Totally Random

There is so much going on as we approach the end of this pregnancy. I can't believe in just a few short weeks we will have another member in our family, but I also can't wait! I have been having contractions since around 20 weeks of pregnancy (they would go away with rest), but just here in the last week they have increased significantly in number and intensity which has made me feel like I really need to get everything ready just in case this little one wants to come early.

So this weekend we got the crib all set up in our room. As you can see it is missing a side :) This is our version of "co-sleeping". The baby will be right by me in bed so that I can check on him/her neurotically and when the baby is ready to eat, I won't even have to get out of bed, just pick them up and put them in bed with me! The baby will also be nice and safe. When we co-slept with Malachi it was hard to sleep because I was always afraid of rolling into him or I was worried that Peter (the heavy sleeper) would elbow him since I have been the recipient of an elbow on more than one occasion :) This set up should work well for the first few months until baby starts to roll over and hopefully by then, Malachi will be in his new big boy room and we will be able to shift this little one into the nursery.

Another thing I noticed after setting this up is that if we have a girl, we will need to do some serious pink shopping :) We really didn't want to spend anymore money on bedding or receiving blankets so for now we are using what we have - hey, we have a 50/50 chance that blue is the right color!

My goal this week is to get most of the hospital bag packed. I have a good list and just need to gather all the things together to put in it, make sure all the camera's are charged and ready to go. I also need to get a bag packed for Malachi to have at Grandma's house and I need to make Peter pack a few things and snacks for himself.

In Malachi randomness. I had a horrible dream about him the other night. I was dreaming that for some reason we had to take him back to Ethiopia and leave him there, but someday we would be able to come back for him. It was the worst dream ever and I woke up in an almost panic attack and my heart was racing and I was breathing really heavy but I was so thankful it was just a dream.

After that dream, I took it as a special treat yesterday when he cuddled up with me for a nap. These times are becoming infrequent as he is getting more mobile and independent. Every once and awhile he will fall asleep while eating a bottle, but he really does fall asleep best in his crib. Yesterday I laid down on the couch with him and fed him and he fell right to sleep and we cuddled and slept for a good 30 minutes - it was one of those perfect moments! After the 30 minutes he started moving around a little bit so I figured he would finish his nap best in his crib. Getting off the couch from a lying down position, being almost 9 months pregnant with a 9 month old in my arms proved to be quite the challenge, but I made it up, all by myself :)

Malachi is also entering this new phase where he whines all the time. If he wants picked up, he whines (I am trying to teach him "up"). Instead of saying numnums like he was saying when he wanted to eat, now he whines. His "all done" sign at meals is now accompanied with whines. When he sees a toy across the room he wants, instead of crawling over to it he has to whine WHILE crawling over to it. I know this is just a new phase with him and is totally normal, but it can get really old when you have to listen to it all day.

What else? Today is the end of January and so we are officially one month into the new year and our renewed focus on our finances. We are following Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover. It also shouldn't be a coincidence that our focus in church over the month of January was on finances. It definitely helped make me feel like we are on the right track with our thinking.

I cannot even say how blessed we have been in this area. It blows me AWAY and I cannot even explain how we are surviving. While we were in the adoption process, we knew that the ultimate goal was for me to be able to stay at home with our children. While trying to fund the adoption, we were also putting away money to make that dream a reality. We knew that for at least one year, we would be unable to make it just on Peter's income and would have to take money out of savings every month to survive. Well, here we are and somehow in this new year of new focus on our finances - we are somehow not living in the red anymore! I say all this just to show how much God really does provide for all of our needs - even when it doesn't make sense that we are somehow surviving! It is mind blowing to me!

So our main two goals for this year on the Dave Ramsey Plan were to: #1 - Pay off the Jeep #2 -- Start to get 6 months of income in savings

For our Goal #1 - We were able to pay a significant amount towards this goal in January. We are to the point that we are just going to pay the normal monthly payment for what looks like 2 more months and then the car payment will be GONE! So happy about this!!! I can't wait to be debt free!!!

Goal #2 - It appears that the IRS is really going to bless us on this one and we should be able to accomplish this goal (or be very close) in the next few months. MEETING this goal was never even on our radar this year as it typically takes about 2 years to accomplish this goal. Another awesome thing about this one is that 6 months income is pretty darn close to 3/4 of what we would need for another adoption and we would never hesitate to empty our savings when God says it is time to bring home another child!

In our wildest dreams, I don't think we considered that we could be in this place right now where by the middle of this year we could be working on paying off our last debt (a school loan). But it would be amazing and it is looking like it could be a reality!

Hmm, so what else in randomness? I am just in a total nesting mode. I want to get everything cleaned and put away and organized, but I know there is just not enough time left to get all my projects done so I am hoping to just be able to get things cleaned and mostly organized and possibly be working on some projects by the time this little one is done baking. I guess it just depends on how much longer this baby is going to keep cooking........