More Pictures

Hi! Sorry it has taken us so long to post more pictures, but our internet connection sucks. Our little buddy is doing really well. Grandpa and Grandma Stelpstra are here visiting and they love him to pieces. We've had one pediatrician visit and have a follow-up next week. We also have the evaluation with the orthopaedic specialist next week. We will keep you updated on that side of things as well. For now, here's a few pictures.

A few more pics from the last 48 hours

Christmas Delivery

This will be short and sweet because i have a sporadic connection and a half-sleeping baby!

Ezra came on a missionary flight on Monday afternoon, Dec. 20, 2010 - a true miracle! It's a long story that I'll go into at some point, but for now, here are pictures from our first meeting: (at a diner outside a small airport!)

The Christmas angels (or storks)

Another Update Without Pictures

Well, we are now looking at the 19th as the arrival date for little Ezra.

We have received confirmation that he is "safe", "happy" and "healthy" - so we will patiently wait until the director of the orphanage gets back from Argentina and can take our little guy through immigration.

In the meantime, we will try to busy ourselves with holiday activities, work, friends and household chores. The days will fly by! (okay, that was a bit too optimistic - they will not fly, but they WILL pass, even if it feels like a really slow trudge).

update

We had Ezra on a flight coming in tonight (Friday) but that was cancelled. We then had him booked on a Sunday flight. Also cancelled. We don't know what is going on.

Not much of an update, eh?

I will post again when I know something more. In the meantime, Jon and I are both at work (figure we might as well clock a few more hours). Tonight we will buy a Christmas tree so we can put Ezra under it when he comes.

just kidding

I am not posting with pictures of our little boy. I have not met him yet. :(

He is stuck in Haiti due to cancelled flights - the rioting and looting is so bad there.

We are hoping he comes this weekend.

My friend put it nicely - it's like having false labor. You get all worked up, you pack the bags, you go to see the midwife and oh - there's no real dilation. Go home, get some rest. Get done some last minute stuff.

Argh.

TOMORROW

This is a little ditty I wrote to the tune of "Tomorrow" sung by orphan Annie.

---

My son Ezra comes

Tomorrow

Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow

There'll be joy

---

Just thinkin' about

Tomorrow

Makes me smile and clears away the sorrow

He's our boy

---

When I lock my keys, - my phone, - in my car

I just stick up my chin and grin and say

---

Oh my son comes home

Tomorrow

So I gottta hang on til tomorrow

Come what may

---

Tomorrow! Tomorrow!

I love ya! Tomorrow!

You're only a day away!

---

Yes, I really locked all my stuff in my car this morning. Good thing my coffee was in my hand!

Visa Appointment

Ezra's visa appointment is for FIRST THING MONDAY MORNING!

If all goes well, he'll be able to come Tuesday or Wednedsay next week!!!

We'll keep you posted!

Thanksgiving

Unfortunately, it was just the four of us for Thanksgiving. Little Ezra Richard is still in Haiti. But there has been a lot of progress recently. All we are waiting on is the visa appointment at the US Embassy. We were granted an appointment, but the orphanage director just happened to be out of town during that time, so we are now awaiting a new appointment date. The waiting is hard, but we are trying to somehow turn it into a positive spin: "okay, we have two more weeks of freedom! Lets go out! Lets drink beer! Let's spend money before we have to spend it all on formula!" Of course, we'd rather not have that freedom, but we are trying to stay positive.

