Merry Christmas!

Our last Christmas before the baby is here....we had a wonderful time at our house with my parents, Joe's parents and Heather, Tim and baby Russell!!!

Here I am at 38 weeks!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great time with our family at mom's this year for Thanksgiving.

Here I am at 34 weeks!

Happy Birthday!!!

I just want to wish a very Happy Birthday to my loved ones with birthdays recently!!! Robyn (8/31), Gracie (9/1) and Heather (today)!!!! Love you all!!!!

Baby Bedding

Yeah, we finally decided on our baby bedding! After looking through so many, we fell in love with the Cocalo Sahara set found at USABaby. However, it was way too expensive there so, like the detective he is, Joe went home and searched out a much cheaper site and saved us over $200 at babysupermall.com! No sales tax and free shipping and it will be here on Friday! Whoo hoo! Check out this pic - click to enlarge it! We can't wait to put the nursery together this weekend! We wanted to register for some of these items; however, he found such a great price and the sale ended this weekend, that we had to scoop it up while the deal was hot! By the way, we did end up registering at Babies R Us and Target on Saturday! What an exhausting process! We were in there for over 3 hours...boy, who knew having a baby involved so much! We'll send pics once we have our room decorated!

Latest Pics From Baby "Boy" Takai!

Waving 'hi' to mom and dad!



Hanging out! No good profile shots today...maybe next time!

It's A....

BOY!!!!!!!!!! Ok, so totally saw myself having a girl, but what a nice surprise! We are still in shock from this morning! It was so hilarious, because as soon as she put the ultrasound on my stomach, the first image that came on the screen was his butt, legs and everything in between! LOL She said, "do i really need to tell you what you are having?" LOL I said, "yes please, i don't want to guess", as my mom and sis said, "um, i think it's pretty apparent!" She said, "you are DEFINITELY having a boy!!!" It was a great morning, we saw all of him...all healthy and all the parts in their right places! The only thing he wouldn't show us was his face! He was playing peek-a-boo with us! It was pretty cute really....so I have to go back in two weeks for another ultra sound (oh shucks!) so they can see his profile and check out his face....but we have a healthy, active little boy growing inside! How fun is that going to be with little Russell running around too! Can't wait! I'll upload pics tonight! Love you all....

Kicking All Around

Ever since last Thursday, August 13, the baby has finally started becoming active and moving all around! Like clockwork, at 8pm every night the baby starts it's little aerobic routine! It's so fun to feel the baby finally! I've so enjoyed my pregnancy so far....just hope the second half is just as joyous. :) Well, we only have 3 days left until we find out who this little pumpkin is! Please pray the baby cooperates during the sonogram :) I'll be sure to post our news as soon as I get into work on Monday! Until then, have a great weekend!

Little Pumpkin Doodle!

Here's my precious nephew! He's getting so big and is such a great baby!

Appointment #4

I had another routine doctor's visit today and heard the baby's heartbeat again! There's nothing better than hearing that sound! We also heard the baby kicking around! All is well and I'm scheduled for an ultrasound on Aug. 24! We'll finally find out who this little bundle of joy is! We can't wait!

I'm An Aunt!!!

Precious Russell Warren Kromer was born on Wednesday, July 29 at 10:46 pm! He weighed 8 lb. 3 oz. and was 20 in. long. He and mom are doing great! He is such a joy and blessing in all our
lives!

Butterflies & Baby Furniture!

Sooooooo, BIGGGGGG NEWS!!!!!! I felt the baby move for the first time on Wednesday, July 22!!! Oh my gosh, I am so excited. I was at home for lunch, laid back in my recliner watching Y&R, chewing on some ice and all of a sudden, I felt this bubble/butterfly like motion in my lower belly where the baby is!!!! It was AMAZING!!!!! I started crying! I called heather to tell her and she said her dr. said chewing ice is like running your nails down a chalkboard to a baby, they hate the noise!!! I didn't know that! I just wish joe was here to experience it with me…..he returned from Cuba on Friday! It's so good to have him home again!

Also, our baby room furniture was delivered on Friday! Yea! Now just waiting to find out if we're having a boy or girl so we can paint and put the furniture together. Can't wait! Here's what we ordered: crib, dresser, changing tower and hutch to go over top of it.

Test Results and 3rd Appointment

The test results from our July 1st appt. came in last Wednesday and they were good! We had our 15 week appt on July 13th and it went great too! The heartbeat was 155 and I've actually lost 10 lbs! Whoo hoo! BP was good too. My next appt. is in 3 weeks on Aug. 3rd and then 3 weeks after that I find out if we have a little boy or girl on Aug. 24th!!!! Can't wait :) It's hard to believe we find out in only 6 short weeks.

My sister goes in this Friday for her final ultrasound to find out what size the baby is and if he is too large, they will most likely induce her next week!!! Looking forward to being a new auntie! Stay tuned...

Week 14 Already!

