Germany

Hey all!

I managed to snag a computer at the ACS office while Chris is in a briefing, so I thought I would take a few minutes to update you on our trip so far.

First off, e-mail (or comments on this blog) are the only way to reach us at this point. We'll try to check e-mail when we can get to a computer, but that may be days. We'll try our best to check it 2-3 times a week if we can. We should get setup with our own internet pretty quickly once we get housing. Because of time restrictions, we probably won't be able to reply in a quick manner, but we'll catch up once we get setup ourselves. I will try to update through the blog so I can reach everyone at the same time because of that.

Tuesday morning, we all got up bright and early. We said a very sad goodbye to Riley at the house and then all jumped into the luggage packed van and headed to the airport. Once we got there, we checked in and said another very sad goodbye to Mom and Dad Scott. We somehow (by the grace of God) managed to drag all of our carry on baggage (we had the max, plus a car seat and stroller) through the airport and on to our first plane. We had to fly to Chicago first. Chris had to fanagle a seat change because they only had 2 of our seats together. He managed that without a hitch. Luke did pretty good. He only had one little crying fit and it was pretty short. Chris and Luke ended up sleeping most of the flight. We had to make our connecting flight with only a few minutes to spare. They were already boarding once we rushed to the gate in Chicago (with all our stuff in tow somehow.) Chris had to make another seat change because once again our seats weren't together. He managed to do it in record time and we boarded the plane and got set up for a long flight. Luke did well on this flight as well. I know the passengers were worried when they saw us plop down next to them, but many of them commented after the flight at how well he did. He only had one little fussing fit and then he chattered on for awhile. He slept 4-5 hours of the flight. Chris slept about 3 of it and I slept about 2 hours.

We landed in Franfurt at about 5:30am (Germany time.) We found the USO in the airport and waited for a shuttle. The shuttle picked us up at about 7:30am and took us to Hanau. We had to do some initial inprocessing there. The sad thing was that the breifing didn't start until 10:30am! Lucky for us, they had a children's play room in the building and we were able to take Luke in there. We eventually all took a nap. We got our briefing (about 2 minutes) and then had to wait until 12:15pm for another bus to come pick us up. Finally we boarded that bus and were on our way to Baumholder. We all slept most of the bus ride. We got to Baumholder at around 4pm. Chris had to do some more inprocessing then they took us to an off-post hotel. Let's just say hotels here are not the same as in the States. 2 twin beds, a moldy refridgerator and a tiny bathroom (with an equally tiny shower). That's about it. =) Needless to say, we're heading to housing right after I publish this. =)

Today we've been in briefings all day. They provide 1 full day of childcare free, so we have a ton of stuff left to do today while Luke is being cared for. So, I should probably sign off for now. I have SOOOO much more to tell you about, so I'll try to blog again soon.

Things are definitely different here, but it's kinda fun and exciting. If I could just get rid of the morning sickness, it would be much better. Anyway, I'll continue my update as soon as I can (if I can figure out the German Blogger titles...).

We miss you all and love you all! Thank you so much for all of your support and prayers.

Passport Update

PRAISE THE LORD!!!

Luke and I got our passports at the last minute today. After a completely exhausting day in Washington D.C. we were able to leave with a HUGE gift and complete miracle from God. I will go into more details later, but I wanted to let you all know we will be able to accompany Chris to Germany. Thank You Lord! Thank you also for all your prayers. It really means a lot to us!

I must go to bed, I’m so tired I can’t see straight. This will be the last blog for a few days (maybe a few weeks.) Once we’re set up with Internet, I will update you all on what’s happening. Please continue to keep us all in your prayers as we make this transition in our lives.

We love you all!!!
Chris, Min, Luke and Baby Bee

Passport Problems Continue...

Soooo…we could still use a lot of prayer right now. Here is the passport situation: Luke’s came in to Georgia a few days ago. “Great,” we think, “Mindy's must be close behind.” Of course in the backs of our minds we were wondering why mine didn’t come in with Luke’s. So yesterday Chris calls AGAIN about my passport. It was then we found out my passport is missing the proper birth certificate. The certificate we submitted was a hospital record not a state record. The frustrating thing is, the document should never have been sent off in the first place! The lady doing our passport should have said it wouldn’t work, sent us home to get the right documentation and then rescheduled our appointment. Instead she said she’d send it in, let us know if it didn’t work, and we could bring in a different form if that was the case. We thought she would let us know within a week or so if it wasn’t right…not 12 weeks later…3 days before our flight! When we didn’t hear back from her, we assumed the submitted certificate had the needed info on it.

