Happy 1st Birthday, Charley!

Today is the day! Charley is one! She had a really good day, including a photo session with Kim DeLoach. Check out a sampling of the photos on Kim's blog. The pictures are amazing!! Kim is so talented. I will be sure to let you know when there are more of the photos available for viewing (and you can see a few more on Facebook).
I will post a real "first birthday" post later, but just wanted to share the photos with you!!

It's a....

It's a....Baby!! My 20-week ultrasound was today, and everything looked great! I still can't get over the miracle of it all (I hope I never get over it!).
So, yeah, the ultrasound lady is the only one in the entire world who knows what we're having...and by now, she's probably forgotten! She didn't write it in my chart because she said the doctor often slips up and tells people what they're having! Anyways, it's crazy we have to wait another 4-5 months to find out! The baby is measuring about a week ahead (Sept 17), but they are leaving the due date as Sept.24th. Who knows...Charley came 10 days early...this one could come 10 days late!! (hope not). Here's a picture of baby Spann #2. Oh, and for fun, I've put a "boy or girl?" poll over there. --> Also, I am very aware of the fact that I haven't posted pregnancy pictures...I'm working on it!

Daddy's Home!

Donald got back safely last night around 11pm. Needless to say, it was great to see him!! We haven't had a chance to discuss how the trip went, etc., yet, so I will post a summary and pics sometime in the near future.
One thing I can say is that daddy came home to a new Charley -- a very busy, can't-take-your-eyes-off-of-her-for-five-seconds Charley. He went to work this morning, so hasn't had the opportunity to see her crawl all over the place yet. He's in for a treat.

Kenya Update

The medical clinic went really well this week! When I talked to D on Tuesday, they had seen 0ver 500 people on just that day alone. They thought they would see 1600 for the week, but I'm not sure where they ended up. Our team worked with some local pastors as well as 14 volunteers from a Kenyan hospital to make this happen. Apparently they (our team) went on Friday to visit this hospital to say thank you to the volunteers and to the boss-man there who allowed 14 of his employees to take 4 days off to help with the clinic. Friday afternoon Donald sent me an email (his first access to internet) saying that he couldn't call but he had seen a lion that day, about 20 feet away, and got lots of pictures. Granted they were on a wildlife preserve and safe in a Jeep (I hope), but that is so crazy. I'm not sure what they were doing today, Saturday. It is bedtime there, so hopefully they are safe somewhere sleeping. Tomorrow, Sunday, they will go back to the church they went to last week, and then head to the airport mid-afternoon. They fly all night to Amsterdam, and then have like a forever layover, which means they won't arrive to the states until late Monday night. I cannot wait to see Donald and hear about the impact that was made there this week!!

They're There

The team made it to Kenya at about 7pm Kenyan time yesterday after about 22 hours of traveling. I spoke to Donald for about a minute yesterday, and they had arrived at their first destination and were about to eat dinner. He didn't mention anything about luggage being lost, so I'm hoping and assuming that it means everything arrived okay. They travel with their clothes in a backpack as a carry-on, and reserve their two check-on bags for medical supplies. What a blessing it is that the luggage made it!
Today they worshiped at the church of a pastor who we (our church) have established a relationship with over the last couple of years. It is this pastor and men from his church who teamed up with us last year at the medical clinic, and they will do the same this year. After church, they headed to the place where the medical clinic will be held to set up "camp." I spoke to Donald for another minute today (I am very grateful for those minutes! And when I say minute, I mean minute -- as in one). He said that they were almost finished preparing, and the clinic will begin in the morning, which will be about 12am our time. So, if you happen to be up, please lift them up in prayer! It will be a long day! Last year, they saw around 400 people per day!
Donald and I hope to have a longer conversation tomorrow, which would be awesome! Having him so far away with such limited and brief contact gives me a glimpse of what it would be like without him in my life, and yeah, I pretty much don't like it one bit. Don't think I could have been a military wife -- y'all are amazing.

Daddy's Headed Off!

Donald leaves for Kenya tomorrow with a medical team from our church! Please stayed tuned for updates, as I will try to post them when I hear from him. Thank you for your prayers!

I Like Eggs. The Plastic Kind.

We were in Charleston over Easter weekend, and my mom got the great idea of giving Charley a colander full of plastic Easter eggs. That's pretty much all she played with all weekend.


Here are some other images from the weekend.

We fed the geese, ducks, turtles, and fish some cornbread.

Charley and some of her cousins on Easter Sunday.Charley and her Frenchiemama.

Congratulations to Amy and Peter who were married on the 11th! It was a beautiful wedding, and we are so happy for the two of them!

Makin' Cookies

I guess anyone who thinks having their 11-month-old help with making cookies is probably a little crazy or at least ready for a big mess. My Aunt Libbie sent Charley a box of Easter goodies and one of the items was a flower-shaped cookie cutter. We made some of the cookies to send to her (Aunt Libbie) in Connecticut, and so I had Charley help with the decorating. It was a lot of fun, but indeed a mess. Even Sadie ended up with icing on her head!

This particular cookie ended up in the mouth, which I promptly yanked out (daddy finished off that cookie).

She's Crawling!

It's official. Charley's a crawlin' machine. She's been taking a few steps (crawls?) here and there this week, but yesterday she made it across the living room. It's been so fun watching her figure it out, but now the real fun begins!