what a week!

i'm so glad it's Friday. what a week it's been!

Shower time!
On Monday night our wonderful and amazing church family held a baby shower for us.. So many friends showed up, and it was so much fun!

 

 

Complete with games like "guess what kind of candy bar is smeared in the diaper?".

  

  

(Daniel Love, why do you look so bored?...;-p just wait till you have a kid. ;-]) 

  

Rob's mom and dad were still in Indiana so it was extra special that they could join us for the shower. We got a lot of great things from our registry and several gift cards/gifts of cash so we can go get some of the bigger things too. The ended the evening by praying for us and for the trip - we feel SO blessed to have such a strong and close church family surrounding us as we take this huge step. Thanks everybody!

On Friday Rob brought home a beautiful, cuddly bear blanket his co-worker Niki.made for us. She also made us a beautiful afgan when we got married. (Thanks Niki, you're so thoughtful! And it's so nice to have something handmade.) This one is definitely coming along with us to K-stan.

Shop till you drop... literally

On Saturday and again on Tuesday night we went shopping at Kohl's for lots of stuff for Rob, including suit-coat/shirt/tie, boots, gloves, warm coat, long underwear, pants...let's face it; my hubby is NOT a shopper, so now it's do or die trying to get him caught up on all the stuff he'll need for the trip. (OK,OK, I got a few things too. ;-p)

While there, I started feeling it come on..the dreaded ticklyness at the back of the throat, sniffly nose, general bodily weariness...no NO NO!!!! Yes, it's true. the common cold. (And I had been doing everything right! taking vitamins, getting enough rest...Argggh!)

so I came home and did everything you do to avoid it--drank tea, airborne, zinc lozenges, vitamin C, echinacea...I even ate a whole garlic clove. No use. I totally got slammed with a horrible cold. I went to work Wednesday and supper at friends (thanks Kim and Dave!) but by the time I got home I was feeling really miserable. Crappy night of sleep, ended up on the couch, foggy-headed, not wanting to go to work but going anyway,  tissues and germex in hand...this has been my week. On top of it all I've been having neck problems...went to the chiropractor yesterday which helped, but this afternoon it totally tightened up again, so I'm not sure what's going on there...I may have to go back on Monday. :-( (can you say, STRESS? hmmm...;-p)

..and while I've had a cold and sore neck, Rob--poor Rob! He went to the dentist this week (we won't say how long it's been) and today had to go back to get three cavities filled--Yikes! Well, they dug around in there and decided one of them is going to need a root canal! So, on Monday afternoon he'll be getting that done...oh joy...

Needless to say, we're just really glad all this health stuff is happening NOW and not while we're in Kazakhstan - thank you Lord for your impeccable timing! And thanks to many of you who I know are praying for our health as we prepare to go...we really appreciate that.

Ok, SO...visas and travel plans...

well, our visa applications were finally turned in to the Kaz embassy today after several delays...hurrah! but they told our courier they wouldn't be ready for pick-up till Thursday, so we had to move our fly date back to Saturday Feb. 27. sigghhhh...our agent was preparing the ticket this afternoon; on Monday we'll make the purchase; then there's NO TURNING BACK! we're headed to Kazakhstan!!!

I canceled our evening plans so we could just STAY HOME tonight...it's been such a busy, draining week and we have SOOOO few nights left at home. maybe...4? so hard to believe...

sigh...we're tired, and we're blessed...soon--we can actually count the days now--we get to meet our son. it's really somewhat surreal to us right now...