The Faces of Hadleigh

One thing that has been so fun is seeing little Hadleigh's facial expressions. She has so many of them so it is tempting to just sit and watch her face all the time! Even when she sleeps she has them.

One of my favorite is the "Happy Hands" face. She gets REALLY excited when she is about to eat or thinks she is about to eat. She starts to breath very heavily and then her head starts to shake back and forth and she starts attacking her hands with her mouth. It is so hilarious! However, as soon as she realizes food is not coming out of her hands she begins to get upset. I like Happy Hands so much that I let her do it even though I know the end result is her frustration.

Here you can see her smiling and a little dimple on her little right cheek.

Hadleigh Claire

Our little girl Hadleigh Claire was born on Tuesday and weighed 7 pounds 3 ounces. She is 21 inches long, and on the second day struggled with wakefulness and wimpering. Hopefully, momma's milk will come in and we can "fillerup".

She is still one of the prettiest little girls I have seen. Ami is doing well, and hopefully if we can square all the paperwork we will be able to bring her home Friday afternoon. More to come later.

Cubby and Stress

This past Thursday the docs became a little concerned about how Cubby and I would handle the labor process. To be on the safe side they ordered a Contraction Stress Test. I was basically told to pack my bags and come to the hospital on Saturday ready to take a baby home. Friday I madly cleaned the house, packed our bags, paid the bills and got ready for our big trip to the hospital on Saturday.

Dave and I arrived at the hospital early Saturday morning and checked in. It was a fun adventure answering all the crazy questions, especially since the nurse didn't speak English and we didn't speak German. We had a little phrase book and it was fun to learn how to say "How often do you have a bowel movement?" We kept the book and now continue to ask each other about things like flatulence and other silly things relating to the body.

At 10 we were taken to labor and delivery and I was hooked up to a fetal monitor that watches for contractions and the baby's heart beat. I was also hooked up to a machine that slowly gave me pitocin. For 2 hours they monitored Cubby's heart while I had contractions. It was pretty fun actually, because Cubby was passing the test with flying colors, she has a strong little heart, and I was able to get a little taste of labor. I will have to say it wasn't bad at all...it was nothing like the pre-term labor contractions I had in the fall. Dave got a kick out of watching the machine and telling me to breathe.

After the test I spent the night in the hospital so they could continue to monitor me (and because Germans like you to spend the night even with a broken pinky finger). We thought the test might kick start the labor process since Cubby has dropped and we are only 10 days or so away from her due date. But she apparently is not ready, so we will wait a little longer for her to make an appearance.

The good thing is that we are now ready. Our bags are packed, the car seat is hooked in, and we are ready for our little girl to come. I have been coaching her all along, and she knows that she has a 2 week window that I want her to come in. ANytime from February 22-March 8. But I have been asking her not to come before or after those dates. I think that the reason she didn't come on Saturday was because she knew it was only February 18 and not quite time. She is already showing great sings of obedience! =)