My goodness, how time flies! My belly is really starting to take off now! I can't fit into any of my pants anymore! I actually had to wear a dress to work today because I didn't have any clean maternity pants that my sissy gave me! I told Joe it's definitely time to go shopping! We took a picture of my tummy with our new digital camera Joe bought the other day! I'll post it as soon as I remember to bring in the flash drive to load the picture! Take care and I'll post more later!

Ultrasound Screening

Today we went in for an ultrasound screen that checks for down syndrome, trisomy13 and 18. This was an optional screening I choose to have. I should get the results in by next week. The sonographer said everything looks great! My next appt. is on July 13th!

Take the Poll...

Ok, we know you all have your own predictions about little baby Takai! So go ahead, check out the polls to the right and give us your opinion! Can't wait to see the results!

Sharing the News!

Because we were in such shock the first week we found out, we wanted to wait to tell folks until after my first ultrasound....however, it didn't quite happen that way!

I first told Marie, Pam and Pete at work, who absolutely flipped with excitement! I had to tell someone, I just couldn't hold it in!

I was going to tell my family on June 13th after my sister's shower; however, Joe's canoe trip got cancelled on the 6th so we decided to tell them at dinner after my sister's 3-d ultrasound appt. After seeing that amazing footage of my precious nephew, we went to Famous Daves for dinner with my parents, Heather, Tim, his parents and my aunt Lori. It took me a while to figure out how I was going to share the news, but finally decided to make them all t-shirts! Tim's parents said Grandma and Grandpa with baby blocks in the middle. My parents' said Grandma and Grandpa x2!!! My sister's said World's Greatest Aunt! They were all so confused! At first they thought the "x2" meant our baby to be from China and Heather just thought I gave her the wrong shirt! LOL So, I apologized and gave her a bracelet jewelry box which had my pregnancy test inside. She opened it up and immediately thought I somehow got a hold of her test and put it in there! She was even more confused now! I just laughed and looked at her and smiled. After a few seconds, she finally got it and just started balling! My parents didn't have a clue until she turned the box around and then they yelled "you're pregnant???"!!!! Then the entire table started balling! It was the best reaction I could have hoped for!

That next Wednesday I shared the news with my staff at work and they were all floored and filled with excitement and joy! There wasn't a dry eye in the room!

The next Saturday was my sister's shower and the three of us decided to dawn our shirts and have a "fashion" show for the rest of my family so they could guess the great news! It was so much fun! My shirt said Auntie and Mom 2 b, Heather's shirt said Mommy and Auntie and mom wore hers I had given her earlier. We backed onto the deck and all turned at once and Lori asked them to guess what our shirts had in common! Immediately my aunt Becky say the "2" on my shirt and thought Heather was having twins! LOL then she guessed the baby was 2 lbs.! They were having a very difficult time with this game! Lori said "read Heather's shirt, how can she be an aunt?" They all said "because of the adoption." She asked, "how else can she be an aunt?" They all paused and some finally whispered, "you're pregnant?" Then they all yelled, "you're pregnant???!!!!" Everyone was in tears and screaming! Again, another fun surprise!

On Friday, June 19th we surprised Joe's parents with the news over dinner! It was great! Joe gave them copies of our ultrasound pics in his dad's father's day card! They were floored and so excited! My parents came over for dessert afterwards and were able to spend time together - all four grandparents! We had a great night!

We've had a ball sharing the great news with all of our close friends and church family! So many of them have been with us through the many years of trying and facing the hardship we've faced. It's been such a delight to share with them such a miracle and blessing from God!

My First Ultrasound!

We can't believe how amazing this is! It's really happening to us! We are going to be parents sooner than we thought! I had my first ultrasound today, Monday, June 15 at 9:45 am! They determined I'm 10 weeks, 1 day (starting my 11th week)! The baby is 1 inch and I'm due January 10th! We've had grins on our faces for the past two weeks now! Wow, I can't believe two weeks has already flown by so quickly. What a blessing from God!

Here are the baby's first pictures!

I'm Pregnant!!!!

Ok, so I just found out the most amazing news ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm pregnant! What!!!!!!!!!!!! This is insane! Apparently it happened only 2 weeks after our papers got logged into China. What in the world! After five years of trying and waiting and hoping, it finally happens! Joe and I are floating on cloud nine! This is unbelievable. I have so many emotions flying through me right now! I found out at 1:30 am Monday morning, June 1! Long story short, I woke up coughing from my sinus infection and I heard a clear voice say "take a test." What? I stopped testing 2 years ago b/c they were always negative. So I got up, tore my bathroom apart looking for a test and only found a pack of expired test strips from my ovulation kit from 2007!!! LOL I used them and it immediately came out positive! I woke up Joe to tell him and we ended up crying and talking all night! At daybreak, we went to the store and bought two more boxes and took all of them - just to make sure! Ha! After five years of negatives, you can't be too sure! Sure enough, they were all positive! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! Now what....I guess find a doctor! More to come soon....