Nursery! And 38 weeks

So today I'm 38 weeks along, so I only have 2 more weeks until my due date! My doctor thinks I probably won't go past my due date because I'm making good progress :) I think everything is just about ready for this little guy - the hospital bag is packed, we have everything purchased, the nursery is set up, etc. Here are some pictures of the nursery. The next time I post, it may be with pictures of baby Fox!

1 year

Today officially marks the 1 year point since we started the adoption process. We are still in the "waiting to wait" stage, though--we are on the waiting list to have our homestudy sent to Taiwan, rather than being on the waiting list to receive a referral. Although we started out as #6 on this waiting list and are now #2, all of that movement as been due to attrition, rather than due to referrals, which is sad. There have been zero successful NSN infant referrals since we signed on with ASIA a year ago. On Monday I will be 8 1/2 months pregnant, so we are not worrying too much about the adoption right now. We can't do anything adoption-wise until this baby is 6 months old, so we have some time to work out our next steps. We are researching other potential options for adopting from Taiwan, though, since it doesn't look like Chung Yi is receiving the NSN infants we are hoping for. So in another 6 months we could potentially be on a different path--but as long as it is leading towards my daughter in Taiwan, that is all that matters to me.

In other news, last week I completed my Master's degree! It is a big relief to have that done before this baby arrives--our timing worked out pretty well there. I don't get much of a break, however, because in less than 2 weeks I will be teaching my first class. Fortunately it is an online course (Issues and Ethics in Technology - a course for students pursuing their Master of Arts in Education), so it will not be noticed too much when I have to bow out for awhile to go give birth! I'm hoping to teach classes occasionally to bring in some extra income, because Chris will become a stay at home dad in the near future. He only has 2 weeks left of work! That is exciting, too. Before too long I should have pictures of baby Fox to post for everyone!

News article - US Couple Adopts Taiwanese as 1st Child

I came across this article about an American couple who adopted a boy from Chung Yi. I'm not sure why it made the China Post news--I suppose it is just a human interest story?

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/foreign--community/2009/05/08/207293/U.S.-couple.htm

8 months

I am now 8 months pregnant - and still doing just great! I feel really lucky that I've been feeling so good. I have a lot of energy (probably more than I've had at any other point in my pregnancy), no physical ailments, etc. I hope I can keep it up awhile longer!
In other news, I am very excited to be wrapping up my Master of Liberal Arts degree this week! On Tuesday I have to defend my Portfolio, then my last day of class is Friday, and then I will walk in Commencement on Saturday - busy week! It's been a lot of fun, but I'll be glad to be done so I can really start focusing on this little baby :)

Still pregnant!

Well, I'm still pregnant! I'll be 29 weeks along tomorrow (so about 6 1/2 months). So far I'm still feeling pretty darned good - no real complaints! A friend of ours offered the other day to take some maternity pictures of me (and Chris) that we could use for our baby shower invitations. This one is probably my favorite:

No NSN infant referral afterall

I heard from our agency that the NSN infant referral I thought had been received in December 2008 actually fell through. Not sure if it was because of the family or because there was something wrong with the referral. At any rate, the reason we moved up to #2 (which would be #5 overall) in line was because someone dropped out - NOT because there was positive movement in the line. Very depressing. That means that so far it has been 15 months and counting since the last NSN infant referral. If this trend were to continue, we would be waiting 6 years for a referral. :( Of course there is always the chance that one or more of the families ahead of us in line would drop out, but when you're only talking about 4 families that really isn't something you can count on. For right now (considering we have some guaranteed wait time because of Fox) we will just wait and see what happens in the months to come.

Yay for the 3rd trimester!

Today I am officially 6 months along in my pregnancy, so I am officially calling this the 3rd trimester (even though I have another 3 months + 1 week to go until full term). Fox kicks me like crazy these days..he's a strong little boy. I can visually see my belly move when he kicks, which is amazing to see. I haven't had many pregnancy symptoms at all during this whole adventure, and those that I've had I've been able to take care of with herbal remedies, so I'm certainly not complaining. I don't LIKE being pregnant (it is a rather uncomfortable experience), but I must admit I'm probably getting off easy. I'm hoping these last 3 months go just as smoothly, and the birth goes the smoothest of all :)
No real news on the adoption front. Seems the wait list is stalled once again. Just waiting for an update from our agency to see what's going on, and trying to keep my mind on other things (like baby Fox!).