On The List!

I heard from our adoption agency this morning, and we received approval from ICBF (the Colombian children's welfare agency) on April 29th! So, we are officially on THE LIST. Our approximately 30 month wait begins now. Praise God that they didn't ask for any more info from us, as they have been doing of most families lately! We're one step closer to Caroline's little brother or sister! :)

Happy Birthday, Philip!

For Philip's 30th, I surprised him with a weekend in Atlanta. He has been wanting to go to the Georgia Aquarium since he heard that they had whale sharks there. He has been fascinated with this particular fish since childhood, and wanted to see one in person! So I kidnapped him from his parking garage at work on Friday afternoon, and off we went. We also visited the World of Coca-Cola, which he had never visited. For any of you that know Philip at all, you know that he is quite the Coke drinker, so he enjoyed his visit there as well. He tried all of the 64 soft drinks in the Tasting Room, and had a bit of a tummy ache after. :) It was a great weekend! It was wonderful for the two of us to get away together one last time before we become three!

27 weeks

This is me at 27 weeks. The belly is growing! I failed my 1 hour glucose test last week, but thankfully passed the three hour test yesterday. Yea! Everything is going along well.

This week is exam week, and then I am done! :) I had decided at the beginning of the semester to play a game with my students. I decided to never tell them that I was pregnant, and to wait and see how long it took for one of them to be gutsy enough to ask. Well, no one ever asked. Now, I know I never ask ANYONE if they are pregnant, even if it is extremely obvious. And I am their instructor, with complete control over their grade in the course. So I guess I can understand their hesitation, but come on! I even walked around the classroom while lecturing, rubbing my belly all the while. Oh, well. The game ended up being no fun.

Anyway, not too much else going on in the Ryle household right now. We'll keep you updated!

Halfway there and counting!

Yesterday marked 20 weeks...halfway there! I can't believe it. It seems to be going so quickly! I'm sure the larger I get (and the hotter the weather gets), the slower it will seem. Now, Philip and I are just having fun preparing for Caroline! My in-laws are coming up today to help us fabric shop, and then I am headed to Mobile for the beginning of next week (yea for Spring Break!) to shop some more with my mom. She and I are going to be making all of the baby bedding. I'm sure we will also be picking up fabric to make diaper bags, Easter baskets, baby slings, or anything else that can be sewn/embroidered. We are a bit ridiculous, I know.

Oh, and somewhere in there I am going to be finishing my dissertation on the Corona Theorem in H-infinity-sub-K space. (What'd she say?) For those not in the know, that is the space of functions whose kth derivative vanishes at 0. AAAGGHHH! Then I can be a stay-at-home mom with a PhD. :)

And her name is...

We have chosen her name! Caroline is THE name that I have always wanted to use for my first daughter, probably since I was 10 years old. However, when we began discussing names, Philip came up with the name Callie. I had never heard him mention it before, but he REALLY loved the name and was pushing for it. Well, we were then informed by a friend that she has heard Callie be used as a nickname for Caroline. And there you go! Both of our favorites in one name. So, we will call her Caroline, but Philip's special-daddy-nickname for her will be Callie. We can't wait for Caroline Brynn to make her appearance!

It's a pink baby!

Well, Philip and I got to see our little munchkin yesterday via ultrasound, and it's a girl! The doctor said that everything looked great. Actually, she said she looked like she had the brain of a mathematician. :) In the picture above, she's looking right at the "camera." I hope that this is an indication that she will pose for lots of photos! We are so thrilled to be having a daughter. No, we don't have a name yet...we'll keep you posted. :)

We're on our way!

We got word from our Social worker Sarah yesterday that our dossier had been sent to Colombia. Yea! Now it will take about a month to be translated, and then we will hear in the next couple of months after that if we have been accepted, or if they need more info from us. And THEN we are put on the waiting list! The average wait right now for an infant in 30 months, but you never know what will happen when you are dealing with international adoption. So, we are preparing ourselves for up to a three year wait, but it could come much sooner! I'm excited to meet the child/children that God has chosen already to be a part of our family. :)