Dave in the Motherland

Many have been awaiting the stories and fun that I had while in Scotland. All my fun becomes wrapped up in a larger story so you will have to forgive the fact that very few pictures will be involved and more climactic verbage is necessary. Our local budget airline RyanAir is nestled about one hour away from us. We made the drive without incident, and arrived about two hours before my scheduled departure. I kissed my wife good-bye and proceeded to the checkin. As I am standing in line with fifty or so others, I reached into my backpack, my pockets, my luggage, my camera bag, and any other area that may be able to house my confirmation numbers, my directions and my rental confirmations. None of these were to be found. Many would have said to give up now, but too much was already at stake and needed to be followed through. I proceeded to my helpful Ryanair agent, showed them my passport and they produced my confirmation number with not so much as a glance in my direction. I then proceeded to the Budget(remember this it's important later) counter to see if they could tell me my confirmation number in Scotland. They said "sorry, we can't access any other country's confirmations". As I walked dejected back into the line of mal-queued Germans wanting to leave the country, I figured that I could still get my car without the magical piece of paper. With this confidence I ran to the airplane to try to get my favorite seat which happens to be 22a. It is directly above the wing and to me, although not the quietest seat on the plane, becomes the fulcrum around which the plane makes its pitch adjustments. Let's say you are going along through the air at 296 miles per hour and you hit an air pocket that forces the plane to fall 1000 feet in a second or two, you will feel the drop of the plane for sure, but when the pilot lifts the front end of the plane I am physic-ly supposed to feel less movement. All of this to say I slept like a baby the entire flight to Scotland. I managed to barely wake myself when we arrived to Prestwick, stood up to grab my backpack, which was very near the top of my head, my feet were still between the seats, so I inadvertently created a top heavy fulcrum as I pulled my heavy backpack out of the overhead storage bin. This forced me to fall straight back, luckily landing not on anyone into seat 22d, humiliation, but no laughter was heard from those surrounding me. I stood up as nothing had happened with a charlie horse in my ham, limping out of the plane as though nothing was damaged or hurt.
I arrived in the Prestwick airport, which is small. Four rental car agencies, two of which were housed in the same kiosk. Avis, National-Alamo, and Hertz comprised the agencies at my disposal. But wait, I rented from Budget!!! Why was there not a Budget rental car company here!? I walked up to the airport information counter and asked if a Budget rental car company was there in the airport. No was the answer. I stopped at the Avis counter and asked if they had a reservation for McNay. No sorry, they replied. I knew I didn't book with Hertz because it was too expensive. Lastly, I sheepisly waddled to the National-Alamo counter and asked if they had a reservation for McNay. Jackpot. The only problem now was the language barrier. Yes, Scots are to speak English, but wow, what a difference. It was like the first time in Tennessee working to understand a teenager at a JCPenney customer service counter. Some words that I picked up were "oatside" "left" and "okeedokee". All I can say is "Thank God for keyless entry" as I roamed aboat oatside pressing the bu'un.
Now for the adventure of the car. The first night was a bit hair raising, as I moved about the roundabout in the completely wrong direction and then took the wrong exit, took a diversion because a highway exit I needed was under construction and ended up in the slums of Glasgow, ended up in the wrong spot as a tractor trailor took a 90 degree turn into my lane, and ended up on frozen frost-covered roads near my destination at midnight that same night, and parked my car in a pulloff so that I could finally go to sleep as the thermometer fell to 0 degrees Celsius. I did sleep well that first night in my car, but I must say by the third night of sleeping in the car, the new car scent spray isn't working too well anymore.
This is the famous Kinkell bridge. The stretch of river you see goes upstream about a half-mile and down stream about one mile. A man named Sandy MacKintosh controls the access to this group of "beats". The first day was Feb 1 and the official first day of salmon season. Most fishermen are here to have a day away from work and to down measurable amounts of their favorite blends of single malt whiskys. Not to offend I was offered a dram to start the day, and they were right when they promised a morning of warmth. At lunchtime one feller just didn't feel much like fishing so he stayed in the car and sipped all day. He came to lunch and was most interested in teaching me some off-color phrases in the local, but slurred dialect. His favorite was "Shawttinyerbricks" and another sounded like "Peeknyercrawlr". I didn't really understand him, but he was funny and all his buddies were laughing, so I went along. I fished here for two days in the river, working the morphology, searching for that hungry mongrel, but with no luck. On the second day, I broke out my REI water purification pump, walked down to the river and vigorously filled my water bottle with the cold home brew. Trusting that the filter did its job, I nursed my bottle all evening long. Note cow across river.

Many of you already know that I love to drive and Scotland is a great place to drive. Many roads that are impossibly narrow and curvy, no one in the passenger seat who will get carsick or hypertensive, canyons to be carved with mechanical precision, and a lightweight turbo diesel car all lent to the excitement and the blast of putting nearly one thousand miles on my rental car in three days. The first day of driving was good, but a rumble in my lower abdominal region told me something might be amiss, but no trouble the first day. I slept in my car again, 5 degrees celsius, and awoke with a great urge to go outside to relieve myself. Explosive is the only word I need to use. The biggest problem was that it was very dark when I went out that morning, and dodging where it went became the next obstacle. I successfully weaved my way back to the car. If you would like to trace your way on the map, I started at Kinkell bridge near Perth. Went to the west coast and Oban, up the coast to the Island of Skye(this is where they first successfully crossed a sheep dog and a bull), all the way around the Isle then to Inverness, to Stirling(William Wallace), Edinburgh, Galloway Forest south of Ayr, and then finally back to Prestwick. Lots of stops in between. I arrived at the airport about seven hours early to finish reading a book that I had intended to read, but got nothing done, was totally uncomfortable but I did have unlimited use of a public bathroom for those seven hours.
Overall, I had an awesome trip that allowed me to be alone, to pray, to flyfish, to repent and to prepare for the arrival of my little girl. To tie it all together, I returned home and slept perfectly the first night. The second night home, I kept having to get up to use the bathroom, and finally woke up sweating at four o'clock in the morning. My boxers were stuck to me all the way around and as I made my way to the bathroom I thought to myself "man I stink". The moral of the story is "Sometimes the most profound and truthful things come from the mouth of the drunk". Now I understand the first phrase.

