Welcome Isabel!

This post is a shout-out to my sister Rachel and her hubby Ryan who just had their second little girl, Isabel Ann. She was born on Monday, January 8 at 1:16 p.m., weighing in at 9 pounds (even though she was two weeks early!!!) and measuring 20.5 inches. From all accounts, she is adorable and is a good baby (eating well, sleeping well, looking cute . . . what else can you ask from a four-day-old?).

Welcome, Isabel! I can't wait to meet you!

My little baby is getting ready to come out, and we're almost ready to receive him. We FINALLY got the nursery done . . . so that stressor is out of the way. Now I'm trying to deep clean the entire house before he comes. We'll see if I get it all done. At this point, I would gladly go into labor. He's pretty much fully baked (I'm 36 weeks along; 37 weeks is considered "full term") and he is growing more and more everyday, making my life quite uncomfortable. The other night, we did have a fun five or six hour false labor marathon. I was having severe back pain/contractions and some front contractions. It went away eventually. I'm hoping it wasn't all for naught and that all that pain at least made me dilated or something. We'll find out at the doctor's!

In law school news, Robert has heard back from two law schools and he has been accepted to both. He got into Baylor Law School (Waco, Texas) and they offered him a full-tuition, three-year (so for the entire duration of law school) scholarship; George Washington (Washington, DC) also just contacted him and let him know he was accepted. No news on if he'll be offered any money from them, but it's more unlikely, as Baylor is ranked 51st and George Washington is ranked 19th, meaning that Baylor offered a scholarship to entice Robert to leave behind better-ranked schools . . . like George Washington.

We're very thrilled that he has two solid offers from good schools. It takes a lot of stress off our shoulders! Now we just have to wait to hear from the other nine schools (Stanford, U of Chicago, Northwestern, UCLA, U of Iowa, U of Illinois, BYU, Temple U, and Creighton) and then make the hard decision. We feel so blessed and know that our good fortune comes from the Lord and that He will help guide us in the ultimate decision, which is a comfort, since this is one of those life-altering choices. We also know we are blessed to have such supportive family and friends. You know who you are. :) (-Jocelyn)