So, upon learning we would not be preoccupied at Thanksgiving, Jon and I decided to go to Miami for the weekend. We were quite excited. Then, as the day got closer, we decided to just go on a day trip to St. Augustine instead. Which meant we would, in fact, be in Orlando for Thanksgiving day. We had options of places to go - but we chose to sleep in and spend the day together. We went on a long bike ride. Around 2pm (while the rest of you were hung over from Turkey dinner) we re-heated our left-over pizza and watched a movie. We also did a TON of housework - got the 2nd bedroom all set up to be a very multi-purpose room - bike storage, office, half-nursery (E will sleep by us, but change table and clothes are in that room), guest bedroom, my closet -- needless to say, it's a little cramped. But clean!!! Then, that night we decided we should drink some wine. So we went out to the liquor store. Closed. So we went to 7-11 and got some $8 wine. Awesome. We went home and drank it. THEN we found out that ToysRus started their Black Friday sales at 10pm on Thursday! Woo hoo! That's what expecting parents should do, right - go to ToysRus for the big sales!!! So we leisurely made our way over there at 10:30pm only to find a line-up. Not just a few people standing in line being ushered in to the building. No - we're talking about an army of people in a formation 5 people wide that stretched around all FOUR sides of the big box store. I'm not kidding. I don't know how many hundreds of people that was. We couldn't help but laugh - at the people so desperate for toy sales, and at ourselves for thinking we would just go "check things out". Needless to say, we went back home.

On Friday we got up early to go get good deals at BabiesRus - well, is 7:30 early on Black Friday? I think not - it seems as though many people are back in bed by then! We got good sales on formula and bottles. Yippee. Then we got a good deal on some ties for Jon at the Men's Warehouse. Then we got on the road to St. Augustine.

We started with beer and a sandwich at the pub. Then we looked in all the cute stores on the cute cobble-stone streets. (for those of you who don't know St Augustine - it's the oldest town in North America. We've been there lots, but it's a nice day trip. Nice beaches along the way, too.) Then we went in the Pepper store. Jon likes to sample hot things. He thought it would be a good idea to sample the "world's hottest hot sauce". He put some on a chip. I was not beside him to be the nagging voice in his ear to say "are you sure you wanna try that?". But he came over to me a couple seconds after swallowing and couldn't even talk. He was already sweating and his face was beat red. I said "What happened to you?" He just motioned that he wanted to go outside of the store. "I ate hot sauce" was all he could say. He was doubled over at the waste. He was crying. I was laughing. Jon LOVES hot things - nothing has ever been TOO hot before. This was hilarious! Poor guy's stomach was a wreck. He said his body was doing everything to get the HOT out - sweating, crying, shaking - he wanted to vomit and go to the bathroom at the same time! I had to get him two bottles of water and a muffin just to make him able to cope again. It still makes me laugh.

Anyhow - we've had a good long weekend so far. It's nice to spend all the time together, just relaxing. Today we are going to be productive again though - it's a school work and housework day today. Jon is running errands right now while I procrastinate.

But I was just reflecting on how truly thankful I am. I am thankful that I have a great husband who is in a job that reflects his values and passions. I am thankful for the career I am developing. I am thankful for being raised in a family that follows Jesus. I am thankful for friends and family who are so loving and supportive. I am thankful for our little buddies Atticus and Fallujah. I am also SUPER thankful for this little guy:

(Passport photo - about 10 wks old)

I will write again when he is here - and post lots of pictures!!! Hope all of you had wonderful Thanksgiving weekends!

Getting Ready for Ezra

We are busy getting ready for little Ezra Richard! And what fun that is! We found a great consignment store with tons of kids' stuff for super cheap, so we picked up a handful of clothes for the little guy. It's actually geting chilly here, so some long sleeves might come in handy.

But this is our favorite find so far: (and no, it was NOT cheap and NOT from a consignment store!)

We are still waiting on:
1. Hospital paper work (which has been in the works for about a month! Hurry up, people!)
2. His Haitian passport (which was applied for about 2 weeks ago)
When those two things arrive, an appointment will be made at the US Embassy for his Medical Visa. After he gets his visa, we can book his flight! Woo hoo!

In the meantime, we are keeping VERY busy as we try to get stuff done. I am plugging away at school work, as I have just a few more classes to be finishd with my degree. I passed my huge national exam last month, which I was thrilled about. And I need just 17 more managed births to become licensed as a midwife in the state of Florida. I'll have to fit those in on weekends. :)

That's the news for now. We are happy and healthy and hope you are the same!

