Katie's Arrival Approaches

I was joking to Karen that if you look at our blog, it looks like we are on a giant vacation. Let me assure everyone there is a lot of other stuff going on. Our storknesting sponsor, Robin, has gone exceptionally above and beyond in getting us out of lodging and showing us the area. But we also are spending a lot of time taking care of the things that need to get done.

So today, I'm including just some of the things we are working on a daily basis on, such as...documents. Document, documents, documents! We have to apply for an emergency passport for Katie, a birth certificate for Katie, and a social security card for Katie. Plus, we also have to file a notice of birth abroad and get all of this expedited for through the American consulate and returned as quickly as possible after the birth. The American consulate gladly charges us $150 for that privilege - seems like it should be free for service members on a government directed move overseas. Then, once we get Katie back to Turkey we have to give Turkey $85 to allow Katie to be in Turkey. We have to pay close attention to all these document dates because Turkey is known for giving out one year residency permits that expire just before families are scheduled to leave Turkey forcing the families to purchase a second residency permit they only need for a matter of days to weeks.

Karen is also continuing with regular fetal monitoring at NST. They check the baby's heartbeat and movement along with Karen's blood pressure. All have been fine including Karen's blood pressure which has actually been excellent lately.

We also work on things such as preparing the labor bag, reading up on parenting, and taking care of other necessities. For example, last night Robin and Andy had us over for dinner but we also took the time for Robin to show Karen how the breast pump works and answer any questions Karen had.

On days we stay at Landstuhl, we sleep late, go to NST, each lunch, do our laundry, and try to keep in touch with those we can. Today we see the doctor at 1500 and will ask some last minute questions we have thought of. Then Karen has an NST on Friday. On Sunday, we are back in the evening for Karen to be induced. We don't expect anything to happen until Monday though. Karen and Katie will stay in the hospital a minimum of 48 hours. If all goes well, we would hope Karen and Katie could be released by Wednesday and that we receive our documentation back by Thursday. This would allow us to take the rotator flight back to Turkey a week from this Friday - however, more than likely we will have to wait on some paperwork and would be looking at the following week. We are hoping we can catch a rotator back because this allows to land at Incirlik and not have to catch a civilian flight into Adana.

If we are on base we can chose between three of Landstuhl top 5 dining choices: the Chow Hall, the Community Club, Burger King, Sub Way/Anthony's Pizza, or The Cappuccino Shop...actually those are ALL the dining choices. But we make do and the Chow Hall is quite good for my taste buds.

Tomorrow, the tentative plan is for our Storknesting sponsor to take us to Trier after Karen's NST appointment. Trier is the oldest city in Germany and is located close by near Luxembourg. It was established by the Romans over two thousand years ago.

This gives you a little "behind-the scenes-look" at how we spend a lot of our time. The hospital has fixed some of the computers in the cyber-lounge. Now there are 6 working computers instead of 2. So, hopefully, I'll have a few more posts before Katie arrives.

Katie's Baby Shower

Maybe she didn't exactly know she was in attendance but let's face it the shower was for Katie. I will repost on this again as soon as we get pictures but it was FABULOUS! My boss Alicia Edwards and Lesley Evans put on the most spectacular shower I have ever been to for us. We had it at a great place in Adana called Pastabahcesi last Friday on April 4th. This is a great indoor/outdoor restaurant in New Adana that overlooks the Seyhan Lake. They specialize in desserts and pastries. One of the most modern and clean restaurants I have ever been to. Very nice for Adana. We had around 17 in attendance . As soon as we get photos we will post. On the web site, to see photos of the restaurant, click on the bottom on "Kurumsal" and wait for it to come up, then click on "Fotograflar" on the left. Once a photo appears, click on "ileri" or "geri" at the bottom to see other photos. Play around a bit and you may be able to see some menu shots as well. We received some fabulous gifts from everyone. And of course friends and family have been sending stuff all along. Many thank yous are on the way.

Yesterday, we also bought a camera since our Kodak crapped out. We bought a cheap Samsung but it seems to work well enough and take good photos. We also purchased two dressers for Katie and a special wooden camel we will post pictures of when all the furniture arrives. We also found a place just outside Incirlik everyone calls Furniture Alley. Karen found a nice bassinet we hope to maybe get next week. Just to show you how the locals see dollars sign when they see Americans coming - the first shop quoted us $350.00 for this bassinet. The second shop was 50 yards away and said $220 for the same bassinet. But the guy didn't speak any English and we wanted pink material instead of the blue he had. So the worker got his brother, who spoke English, on the phone and he said to come next week and he would be there after 1PM. Karen and I are going to offer $200. Then we will almost be set with furniture. We still need to get some wall shelves and a rocking chair for Karen. We will also need to get the crib set, the wall border, and the diaper genie to complete the nursery. OK, more photos of the shower coming soon.

Mama Took My Kodachrome Away

Our digital camera took a crap! It seems to still function and a flash goes off when you push the button, but there are no images displayed on the screen - it just remains white no matter what button you push or setting you move it to. We are trying to get a replacement but will have to wait for the end of March and order on-line. All the cameras for sale on base are around $300. Walmart, Target, and some others have much better on-line offers. We will probably borrow one for Karen's shower on April 4th. Then should have a new one fairly soon after.

We bought paint for Katie's nursery yesterday. Karen picked out a soft, lime green. Kind of the color of the water along the Emerald Coast in Florida. Hopefully, we will paint next week. We bought the paint at a store in the mall called The Praktiker. We got around Adana fairly well. We found the mall on our own for the first time, then we went to McDonald's which is only about ten minutes from the mall but took us over an hour. I wasn't sure how to cut across town to get to McDonald's so I wanted to come back the base and take the road I was sure of. But we missed the base turn-off and ended up another 30 miles down the road before we could get turned around. I think the freeway sign said Ceyhan was only 19 miles from where we turned around. There are very few places to turn around on the freeway in Turkey. We finally figured out that every 5 miles or so there will be an opening in the left side guard rail. But even with that only 1 out of every 5 of those is actually open and the others are sealed shut. Then we missed a right side turn off. Finally caught a left-side guard rail opening as we approached Ceyhan - and then went all the way back to McDonald's in New Adana. McDonald's never tasted so good. It was packed. They had full upstairs seating and downstairs plus about 50 tables outside on a grass lawn that were full. The Turks love the McDonald's - at least in Adana they do.

Also put the Master Sergeant stripe on officially on March 1st.