats and I also froze enough homeade cherry pie filling to make 2 pies at a later date. YEAH! So dad, I hope you enjoyed a cherry pie this year. I was thinking of you as I made it.

The Bump-23 Weeks

Sorry it has taken us so long to post a picture of my growing bump. It seemed like whenever we had a camera I was wearing a shirt that didn't show it off, so we finally took one the other day. Right now I am in the 6th month and can't believe we are over half way there. We aren't sure if he is going to come earlier than expected, as both ultrasounds we had done a couple of weeks ago estimated that I was a week to two weeks farther along, but who knows if that is accurate. My doctor wants another ultrasound done the middle of August, so hopefully we will get more information then. We are just trying to decided if we need to leave the country earlier than planned right now.

My Favorite Birthday

Well I am finally 26! It has been my favorite age ever since I was a child. I am not sure where the fascination came from but maybe it has to do with being born on the 26th of June. Who knows?!?!

Well it was a great day. I have to tell you I have the greatest husband who made the day so special, starting with making me breakfast and picking me some fresh AMAZING strawberries from the garden, they were heavenly!

We went out to eat for lunch and stopped at the grocery store and found we now can get hamburger and hot dog buns! I was pretty excited as we were having a cookout that night to celebrate. Sweet little surprises!

Our team fixed an amazing dinner with lots of my favorites. Thanks mom for sending the Jell-O, the rainbow salad was awesome!

The whole evening was topped off by a few fireworks Marvin bought, something people here do for their birthdays. It was such an amazing day and I already love being 26!

Ultrasound Hunt

We were wanting to find out the sex of the baby, and were very disappointed to find out that the man who is suppose to be the best was out of town for a month, so we decided to go to another place to see what they said. We were literally in and out of this office within 5 minutes. I was a little disappointed that I didn’t even get to see the baby or get a picture, but after a while I decided it was better to know that everything was okay than to have a picture.

We were a little leery about this woman’s accuracy because it didn’t take very long, so we called one of our language teachers and she helped us find a place in town that could give us a second opinion. What this involved was a massive city wide search. Every place we went either didn’t have a machine or the doctor was out of town. We finally found a place but the doctor was in surgery so we had to come back later that day. It was a frustrating cultural day for us, but at the same time the results were the same, so we feel confident telling you that we are having a boy and that everything looks fine!

We hope to have one more ultra sound done before the baby is born, so if anything changes we will let you know.

Baby Shower Blessings

First we have to say we have the greatest team in the world as well as dear freinds in the states. The last week we were blessed by two different showers. The first shower was a dual shower with our other colleagues and the whole gang got to be there, little boys included, they were definately appeased by getting to eat brownies.

Our second shower was given to us via the wonderful world of skype. We were so loved to see some dear friends, and it was like we were sitting in their living room talking with them, the whole time I just wanted to reach out and give them all a big hug.

Thank you all so much for how you all loved on us. We thank you for the much needed baby things and for your thoughtfulness. You all the greatest. We miss you guys so much.

Marvin & Erica