A baby shower...

Well, last weekend Stacy's family hosted a baby shower for her. She and Chris got a lot of great things for their baby. Here are some pics.

It was very nice and they got some things that they will really use. She is just about 2 months away from having the baby. It is a girl and her name will be Lily. I can't wait until both of our children will be able to spend time together and play together. How cool is that?!


On another note, I wanted to post a couple more quilt squares that I got from a friend of mine who I know from church and who is also in our local adoption group. Thank you, Rosemary.

I have quite a few quilt squares now. Nowhere near 100 but I am still working on that. I am hoping that I will receive some from Dwaine's family. I haven't received any from them yet (hint, hint!) There is a great lady I work with who has offered to put the quilt together for me. That will be great! She also offered to make a baby quilt for our baby who will be here in August. When we find out if it is a boy or a girl, I will start working on that. I am now looking for someone who is a good seamstress. I want to have a baptismal gown made for the baby and I would like to have it made from my and my mother's wedding dresses. I can't sew worth anything so I need someone who is good at that kind of thing. By the way, we will find out the sex of the baby this Tuesday so stay tuned...

We celebrated Chris' 23rd birthday a couple of weeks ago also. Here is a picture from that.

I can't believe he is 23 already. We did have a cake for him by the way, it just didn't make it into this picture for some reason. He has grown up so much. If he reads this he will think I am a dork for saying so but I am old enough to be his mom, after all. He has had a lot of positive things going on lately. First, he met Stacy. The more I am around her, the more I like her. She is such a nice girl. Then he graduated from the police academy. Now he has a full time job as a police officer in Hannibal. He is also looking forward to the birth of his daughter. That is a lot to cause a person to grow up quickly. He has done a great job with his life and I am proud.

Well, that is all for now. Kind of a miscellaneous post but I will post more pictures after we get our ultrasound this week. I can't wait!!

Kelley

Aunt Jan, you rock!!

It has been the weekend for quilt squares. Friday I received a package from my aunt Jan Allison. In that package were 6 (count 'em 6!) quilt squares. Now these aren't just any quilt squares. They are made with love from my dad's shirts that he used to wear. The background is from a denim shirt he practically wore out. The pockets from several of his other shirts were sewn onto the background squares.

Here is a little history behind this and why they are so precious to me. My dad for those of you who don't know, passed away very suddenly just 3 weeks before I was to be married - just over three years ago. This of course was one of the most devastating things of my life. My aunt Jan (who is my dad's sister) eventually took several of his shirts and told me that she was going to make something special from them. When I started asking for quilt squares for Ryleigh's quilt, she said she would contribute something from my dad. Now for any of you who knew my dad, he never bought any new clothes for himself. The shirts that he wore, he had worn forever so I remember him in all of them. Several were casual shirts, some dress shirts and an old flannel shirt that he used to wear to work. When my dad did buy a shirt or if someone else gave him a shirt, it had to have a pocket on the front. He would not wear a shirt without a pocket. He had to have somewhere to store his glasses and such. So Jan made quilt squares from dad's shirt pockets. The wish that she wrote was this:

For Ryleigh:

I hope you will enjoy these pieces of memories that I am sending you for your quilt. Each quilt square has a pocket that I removed from the shirts that were once worn by your Grandpa Bob Kuhn. I am not very creative, but I do hope that these quilt squares will give you memories of your Grandpa for many years to come. He was indeed a wonderful person.

Love, Aunt Jan (Bob's sister)

He was indeed a wonderful person and all of this of course made me cry. I think about him being a grandfather and I know he would have been the best there is. I regret not having him here but I know he is watching out for me where he is. There is something else that is really cool about this. I do truly believe that he had a hand in bringing to me both of my children. The one I am carrying and the one we are adopting.

My dad was a thrifty man who saved every penny he made. When he passed away, he left my brother and me financially comfortable. Some of the money that I inherited from my father went to pay for the surgery that Dwaine had to reverse the vasectomy. And now I am pregnant. It took awhile but it worked even after the doctor told both of us that the surgery was a failure. We also have some of the money saved away for our adoption so in a way, he is funding our adoption as well. So I truly believe that he had a part in bringing his grandchildren into the world and into our lives. For that I am forever grateful.

I love my dad so much and our relationship was always a good one. When my mother passed away, our relationship became so much stronger and closer just because we were all that was left. So my dad, brother and I had to really stick together. So it was really difficult to lose him too. My mother meant the world to me and I know she would have been the best grandmother ever but when my dad died, I thought the world came to an end. I miss them both very much.

I miss you mom and dad and I love you!

Kelley

Friday ramblings...

Hello all,

It has been awhile since I have written. Seems like time just escapes us so fast. We really don't have much to tell you that is exciting. Dwaine has battled two rounds of the flu this winter and I have battled with it too. Unfortunately, I can't take anything since I am pregnant (well not anything that works really well). I lived to tell about it though. We are all healthy now.

The adoption has hardly moved since last month. At least referrals are in 2006 now. The last batch was referred up to Jan 4 2006. Our log in is Feb. 27 2007. It will be probably 2-3 more years from now before we are matched with a healthy child. As I mentioned before, we are seriously looking into switching to special needs. However, so is the rest of the adoption world. I am afraid that the wait will go from non-special needs to special needs and we will be right back in the same boat we are now. We have talked a little to our OB and he said he would be happy to sit down with us and discuss the different conditions and what they might involve. That will be a lot easier to sift through some of those conditions so we can know exactly what we can and cannot handle. With the baby coming, we will be glad to wait a little while as we would like to have at least a year between the birth of our child and bringing home our adopted child. Hopefully this way, they will be very close in age.

I had another Dr.'s visit this week. I had a little complication with bleeding a couple of weeks ago and that is all perfectly fine now. The baby's heart rate has been at 150 the last several times we have heard it. At least the little one is consistent and seems to be healthy. The baby is growing right on target and I have only gained 1 pound so far. That is good news for me because at my age, the baby weight will be harder to loose later on. The doctor is pleased with the way everything is going and I am scheduled for my routine ultrasound April 1. I will definitely be posting pictures then because we should know if we are having a boy or a girl after that. We are still struggling with picking out names. If we have a boy, I think we are stuck on Ethan and his middle name will be Robert after my dad. The girls names are a little more difficult but her middle name will be Marie after my mom's middle name.

They still have not begun working on our house yet. I am getting really worried that they will not be finished before August. We are having new kitchen cabinets put in, remodelling our basement to add a living area and an extra bedroom and finishing the downstairs bathroom. Then they will be expanding our master bathroom and turning our bedroom into a master suite as we will incorporate the back spare bedroom into our room and will have much needed extra space and closet space. It will be so wonderful when it is finished but I am worried that our house will be torn up when we bring the baby home. Anyway, we are hoping...

Well, that's all for now. I will try to post more often because it seems as if I am only posting about once a month. My goal was originally to post once every other week. Oh well.....

Kelley