I can't wait to be able to post pictures of the darling little boy that is headed our way!

Cutest in the World

I know - everyone brags about THEIR kids or THEIR nieces and nephews - but I would like to nominate my niece and nephew for Cutest in the World. I just got to spend 10 whole days with them up in Edmonton, Alberta. Now I will have to invest in a web cam.

Janay, 2 weeks

Trey, 21 months

From Nashville With Love

Howdy, Ya'll!

I'm in Nashville for an exam and a midwifery conference. I know - there are much more pressing things for me to be blogging about, but I'll have to get around to doing that later. Don't worry, pics of Janay and Trey are coming.

I get to see Jon tomorrow after two full weeks and I'm so excited - I think that's a good sign. :)

Lindsay's Wedding

Lindsay (Jon's sister) got married over Labor Day weekend. She had one of the most beautiful weddings ever. Unfortunately, these pictures do not give you any idea of just how wonderful it was - they are mostly just iphone pictures while goofing off. When I get my hands on some REAL photos, I'll post a few. But here are pictures of the siblings...

Good looking family, huh?

Chicago

Happy in the big city.

After Lindsay's wedding, Jon and I spent about 24 hours in Chicago - exploring, eating, talking, drinking....had a great time! A much-needed mini vacation! We wish we had pictures of the awesome restaurant we had dinner at - but we felt a little dumb whipping out the camera. But here are pics of walking around downtown.

Random Pictures

Fallujah and I

Fallujah is a very rambunctious little katten. Yes, we still call them "Kattens" because we just can't adjust to calling them cats instead of kittens. Anyhow, Fallujah went through a rough patch with several UTI's and was quite mopey. We sorta just thought he was getting older and calming down, but it turns out he was in a lot of pain. Hundreds of dollars, three trips to the vet, and numerous struggles with antibiotics cured the little guy, and he is back to his same-old-self: waking us up at 5:00am by banging the blinds, attacking anything with strings, sneaking up and jumping on his brother, and playing fetch with his favorite blue ball.

Fancy Feast

I have posted about "Fancy Feast" before - it's our friends' amazing meal that they cook (I believe once monthly) that they invite us to from time to time. We had this delicious meal last time we were there - pork, beans, chutney, cabbage and sweet potato chips. This was all made from scratch, by the way. The evening started with homemade cocktails, followed by a lovely fresh salad, then the main dish, and was finished off with a faboulous cake. Much better than any restaurant. And it's all local, organic food.

This is an OLD picture of the garden - the plants grew to about 5 times this size and we had a lot of produce from this little plot. Currently, there are only a couple of pepper plants growing - Jon tore out all the rest and is getting ready for the fall planting. I just realized I never really kept you up-to-date on our "new baby" - I guess the novelty kinda wore off for me. :)

Happy Birthday to....

FALLUJAH?

Hahaha - Nope. It was happy birthday to ME. My mom sent these as the "treasure" at the end of the scavenger hunt Jon sent me on. But look at Fallujah's face - he looks just as excited as I was about them! They have made delicious treats this week!

Studying

Sometimes I spread out all my studying materials so I can feel like I'm in college all over again. But often, on of my feline friends will come over and check out what I am doing. And sometimes he'll get comfortable.

Then sometimes his brother will come over to check out what we are both doing. And then HE will get comfortable.
And then it turns into bath time.
And I am forced to move on to the laundry or dishes or something else that needs to get done. I cannot disrupt bath time. It reminds me of when they were just little and fearful for their lives upon moving into a house with humans and would cuddle together and bathe eachother often. Now it's just once in a while, and I still find it precious.

It is currently a "semester break" so I am working on one of my elective classes: reflexology. Kinda fun! Here is a map of the foot that I did. I have to do 40 treatments to other people - I bet some of you wish you lived closer!

