Live from Arizona

On Christmas night we all went to the Mesa temple to enjoy the thousands of lights set up on all the palm trees and bushes. The pictures never quite do it justice, but it really was a fantastic night.

Here's a picture of us on Christmas morning with my step-sister Tiff and her fiance Fred. It was our first time meeting Fred and he was great; we're very glad he'll soon become part of our family.

Updates

The big news is that last week we received a letter from the National Visa Center informing us that Sarah is invited to an interview for her immigrant visa!! It will be on Friday January 11th at 8am at the US Consulate in Montreal, Quebec. I'm dissapointed I won't be able to go up with her (it would cost way too much) and that she'll miss my step sister Tiffany's wedding the following week, but the timing of this interview is really pretty incredible. Any earlier and we would have had to cancel part or all of our Christmas plans. Any later and it would have been getting real close to the baby's due date. It would have stunk to have reschedule an interview after having waited so long. When I get back home to NC I'll post a timeline of the immigration ordeal we've been through, but to make a long story short, acquiring this visa has been the most dominant aspect of our lives since before we were engaged in May 2006. We've essentially been waiting for this letter with an interview date since before we were married in August 06, 17 months ago!

After the interview and final processing is done, this visa will allow Sarah to do everything a citizen can do, ie go to school, work, pay taxes, etc. The only difference is she won't be able to vote. Best of all, it will be a huge relief to know that her status is permanent and to have no more stress or question marks about that part of our future.

"The man who looks like David"

I was just going through some papers and came by a newspaper Rebecca saved for me. Guillaume ( 41/2) pointed out the Canadian prime minister as "the man who looks like David" to her. Political opinions aside...I really never thought that he and David looked alike...but they both have blue eyes and comb their hair to the side. I got that a lot while we were dating and engaged- and didnt' like it. We even had a waiter take pictures with us in a restaurant because he was so stunned by the ressemblance!

If Guillaume can point it out...then I guess the truth comes from the mouth of babes...The irony is that now that we live in the US, nobody even knows who Harper is!

J'ai retrouvé aujourd'hui une coupure de journal que Rebecca m'a donnée. Guillaume lui a montré la photo et lui a dit que c'était "l'homme qui ressemble à David". C'est le genre de remarque qui m'embêtait vraiment lorsqu'on étaient au Canada...mais ici, personne ne le connait!

Je suppose que la vérité sort de la bouche des enfants...

"The Name Debate"

Many have asked what names we're considering for our baby girl, and while we have a few favorites, we're going to be a little tight lipped to let them sink in and see how they feel over time. We do think it would be great to share some of the funniest rejects. We were given a book of baby names the other day and last night went through and read every single girls name. Many were straightforward, beautiful names, like Sarah, Melissa, Rebecca, Emily, etc, but there were some, well, more unique names. My favorite least favorite name: Jersey. Just think of the teasing our poor daughter "Jersey Jones" would endure. As a New Yorker, even I would have a time not making fun of the name.

C'est une fille! It's a girl!

Nous avons eu notre echographie aujourd'hui et nous sommes fiers d'annoncer que nous attendons une petite fille! Elle est magnifique et très active...Je pense que notre moment préféré à tous les 2 est quand on essayait de mesurer sa tête et elle a secoué sa tête comme pour dire "non" et a recouvert sa tête avec ses mains!

It's really quite the experience to meet your baby for the first time. I've been feeling the baby move for a few weeks now but it's very different for David. He was the 1st one to recognize that she is a girl... It might not be obvious from this snapshot, but it became clear as she moved around and we saw her from many different angles. The picture below is as if she's sitting on the screen, with her legs sticking out to the right.

She was very active and moved around a few times during the ultrasound- making it a little hard to get all her measurements! It looks like she is an extra big baby...or we might be further along than we had guessed!

This is the 3D view of her--- alors, à qui est-ce qu'elle ressemble le plus?

You can see more pictures on David's Blog