Transition Time

We are in transition right now, staying in the States for awhile until the move to Beijing, China is complete. We were living in Taiwan - to view the blog I wrote about our family in Taiwan - see this website http://akaetaipei.blogspot.com/. I'm now moving on and starting this one - for our time spent in China.

Our biggest news so far is that we have a new addition to the family - Ryken Brice Armstrong - was born on Feb. 27, 2006 at 2:30 pm. He weighed 9lbs, 14 oz and was 20.5 inches long. He's got brown hair, with light colored eyebrows and eyelashes. I was hoping he would be early, at least that he would arrive soon after Anthony got back from his travels on the 17th of Feb, but apparently, Ryken prefered being in the womb and didn't want to make an appearance until he was big! I ended up being induced and had him naturally just a few hours after the pitocin was started. Grandma and Grandpa Armstrong came down from Dallas to help with the girls after the birth, along with Grandad and Grandmom here in town. It was wonderful that they were all able to watch the girls and bring them up to the hospital for visits so that Anthony could spend his time with me and Ryken in the hospital. I am so thankful for family!

Ryken is now 4 weeks old! I can't believe time has just flown by so fast. He's steadily growing and starting to have a bit of a routine. Anthony is now in Beijing starting in his new position at work. He's staying in a hotel for now, until our lease starts on the house he found for us to rent. It's been difficult not having him here with us in the States. The girls have adjusted well this past week while he's been gone. They seem to understand more that he will be coming back this time and haven't given me any major problems like before. I am working on getting all our of stuff ready for the move - mainly the passports and visas. We've already run into a snag, as we didn't apply for Ryken's passport while Anthony was here in town, and both parents have to be present in front of notary in order to apply for a child's passport. So, we've had to do some climbing through hoops in order to get that done. I'm hoping it will be completed by the end of this week and then we can start on the China Visas. Anthony is hoping to come back at the end of April to pick us all up and move us all officially to Beijing. We are excited, looking forward to all the new experiences and looking forward to all being together for an extended time. It hasn't been fun these last few months, with weeks of separation. I really do not know how single parents and those parents who are in the military do it alone for months and years at a time.

I will try to update as much as possible and start writing more often, so check back soon and see what's going on.