Home Study Visit #3 and Ultrasound #4

Last Monday we had our third home study visit! For this visit we talked about our parenting styles. It was pretty laid back. This is usually the last visit, but since our situation is a little complicated, there will be an additional visit after Charlie is born. We are almost done with home study paperwork, with only 2-3 things left to get done. Everything should be completed this week and we are also expecting a draft of our written home study from the social worker in the next week or so. Next we will begin getting our dossier together. This includes a bunch of paperwork and our home study. This is also what will be sent to China! It looks like we have most of what goes in the dossier, so hopefully that process will go fairly quickly. We have some immigration paperwork to do, but it's unclear if we will do this now, or after Charlie is born, since it needs to be fairly recent when it's all sent to China. We know the break is coming where we really can't move forward for a while, we're just not sure when that break will be. The social worker wasn't sure either, but I know our situation isn't especially common. We do know the dossier can't go to China until the home study update after Charlie is born. As a planner, it's difficult to not know the plan for when everything goes on hold, but it does help knowing that God has already picked out our little one and we just have to be patient with the timing. The timing will work out according to His plan to get our little one home! We're still working on coming up with a name...

Today we had our 4th ultrasound for Charlie and we're 23 weeks and 1 day! It's going by so fast! For the most part, I have felt great! During the anatomy scan last month he wouldn't show all the vessels of his heart because he had his chin to his chest. Well, today he was just as uncooperative! The sonographer was able to see everything except one part of one vessel, but the odds of something being off with that one part when everything else is ok are slim, so there aren't current plans to redo the ultrasound again. We are at the point where we rotate through the other doctors in the practice, so maybe our doctor will feel differently, but we'll see. He is so cute and has some chubby cheeks like his brother did! We were able to see him drinking some amniotic fluid and moving his arms around. He also liked to kick the ultrasound thing! My uterus measured 2 weeks ahead, but it was like that the whole pregnancy with Graham and he wasn't even 6.5 lbs, so no worries there. It's a little strange that that was probably our last ultrasound for Charlie since we had to have so many with Graham, but I definitely wouldn't trade it for the worrying! "Everything is completely normal" is new and very welcome for us! I'm getting impatient to meet him, but definitely want him to stay in for a few more months! The appointment for next month is for the glucose screening...ick! We gave Graham a blurry ultrasound picture of Charlie and he has been very proud showing people "Char" or "Char Baby". I'm hoping he's beginning to understand a little of what's going on. Graham will move up classes to the 2's at daycare the week Charlie is due and we found out on Thursday that his teacher (whom we LOVE) is moving up too, so that was a HUGE answer to prayer and will make for a much easier transition for him! Charlie has been moving a TON, so I think these boys will be two peas in a pod :-)

Please pray:
-I feel in my heart that our little one in China has been born or will be born soon. Pray for peace, comfort, security, and that she (yes, probably she!) is able to receive the nurturing she needs. Also that she receives the medical care and attention she needs. Pray for her birth parents, as we don't know their circumstances, but we are thankful for them choosing life for their baby and we pray they will one day hear and receive the gospel.
-Pray that Charlie continues to grow strong!

 His little leg is crossed over in this one and you can make out a little foot!

Little tiny baby arm and hand!