are we there yet??

i'm wondering if when i titled my blog a long time ago it became a prophecy or if that's just the way it has been..and the title is just fitting...you know??
our plans are more concrete now but have changed again...here is the plan right now....who knows things could change, but at least for now they seem pretty set...
so , we will still go to wisconsin for october....hang out with my parents...let my dad hang out with his new grandson for awhile....then wewill make scotland home for a little while...mike has been offered a job by his dad to set up an ebay store for him...so that will give us something to do, help us make a bit of money ( means i don't have to work ) and then we can apply for mike's visa while we are there....so we'll still be in wisconsin for christmas but we'll spend a few months in scotland, so after christmas we'll probably go back and once we get mike's visa, we'll come back and finally be ready to live in the states....
it's not exactly what we had in mind when we thought of leaving canada, but there are many positives and we are actually looking forward to it....

so we have two days left here, head for seattle, where i fly home and mike and his dad and wife drive all of our stuff back to wisconsin. so when i get home, i'll be picked up by my brother and dad and they'll get to hang out with kael, we are all looking forward to it.

here's some pics of jamie and kael hanging out....he looks so cool in his shades that mr and mrs church gave him.

Kael's first party

Well, i'm sorry i haven't updated in awhile..for those of you who weren't there.....on Thursday night there was a Welcome To the World party for Kael...hosted by our lovely ywam friends. It was a great night, I personally felt really blessed, as i know mike did as well...and one day i think Kael will too...of course it was nice to see everyone, to have dinner together, lovely to have people hold kael and think he's so cute, and then my favorite was when Don and Gwen led a prayer time for kael, they annointed him with oil and prayed over him. And there were prayers as well that we would know God's love as we are on this journey of being parents, and i know it gives you such a different perspective and we are just at the beginning of this 'parenting' thing. We both felt really blessed by the time, i was reminded that these people really are my family, they have been with me through so much, through singleness, through getting married and that whole journey, and then through my pregnancy....major life changes. and it's nice to be 'known' in those different times.....

life changes

well.....it's almost been three weeks since kael was born. life changes fast. i still can't believe i'm a mom, it's a bit surreal still....i think with all the unknowns of our future it's hard to feel as if we can really settle into a routine. i just realized that we leave in 2 1/2 weeks. it's going to come fast, that's for sure....it is coming fast. i'll give you a bit of an update on our lives.....well it's harder to get Mike a US Visa than we originally thought, and since our Visa here in Canada is up this month, and we aren't staying with YWAM< so we can't get it renewed, we have to leave the country. We should be gone already but it was unrealistic with having the baby ..so october 1st we definitely have to be out of here. But now since it's harder than we realized for Mike to get a visa, well it just takes longer than we thought, so we have to be careful crossing the border, so that he doesn't get rejected and worse case scenario we would have to go back to scotland while we apply for his visa, not something i'm wanting to do......but that is worst case scenario..i kind of feel like it will work out, and we have 'friends' helping us out ...friends who have connections. anyways......life is one big adventure with us..it seems like 'home ' is something that is always changing, always moving, but we sitll have each other..our little family if three now.

kael and daddy

8 lbs 11oz

Well our little guy is quite the eater, he has already gained alot of weight..means he's healthy...the midwife came to see both of us today and she thinks we're doing great. He looks healthy, my incision is healing well. we're doing well as a family. still tired though...adjusting to littler amounts of sleep....and i'm pretty much a homebody..and since we've had lots of visitors it's wearing me out..so if your one of those in town still waiting to see us and we don't return your phone calls or tell you not today, please do not take it personal.....we are very tired from all the visits....we have appreciated so much though everyone's attention and love and food....it means alot that we have such a great community of people here. we are still in awe of our little guy, he's too cute!!!
we think so at least. :)

gramdma left today

well my mom left this morning, it was a tearful goodbye,.she didnt cry, i did....she left us this amazing note last night about being able to be here for the birth and how blessed she was, and then had written out these amazing bible verses for us and kael and really encouraged us as parents.......it was so great having her here although i wish so much it had been longer. i cried alot knowing she was leaving. but today we are doing okay so far. i am pretty tired and so mike watched baby kael and i slept while he slept this morning.....and we went for our first walk today, our little family. here is a picture of baby with his grandma.

KAEL = Celtic name meaning Mighty Warrior, Our son...Kael Asher Oates NOT "Kale" = a form of cabbage.