Shower

About 10 days ago my friends surprised me with a baby shower. I was quite surprised, though I have to admit I was on to their schemes for a while, but after many, many convincing lies, they threw me off. They had to go so far as to tell me that they had forgotten to plan a shower because they were all so busy...that hurt a little! But it all worked out in the end.

We had a snow storm on the day of the shower, but they managed to still get a good crowd out and it was fun to have my mom there as well as all the ladies from California who had come to help with the retreat.

As you can see my friends went all out. We had an Italian dinner with appetizers of bruchetta and dessert of cake and chocolate covered cherries. Everything was green and red! They even had little vases with one tulip each to hand out as party favors. There was a little card on each vase that said "When you see this today, pray for Baby McNay". One of my friends decorated my cakes with a butterfly and a dragonfly, each taken from the pattern of my bedding.

Before the gift giving began they spent some time praying for Dave and Cubby and me. It was all amazing...

Nursery

Since the retreat that I have been working on for 8 months is finished I now have some time to devote to getting Cubby's room all ready. We aren't quite organized enough to get pictures of the actual room, but I thought I would post this picture of the bedding we ordered for her. We are feeling very whimsical with the butterflies and dragonflies, but I just feel like it fits her personality...at least what we know of it so far.

Styrofoam Ice Capades

One of my (Ami) favorite movies is "While You Were Sleeping" which is truly Bill Pullman and Sandra Bullock at their best. The comedy relief of the flick is the drop-out, plumber-like son of Lucy's (Bullock) landlord, Joe Fusco Jr. Throughout the movie he pursues Bullock with lame lines like "Luc, Thursday night, you and me I got tickets. Ice Capades. I know a guy."

In any case I had front row seats to a version of Ice Capades on Wednesday night starring non other than my wonderful husband, David.

Our Bible study had wrapped up at about 9.30 that evening and as we stepped out of Sara's apartment building we noticed that it was raining, but the rain was freezing as soon as it hit the ground. Hmm. This should be interesting. We made it to the car without any problem and started home.

As you may have read before, our wonderful little village of Mettweiler, somehow isn't on the map of salt trucks and plows, so it is always an adventure getting home. We made it about half way up our hill and began to slide backwards (in the car). We finally came to a stopping place and Dave decided that he would have to go up to the house and bring down some wonderful German Struegut, which I have mentioned before. He got out of the car, and I thought that he was assessing the situation...only he was assessing for about 10 minutes. Being 7+ months pregnant I sat in the car like I was told to do. Eventually I saw Dave come around the back of the car, though he was walking a little funny, and as he came into the view of the headlights I noticed that he has tied styrofoam to the bottom of his shoes. It was so slippery he couldn't stand up on the street without holding onto the car, so he found a piece of styrofoam, broke off two pieces of it and tied each piece to the bottom of each shoe. He then "skated" up the hill to the house.

He came back down the hill with his shovel and a tarp full of struegut which he threw all over the road. He actually had to make another trip up to the house to get another pile of the gravel and bring it back down before we have enough traction to get up the hill.

Of course, as normal, the Germans were watching us from their windows. It was somewhat amusing to see lights pop on from the houses on the street and then shadows of people at the window staring at us trying to make it up the hill. They must be REALLY bored! At least in America we know not to turn on the light if we are going to watch someone at night.

All was well the next morning and we are hoping not to have freezing rain again.

It's in the Cards

Have you found yourself ever getting totally worked up about a card game? What is it that makes people lucky or unlucky? Do you know someone that can roll double sixes every time? It seems that I (Dave) have this natural gift at a certain card game that Ami and I have recently been playing. The problem (or blessing)with the game is that very little skill is involved, and luck of the draw defines the winner or loser. Simple mathematical odds would say that Ami has just as much of a chance to win as I do, but this has apparently not been the case over the last eight matches. I do have a lucky shuffle that I use which I can attribute at least fifty percent of my wins to. Ami has reached her wits end on more than one occasion, but begs me each night to play the game again because she knows that the table eventually needs to turn to favor her. The problem continues to be her defeat and subsequent feverish anxiety at the close of each match. We only play to see if the luck will change, I don't see any forseeable hope for my poor wife. We both get such a kick out of her fits of rage, me especially. I want all of you reading this to hear me say "I love Ami McNay" :^)

Clothes for Cubby

OK, I promised myself that I would not buy any clothes for Cubby before she was born. I have a friend here who is giving me all of her little girl clothes and I figure most women like to buy clothes for little girls, so if I am going to get things at a shower it will most likely be clothes.

