These Days

Have been full, but so good. We're "attempting" to slow the pace of our life so that when Sir/Madam Bentley arrives in August we're not in for such a shock, but any slowing has yet to actually happen. But hey, when things are this good - who can complain? We've had a great few weeks, traveling to YJ, to visit Spencer and Mary, and then more recently to Chengdu (a city in the province north of us) to visit the Doctor and doula who will usher our little guy into the world. Here are some of the sights we've seen recently.

This picture documents one of Baxter's dreams coming true, we took a TRAIN! The boy has seriously been looking for ANY opportunity to travel by train in the past two years, and going to visit Spencer and Mary was the perfect opportunity.

Here we are reunited with some of our besties. We are of course sad that they now live in another city, but are so, SO happy at how they're thriving. They are together, have jobs they enjoy, and are a part of a life-giving fellowship. We couldn't be prouder of them, and loved the time to celebrate the countless ways that the Lord has brought them through some really trying circumstances.

We did lots of park exploring in their new city, and of course had to get a picture of me and the belly/baby in front of this dragon, as our baby will be born in the Chinese zodiac year of the dragon. This basically means that our kid is guaranteed to be awesome in pretty much every way. : )

About a week after we returned from this trip, we took off to see if Chengdu would be a place we could have our baby. This large city has numerous embassies, which means doctors that speak English! We figured that was pretty important to us in having a baby, and being inclined to pursue a natural birth we also met up with a doula who would assist our birth. We were more than satisfied with the doctor, hospital and doula, and are excited that we'll be having Baby Bentley in country come August! And because Baxter and I are crazy, not only did we take a train there (EIGHTEEN hours my friends, EIGHTEEN. Do I love my husband or what?!), but also managed to squeeze in eating Mexican food, Turkish food, a trip to IKEA, and then a visit to the world famous panda breeding center that's outside of town. It was SO cool, and we just loved seeing these adorable animals.

This is what Baxter and I call "lettin' your beans out".

Seriously, this is what pandas do ALL. DAY. Until nap time that is! And no you're not crazy, you are hearing some Spanish in this video as our tour group included several Europeans. 

And this little guy? Seriously, I would have taken him home with me if only it wasn't illegal and our complex grew the literally tons of bamboo he would need daily to survive. Bummer.

Well, maybe sooner or later we'll try and slow down some, but as you can see for now we're just having too much fun!

Being the Bentley's . . . +1?

Well, after a lack of posting for a month and then posting about cereal, I'm due to my loyal readers (Hi mom! Hi Sandra! yep - that covers all of you!) something really spectacular.

This my friends, is what I find to be pretty stinkin' spectacular.

Yep, there you have it! A BABY! And not just any baby, O-U-R baby! Our very own, teensy-tiny human due in our arms August 26th. No, I can't quite believe it yet, although my growing midsection is starting to convince me. I'm calling it "le bulge", because it's not quite cute enough to be a bump yet. I'll keep you posted about once we enter that "cute" phase and am out of the "oh, that's awkward. You're just getting pudgy" phase. Thankfully first trimester nausea is pretty much gone, and I'm feeling great! We are so, so, SO thankful for mine and our Little Guy's health so far. (And no, we don't know the gender and don't plan on finding out! EEK! I know! Who am I?!)

And as a reward for your patience in lack of blogging, here is a video from our last sonogram. Apparently our Little Guy wanted to show off his big noggin, but you'll see a little foot swipe the screen, some little hands in front of the face and then towards then end a pretty great profile shot. And yes, this is OFFICIALLY the world's cutest baby on record. I know it will be hard dealing with the press once this video goes viral on YouTube, but I'm willing to deal with it as part of parenting such greatness. 

Amazing, right? Hope this puts a smile on your face today!