Happy Chinese New Year!

新年快乐 Hello everyone and Happy Chinese New Year! This is officially the year of the rat. The first symbol of the Chinese zodiac.

I am under the weather today and thought it would be a great day to catch up on my blog a bit. We have been laying low lately, or at least I have. I have had my share of morning sickness these last several weeks and have felt like doing absolutely nothing. The morning sickness happens in the evenings actually. I think it is finally over now. I haven't felt nauseated in almost a week now. Now however, I have the flu. Since I am pregnant, I don't want to load up on any more medication than necessary so I am just riding it out. It is better today than yesterday but I decided not to go to work anyway and give myself an extra day to recover and not share my germs with the whole office. I am sure they would not appreciate that.

It seems now that this blog has become more of a pregnancy update than an adoption update. Unfortunately, there is nothing new to report on the adoption front. Dwaine and I have thought about changing to the special needs program. We won't do anything until after this baby is born. What that means is that instead of waiting to adopt a healthy baby with no medical condition that we would be considering adopting a child with mild to moderate medical needs. We will have to fill out a checklist of the things that we think we can handle and we will need to do a lot of research into the different medical conditions that we would prepare for. There are some very mild conditions which qualify a child to be considered special needs. For example, children who are born premature are considered special needs. Children who have had surgery already to correct a problem are considered special needs as well. There are many qualifications that we think we could handle other than these. The other thing that has drawn us to that program is this: It is easy to adopt a normal child. They will be adopted. The children who need a little extra attention are the ones who could spend their entire lives in those orphanages because people don't want to take a chance on them. That is what we want to do.

Also, here is a picture of my first ultrasound. It is amazing what you can do with computers! The fact that I was able to scan an upload this picture is a miracle in itself. I am pretty computer illiterate. Anyway, the big melon like thing on top of the body is the head. I say that this child will look just like Dwaine - big head and all. The little white dot in the chest area is the heart. Last time I went to the Dr., the heart rate was 150. He says everything seems to be right on target. I haven't gained any weight yet, but I can sure tell that things are shifting around a lot. My pants don't fit very well anymore and it's a good thing I wear scrubs to work. The drawstring is very forgiving! I can't wait to see that little face in about 6 more months! We will find out in about 7 more weeks if we are having a boy or a girl.

Well, that's about all I know for now. Hope you are all doing well. Take care and God bless!

Kelley

Random thoughts from Dwaine

A few days ago (Jan. 8th), Kelley and I celebrated our third anniversary. We celebrated by going out for dinner with Ryan and some friends. That is about all we are up for these days.

As many, if not most people do, we celebrated Christmas multiple times - once with Chris and his girlfriend; once with Ryan and Carrie; and once with the Gelnar’s in Oklahoma. The highlight was probably watching the dogs open their gifts. Well, maybe it was the thankfulness for all of our blessings, the family that we were fortunate enough to celebrate with, and the thoughts and prayers for those far away in China and Korea.

Between Christmas and New Year, in three days time, we traveled to Granite, Oklahoma and back. We have yet to recover from the 10-hour drive each way. No wonder we don’t make that trip much.

All in all, Kelley has done pretty well in avoiding morning sickness. She is experiencing indigestion and gas and is usually toast by the time that she gets home from work, but has fortunately missed most of the nausea. Of course, one minute she will detest food and the next be starving. I think that it is just her attempt to keep me off balance.

It seems that our time (including time together) has become a rare commodity. We will have to work on that. We both know how hard that finding time for each other will be come August. I think that I see a lot of babysitting in a teenage boy’s near future. He might be more ready to leave home than his older brother was.

All-in-all, the last couple of months have been exciting, exhausting, exquisite, exasperating, exuberant, exceptional, exhilarating, extraordinary, and wonderful (ran out of ex-words). God has blessed us (especially me) immeasurably.

Just a few holiday thoughts..

I have so much in my life to be grateful for. The Lord has blessed us in so many ways, ways in which I do not deserve. I can't believe the point I am at right now in my life. I have come so far in the last 10 years. I lived through a divorce to come into something so much better. I guess it is true that we have to die to our old ways before we rise to the beautiful life that we dream of. I have come through so much sorrow and pain only to be blessed with a husband whom I did pray for but realizing now that God blessed me with more than I prayed for. I also dared to pray for a family and when I was told that that dream would not come true, God again answered my prayer with the gift of adoption. We will eventually become a family for a small child who would not otherwise have a family. We need her just as much as she needs us. Now knowing that it could be several years before we get to hold our precious daughter from China, God has again stepped in and given us the miracle of all miracles. Never believing that I would feel a child grow inside me, never believing that I would hold a newborn of my own, praying for that even though we were told that it was impossible. Now God has blessed us with this pregnancy. It is a miracle, there is no other way to describe it.

