Bit of Bri

With all this China adoption stress . . . someone mentioned baby XY. Aaaaaahhh . . . a breath of fresh air. Yes, that is what I should be focusing on. Six weeks and five days. Can you believe it!? Bri, can you believe it?! With all the stress of China, there is the amazing comfort in knowing that in just six weeks and five days (or sooner?!) little XY will be joining our family.

I was cleaning out my picture boxes last night. I have some goals before XY gets here. One of those goals is to get all my photos organized so that I can start fresh when he joins the family and not still be "digging out." Anyways, I came across a few of about 1,000 photos I have of Bri when she was little.

Many of you have asked me what Chris and Bri look like and whether this baby will look like us. Both Bri and I are excited by the possibility that he very well may look a lot like JB and me. Not that it matters of course, but we were always planning on all our adoptions being international. I never really thought I would have a child that looked like me. But little XY very well may. I'm excited to think that early trips to the grocery store won't evoke adoption comments. It'll be fun for strangers to not second-guess who's child he is!

First of all, both Bri and Chris are pretty tall. I believe Bri is 5'9" and Chris is about 6'0". Did I get that right Bri? They are also both lighter skinned with lighter eyes and lighter hair. Well, at least, Bri's hair was lighter when she was little. She's now a solid brunette. (But so is JB!) I have blue eyes and JB has green so this is fun for us as well as little XY will have light eyes due to the Chris/Bri combo!

In addition, for those of you who knew Bri and I "from the beginning" you know that everyone, and I mean everyone thought that we were sisters. Everyone said we had uncanny resemblance. While I don't think we look that much alike today, I do think there are a lot of similarities when we were little. Here are a few photos. What do you think? (Oh and Huisman is my maiden name. That is Bri wearing my Bbball shirt! She was my biggest fan!)




I also found a photo of JB and Bri taken while I was away at college. Isn't this a cute photo? I think JB was about twelve here! Okay, not really. Actually, I think he was probably 18 or 19. Wow!

I also found a more recent picture of Bri. I think this was taken about two years ago. I just love this photo. I am enclosing this here so that we don't picture Bri as a little kid anymore. She is now 17, almost 18, and preparing to launch a new life for herself. I have loved this "kid" since she was born. It is amazing that now I will get to be a mom to her "kid."

Some of you have also asked about our birth "plan." We are currently making sure that we always have a phone, cell phone, or pager on us. As soon as we get word that Bri is ready to go, we are going to drive to Fort Lauderdale. We figure that we can probably get there faster making a 9.5 hour car drive then we can trying to find a flight, pay for a flight, and take a flight especially because flights out of Fort Walton Beach go through Atlanta if you want to get to Fort Lauderdale. It will also be cheaper as well. If little XY is healthy and everything goes well with the paperwork, we will be able to take him into our "custody" 48 hours after he is born. There are a few more steps until his adoption is finalized, the first of which occurs when he is 3 months old and the second when he is 1 year old. However, for all intents and purposes, 48 hours is our first step.

Now there, a post like this helps block out all the North Carolina birth certificate problems! I feel much better. Love you Bri!