KAEL ASHER OATES

well.....finally after all of your checking, the baby has arrived. He is here. He is here.
He took his sweet little time.....the entire labor was 39 hrs.....and little Kael tried every possible way to enter the world on his own, but in the end He needed help. So with the help of a very painful c-section, Kael entered the world at 3:13pm August 24th, 2006, weighing 8 lbs, 1 oz. He is beautiful. We had to stay in the hospital for 5 nights, (including the first night of laboring) and today were able to come home. It's so lovely to be home with my new family. we all have new names...mom, dad, grandma,,, and little Kael Asher Oates. Was all worth it.

i'm a house.

mike told me the other day, i was a house ( cause i was so big) and i said, i am a house, for the baby. he lives inside me and has made himself all at home.
and here's a pic from the other day at whiterock where i think i look pretty big.

check out mike's blog

hey, mike actually posted again.....
pray the baby comes tonight.
bye for now

kicked out of our home.

Funny story....on tuesday we got a call from our landlord saying that on wednesday by 1pm we had to leave our house for 24 hrs...because they were going to fumigate for bugs. Mike talked to her and was trying to explain how inconvenient this was because I was due anyday and that i was having a homebirth, so what was i suppossed to do if i went into labor. But it seemed as if we didnt' really have a choice. So our landlord booked us into a hotel and yesterday at 1pm we had to leave our house, so me, mike and my mom went around vancouver, went to stanely park, out for yummy cheesecake at true confections.....checked into our hotel, went out to dinner (thanks to our landlord as well) and then vegged and wateched tv at our hotel...and luckily i didn't go into labor and it was just fine. there was no pool in our hotel, but it was kind of nice anyways......and we got a free dinner out of it. so now we're back home and this little baby is free to come out.
i'll keep you all posted.

my mom

my mom is here. she arrived today. ahhhh..you know what this means....the baby really is ready to arrive, it's all coming together. i'm pretty much ready to have this baby......it's so nice to have my mom here. we picked her up and it's so fun to have her at 'our' place, our very own home.....she has her own guest room, she brought us cheese from wisconsin....and we have just been able to relax with her. i love being around my mom, we've got a fun trip planned for tomorrow....a trip to white rock, hang out on the beach....enjoy the sunshine.....and not be in labor..i can go into labor another day..just not tomorrow...:) anyways, my mom is great and it brings me lots of peace to have her here.

human sex trafficking

me and mike rented this movie this week..human trafficking. it's hard to watch but i recommend it....it brings up the real issue of human trafficking. And it's so interesting because me and mike watched it this week and then on the news twice there have been stories regarding human trafficking, one woman right here in vancouver was beaten almost to death with a machette, then in seattle and LA they found containers full of woman being trafficked into the country. Then as well on csi miami me and mike were watching, it was about woman being trafficked in as well, to be used for prostitution. it's crazy how much it has come up, it definitely has gotten our attention, i've always wanted to be able to do something to help but never really sure what to do. But it's amazing how it seems as if God brings something in front of your face and really gets your attention....it's gotten both mike and i's attention...we are hoping God helps us a find a way to help these women..or stop this horrible thing that is happening all over all the time.

changes again......

no baby yet. i'm guessing people check my blog everyday just to see if we've had the baby yet.....i think it will be soon, but not yet.
so those of you who check mike's myspace thing and have read his blog, know that there are more changes than the baby coming in our lives......we are moving as well. i think it's funny that the title of my blog is ' are we there yet?' because it seems as if we are constantly on the move. We are now moving countries one more time....this time not across any oceans just across North America back to the MN/WI region of the world. Close to my parents, yet still in a city, not back to Tomahawk. Mike and I have been praying for some time about our life, and direction and with ywam and the church and everything here.....we really were seeking God and it seems as if He has been leading us to make thismove for al ittle while and now that we have it makes sense. We will be leaving ywam, and starting a new life really. It's scary and exciting all at once. It's definitely hard to know what life will be like with a new baby...but i'm actually it gives me alot of peace to think of moving closer to home while starting our new family....to have my parents around and to be near my brother is kind of a relief. It amazes me too because we have this great place here in Vancouver and part of me has realizedc that God probably knew we were going to move but chose to bless us with this great place to be in together to prepare for our new life. To relax and enjoy each other before this baby and because i'm having a home birth...it's a place to feel comfortable in and am blessed that God gave us this place so that i could give birth here......it's all amazing. This journey we are on. I'm so glad that I've got God..and i'm so grateful He gave me mike as well to go through all of this with......So, those are some of the other big changes ahead. We'll be making our way home by October 1st...so that's all for now. so soon we'll be holding our new baby..yeah....

