PSALM 37:7

What a fast summer it's been! I've been dying to update the blog and post a bunch of baby preparation photos for the last few weeks, but I was held up by the temporary loss of my camera. Thankfully the camera is found (who would have thought it would be buried in my hospital bag... silly me!) Since most of you have been calling or texting about updates lately you already know how everything's going, so I'll keep the wording to this blog short(er) and focus mainly on supplying our pictures.

Our baby is due in... FOUR DAYS!!... and I am becoming very impatient about meeting him or her. At the last OB visit the doctor proclaimed us quite healthy once again and told us everything's coming along normally. I was 1cm dilated, 50% effaced (thinned out), and the baby was nestled down at a -2 station. There's probably not much chance of me delivering any earlier than expected, but my Braxton Hick's contractions (warm-up or fake contractions) have been coming more frequently and getting me all excited throughout the days and nights. It's now just a BIG waiting game!

Throughout our last few weeks of waiting Rich and I have managed to keep very busy. Rich is in the middle of his OB rotation and he's on-call (working 24hour shifts) about every 3 days. It's been a very draining schedule for him, but he's handling it quite well. He's been sleeping a lot a home and he's had a great time getting to know the charge nurses at work (who are all very excited about our upcoming delivery). Meanwhile, I too have been working, in my new position as the Mental Health Therapist for a nearby rural school district. I see kids in grades K through 12 and I work about 15 hours a week. It's been absolutely great! On the weekends we've managed to fit in fun time with some of the other residents and local friends, a pre-birthday celebration with our Bradley Class, a visit from a great college friend, 2 beautiful weddings in or near Wisconsin, and I've been blessed by family and friends with 2 baby showers. And to top it all off, Rich, Grandma Tam, Uncle Jason, Aunty 'Mandy and I all teamed up one weekend to pull the baby's room together. Uncle Jason spent hours measuring off stripes for the walls while the rest of us followed with green paint. Amanda and I then created an 'Under the Sea' mural to finish it all off. It's been a whirl-wind!

Thank you all for your patience with the 'Non-Blog' as of late, since I haven't kept it updated. We hope you enjoyed the photos... and we can't wait to share pictures of the BABY when he or she finally arrives. You will all receive a phone call when we head to the hospital and/or when we have a new family member to announce. Thank you for all your prayers and thoughts during this time.