May God bless you all during this Christmas season.

Kelley

Slightly different plans...

Well, guess what? I'm not going to sugar coat it and I'm not going to beat around the bush. I'm just going to come right out and tell you right away. Ready? Here goes...

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!I'M PREGNANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's right, the rabbit died! I can't believe it and neither can Dwaine! Can you tell I'm a little excited?! I'm using a lot of exclamation points! I just found out for sure today because I had a blood test yesterday. I am about 5 weeks along and should be due around the middle of August. That will be a hot one for sure!

After two doctors told us that pregnancy was not possible for us, the miracle of all miracles happened. It truly is a miracle. I do believe that for sure. I never dreamed it would be possible. We are still going through with our adoption, we will have two children just like we wanted in the first place. They will be about the same age.

Now the next news which I have just been cleared to tell you all is that my brother is expecting also. Stacy is pregnant and is due in May. Our children will be about 3 months apart. That is the coolest thing ever and I can't help but think how excited our parents would be if they were here. They would be grandparents from both children at the same time. I wish they were here.

Well, I have more people to tell so I need to get going, I will keep you posted...

Kelley

Giving Thanks

I did not publish a post on Thanksgiving and I know I am doing this a little backward but hey, it's my blog and I can do what I want with it, right?

Here are the things I am thankful for in no particular order:

• My health - mostly because I am getting a little older now and think about this a lot.
• My husband - because he is the highlight of my life. We truly came to be together through what I believe is divine intervention. God brought us to the same place and it was only through luck, really that we came to meet. Who else could have brought him to Columbia Missouri from Oklahoma of all places!
• My family - my brother first of all and then my aunts and uncles and cousins. I am also thankful for the time I had with my parents. I had really great parents and even though they were taken from me too soon, I am grateful for the time that we were together.
• My new family - this would include David, Ryan, Carrie and Dwaine's family who have taken me in as one of their own.
• My wonderful friends - you all know who you are. Thank you for being my friends because without you, I would not be where I am today, I am sure of that.

Those are the main things I am thankful for. Happy Belated Thanksgiving.

Long overdue post...

Hey everyone,

I know it has been a really long time since I posted last. I have promised to tell you all about our "mystery trip". Some time ago, I set up a vacation for us to celebrate Dwaine's 50th birthday. He knew that we were going but he had no idea where we were going. I even packed his suitcase for him. We got up to leave very early on the morning of Nov. 8 and headed to Kansas City to the airport. When we checked our bags, the lady at the ticket counter asked us where we were going and of course I had to tell her. That's when Dwaine found out that we were headed to San Francisco. I had planned on staying there a couple of days and then driving up to Napa valley to stay at a B&B there. We rented a car also and my brother let me borrow his GPS. Let me just make a side note here. That thing is the best device EVER created for mankind!!! I LOVE IT!!


Anyway, we stayed at the Holiday Inn at Fisherman's Wharf. It was a great hotel and right on the wharf. San Francisco is small enough that you can walk pretty much anywhere which is what we did. The first day we wandered around the wharf and went to Ghiradelli Square. We walked through Little Italy and up to China Town. We walked all the way through China town to the main gate.

Notice the street signs are even written in Chinese.

The next day we had a tour scheduled that would show us the sights of San Francisco. First stop was the Golden Gate Bridge.

That was the main highlight of course. We also saw China Town again and got some history behind the cable cars and the street cars they use for transportation still. The cable cars are of course infamous but the street cars are antique and from all different parts of the world. One street car we saw was from Italy, another from Philadelphia and another from Switzerland. We saw the "painted ladies" which are a row of Victorian style homes that you see in just about every postcard. They were also featured in the television series "Full House". We saw the house where some members of the band "The Grateful Dead" lived and made some of their music. We went up to the highest point of San Francisco which is called Twin Peaks and saw the entire city from there.

After our tour, we did a little sight seeing on our own. We strolled back through China town and got some lunch. We had our first experience eating dim sum. This is a type of Chinese dish that is like a dumpling filled with different things. For example, we had some that was filled with shrimp, rice and vegetables. Another was filled with salmon and another was filled with pork and vegetables. Very, very tasty.

Dwaine has become quite the expert with chopsticks!