Needless to say there was steam coming out all of our ears. Chris’s mom was on it though. She called the congressmen’s office and got them working on the whole thing. We still don’t know if things are going to work out, but the plan is that I go to Washington DC on Monday, beg the Passport Issuance Office to see us that day and issue me a passport. If that works, we have to immediately contact the Transportation Office in Georgia, fax Luke and my passports to them so they can finalize tickets for us. In the meantime, Luke’s passport is supposed to be on it’s way here via FedEx (from Georgia.) Pray it gets here today!

We’re supposed to fly out Tuesday. This is definitely cutting it close. I know God is bigger then this whole situation and that it can all be worked out through his Grace. Please continue to keep us all in your prayers concerning this situation. We’ll let you know what happens!

On a much brighter note, we are on our way to Kent Island today to meet up with some good friends of ours. We haven’t seen them in ages and we’re looking forward to visiting with them again. I'm so excited! =)

I’ll post pictures from the last few weeks in the next few days!

Thanks for your continued prayers!
Chris and Min

Passports and Big News...

We are on the last leg of our journey to Germany. In a few days we will be boarding a plane set for Germany…scary and exciting all at the same time!! Before I get too far into the blog, I would like to ask you all to pray that Luke and my passports come in before the end of the month. We applied for them right after we found out we’d be heading to Germany, but because of the high demand in passports, they have yet to come in. It’s really important that we all get on the same flight over there. For one, 10 hours in the air could prove to be interesting with Luke…secondly, we have no transportation or phones, so if Chris flies over before us, he won’t be able to come pick us up or anything like that. Thirdly, it’ll just be a pain to try to coordinate two separate flights to Germany. So please pray hard with us that those passports come in.

I will work to update in more detail at some point, but the point of today’s blog is to share some very exciting, very interesting news with you all. WE’RE PREGNANT!!! Yes, it’s true! We were quite surprised, but realized immediately that this was God’s plan for us. Baby Bee is definitely a blessing and a gift from Him. We struggled a bit with the timing of it all (this move has been stressful enough!) but after reflecting, we knew that it was the perfect time because it is God’s time.

The rest of this blog is just tons of details...it may prove to be pretty boring or maybe even"to much information," so if you'd rather not know all the fun details of pregnancy, stop here and wait for the next blog. =)

So Baby Bee’s estimated due date is January 17th. That puts me about 14 ½ weeks along right now; just into my second trimester. We found out “for sure” on Mother’s Day. We had planned to visit Mom and Dad Scott that weekend. I had been feeling extremely tired the week before, but chalked it up to being tired from lack of sleep…since Luke still wasn’t sleeping through the night yet. Right before we left, I took a PT because I was late. I’m never late. I was sure that it would be negative because in my mind there was no possible way it could be otherwise. And, much to my first thoughts, the test came back negative. We left for Maryland not thinking much about it. When I still didn’t start, I bought 2 more PT tests at Wal-Mart. (For those of you who don’t know about how many tests I took with Luke, this is nothing. =) With Luke I took 10 tests…and they were all positive!) So the first of those tests comes up with what I thought was another negative…but when I came back to check it out, there was the faintest hint of a positive sign. I call for Chris. He looks at it and says it’s not positive, our minds are putting the very very very faint line there. He was in denial. So I wait until Sunday morning and took the other test. It looked negative at first, then when I went back to check it, once again, the faintest line seemed to appear. I asked Chris again who said it was negative. So all during church I kept thinking about it. Finally I couldn’t take it anymore. I had to know one way or another. Was I pregnant or wasn’t I. So I wrote Chris a note during the service and asked him to go out and buy one of those high tech tests that actually say the words –pregnant or not pregnant. So, he snuck out of church and went down to the drug store to get the test. He hid it under the seat of the car and the minute we got home from church, I took the test. It was digital and even had an hourglass that popped into the screen. Finally the word “pregnant” came up. No second guessing this time! I once again called for Chris. He didn’t know what to say or think. We were both a little in shock as the reality of the truth set in.