Baby Zech

Here is an update on one of the cutest babies ever...baby Zechariah from a few posts ago. He is six weeks old! Look at those chubby cheeks! His mom is so beautfiul and loving, too. It's kinda sad when they reach the 6 week mark and no longer come to see us.

Update on Life in Orlando

Besides gardening, this is what we have been up to:

• Jon went to Michigan for 4th of July weekend, leaving me home alone to do school work and deliver a baby.
• I have been working my a#@ off to get all of my clinical requirements signed off on and submitted to my school so that they can submit it to the national certification body - this is all so I can write my big exam in October.
• We are facilitators for our small group from Church - which is proving to be a bit of work, as we just got some new folks and our group is large, but haphazard.
• I am done teaching basic Anatomy and Physiology, but am now planning for teaching 4 sessions of Anatomy and Physiology of Reproduction.
• I taught 2 weeks of ESL for my old job - they were desperate, and I needed some money. Now I am back to just teaching Saturdays and doing clinic/birth center the rest of the week.
• I have a 1 inch incision on my forehead from where the dermatologist excised a basal cell carcinoma. It looks like a ton of bandages covering a big welt due to the swelling from the anesthetic. I'll have a similar incision on my shoulder in 2 weeks. Boo for skin cancer.
• I finally saw Avatar. I kinda liked the bird thingies.
• Jon gets to go to DC next weekend for work. Lucky butt. He really seems to be liking his job these days
• I was following the story of the Iranian woman who was supposed to be stoned - so relieved/thrilled/grateful that it looks like she might be spared.
• HOT - it is HOT here. But I know it is HOT for many of you, too.

There, that should be enough for now. Just wanted to update so that you know we are still alive and doing pretty well. I'll try to get some pictures up soon!

Bountiful Harvest

All from our very own garden!

happiness

This is me holding baby Zechariah about 10 minutes after his birth on Friday morning. Look at how wide open his eyes are! If you wonder why the funny hold, he was a little congested, so I wrapped him and was patting his back to help him cough up some of his yuckiness. He sneezed a couple of times and breastfed for a good while....went home 3 hours later. His mom was really excited to bring him home to meet his four older siblings. I wish I had a picture of him without his hat on - he had the most lovely curly black hair. So precious. He LOVED getting his hair washed. Looked at me directly in my eyes while I talked to him.

I decided to post about this because I realized at about 6:00am on Friday morning (the hair washing) that this profession makes me happy. Even though we had been there since 8pm the night before, and this was my second all-nighter of the week, I loved being a part of it. Mom was sitting on the toilet, watching me wash her baby's hair over the sink. Jennie came in the bathroom too and the three of us chatted for a bit about the birth while Zechariah soaked up the loving attention.

At least once each week (lately it feels like a lot more), I get to be present in some of the most intimate moments in a family's life together. Sounds cheesy, but it really is quite remarkable. I need to remind myself not to take this for granted. And I believe it makes such a difference that these women are not medicated - they are feeling every ounce of the pain and depend on their partners and us to help them cope. They trust us to assist them in delivery without the use of tons of medical technology. They trust their bodies. And then, four hours after their babies are born, they pack up and go home to rest with their family. Because they are not sick. They are not feeble. They are new mothers - some of the strongest peeps on the planet!

Our New Baby

Hee hee - did I get some of you excited with that title? Sorry...not a crying, pooping, cooing baby yet. But, a live, changing, growing baby all the same - a new garden!

Jon signed up for a community garden plot about a month ago. I'll be honest - at first I sighed, and said, "Well, this is your baby...don't count on me for anything". But I love it already. Here are some pictures of how it started, and what it looked like last week. It already looks different. We'll keep updating as we go.

Currently we are growing tomatoes, jalepenos, bell peppers, okra, cucumber, zucchini, beans, pumpkin, eggplant, sweet potato, oregano, rosemary, thyme, spinach and sunflowers.

Our first harvest!