After lunch, we went to ride on a cable car. We first went through the cable car barn where all of the cable cars are kept and where the cables all come together under the street. It is a very interesting operation. Here is a picture of the huge wheels that power the cable cars.

That evening, we met my aunt and uncle and my little cousin who live in San Francisco and they took us out for a wonderful dinner at a place called Tadich's. It is supposedly the oldest restaurant in San Francisco. It was a great time and my aunt baked an apple pie for Dwaine to help celebrate his birthday. We visited with them at their house for awhile and had a lovely time.

The next morning we were off to Napa Valley. It was raining all day and after we reached our destination that afternoon, we checked into our beautiful B&B, had a little champagne and wine and cheese and went to sleep around 7:30 that evening. It was sooooo wonderful to sleep so much! Of course, after a glass of champagne, I was ready to fall asleep anyway.

The next day we did a little exploring around the valley by ourselves. It was very crowded because it was a holiday weekend (Veteran's Day). We did not know exactly where to go or what to do but we enjoyed the day none-the-less. The next day we had a tour planned that took us through the valley and to 8 different wineries where we tasted and bought a few bottles of wine to bring home. That was a great day because it was organized and we didn't have to worry about driving and tasting wine that day. The weather was glorious. All in all, it was an extremely enjoyable day.

Here are a couple of pictures from Napa.

We had a really great time. We are trying to do as much travelling as we can before our daughter joins us. We have quite a bit of time to do those things. I like to try to stay focused on the times that we have alone together because they are priceless! I can't wait until our daughter comes but for now I am trying to enjoy as much time as I can alone with my husband.

That's it for now. I will try to post more often because it has really been too long since my last post. Hope you are all doing well.

Kelley & Dwaine

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween to Everyone!!

Happy Halloween! Hopefully you are all doing well. I feel bad because I am so bad about writing but we have been so insanely busy lately that I feel like I am meeting myself coming and going. What have we been doing? We have been taking a dance class on Monday nights. West Coast swing. It has been really fun! We might actually start going to dances now. On Tuesday nights we have been helping at church with RCIA which for those of you who don't know what that is, it is an adult education class for people inquiring about the Catholic faith. Thursday evenings we have been taking Bosco to doggie classes. Bosco is my brother's dog who we are dog sitting for. He is a 70 lb. German Shepherd puppy. He was out of control but doggie classes have helped him immensely. That pretty much fills up our week. Now for the weekends and whatnot. David is home on leave for one month. He graduated from his specialized training and might I add that he graduated first in his class. In a few more weeks, he is off to Korea. We are enjoying our visit with him.

Ryan is getting ready for Halloween. He has his costume all ready to go. He says this year he is dressing up as a pimp. Great. We are trying to bring him up in a stable Catholic household and he is dressing up as a pimp. Somewhere, I think that something has gone terribly wrong!

Chris has only 6 weeks left of the police academy then he will be finished. He is looking for a job and applying anywhere he can. I think that he and Stacy will eventually get married. She is a really nice girl and I am glad they get along so well together. They make a really cute couple. He has changed a lot since they have been dating. I can just see little changes. They are good changes.

We made a flying trip to St. Louis a couple of weeks ago to visit Dwaine's sister, Patti. Dwaine's niece, Sarah was visiting Patti and it was nice to see them. We went to Forrest Park and rode in the paddle boats. We had a nice visit.

Dwaine's family is coming here this weekend to visit David. His folks will be up on Friday and will be staying until Monday. I am sure there will be a few more here visiting before the weekend is over also.

Next week is our mystery vacation! I can't wait to go. Dwaine still doesn't know where we are going. I have the trip all mapped out complete with planned activities. As soon as we get back, I will let you know how it went.

I feel like I am supposed to keep everyone up to date about the adoption. There just isn't much to tell. We have been logged in over 8 months now. China finally finished matching all of the people who were logged in in November of 2005. That tells you where we are in the process. This month, referrals will start coming in from December of 2005. Hopefully it will start picking up now. November was a huge month for referrals. December isn't supposed to be as large. Either way, we still have a ways to go.

Now, this brings me to my next subject - quilt squares. You know you can do it! Summer is over now and we are all settling in for winter? Don't you need a nice winter project? How about making a quilt square for Ryleigh's quilt? You remember how to do it? Cut one 8x8" square of cotton fabric. Make sure it reflects who you are. Write a wish for Ryleigh on a note card and staple a small piece of the same fabric to the card. Send it to me. If you need help or more info, e-mail me. I only have about 40 squares so far. I need 100 all together to make the quilt.

Ok, that's it for now. Have a wonderful Halloween!

Kelley