BUT, the PX was having a sale and so I purchased these two outfits. Both were 75% off and I spent a total of $6 on them. She won't be able to wear them until next Christmas time, so she has soemmthing to grow into. Aren't they cute?

Last Fling Before Cubby Arrives

For New Year's Dave and I decided we better make it count because we probably wouldn't be able to travel again until after Cubby comes in just 8 short weeks!

I think that we did a good job of making this trip count and having a blast. We spent one night in Frankfurt at the coolest Best Western ever! It had a heated massage whirlpool-wave pool thing.

We then drove to Eisenach and met our friend, Dave Stoddard and his brother Brian. Dave and his wife Eowyn are missionaries with Mission to the World in Berlin. Eisenach was a cool town for a couple of reasons. 1. Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, so we toured the Bach House. 2. It is a famous town for Martin Luther fans.

Martin Luther went to school in Eisenach and was a choir boy in the Georgian Church. But the real reason Eisenach is a famous Luther town is because it is where he translated the New Testament into German. After Luther posted his 95 Theses on the door in Wittenburg, he was called to Worms and asked to recant in front of the pope. It was there that he said "Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise. So help me God." aka "No way Jose." On his way from Worms back to Wittenburg Frederick the Wise (one of the German Princes) had him kidnapped (for fear that he would be killed) and taken to Wartburg, the castle in Eisenach. He hid in Wartburg for 10 months and while there he translated the New Testament. I think it is a pretty amazing story.

OK, so after we spent the night in Eisenach we headed down to Rothenburg, a walled, ancient, Roman city. We walked around, ate a good Chinese dinner, attended an Organ Concert in a 1,000 year old church, and celebrated the New Year by setting off fireworks (or watching others set them off).

On the way home on New Year's day we stopped at a couple other cities along the way. The picture of us is in the town of Dinklesbuhl, another ancient walled city close to Rothenburg.

Snow the Crazy Germans

I LOVE the snow. It is beautiful and makes the world beautiful. I love it falling on my head and in my face. I love taking walks in it and slushing around in it. I even LOVE dusting the snow off my car. OK. I love the snow.

I am even learning how to drive in the snow and it is kind of fun and I am getting good at it. Don’t press the break, ease off the clutch, turn into the spin.

Yesterday I had to run some errands, stop by the chapel, do laundry, go the post office, etc. It had snowed the night before and was still snowing a little in the morning. I took the broom to the car and dusted what seemed like 12 inches off the top and hood. I scraped the ice off the windshield. I warmed up the inside and began my journey. Well, it wasn’t a long one because I got stuck backing out of my driveway! Now my BMW is a rear wheel drive car, so technically I shouldn’t have had a problem, but never mind that. I got stuck half on the drive and half on the street. Oh joy. I tried the rock maneuver that Dave taught me, but to no avail. So there I sat, 7+ months prego and stuck.

I got out of the car, walked around it, kicked a big ice chunk out of the way and tried again. Again nothing.

Dismayed I went back into the house and called Dave. After a pep talk I went back outside. ONE of the good things about Germany is they have this thing called “streugut” I am probably not even spelling it right, but they have these BIG cans sitting on the side of the road full of gravel. There happens to be one can outside our house, so I put my gloves on, dug into the streugut box and began to dump it in front of and behind my tires to get some traction. Now all of this in general wasn’t a bad thing. What made it bad was there were these 3 older German men sitting up the street laughing and talking about me in German. Two of them even walked right past me…an obviously prego lady…and made some dumb comment in German to me while they mocked me. Believe me, I had some choice words for them…hmm…do you know what this means in English!!!!!!! So I take about 20 minutes to lay down the gravel and try again. To no avail. I was about to give up and go inside defeated…the laundry would have to wait another day…when a “nice” German came by and helped rock me out of the driveway. Saved! He didn’t totally redeem Germans in my eyes, but at least he wasn’t as depraved as the other two.

One more thing I didn’t mention about this whole situation. For some reason the Germans don’t plow the snow in our village. Not only is it hard to get out of our driveway, but then we basically slip and slide all the way down the hill to the main road (hope no one is coming). And if you are out and it starts to snow…forget about getting the car home because you can’t get the car up the hill. It is silly because we don’t live on a steep hill, but because they refuse to plow I end up walking, and Dave ends up digging and pushing the car up the hill.

