Friday, April 16, 2010

20 Weeks!!

Whoooo hoooo!!!

Can't get much more exciting than that, can you?!?!?

(well other than a positive pregnancy test, seeing a heartbeat, an ultrasound seeing an actual baby.......etc etc etc)

but you get my drift!!

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Russia suspends all adoptions to US families

This is a cross post from my personal family blog. It doesn't follow with the theme of this blog, but I feel so strongly about this today that I had to post on both blogs;

I read this sad news on yahoo today, I hoped it wouldn't come to this;

Russia has suspended all adoptions to U.S. families until the two countries can agree on procedures, the Foreign Ministry said Thursday — a week after an American woman sent her 7-year-old adopted son back to Russia on a plane by himself.

The boy's return — without supervision or explanation aside from a note he carried from his adoptive mother saying he had psychological problems — incensed Russian authorities and the public, and prompted aggressive media coverage of foreign adoptions.

A U.S. delegation will visit Moscow "in the next few days" to discuss a possible bilateral adoption agreement, ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said.

"Russia believes that only such an agreement which will contain effective tools for Russian and U.S. officials to monitor the living conditions of adopted Russian children will ensure that recent tragedies in the United States will not be repeated," Nesterenko said in a televised briefing.

The Tennessee woman who sent back her adopted Russian son last Thursday claimed she had been misled by his Russian orphanage about his condition.

Russians were outraged that no charges were filed against her in the United States.

"How can we prosecute a person who abused the rights of a Russian child abroad?" Russia's children's rights ombudsman, Pavel Astakhov, said in a televised interview Wednesday. "If there was an adoption treaty in place, we would have legal means to protect Russian children abroad.

Some 3,000 U.S. applications for adopting Russian children are now pending, according to the Joint Council on International Children's Services, which represents many U.S. agencies engaged in international adoption.

I am deeply saddened today. Sad for the child who was rejected by his American mother, sad for the American mother that thought her actions could ever be ok, sad for the collapse of the amazing process that is Russian / US adoption, sad for all those hopeful adoptive parents who are waiting for their miracle and especially sad for those adoptive parents who have already met their miracle and are waiting for them to come home, which at this point may never happen.

I don't think I have ever been more thankful than I am today that we have Sarah and Jacob in our family and I will be thanking God every moment for our blessings.

My heart goes out to those that are in pain today I can only imagine a small amount of what they are feeling and today my day starts with my tears shed for those people I don't know and for my own relief that Sarah and Jacob will always be in our family.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Everything looks great!

We had our appointment yesterday following up on our big ultrasound. Everything went really well, there were no problems to worry about. We were asked if we wanted to carry out the next round of genetic testing, but we declined again. Jenn is measuring 18 weeks, so that's right on track and the baby's heartbeat was around 160.

We are so excited to be over this huge milestone and can now really enjoy this journey to the max and look forward to meeting our new little man!!

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Sorry, I've Been MIA!

Well, I guess I've been missing in action on the blog here for a while as Kirsten pointed out! It's funny, this pregnancy has been SO easy, it's almost life as usual around here, which is probably why I haven't had much to post about. K and C are probably hoping this baby boy will be just as easy on the outside as he has been in utero! :)

Here's a random smattering of thoughts for you:

I am feeling great, really, no problems at all. I'm just going about my life, being a stay at home mom, homeschooling my kiddos, and trying to keep up with the housework.

I am starting to show a lot more now, which is nice because before I kind of felt like I was in the "is she pregnant or just chubby stage"...ha ha. ;) Now there is no mistaking that it's a baby in there, and not just some extra weight!

Speaking of weight, I am not weighing myself. I'm not going to worry about how much I am gaining/not gaining at this point. Given that I didn't throw up at all in the first tri, I know I'm not losing anything. :)

I am feeling kicks pretty much every day or every other day now. It's not frequent, but they are definitely baby kicks.

Many people wonder how my kids feel about it all. Truthfully, they are fine with it, it's par for the course now, after having done one prior surrogacy. They often will pat my belly and say hello to the boy as they go about their days. They know this baby won't be coming home with us, and they are okay with it.

I have crazy dreams when I am pregnant. Last night I had a dream that someone was in the house, under my bed actually, and when I tried to get out of bed, they'd grab my hand and wouldn't let me. When I (in the dream) woke my husband and asked him to turn on the light, neither of our lights would turn on. I had a terrifying feeling that I needed to save my children before I woke up. When I woke up, I had to use the restroom, but the dream had scared me so much that I actually woke my husband up and had him turn on the light so I could use the restroom. I was afraid to go down the hall in the dark, lol.

And lastly, we have another ob appt. on Tuesday. I'm going to try to set up an appt. for a second opinion on the C section issue pretty soon here.

Jenn?

How are you feeling Jenn? How's this pregnancy going for you so far? We haven't heard from you in a while!!

Thursday, April 1, 2010

I'll give you a clue.....


......take a look to the right of the booties above.
Yes, it's a little mini Chris! Photobucket

The u/s tech didn't tell us much information, but it does appear everything looks good! We are very happy and relieved. Jenn and baby are doing great!

Today is the day!

Well, tonight actually. Our appointment is not until 8pm, apparently the hospital stays open pretty late so if you are looking for an update today don't spend the whole day checking in on the blog, there won't be any updates!!

Happy April Fools Day!!