God is Good

Well, I'm 16 weeks along (about 14 in the picture) and growing! Carless and I just got the best news this week. Our genetecist called to let us know the results of the urinalysis confirm that our little one does not have Smith Lemli Optiz Syndrome! Such a relief. It is a new test, but very accurate. She says as accurate as an amnio and best of all it was totally non-invasive! After our ultrasound at 11 weeks I was pretty confident that the results would be good, but it was nice to hear the confirmation. There is always that little part in your head that says "what if", we've heard bad news so many times...it's sometimes hard to think the good will come. But it has. We even purchased a crib! Now I am waiting to find out if the baby is a boy or girl. We have our ultrasound scheduled for April 20th, so in less than a month we will hopefully know! Almost everyone I know hopes or thinks I'm carrying a boy. I really don't care, I just a healthy baby. However, there have been a few of us and me included who dreamed it's a boy. We will see. I know that everyone says you cannot feel the baby move until 18 weeks, but I swear I feel this little one in there moving around, kicking and poking. It's an awesome feeling, even if it is gas! Haha. Thanks for all of your prayers and support. This journey has definately been hard, but worth it in the end. Now I can sit back and enjoy the rest of the pregnancy.

"Ask and you shall receive"

Well, we finally finished our adoption classes. We still have a few loose ends to take care of and should be certified as foster parents sometime next month. Now that we are pregnant, I am not planning on fostering. I want to focus on this little one we are expecting in September. However, we still plan to go ahead and pursue the adoption with the little girl, whom I will refer to as "A", if that option come up. Her year is in April and that is when the judge should decide permancy. If it goes how I think the case will go, it looks like the judge will most likely extend the mom's time for reunification. That being said, the case could go any way and could time quite some time. Well, Carless and I have been offered to go ahead and foster "A" once we are certified, due to some family sickness in the current foster families home. I am closer to "A" than anyone else, except for your now foster parents, grandmother, and her mother. The thing we have to consider is the fact that we could have "A" in our home for a good year or so before permancy is decided. Carless worries that I will not be able to handle the loss if it comes down to it, but I just cannot bear to turn her away. I believe we could have an amazing time with her, however long the time is. So, for now I have already purchased her easter dress in hopes to have your by then...if not the dress can be worn at other times. It has been a lot to take in this past week, but I feel comfortable enough to say "yes, we will give her a home". Be carefull what you ask for people, you just may get it, our God is listening and is good.

A New Year

2009 started with a bang for Carless and I. It was New Years Day when we found out we were expecting our third baby. I am now 13 weeks along and doing great, aside from the "morning sickness" and worries. I am due somewhere around September 9, 2009. We had a very comforting ultrasound in February when I was 11 weeks along. We had our doctor measure the back of the baby's neck, the test is called an NT scan or Nuchal Translucency Scan. It is done around 11-13weeks to screen for Down's Syndrome and in our case SLOS. If the baby has too much fluid built up at the back of the neck, it is an indicator of a possible heart defect. A normal measurement is below 2.5mm. I am proud to say our baby's NT measurement was less than 1.0mm!! As soon as I saw our little one on the screen I knew everything was fine. I had such relief to see little one moving and grooving in my belly. Thinking back to Bella's ultrasound at 11weeks, I remember she didn't move much at all. Her NT measurement was about 4.0mm, very obvious if you know what you are looking for. I'm growing too, unlike my last two pregnancies. My belly has grown to about 32" around already! I am definately into my maternity clothes and loving it. I can't wait to feel this baby move around. I still plan to have a urinalysis done at 14 weeks to prove this little one does not have SLOS. We should get the results at around 16 weeks, or the first of April.

Shelby Lynn Osbourn

Most of you know Carless has a daughter, her name is Shelby and she will be turning 15 this April! Oh my goodness, 15 years old!! I can't believe it. I remember when I first met her she was just barely 6, so small, so cute with her blonde hair and blue eyes. She now has brown hair (she likes to experiment), still has beautiful blue eyes, still tiny, but much taller (almost as tall as me:). She has grown into a wonderful young lady. She has her permit to drive, so be aware! Just kidding, she's a fine driver. She has a bright future ahead of her, with many ideas. I am so proud to be a part of her life. Love ya Shelby!

Not so good....

Yeah, not so good at all. The ice is pretty, but not that pretty. I went outside to take pictures of the beauty, when all of the sudden I hear a big crashing sound and notice the tree is about to land on Carless! I yell and he ducks, luckily he is fine...the truck not so much.

As you can see here our good friend and neighbor, Darold came over to help move the tree from the top of our truck. What a nice guy.

Carless and Darold, investigating the damage

Poor truck, it looks so sad. Notice the trees hanging over our house in the background...yicks!

ICE

Yep, thats what we woke up to this morning. Needless to say, school is cancelled. It really is beautiful though, how perfectly the ice covers everything. Every once in a while you will hear a big cracking sound, another tree breaking apart and falling. Lets just hope the tree hanging over our house stays put! For now, we still have electricity. Thank God. A big spruce broke in half and fell into our back yard, crushing our fence. Carless and I ventured out there to try and save our fence. Carless grabbed his saw and I bundled up and headed for the tree. Piece by piece we cut it up and threw it back over the fence. Our fence on the other hand is officially bent, but we will survive. Really the smell of the spruce was amazing, smelled like Christmas. Don't you just love winter weather.

Adoption

So, a lot has happened since that day in February 2007. We continued on with the pregnancy. Took many pictures of my growing belly. We finally decided to let Dr. Burk induce me because he said it didn't look like I would go anytime soon and I was officially at 40 weeks. I didn't want to induce, I didn't want to let go. We arrived in the hospital June 26 and I gave birth to Caelyn Nicolette at 8:04 am on June 27th. She was breech, butt first. Her heart stopped beating in the birth canal. We took many pictures of our beautiful baby girl, dressed her, loved her, held her, and eventually let her go. It was a hard day, the days to come were hard too, but we made it through. Carless and I decided to try again, that is when we found ourselves pregnant with our little Bella girl. She was due April 3, 2009. We lost her on September 23, 2007 at 12 weeks.
Shortly after the misscarriage my husband and I decided to look into adoption through the foster care system.
My job allows me to meet many families, one of those families is a foster care family. There is a little girl who is in this home whom I have come to love. She is very special and if she did get adopted out, I wanted to have a chance at it. So, after lots of prayers and research, we are going through the Missouri Baptist Children's Home foster care training as we speak. We actually have one my week left, plus lots of paper work. Now, will we actually get to adopt this little girl? I don't know, but it is worth the risk. She deserves the very best and I hope to give that to her. She is a sweet little girl with big blue eyes, petite little body, brown hair, and light skin. She is only 16 months old and has been in foster care since she was 7 months old. We can't wait to see what God has in store for us.