So there you have it. I love the snow. I could really do without the Germans sometimes. And I would love the snow even more if they would plow our road.

Merry Christmas!

At the beginning of December the women's ministry of the chapel (Protestant Women of the Chapel) collected toys and toiletries, put them in shoe boxes and wrapped them. They were to be sent to husbands, John in Afghanistan and to Jay in Iraq. When the soldiers go out they were able to take the presents with them and pass them out to the children. On Chrismtas Eve Jay took his boxes passed them out to the children. Here is one pic of Jay passing out gifts.

Yea, it is Christmas! We woke up early made a nice breakfast of scones and bacon (for Dave) and peppermint tea. Afterwards we took turns opening presents. You can see Dave with one of his first presents, under shirts.

I bought him these shirts a couple of weeks ago because he needed some new ones, but he refused to open them insisting that it had to be a Christmas present. So now he has some much needed under shirts.

Dave's parents sent some adorable clothes for Cubby. She is going to be styling as soon as she arrives!

After presents we attended Chapel and were blessed to hear a wonderful Christmas message delivered by CH Woodbery. He did a wonderfull job of presenting the Gospel and it was just what Dave and I wanted to hear. After Chapel we joined some friends for a wonderful Turkey dinner and a game of Imagineiff and Canasta. We then returned home and were able to talk to both of our families and then end the day with "Christmas in Connecticut".

30 Weeks

I am now into the final stretch, the last 10 weeks! At the docs this last week Cubby weighed in at 3lbs 6oz. She apparently has been munching on some good holiday cooking! I have finally popped and am now in need of some maternity shirts. Fortunately I received one for Christmas and a couple more are in the mail. She is certainly getting big and sometimes gets a foot stuck up under my ribs. It doesn't hurt yet, but I know that it will as I continue to get large.

Deliver Us

Our chapel had a wonderful time celebrating Christmas with a special program called Lessons and Carols. For Dave and I Lessons and Carols has become a Christmas tradition as our church in Atlanta, Intown, always has a Sunday dedicated to it. For those who have never had the wonderful pleasure of attending a service it goes something like this: A scripture reading, a Christmas Carol, A scripture reading, a Christmas Carol. You get the idea. The scriptures generally begin in Genesis and then jump to Isaiah and then the gospels all centered around the story of Jesus coming to earth.

For our service at the chapel Dave performed special music. He broke out his hammered dulcimer and played and sang the song printed below. It was very powerful and beautiful.

Deliver Us
By Derek Webb

Our enemy, our captor
Is no Pharoah on the Nile

Our toil is neither mud, nor brick, nor sand

Our ankles bear no calluses
From chains yet Lord we are bound

Imprisoned here we dwell in our own land

Deliver us
Deliver us
O Yahweh hear our cry
And gather us beneath your wings tonight

Our sins they are more numerous
Than all the lambs we slay

Our shackles they were made with our own hands

Our toils is our atonement
And our freedom yours to give

So Yahweh break the silence if you can

Jerusalem, Jerusalem
How often I have longed
To gather you beneath my gentle wings

Snow

Last year we had snow on Halloween and then it didn't really snow again until February. THis year it is another story. It snowed for 4 days over Thanksgiving leaving about 8 inches of snow here. And then Saturday night it dropped a couple of inches, and it has been snowing all day today! We went for a walk yesterday but had to really bundle up. We live out in the country and our house is on a hill near some farmland. The wind was so cold, but we survived and it was nice to get some fresh air.

O Christmas Tree

Only those who know Dave well will believe this story, but I swear it is true.

Last year we found out about this wonderful tree farm in a little village called Fohren Linden. The village has two farms owned by the same man, one is about ½ km outside of town and the other is about 2km past the first one. We went to the second one last year because it had better trees. We hunted for about an hour, found our tree, cut it down and paid 5 euro for it (about $6).

This year we have had a lot of snow, so when we went to the little village, which now is right next to our little village of Mettweiler, we were able to get to the first farm, but could not get to the second. The second is up a hill on what Germans call a “farm road” which basically means in the winter it doesn’t get plowed.

Dave was convinced that we had to go to the second farm because last year he saw a tree that he was SURE was going to be perfect this year. So, Dave and I hiked up the snowy, hilly and icy road for a mile to get to the second farm. He walked straight to the tree he had seen last year, chopped it down and then dragged it (by this time it had started sleeting) back down the icy, snowy hill to our car. Amazingly I made it without dying or falling. We paid the 5 euro for our tree and now we have a perfect tree in our living room.

