A Few More Details

Thank you all for all the good wishes, prayers, con/gra/ju/la/shuns, and encouragement!  It's been fun to be able to share the news with you.  We weren't sharing it earlier because we wanted to tell our family in person.  My grandparents in Washington still don't know (so if you don't know them, please don't tell!), but they aren't online, so the secret is safe here.  I'll be sharing the news with them when we go to visit next week.

Here's the requisite sonogram picture... taken at 12 weeks.  I'm 17 weeks now.  It's still hard to believe in just a few more months, we'll be having a baby.

Several have asked where we plan to have the baby.  Right now, our plan is to deliver in Beijing.  Though, we're not being really rigid with those expectations and are certainly open to the fact that we might change our mind.  But, we feel comfortable with the hospital and the quality of care available... besides, as the world's most populous nation, China knows a few things about delivering babies.  :)

We don't have names picked out... we have some ideas, but no firm decisions.  We're especially struggling with boy names.  Our next checkup will be in about 3 weeks, after we get back to China.  Though they could tell us the gender at that appointment, we're leaning towards keeping it a surprise.  Well, I want it to be a surprise.  Jacob wants to be able to eliminate 50 percent of the work of choosing a name, so he's more inclined than I am to find out the gender.  However, I don't think that's a good enough reason, and I've been telling him I get 2/3 of the vote in this decision since currently I represent 2/3 of the family.  He isn't buying my logic, but I think he'll probably let me have my surprise.

I guess I could change my mind about that as well... when we get to the doctor's office and they ask if we want to know, I may not have the self-control to say "no!"  We're just taking it a day at a time.

It is interesting to be having a baby while working at an orphanage.  To be honest, it's harder for me to connect with this child growing inside of me than it is to connect with the ones crawling over my lap.  But I think my heart for their biological families is growing and growing.  We still want to adopt, but since we aren't yet 30, adopting from China isn't yet an option for us.  I hope I'm blessed enough to experience becoming a mother both ways...