Day 22

Tristan's "promotion" (as my mom put it) is a stark reminder of the situation we're in with Joshua. I wish and hope and pray for a different outcome, but I know Trayc and Yvette, Tristan's parents, did the same. The glorious thing is - we (Trayc, Yvette, Matt, and I) have been blessed. Truly we have. I want you to know that Matt and I are so blessed, so happy, so excited to have Joshua. Yes, it's sad. Yes, we're disappointed about a lifetime of memories we'll never see. But we are blessed to have the time we do. I know, having read through Yvette's story that she feels privileged to be Tristan's Mommy. And I do as well.
I'm privileged to be Joshua's Mummy.

That said (now that many of you are in tears), Joshua's birthday went off great! Of course I forgot about making a cake until after dinner - but YAY for the quicky-cake-recipe! Box cake is expensive here, so I have two trusty-dusty cake recipes that go together in less than 10 minutes. Deep Dark Chocolate was the poison of the week. That's icing sugar on top - not mold - by the way.

Oceana and Daddy blew out his candles for him.
He was laxing out!

This is what laxing looks like to Joshua. He keeps falling asleep like this.


And I caught this yesterday while they were "watching tv together".
"Like Father, Like Son"


Joshua's cele is leaking again. Please pray this stops. It's not leaking like the first week, but it's the most we've seen since then. Probably quarter-sized spots in the morning, or a bit smaller. Other than that, he's doing great. :)
We're going to do our medical exams for our immigration paperwork this afternoon. We'll have our blood tests tomorrow morning (because the lab tech's off this afternoon). Then we have to schedule chest x-rays (to check for tuberculosis) for later in the week. OH MY GOSH. I hate this process. We just did this 11 months ago. Blah. It's a long, involved, annoying, expensive process. That's what happens when you live in a socialized-medicine country, but don't qualify for it. Blood tests alone turn into hundreds of dollars.
Matt likes to joke that it seems ridiculous to wait until we've been in the country over a year to check for syphilis, tuberculosis, and cardiovascular issues. But that's the New Zealand way. So, whatever...
I'm convinced those lab techs should be called vampires... I'm really getting over my needle phobia quickly. Between being pregnant twice and doing immigration twice in the last two years - I feel like a pincushion! When you get pregnant they want blood, when you're 6 months pregnant they want blood, when you're nine months they want blood, when you're induced they have to do a hep-lock (iv sight...OW!) and when you pull out your hep lock during contractions you have to get another (with Joshua I had two failed hep-locks and two good ones. One pulled out before I started pushing), and then when you're low on iron they want blood. Ok. Am I grossing you out yet? I was always the girl who pulled the "I don't fit the weight requirements" buzz when the blood drive came knocking (which I didn't for a few years) but now it doesn't seem like such a bad thing. :)
Enough ranting and raving for me. It's a busy day, I gotta get moving! I probably should get a shower before I see the doctor. Wow, any other new mommies not getting routine showers????