Prego-27 Weeks

Here I am at 27 weeks prego. I am 2/3 of the way done with only 13 weeks to go. Cubby and I have started to have conversations about her birth weight. She currently weighs 15oz which is great. A small baby coming out of this body is FINE with me!

I am officially in my third trimester and life is good. I am now reporting 7 weeks without loosing my dinner, and I am not too huge yet.

Yesterday I swear she woke up to the alarm. As soon as it went off she did 2 somersaults...or something that felt like somersaults. She continues to be our little dancer, and we look forward to meeting our little spirited daughter soon.

Our Little Thumb Sucker

Here she is, at her 26 week ultrasound. She was just sucking her little thumb the whole time. When the doc went in to get a close up of her face she covered her head with her arm (she has done that at the last 2 ultrasounds), so we think she is either sleepy, or a bit dramatic (wonder where she got that from).

Winter in Germany

Thanksgiving evening it began to snow and it didn't really stop until the Monday after. In total it dropped about 8 inches. You can see our little town of Mettweiler covered in snow. Isn't it cute?

On Monday it snowed so much we ended up being snowed in. The plows couldn't get to our town because of construction so Dave stayed home from work and worked on this little snow fort. He finally knocked it down yesterday because this crazy German grandmother didn't like it. Long story!

We went on a walk while it was snowing which was fun, and here we are in TONS of snow.

Strasbourg Christmas Market

Every Christmas in Germany and other parts of Europe the towns and cities open up little markets where you can go and purchase little trinkets, ornaments, etc. for presents. Every town and village in Germany has at least one day before Christmas for their market. Some larger cities have their markets open everyday from Thanksgiving until Christmas.

One of the big markets in the area is in Strasbourg, France which is about a 2 hour drive from us. Strasbourg is a wonderful city and we thought it would be fun to visit their market this year. Saturday we piled into the Cubby Mobile and a couple other cars and 11 of us headed down to Strasbourg.

As you can see from the picture they have little stands all over the main square of the city, in this case, right under the main cathedral. Christmas market food varies from region to region, but in Strasbourg they had crepes, waffles, pretzels, and gluwein (basically similar to spiced apple cider only with wine).

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful time celebrating Thanksgiving this year with 12 adults, 2 children and 4 babies. Dave cooked the turkey and we made a few misc. items while everyone brought something to pass. We had food coming out of our ears. Of the adults 7 were women whose husbands are now deployed. During the meal Dave made a rule that everytime someone said "like" they had to name something they were thankful for. Let me tell you, we had one VERY thankful meal! After we had finished eating we pushed our chairs back and sat around talking and playing an exciting game of Bop-It. TO name our desserts alone you can imagine what we had for dinner- pumpkin pie, carmel apple pie, pumpkin frosted cake, chocolate cookies, ice cream, chocolate cheese cake and banana frosted cake. We hardly touched the desserts, but the ladies were nice enough to leave some of them for Dave.

We were certainly thankful to the Lord for many things this year, especially for our large house that enabled us to comfortably feed a large group of people. We are thankful that we were able to serve the ladies in this special way. All of them repeatedly thanked us for opening up our home making it possible for them to celebrate with friends.

Picture: Sara and baby Ellie trying to figure out Bop It.

Saying Goodbye to 2BCT

If you had asked me in April 2004 what 2BCT was I wouldn't have had the slightest idea. But now as we say goodbye to our good friends, fellow believers, brothers and sisters in Christ who serve our nation and fight for the freedom of others with the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, it is more than just an unknown acronym. 2BCT represents more than 4,000 soldiers who will soon be leaving Baumholder. A small cross-section includes 4 men from our community group, Chaplains who preached and taught us the truth of the gospel, fellow dentists, husbands of co-workers, and many, many friends.
The fact that your new friends embody sacrificial friends who will place their life on the line for the well-being of the oppressed in Iraq and the unoppressed in the United States sobers quickly. The community group men I have grown to love, respect and confide in are going to engage bullets, explosives and pain for my sake. Sounds much like Christ to me. I encourage you to thank every soldier you meet in everyday life, especially at your local international airports.


The above photo is that of a 75mm cannon just as the blank round explodes from it containment. It's often difficult to describe sound, but imagine yourself very near the fireworks on the fourth of July. Many of you love the small white balls that are entirely for sound excitement as I do, now take that explosion and that is what is going on here. What you do not know can be a detriment to you, because in this instance the cannons are not firing for celebration but firing for the sole purpose of saluting fallen soldiers from Baumholder. Every five seconds these cannons went off totalling 18 cannon blasts, each person Killed In Action within the past year.

