Fundraising & Travel

Bob and I have been overwhelmed with the generosity of family and friends. In only a few days, we've raised over $1000 for the baby house, and will bring infant medicine & OTC items when we travel. We're just blown away.

I highly recommend doing a charity fundraising/OTC medicine drive while waiting for travel. We started by talking with a few friends at our church to see how much interest there was. Bob then drew up a quick flyer and posted it on the men's group website. You can see what he wrote on the website here. Note that he added a snazzy Paypal button on the top-right side.

We made sure to include that we were not using these funds or medicine personally or for any prospective child, but for the greater good of the whole baby house.

In other news, we heard this evening that we may travel around the 13th of April. Cue panic and general running amok. Wow, I think this may actually happen! I'm kind of in shock, even though I hoped to travel in a few weeks anyway. We've wanted more children for so many years, and it looks like the 'pining for more kids' days will soon be over. Jack still wants the new addition to move into his room upon return home. We'll see how long that lasts!

Dreaming of Havoc

Bob and I are trying to tie up loose ends while we wait out these last weeks (hopefully) before we travel. One of the biggies that I've been putting off is getting our taxes done. This year was pretty easy tax-wise.. no home sales or deployment status to work around. For the second year, we used Taxslayer.com, which is a _free_ service to Active Duty Military. No perks or kickbacks here, just a happy customer. This little task that I've been dreading, really only took 1/2 an hour to finish, and they can e-file our claim. Sweet! I love the internet.

Over the next few weeks, we'll be asking around for infant medicine donations to take with us to the baby house. The tough part is that we all shop at the same 3-4 stores for American products, so there is a limited supply of everything. For example, I'm asking my mother-in-law (the sweetest in-law alive) to bring liquid infant vitamins with iron on her next trip. We can get plenty of liquid vitamins without iron, but no other options. I just thought of another thing to put on her list.. Infant Immodium and the dry packet form of Pedialyte. I hear that these things exist, but since we've lived overseas for the majority of our parenting years, I don't have proof.

We've also had a lot of discussions about baby names around here. Our 5 year old son, Jack, is in on the action too with some strong opinions. Fortunately, we still have our list of names from when I was pregnant with Jack, so we've been working from it. Bob and I have finally decided on a boys' name, but we'll hold off on sharing it (or a girl's name) until we meet our little one.

Jack is adamant about his name choice, but at least it is only on a 24 hour cycle. Today his boy name was Jude, the same as a good buddy of his. Yesterday it was Henry Jack, Henry after a train from the Thomas the Tank Engine set and Jack after himself. :) Two days ago he got very angry with us when we laughed at his suggestion of Havoc. That had Bob and I rolling with laughter at the dinner table. I think that's my favorite.. Havoc. Depending on our little one's personality, that may end up being a nickname. :)

Here's the definition:
hav·oc /ˈhævək/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[hav-uhk] –noun

1.	great destruction or devastation; ruinous damage.