I Am Thrilled to Introduce...

Baby Potter #3!

As you can see, he/she is not waiting for us in China this time. By God's grace, we are going to have a baby! I am due sometime between December 4th and December 8th, depending on whose calculations you use. I had my first ultrasound today and it honestly blew me away. It almost wasn't real to me before I actually saw and heard that tiny, beating heart. What a miracle! The heartbeat was 175 beats per minute and the baby measured 19.9mm long (less than an inch). In the photo above, the yolk sack is the light grey blob all the way on the right. Directly to the left is the baby's head, followed by it's body, tummy facing you. You can even see the little arm and leg buds! I am humbled and amazed by this entire process, and I recognize even more how God is the creator and sustainer of all life.

For those of you who can watch videos, here is a clip from today's ultrasound. If you crank your speakers you can hear the heartbeat starting about 14 seconds into the clip. It sounded to me like "dunk-a-dunk-a-dunk-a-dunk" really, really fast. Again, all I can say is what a miracle!


Now that the cat is out of the bag, so to speak, I will probably be back to blogging more often. It's been hard not to talk about it these last several weeks. Plus, I've been sooo tired that it's been hard to find the time. Anyway, thank you all for sharing in this exciting news. I will keep you posted!

Let's Watch TV Together!

Sleep in a Tree?

After Melody's long, sleepless night, she managed to sleep all through the next night! Julie, however, was up around 3AM singing and playing. At 3:30AM she climbed into our bed and snuggled in between us. My groggy brain registered that she was talking, but I didn't really process what she was saying. It wasn't until the next day that it sunk in and made me laugh. For whatever reason, she felt the need to inform us that "koala sleep in a tree!" I remember Larry saying "shhh," so Julie lowered her voice to a whisper and replied "koala sleep in a tree!" Around 4AM, Larry returned her to her bed and we all got a little more sleep. Life with kids is certainly not dull!

Little Mommy

Here are some pictures from earlier this month. Melody just loves babies, real ones and pretend ones. It was so much fun watching her take care of Baby Sonya:






Disclaimer: I assure you that I do not wipe my face or Melody's face after wiping her bottom! I'm also not entirely sure what's going on in the last picture. She didn't learn it from me!

One of Those Days

Both girls are sick with icky, goopy colds right now. Melody doesn't sleep well to begin with, but when she's sick her sleep goes down the drain in a major way. Last night it took an hour and a half of struggle to get her to sleep. By midnight she was up screaming. After handling that, Larry went downstairs to get some stuff done. Around 2AM Melody started up again, so I brought her into bed with me. From 2 until 6 she tossed and turned and kicked and thrashed. Larry "slept" on the living room floor for a few hours (we don't have a couch at the moment). Right now it's supposed to be nap time. She went down fine around 1, but woke up at 1:45 screaming and I am not holding out much hope that she's going back to sleep. I'm listening to her screech right now, trying to decide how long to give her. Days like this are just so mentally taxing. On the flip side, I realize that I have everything to be grateful for and nothing to complain about. I am immensely thankful for the privilege of having children and I love them both dearly. It's just hard to keep perspective without sleep (and with so much screaming).

Something else to give thanks for: our flowers bloomed yesterday! What a gorgeous, refreshing reminder of the beauty of God's creation. I love spring!

Role Reversal?

And here they are playing with two of my toys from when I was little. Amazing!

Daddy and His Girls

Larry is definitely a girl daddy. Making fancy hats and having pretend birthday parties come naturally to him. I think it's precious!

One Year Ago

One year ago we received a phone call that literally changed our lives forever. On April 4th, 2007, I picked up the receiver to hear that our adoption agency had the file of a little girl they thought may be the one for us. I remember scribbling down the information, hanging up, and running upstairs to tell my mother-in-law what had just happened. It was perfect timing for her to be here since she would be traveling to China with us too. As it turned out, the adoption took place on her birthday! So, she and I made our way back downstairs to wait for the email with the longed-for photos. Here is what we saw:



What a beautiful little girl! Larry and I spent the next couple of weeks settling on her name, trying to choose between Jiana and Melody. Then came the wait to get to her. Nine months ago, Melody Joy SiWei was placed in our arms and we've never looked back. What an amazing person she is, and how blessed are we to get to be her parents.

Look Who's 18 Months Old!

(She was actually 18 months on March 26th, but I'm behind in posting, as usual!)

What They Do When We're Not Looking!

In other news, Larry and I ran the Shamrock Shuffle 8K on Sunday and had a great time. It was my first race since last year's Shuffle, and it made me realize how much I missed being a part of events like it. Half marathon training starts this weekend and I'm really excited for it!

I also want to thank all of you for your support regarding our IEP meeting. It went well, but we had to schedule another meeting next week because we ran out of time. Honestly, the only reason we had any issues at all was because of one of Julie's therapists. Basically, we filled out an evaluation for her in December but never heard back from her about the results. I (wrongly) assumed that if there were any red flags she would have contacted me. The week before our IEP meeting, I casually asked Julie's classroom teacher if she'd ever heard anything about the results. She forwarded my email to the therapist in question. On the last day of school that week, I received a typed report of the results, which showed several areas of concern. I was shocked! It had been 3.5 MONTHS since I filled out the evaluation. I am certain that it sat in a pile until I asked about it. So, there we were, on Easter weekend, 3 days before our IEP meeting, trying to make sense of the new information. The therapist emailed me over the weekend (first contact she's made all year) and tried to downplay the whole thing. That's when I crafted my lengthy reply. Anyway, to make a long story a little shorter, we are going to deal with this in our next meeting. Larry is still thinking of contacting the principal to discuss the unprofessional handling of the whole situation. Again, thanks for your support and I'll update after our next meeting.