Just as these men and women passed and have been remembered so the smoke from the rounds fired hangs over the heads of each of the deploying soldiers. None of them is safe. None of them have not considered the nearness of death. None of them will return the same. You have to know that God has interceded on your behalf. The smoke still looms but the Son still shines through giving us hope beyond our life. I think the heaviest things in our lives are what shape us most.

Pictured above: Jim and Kristen Hannigan (standing), Rich and Jan Phillips, Grant and Jessica Flynn, Jon (with baby Ellie) and Sara (sitting below) Adams, Karie Costin (with baby Ben), and Dave and Ami.

22 Weeks

Here I am at 22+ weeks. I am finally starting to feel better, and the doctor was happy at our last visit because I had gained 1.5 kg. This is probably the last time I will ever be happy about gaining weight! I am finally starting to graduate out of my own clothes and into "maternity" wear, but I am sure I will rapidly catch up in size and soon I will be as big as Montana.

We also found out at our last visit that we are having a little girl. We are so excited and look forward to her arrival sometime in the beginning of March. Everytime the doc went in to take a pic of her face she would throw her hands up over it, so it is possible that she will be a little like me...overly dramatic. Hopefully we had just interrupted her nap and it has nothing to do with a dramatic nature. She has been kicking up a storm these past two weeks and it is so fun/really freaky to feel her moving all over the place. I am so used to any rumbling in my stomach to be bad that it is nice to get used to a good rumbling with her movements.

Meet Amos and Davida McNay

For Halloween this year Dave dressed up as a pregnant lady (Davida) and I dressed up as the beer belly husband (Amos).

Cubby Mobile

Well, Otto, our '84 Mercedes Benz 190E is on its last leg. It has been smelling of fuel for several months and Dave has been unable to fix it (short of taking the carburetor apart and putting it back together).

So, we have recently upgraded to a '95 BMW Wagon 525. Oh it is so nice! Now our little Cubby can breath easily even when I am driving around. We are still looking for an appropriate name, though I am calling it "Cubby Mobile".

We were able to fully put the Cubby Mobile to use when we found our crib this weekend. There are so many families here with young children that Dave has been sure he could locate a used crib farily inexpensively. And the Lord provided in a round about way through one of his favorite patients. I heard about the crib through one of the women who attend PWOC, and when we found out it was one of Dave's patients who attends the local chapel we were even more pleased. Now the little one will have a place to lay her head.

Puking Pumpkin

We have attended several Fall Parties which has been so fun because Fall is my favorit time of year. At one party we brought 2 pumpkins to carve, but I ended up not feeling all that well, so Dave carved my pumpkin into this..."Puking Pumpkin" in honor of me. Everyone thought it was hilarious. As a side note, Puking Pumpkin turned into over 15 cups of puree pumpkin that I used to make several pumpkin pies.

Open Door, Throw Out Rope

Three years ago I flew from Bucharest, Romania to Sofia, Bulgaria. I actually flew a Bulgarian airline, and if anyone has actually flown an airline that isn't American (I am not talking British Air people) you will find it always an adventure. All the instructions were in Bulgarian. Since I have flown a lot I just imagined what the words meant..."Life jacket under seat cushion"...etc. I ended up sitting in an exit row and as usual there were instructions about what to do in an emergency. Usually it says something like "In case of emergency open door and wait for raft to inflate" or something to that nature. I am not sure what the words said in Bulgarian, but underneath in little letters it was written in English "In case of emergency, open door and throw out rope." Throw out rope? Good grief!


This past week Dave and I went on our last childless vacation (Lord willing). We booked a week at an all inclusive resort on the Turkish Riviera. I know, I know, none of you even knew that Turkey had a Riviera! In any case we flew MNG Air (which is Turkish) from Frankfurt to Antalya. As we flew I was remembering my experience on the Bulgarian airline. This airplane was an old American plane (hopefully not discarded for mechanical reasons) so most of the writing was in English.

It wasn't until we arrived in Antalya that our true emergency began. I know that we have written before about experiences with travel agents. We did book this trip through a German travel agent and it so happened that everyone thought we were German and so either spoke to us in Turkish or in German. We understand that we are ignorant Americans who understand neither...la pluma es en la puerta?