belly

here is my prego belly....
no baby yet, so jacqui's first guess is wrong.....i don't know what you win if you guess it right...i'll have to think about that one.....keep the guesses coming....i can't decide if i want him to come now or wait til my mom comes....(not like i have a choice..but it'd be nice...)

guess the date the baby will come

so i'm curious.....i want to know what day people think our little guy will arrive...
i'm getting really pregnant....my belly is pretty big, on friday me and mike went swimming and then we were sitting on the edge of the hot tub with our legs dangling in and these two teenage boys kept staring at me....like i was the fattest woman they had ever seen....mike wanted to say to them 'have you ever seen a pregnant woman' ....i felt like a novelty....a big fat novelty..;) so ANYWAYS...
i want to know what day people think our little bundle will arrive....

kiwi friend

well, my friend Mary is visiting from New zealand.....she was on staff here at ywam vancouver for 2 1/2 years while i was here, and we were friends and worked together. And she has been gone for 3 years and now is back with her husband and brand new baby....and it's just like she never left. It's so great just to see her and chat and have tea together.....we saw them the other day and then tonight just dropped by as well and it's just like old times.....she is the same and yet so much has changed in both of our lives....getting married and she just had a baby and we are obviously about to ...and i am so grateful for being able to see her at this time in our lives......so those of you who know mary and are in vancouver...remember tomorrow at the parizeau's she's having people around for tea to be able to see her and jay and her new baby......3pm come around and see her. i've been enjoying the time together again.

answered prayer

well...instead of asking for stuff this time, i thought i'd give a little report on answered prayer, thanks to friends.

1. a Doula, we have been praying for a doula for awhile, probably since may when we met with this Christian doula and we wanted her but couldn't afford her. Then just recently a friend said He'd be willing to help out......So after trying other options for cheaper doulas, nothing was working out. So, we actually took this friend up on their offer to help out. And thanks to Stacey and Alastair we now have a Christian Doula! ( for thsoe of you who don't know what a Doula is, she is basically there to help me deal with the pain of labor, atural ways of dealing with the pain) So praise the Lord for our friends we were able to hire a Christian Doula, and she is very grateful as well because she is a single mnom who needed the business.

2. Sheets and towels,...again all thanks to my lovely friends....Hannah, Jacqui, Rachel and Joanna have all generously donated towels and sheets to me.....actually Joanna lent me quite a few items for my homebirth.










3. Back to our Doula, she bought a kiddie pool for her son and never opened it so she lent it to us so that i can have a water birth.

4. Scrapbook.....Andrea offered to come and help me with my scrapbook, so the other day she arrived here at 11am...and we started working, and thanks to her, we finished all the wedding and honeymooon pages for my scrapbook..and they look soo good, much better than i would've done!!! Her creativity looks great on the pages of my scrapbook and so i've just got the rest of our year of marriage to do.....but it looks so good and she was here til almost 5pm helping me with it.

So, thanks to all these lovely people in my life, these prayers have been answered. It's so cool to see God work things out. We are believing He is going to provide many more miracles before this journey of labor is over....:) anyday now guys....anyday.......
thank God and thank all of you my friends.

what to say

i've been meaning to post for days, but everytime i sit down and try to write nothing comes out. right now it's 530 am....couldn't sleep cause my stomach hurt and i was hungry, so i got up to have some oatmeal crisp and then head back to sleep....there is actually a thunderstorm here in vancouver right now too..it's kind of soothing, i miss thunderstorms alot. my thoughts are still constantly around having this baby, i feel as if it's the only thing i think about. some days this week were pretty hard, i felt overwhelmed and like i have so much to do...and then i've had some good days where i just don't worry about it...but this morning laying in bed and my stomach hurting, i guess sometimes it just hits me that ths baby could really come anytime and i'm really not ready. not just emotionally, i think emotionally i'm ready, but physically i am not ready. like, we haven't bought diapers yet, or i don't even have the birthing pool and i want to have a water birth.....i guess that's where my trust in God comes into play...i have to trust that he'll help keep labor off a few more days so i can get myself organized and actually be ready to have this baby. it's still so mind blowing that there is a little baby living inside me, that i will be responsible for, he will look like me and mike and will forever be in our hearts. it's all kind of incredible. a miracle......that's why that call it a miracle. God amazes me more and more....how could someone not think there is a God, when the way we are created is miraculous and it happens everyday...everyday women all over the world are giving birth....and it's amazing.

well...those are my thoughts for now.....if anyone still wants to help with the things from the last post, please let me know and please come by. i'm going back to sleep now.