Damian Michael Shain

Is finally here!
He arrived at 7:16pm this evening. He weighs 8lbs 12 oz and is 21 1/2 inches long. And of course he is cute as cute can be!
Enjoy the pictures.

So Excited!

The time is quickly approaching! Doreen is getting induced at 8am tomorrow morning. I am hoping Damian will cooperate and decide to come out as quick as possible. :D
That means tomorrow or the next day I'll have pictures of the new nephew!!!!
Now wouldn't that be something if they ended up having a girl? haha. I think the doctors are pretty certain but I guess you never know!

Love,
Auntie Amber

Lady, Where Did You Go?

I thought for sure I would just wait for my next post to be a picture post. I thought for sure my nephew would have arrived last week sometime so I thought I'd wait until he was born and then I'd have something to blog about. Well, since he has decided to stay in the warmth of his mother as long as he can so he doesn't have to come out at these frigid temperatues we've been having, I guess I will have to hold until next week to post about him! Doreen has gone into "fake" labor 3 TIMES now!!! And obviously, none of them have been the real deal. We thought for sure last week that he was going to arrive. She was having contraction 2 MINUTES apart...but they eventually stopped and Damian decided he wasn't quite yet ready! So for sure by next Wednesday he'll be here. If Doreen hasn't gone into labor before her doctor's appointment next Monday, they are planning to induce her on Tuesday! We are so excited to see the new addition to the Shain Family! This will be my oldest brother's first child so as you can imagine he is beyond excited! We are excited for them. So I will just have to reserve my next blog posting for the lil' fella!;)

And how does that have to do with the blog title??? It doesn't. Onto my next story---
Our golden retriever/yellow lab, Lady, decided that she was going to go on a tour of the town or perhaps she thought she would get some exercise by running away. We are not sure where her destination was or what she was doing while she was gone, but she escaped all day yesterday. Now it isn't uncommon for her to disappear once in a blue moon. She finds ways to break free from her chain (it is NOT my choice for her to be an outside dog!!!...don't hate me), and usually will roam around for a good half hour or so and then decide that it's time to come back home. Yesterday was a little different. She had either disappeared sometime during the night or very early yesterday morning. I came home for lunch and she was STILL missing. I thought that was kind of unusual, but was hoping and thinking that she'd for SURE be home by the time work was done at 5. I came home, went to the dog house to fine it STILL empty. I was getting pretty nervous. I figured either the K9 Unit got a hold of her or that she was hit by a car.
To make a long story short, she was still gone this morning but then I pulled up in the driveway for lunch and there she was just chillin in the snow bank! I am thankful that she's still alive and decided to come back to the Shain residence. :) Lady, Where DID you go?!?! (too bad dogs can't talk)

A couple weeks ago I talked with a lady who works in the missions center in Missouri about my MAP's application. She talked to me about how long I would like to go to China for. She then told me that there are childrens camps in July and August that last 3-4 weeks. What the volunteers/missionary assitant's do is help teach english as a foreign language! I told her I would be interested in doing something like that (although my Chinese vocabulary is slim...i'm getting there though. Thanks Stacy and Nick for the audio learning tapes:D). So she is passing my application to another lady in the department of missions and she will contact me from there. She is in charge of getting the airfare booked and also in charge of getting my arrangements together in China. I am very very very stoked for this!!! My heart is towards missions and feel that after taking this trip I will know for sure if this is something I want to do with my life. If you remember, would you say a prayer or two(or more!) for me??? Maybe pray that I am able to raise the necessary funds and for safety and protection once I am there. My airline tickets will be a little more expensive than usual due to the Olympics being in China this year...around the time that I will be there so they of course will jack the prices up!! God is in control!

God has been working in my daily life situations left and right. He has been answering my prayers nad just proving to me that He is fully aware of what is best for my life.
I will be working FULL-TIME in March! A total answer to prayer. I asked that if I'm supposed to stay in Hibbing that God would open up a full time job opportunity for me, and only a week or two later (i can't remember specifically) my co-worker told me she was quitting and asked if I would be interested in taking her full time spot! This is a total blessing to me as I hope to earn enough money for China and also am contemplating moving to my own apartment when I am able to. There are so many other situations that God has been working with me through and I can't give Him enough thanks for it!

Life is good. Even through the hard and disappointing times in life, God still is in control. I will keep reminding myself of that!!!

Now if you don't mind..my car is past due for an oil change. :)