12/27/08 Pictures

99.9% sure...Official Announcement of her name!

We have decided that it is time to let you all in on what our new little girl will be called. We are 99.9% sure that her name will be Emma Elizabeth Early. We have purchased the letters (however, they are not on the wall yet). I took a picture so that you could see the "bumpy soft" bedding that we have for her (at least that is what Drew calls it).

As Drew was named John Andrew after family members, she to will be named after family members. My maternal great-grandmother's name was Mary Emma Fields; however, she went by Emma. Ben's aunt was named Elizabeth and was a very important person in his life. To top it all off, my Grandma Juanita's official given name was Eliza Juanita. She would have been proud to know that the "Eliza" would be incorporated in this great-granddaughter's name. Her other great-granddaughter's middle name is Juanita after both of her great-grandmothers.

We go back to the doctor again tomorrow to find out how things are going. With a due date of January 3rd, we are hoping to make it well into December this time around if all goes well.

Boo at the Zoo!

We took Drew to Boo at the Zoo in his "Fun Fireman" costume. He was quite tired; therefore, pictures were a luxury. Hope you enjoy these. Notice the flames on the back of the boots at the top (you can see a little bit of it in the last picture)...I think that they are his favorite part of the costume.

Adrian...for Uncle Bobby!

Prayer Request for my Uncle Bobby and Cord Blood Info

Drew, my dad, and my uncle (at Corn Day 2007)

My uncle was admitted to Barnes-Jewish in St. Louis this past week to start a vigorous course of chemo before his anticipated stem cell transplant. He has Myelodysplastic Syndrome, a condition that affects the blood and bone marrow. He will continue chemo until Monday, have "the day off" on Tuesday, and will get his stem cell transplant from an unknown international donor on Wednesday. I ask that you all keep him and his family in your prayers.

Here is their CaringBridge website if you would like to know how he is doing:

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/robertlamp

As Uncle Bobby was going through this process, his doctor mentioned the fact that he had "weird" German blood and unfortunately he didn't match either my father or my aunt. Luckily, someone somewhere had registered and was a perfect match for my uncle. Please consider donating blood and being added to the registry if you ever hear of a blood drive that is also typing people for the National Bone Marrow Donor Registry. I was unable to participate this time because I was pregnant. However, anyone can request the tissue typing be done for approximately $52. http://www.marrow.org/

As for saving the stem cells from cord blood...here is some information that you might not be aware of.

Most of the cord blood programs that advertise on television and in magazines are private donation centers. They cost between $1700 - $2000 to collect and around $125 per year to store your child's cord blood privately. Most people do not know that there is another option available. The National Bone Marrow Donor Registry site has a link as to how to donate cord blood to a public bank. However, Indiana does not currently have any participating hospitals. There is an option to go through Cryobanks International Inc. that will accept cord blood donation from throughout the United States for either public donation or private storage. http://www.cryo-intl.com/ My sister and I have the registration paperwork on the way for participation in this program. They only ask that you register early in your pregnancy so that all of the paperwork can be submitted in time. Please consider telling others about this program as most people only know about the private banks. Why not donate the cord blood to a public bank? Otherwise, it will just be considered medical waste...

Our little painter...and chalker...

While I was gone to San Antonio for the week, Grandpa descended upon our house many nights to help paint Drew's new bedroom (one of the colors was red and took four coats - Grandpa really loves us because he hates to paint red). Drew is moving to the front bedroom which has been an office/storage room for the last few years so that the baby can be in the closer bedroom. Drew is all excited because he will now have the bedroom the both his dad and Aunt Riah had at one point. When we were moving things out of the room, he was convinced that the CD's that were in there on the CD stand were Mariah's from when it was her bedroom. He is just a little confused...but, excited to be moving into his new room. We bought him the new bedroom furniture for his birthday. However, we haven't gotten the room fixed up due to the busy summer that we have had. Dad doesn't like me to be around painting while I am pregnant...so, he painted the room (with help from Drew) while I was gone. Drew even said at one point that he was a better painter than Grandpa. Grandpa didn't mind.

To keep him entertained while I was gone, Ben allowed Drew to sidewalk chalk the world...or so it seems being that we haven't had much rain since then and it is all still there. One of the drawings is in the photos below. Ben asked Drew what it was...he said, "A rocket." So, Ben made him put flames coming out of the back...for reasons that you will surely understand.

It's a Girl!!!

As many of you know, Drew has said that the baby was a girl from the beginning. He said that God told him that it was a girl. Well, I guess you can't argue with God and a 4-year-old! He really wants a sister! We were happy to find out that we don't have to tell him that God had made a mistake when we found out on Thursday that it is a GIRL! We are telling him tomorrow morning (Saturday) as this is the first time that we will all be home at the same time and awake since we found out.