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. :)

17 weeks, 3 days

Here is of my growing belly! I had a checkup last week, and everything is going well! We scheduled our ultrasound for March 6th. We will know boy or girl in two weeks! :) I can't wait!

Life continues...

Well, not too much exciting is going on, but I am updating for all of you avid blog-readers our there. (As an avid blog-reader myself, I know how frustrating it is to visit a blog and see the same post at the top for weeks in a row. To all of you who visit our blog, I apologize for the lengthy periods of inactivity; I'll try to be more prompy with my posts!) In the adoption arena, we are SO close to sending our paperwork to Colombia. I am picking up the last piece of the puzzle (our physician's letters) tomorrow, and am taking all of our paperwork to Montgomery to get apostilled on Tuesday. For those of you not familiar with the terminology, an apostille is a verification of a notarization. Then, we can send it all to Sarah, our case worker in Tampa, who will forward it to Colombia! I will be so excited to get all of it sent off and get on "the list." The Colombian officials could ask for more papers or clarification of papers we send, but we are praying for a quick approval. Once we are approved, the wait is estimated at 2.5 years. And then baby Ryle #2 will be able to join us! :) It's very exciting.

Other than that, life continues as normal. I am 16 weeks now, and am starting to actually "show;" I'll have to post pics sometime. Hopefully we will find out in coming weeks if Baby is a girl or a boy, which we can't wait for. I need to start shopping! :)

Our News!

Well, if you haven't heard yet, we're pregnant! Just shy of twelve weeks. So here's the story...

As you know, we decided last March to begin the process of adopting an infant from Colombia. Well, this summer, as we were busily taking part in the adoption paper chase, we were informed that the process in Colombia has lengthened to 30 months from dossier approval. That meant that we would probably not be referred a child until the latter part of 2010. While we were still convinced that this adoption was part of God's plan for the Ryle family, we realized that He had now given us an opportunity to add another child to our family! So, after contacting our social worker first to make sure that this pregnancy would not hinder or change the adoption, we decided to go for it! Now we are expecting our first child July 31, and an adopted sibling a couple of years later. It is such a blessing to know that we have two children on the way.

As for where we stand in the adoption process...some of our paperwork had expired, and we are currently updating it now. We were re-fingerprinted (for the fourth time) in December, and now we need to see the MD so he can sign a letter that says we are "physically able to adopt." Then, after we get all of the paperwork apostilled in Montgomery, we can send it on down to Colombia for translation and hopefully approval shortly after that! (It should take a couple of months, unless they ask for more information from us). Once we are approved, we are officially on the waiting list, and our 30 month wait begins. Yippee!