Lots of news

It's been a hectic few days since I posted last. Friday I got a surprise baby shower at work. We got our second toybox (we wanted one for the living room and one for the nursery), and a TON of stuff off our registry. It was great and we also got some Walgreens gift cards to buy OTC medicine for the orphanage.

Friday night, I heard from the agency. We're going to Vietnam the last week in November/first week in December!!!! We thought we'd definitely be there over Christmas, but now it's looking like we'll be home!! We're SO excited. We started packing Dylan's stuff this weekend and it's pretty overwhelming. We have a list and it's longer for him than for us! Good thing, because the two suitcases we were planning on checking are almost full.

I got new photos and measurements. He's now 16.5 pounds. He'll be 7 months old in 2 days. Wow. He's getting old, and he's looking older in his pictures. I also got the pictures from my friend that went last month. He looks SOOOO cute and cuddly. I ache to hold him. I don't see how I'll ever be able to let him go and let anyone else hold him. But I know by the time I get home, I'll probably be ready for a little break. Maybe. I've waited SO long for this. I'm so ready.

Here's my friend that held him for me (I hope you don't mind me posting this!!):

Here he is with his signature smile that I keep falling in love with:

Here's the "crib" that he stays in:

Close up of his beautiful face:


These are from just 2 days ago:



We also celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary on Sunday. It's been 7 wonderful years and we're both so excited to start the next phase of our lives together.

Missing my little man

I'm really missing Dylan today. Some days are better than others, but today is hard. I don't know why. I'm just SO ready to go get him. I got out the suitcases last night. Nothing is in them, yet, but they're out. There's no reason for us not to go ahead and get Dylan's stuff packed. We certainly won't need it before then. We're still missing a lot of stuff that we need for our trip, but we'll wait until after our last shower before buying anything.

We got the cutest little toy for him from eBay. You Moms of little ones have probably heard of Peek-a-Blocks. This is the hippo that picks up the blocks and stores then under the seat. He can sit on the seat and push around with his feet, or flip the seat up and use it as a walker. It's SO cute. We also ordered the giraffe and the elephant peek-a-block toys. That reminds me-I need to take that off my registry! I had registered for the giraffe and elephant. I've never seen the hippo before, though. I just like the fact that it will get him moving his legs.

I have a friend online that just got back from Vietnam and got some great pictures of Dylan. She hasn't been able to get them off her computer and to me yet, but hopefully this week. They're from the same time frame as the last ones I got from the agency (6 months). She said he was so happy and smiling, but cried when she put him down. She said he didn't look like he had teeth (but she wasn't inspecting him). She said he's a snuggle bug, which makes me very happy. I can't wait to snuggle with him. She said he looked healthy and proportionate. He's perfect! I want to hold him so bad it hurts.

There are only 10 weeks left in the year. We still haven't gotten a tentative travel date (which I thought we were supposed to get this week), but they're still saying December, so that means at the latest, we'll be gone in 9 weeks. I sure hope we're back by Christmas, which would mean we're going in 6 weeks. Only 6 weeks. I really need to start packing. Maybe that will occupy my time.

Baby showers and other stuff

First, we got new measurements on Dylan. He's now 15.5 pounds (only gained a pound this month) and 28" long. He's tall and skinny! We'll fatten him up, though. The milk production is going well. I'm getting around an ounce per session (up from 1/30th of an ounce). And I'm only on week 3.

I had my first baby shower Saturday, Oct. 14. It was a couples' shower at our house, hosted by Teresa and Deana. We had about 7 couples and we played games like making the men drink out of baby bottles and making the men eat baby food to guess the flavor. It was a lot of fun and I got some really great items.

The second shower was Sunday, Oct. 15. It was at church and was hosted by five ladies from church. That one was a bit calmer (no games), but again, I got a ton of great stuff! Dylan is definitely being showered with gifts. The next one that I know about is Sunday, Oct. 29. That one's for Chris' side of the family.

The amount of stuff we have now is almost overwhelming. We're running out of room! We had already purchased several items before the showers (like, enough for 3 kids), but much of it is for older ages, so we can store it. And then there's the strollers and carseats, which take up a lot of room, but won't be stored in the house for much longer. We'll be organizing it a bit more in the coming weeks.

We still haven't started working on the trip yet. I know we should work on a packing list, but the thought of spending 3 weeks halfway around the world caring for a baby for the first time in our lives has been a little overwhelming. I have a couple sample lists, and we've started compiling some items in a drawer that we know we'll need for Dylan. Other than that, nothing. It's so unlike me. I'm so freakishly organized that I like having a list for everything. I have a list of things to work on before travel and one thing on the list is to make a packing list. LOL. I make a list to remind me to make a list. Scary, huh? Anyway, I really need to work on that, but it's hard to get started. The first step is the hardest, right? Honestly, considering the cooler weather we're getting now, I could go ahead and pack my clothes, since it will be in the 80's there! I don't think I'll need summer clothes anymore this year in TN.

We're planning on getting souveniers for family, but if there's something specific you want (for the whole three family members that actually read this), let me know. Things are pretty inexpensive there, but we have limited packing space, of course. We're taking at least one suitcase full of donations for the orphanage, so we'll use those on the way back for souveniers.

First scary mommy moment!!

Friday started like any normal day. I worked, I went home, I pumped every 3 hours. Friday night, I got online and checked my Yahoo groups I'm on. I see a post about a storm heading towards Vietnam. Then I read this storm was a category 4 typhoon (same as a hurricane, just in a different hemisphere, I believe) heading straight for DaNang. It had already ripped through the Phillipinnes and killed dozens of people (the count is now up to over 100). The eye was forecasted to hit Sat. night/Sun. morning in DaNang. My heart stopped. I started bawling and was scared to death. I've never felt so helpless in my life. Here I was, sitting in a nice house, in a nice neighborhood, with beautiful weather, and my precious son was halfway around the world, in an orphanage, with the worst storm in 3 decades heading right for him, and there was NOTHING I could do. It's the worst feeling in the world.

Saturday morning I got up and checked the weather. The typhoon was still a category 4 and still heading for DaNang. I called Carl, our agency director. He didn't seem to be aware there was a typhoon heading for the city (he didn't have access to a computer that day and communication was down with the folks in VN). He said he would try his best to get in contact with GT, our in-country facilitator. He was there with 2 families adopting their babies from the same orphanage. I had heard they had already left and were in Hanoi (northern VN). I knew hundreds of thousands had been evacuated, but I didn't know if the orphanage even could.

All morning and evening, I looked for articles, scouring internet sites, just trying to find any info I could. It wasn't looking promising, though. Sunday morning I got up and saw the storm had hit as a category 2. Several people were dead, dozens injured. Hundreds of homes were destroyed, buildings were missing roofs, people were missing. I called Carl again and he told me he finally got in touch with GT. The babies were all safely evacuated to the hospital in DaNang about 5 miles inland (the orphanage is only 1 mile inland). He promised me they were all safe, but didn't know about the orphanage. Hearing that news filled me with such relief. I don't think I realized how worried and stressed I was until I heard he was ok.

Today I found out the orphanage was badly damaged. The roof is gone, the windows are gone, stuff inside and out is broken. I shudder to think what would have happened if Dylan had not been taken to the hospital before the storm. I thank God that my baby is ok, and hope the orphanage can get put back together soon. I also hope this doesn't delay any adoptions. This weekend made me really realize (if I didn't already) that I'm a mommy and I love and care about that little boy more than anyone in the world.