We arrived at the Antalya airport 2 hours later than expected and by the time we found our bags and the bus it was 0245 (that means in the morning!). We dragged our weary bodies on the bus and waited. We were on the bus headed to Topkapi Palace in Aksu. Soon about 10 other Germans joined us and a Turkish man came on board and in perfect (I imagine) German began his speech. As he talked he handed out a brochure (in German) for Venezia Palace. We asked for something in English, but he didn't seem obliged to help us. He continued on speaking for several minutes and Dave and I began to pick out several key phrases. The Venezia Palace was a 3 minute drive from Topkapi. The other thing we caught was that there was going to be some meeting at 1230 the next day and it involved food. He finished and got off the bus. Dave and I looked at each other. Dave is usually the better one at understanding what is going on, and his assessment seemed reasonable. He figured that this was some sort of promotional thing, if we wanted we could go and eat lunch and get a tour of the Venezia Palace tomorrow. It seemed reasonable and since we had failed to get anyone to tell us what was going on in English figured that was the answer.

Imagine our surprise at 0330 when we turned into the driveway of what looked like the Venezia Palace. We were taken off the bus and deposited in the reception area. Everyone else was checking in, so we figured we should follow. When we got to the desk I said "Is this the Topkapi Palace? We are suppose to be staying at the Topkapi Palace." The Turkish man smiled and said "Do not worry my friend." OK...whatever the heck that means! We get our key and drag our exhausted bodies up to the room where we again tried to figure out what was happening while we waited for the bellman to bring our luggage.

I was angry...not a good combo...tired...pregnant...angry. We had paid for a vacation in a great resort that had all the ammenities. I was suppose to be able to get a free haircut at the Topkapi and if I couldn't get one here someone was going to hear about it!

As we were waiting for our bags, Dave discovered that our key card said it was good from 10/1 until 10/2. That seemed to mean we would be there for one night. That made me even more upset. No one told us we needed to check out. It was nearing 0500 and there was no way I getting up before 1400 (2pm). Our luggage finally made it to the room after 0500 and Dave handed the bello boy a tip as well as a note for the reception desk. It asked them to simply explain what we were suppose to do and to slide the note back under our door, so we would know if we needed to check out in the morning or not.

At 0730 Dave got up and checked for a note, which of course wasn't there. He called down to the desk and found out that yes, we did need to check out at 1200. I finally dragged out of bed at 1000. We got ready, repacked and went to check out and find some breakfast. As we checked out we were informed that there were not any restaurants open at the moment.

OK, do I need to refresh anyone's memory that we have a tired, angry pregnant lady here. Who currently struggles with all-day-sickness even in her 19th week of pregnancy. And I haven't eaten since 6 o' clock the night before. I lost it and informed my husband, in no uncertain terms, that if he knew what was good for himself he had better find me something to eat. I then proceeded to sit down near the front desk of the hotel lobby and sulk. Open door...throw out rope!!!!!

The whole time Dave was gone I tried to convince myself that it was going to be OK, but I just couldn't. I felt at any moment I would blow. Probably not only chunks (of nothing since I hadn't eaten) but also tears. My eyes were red and brimming with tears when Dave walked back with a glass of water and a bag of nacho cheese doritos. So I did the only reasonable thing I could at that point. I began to sob. Yes, shaking sob right in the middle of the hotel lobby, right near the front desk while hundreds of people were checking out.

I have never been in Dave's position, but he said, as people walked by or turned to look, he got the "What the heck have you done to her?" stare. The "what a jerk" stare.

I finally got control of myself while poor Dave assured me it had to get better. I was ready to get back on that MNG flight to Frankfurt. We loaded the bus to Topkapi Palace and lived 6 days happily ever after. No more crying! And I did get my promised hair cut.

17 Weeks and Counting

OK, so here I am at week 17. Dave used some photo techniques in the first picture to make me look larger than I really am. The second picture is more acurate to my size. I wish that I was a little larger than I am because this past week many ladies made comments that I looked about 12 weeks pregnant. Though I should have taken it as a compliment, two things ran through my head. 1-There is something wrong with Cubby, the little one must not be growing properly, etc. 2-I am not as far along as they told me and I am going to have to repeat weeks 13-17. Neither option sounded appropriate to me. I did, however, have my 17 week appt on Thursday and both Dave and I were able to see our healthy little Cubby moving around in my tummy. Now I am just thankful that I am small, but know that the days of becoming large are around the corner.

My major accomplishment for this week has been keeping down the vitamins 3 days in a row! I am hoping my next major accomplishment will be to keep enough down to actually gain a few pounds! All in due time I know.