Hello everyone,
We hope the spring has sprung wherever you live (unless you are in South Africa, in which case we hope you have a great autumn). Spring is threatening to show up here in North Idaho. We've had precisely two nice days since September. It was 75 F today, and we had a Sunday a couple of weeks ago that was 77 F. Between those two days, it has snowed, rained, hailed, and been generally not very nice. We have faith though, and we are really (REALLY) looking forward to a beautiful summer with lots of sun and blue skies.
OK, here is the big excitement. There will soon be another Slate at the corner of sixth and Washington. We are expecting him or her (we're not going to peek) to show up approximately November 29th. As you can imagine, we're very excited, and we've been looking forward to this for a long time. If it's a girl, Hannalize gets to pick the name, and if it's a boy, Joel gets to pick the name. Hannalize already has it narrowed down to two selections, while Joel has none (that have been approved).
For those of you that haven't been along this journey with us, the baby is coming to us via In-Vitro Fertilization. We are very forunate to have one of the best fertility clinics in the country located in Spokane. We've made many, many trips to Spokane in the last few months. Hannalize has had lots of blood tests and ultrasounds, and we have to be there at 7 AM, which means we must leave St. Maries just after 5 AM. Not the best time to have to drive these highways in the winter, especially since Benewah county doesn't seem to fire up their snowplows till a bit later in the morning.
When you look at these pictures, you can see one that illustrates the size of the needle that Hannalize had to have nightly injections with. We started out with the injections about 9 weeks ago, and they finally finished on Tuesday night. In fact, the picture of Hannalize injecting herself was the last shot. It was quite a process, but it's gone well so far, and we've been very blessed to have such good doctors and nurses and to have so many people who have been praying for us..!!
We've put one picture from the ultrasound on here. We haven't scanned the latest picture yet, but we'll post it as soon as we get a chance. From here on out, we won't get as many ultrasound pictures since we've been released to the care of the clinic here in St. Maries rather than the fertility clinic in Spokane.
Everything else going on here seems pretty insignificant compared to the baby news, but to give everyone an update, things are going well. Work is keeping both of us very busy. Joel's new job as Roads Manager is going well, with many challenges and opportunities. Hannalize's job is busy as usual, but she hasn't had to make as many trips to Portland lately. Joel's studying is going well also, but takes more time than he would like it to. We're sure that it will be a challenge to get him to study as much as he should this summer when the weather is so nice. We both know that he should get as much schoolwork done as possible before the baby arrives..!!
Everything else going on here seems pretty insignificant compared to the baby news, but to give everyone an update, things are going well. Work is keeping both of us very busy. Joel's new job as Roads Manager is going well, with many challenges and opportunities. Hannalize's job is busy as usual, but she hasn't had to make as many trips to Portland lately. Joel's studying is going well also, but takes more time than he would like it to. We're sure that it will be a challenge to get him to study as much as he should this summer when the weather is so nice. We both know that he should get as much schoolwork done as possible before the baby arrives..!!OK, enough for now, we hope you enjoy the pictures and we'll keep the baby pictures coming as they arrive..!!
Love,
Joel & Hannalize (and a yet un-named Slate) & Roxy & Nika & Cola