The hope for this pregnancy was that morning sickness wouldn’t hit as hard as last time. Ah, we can all dream right? =) By week 5, I was feeling queasy, by week 6 I was feeling quite nauseous. By week 7, I was throwing up every other minute. Knowing that I couldn’t go down the same road as I did when I was pregnant with Luke (losing 20lbs in 3 months, basically being reduced to the couch or bed for 4-5 months, the miserable list goes on and on…), I immediately went to the doctor and asked for the precious Zofran I was finally prescribed later in my first pregnancy. The doctor had no problem giving me a prescription and working with the insurance company to make sure I had a sufficient amount. (Zofran is an outrageously expensive anti-nausea medication usually given for the effects of chemotherapy. Most insurance companies will only allow a maximum of 15 pills every month. However, when you’re on Zofran for morning sickness, you need way more then 15 pills per month. Therefore, the doctor has to make a petition with the insurance company to allow the needed amount of pills per month.) I was concerned they would make me wait out my first trimester before prescribing pills, but praise be to God, I was able to pick up my prescription a week later.

The Zofran has controlled the vomiting, but unfortunately I can’t take a high enough dose to take away the nausea. I have good days of only feeling slightly nauseous, and days where I feel like I’m on the verge of throwing up all day long. It’s frustrating at times because I want the meds to take away all the symptoms, but I can’t complain. I’m in a way better place health wise by not losing a ton of weight and dealing with the dehydration of constant vomiting. So I’m very happy that God blessed me with great and understanding doctors that provided what I needed to stay on my feet.

The biggest difference with this pregnancy is that I’m showing WAY quicker. My clothes were getting tight by week 5! I know you show quicker with the second pregnancy, but I wasn’t expecting to be almost fully in maternity clothes by 14 weeks. I was 23 weeks pregnant by the time I was showing this much last time!

We are excited about the new little bundle of joy. We wanted to have our kids fairly close together. We don’t know yet if Baby Bee is a boy or girl. A lot of people think it’s a girl…Chris and I think it’s a boy. We should find out in September or so. I’m hoping to go to a military hospital instead of a German hospital once we get to Germany. No offence to the Germany hospitals, but the language barrier alone is a little intimidating. I think the closest military hospital to us will be about a 30 minute drive, so hopefully I’ll be able to be seen there.

So that’s the news! There’s plenty more to update you on, but for now I’m going to sign off. If you think about it, please pray that our passports come in this week. In today’s sermon, the pastor preached on prayer and anything being possible with God. This is a huge prayer of faith at the moment.

Until next time, here’s some pictures!

Here is Chris being Chris when we found out the news...

It's a positive!

Here I am at 14 1/2 weeks!

Our blog isn't complete unless there's a picture of Luke! Here is a pic I took on our way to Maryland...he's such a cutie!

So long Georgia...

Yes, it’s true…I’m shutting down the computer to pack it up (and reformatting it as well) so this is the last official blog from Georgia. The packers come tomorrow, the movers come Friday, then- after I clean up a bit- I leave on Saturday to join Mindy in St. Louis. No more teachers, no more books, no more Army baloney! Thank goodness.

For those that didn’t know, Min and Luke and the pets left to go to her parents house on June 28th, so I’ve been bach-ing it for a week or two. Some of our baggage got picked up yesterday, and then today they came and picked up several big things to store here in GA while we’re gone (washer/dryer, piano, etc.). We will head to Maryland on the 18th to visit my folks, and then we fly out on the 31st. Hopefully while we’re there we can manage to squeeze in some fun, since it is vacation. We’re gonna stay at the beach for a day or two to celebrate our 5th anniversary (it’s on July 20th), plus I plan on doing some jet skiing and some major blue crab consumption. It’s been awhile since we were in MD during crab season, so I’m stoked about that.
We still have no idea what we’re getting into in Germany, but we’re taking the leap of faith it’ll all work out. We may post a time or two before we leave, but there will be a period of silence until we get connected in the Fatherland. Please keep us in your prayers and wish us luck…I have a crazy feeling we’ll need it.

Here's some photos from Mindy and Luke in Illinois:













Well, I have to get to work. Auf Wiedersehen!