New Year's Ham

Here's another of Chloe on a test drive...

Facebook Photos

We posted some recent photos from our travels in Facebook. We used to upload everything to yahoo photos but then they closed up shop, and we were guided toward Flicker, but we never got into it, so it looks like Facebook will be our destination of choice for photos. We threw the videos in my last post out there as well, as well as the video we have of Chloe walking for the first time.

Sega!

Here's Chloe, getting the hang of things:



And here's Julia, a bit more cautious, but also bustin' a move:



Sega is the national cultural music and dance of Mauritius. Historically, it is the event for which slaves in Mauritius (ancestors of today's Creoles, such as Isabelle and her family) would gather during the night. Men were chained to a ball on their right ankle and so danced accordingly, while the women were unencumbered, and also danced accordingly. The men's steps have been carried forward until the present time.

It was hard to believe the changes that take place over nine weeks for a three-year-old and a one-year-old. Now I'm trying to find my rhythm and some discipline with my time again after languishing in my bachelor shoes those nine weeks. Too much play and work with the girls now that their jetlag doesn't knock them out by 7 pm.

Dubai Girl, China Boy

I survived Christmas and New Year's apart from my girls. Dad came by from December 24-29 and we had a North Dakotan bachelor Christmas. It was fun. We watched movies Benjamin Button (bleah) and Crash (wow!) and played cribbage and darts.

Today at 5, I will be leaving for the airport to fly to Guangzhou, China, via LA, and Seoul, Korea. Isabelle arrived yesterday in Dubai, UAE, and she will be leaving there and meeting me in Guangzhou on Monday. She is staying with her cousin Sarah Jane who has been living in Dubai for a couple of years. Tonight they are on a safari and they are apparently having a wonderful time. Isabelle told me she wishes I was there, as do I.

After Guangzhou, we will make our way to Hong Kong. It's a second honeymoon for us. And it's a chance to visit friends who are living in or visiting Hong Kong. That's right, the kids are staying with tante Medge and ton-ton Jacque in Mauritius. In Hong Kong, our good friends Peter and Anita Leung will be there. Peter went to the University of Texas, lived in the US for 20 years, and became a US citizen, but soon after they got married they decided to move back to Hong Kong. Also, a friend I met in St. Louis whom I've visited in New Zealand will be visiting in Hong Kong while we're there. Richard and Brenda (Smith) Leota and their kids Amber and Jonathan will be visiting family.

On January 19, I will be heading back to St. Louis, and Isabelle will be heading back to Dubai. Then she makes her way back to Mauritius to pick up the kids, and her mother. They will leave Mauritius on January 22 and arrive back in St. Louis on January 23. We hope.

Merry Christmas!

Our wish to all our friends and family is for you to have a blessed celebration of our Savior's birth, and high hopes for a happy new year.

Meet Chloe!

Here is Chloe in one of the happier minutes of her first hour or so. She came out ready for action, crying, flailing about, and pooping. She measured 21" and weight 7 lb, 14 oz, but we figure she could easily have lost the 4 oz. she needed to match Julia by failing to wait until after the official weigh-in to poop.

Dad appreciates the numerical convenience of having a daughter born on 12-14-07 who weighs 7 pounds and 14 ounces and is 21 inches long. Having multiples of seven only in the stats was plenty, Dad being a football fan as well, but then matching those up to the date with only the transposition of the month and the length was cool.

Holding Our Horses

Yes, it's Thursday. But it's not necessarily big, we decided. Julia came on her own five days after the estimated due date. Isabelle is feeling good, and so, three days after Chloe's estimated due date, we agreed that we could wait some more.

Stay tuned!

Big Thursday

December 6 looms large. We had an appointment with Isabelle's doctor today, and decided to schedule Isabelle to be induced early Thursday morning. Of course another possibility is that baby Chloe may arrive before then (her due date is Monday). And today we were disappointed to learn that she seems to have turned since last week and is now breach. So we may be heading for a C-section again. Please pray for us.

Chloe Michelle's Profile

Welcome! It's a girl!

Yeah, we know we should have been blogging before now. Now let's see if we can set a reasonable pace...

Last Tuesday, our delivery doctor gave us another in a series of good reports on Isabelle's pregnancy. The new due date is December 3, based on the ultrasound we got the Wednesday before that.

At our church, Mid-County Church in St. Louis, baby girls are everywhere. One couple, after adopting a girl and a boy, just had a boy. But aside from him, the last six or eight arrivals have been girls. Good friends of ours with two girls are due a few weeks before us, and they refuse to try to find out ahead of time. Other good friends with one girl are due a few weeks after us.

Having majored in statistics, and having observed that half the world is girls, I know that the odds against all three of us having girls were 8 to 1. Now that we know we will, the odds against the other two having girls are 4 to 1. In other words, it's still unlikely. Try telling that to all the other families that have two or three kids of the same gender.

God must be smiling on us, protecting our sanity. Sure we want a boy, but we certainly feel blessed that Joey-Chloe turned out to be a girl. Julia needs a sister. She will be Chloe Michelle, Lord willing.

Later!
-Chris