Baby McQuinn will be born in the United States, Knoxville to be exact. While we felt comfortable seeing a Colombian doctor at the beginning of the pregnancy, neither of us {especially me!} was particularly comfortable with having the labor & delivery part go down at Centro Medico Bocagrande. Despite my brothers argument about giving our unborn child dual citizenship to increase their odds of obtaining an Olympic medal {can't compete for America, there is always Colombia}, we both feel comfortable with our decision.
One of the drawbacks to this decision is timing the birth with Matt's intense work schedule. Matt will leave Colombia for Tennessee a few days before our due date and stay for 2 - 3 weeks. While fathoming the idea of Matt having to leave our little family to return to work in South America is enough to make me reach for a box of Kleenex, it's just another part of our story. Thankfully he has some time off in November that will allow him to head back to the US for a short visit and we will all reunite in December for Christmas. After the holidays, our little darling will have his or her passport stamped and head to South America to begin a new chapter of our Colombian adventure.
While we don't have an end date to Matt's current project on the calendar, we are both comfortable with tentatively saying Fall 2014. My goal is to celebrate an adorable one year olds birthday in the US with family and friends. We don't know whats next for the McQuinn family and depending on the day I have two different answers, to continue one more adventure or settle down {usually it's settle down}. We've discussed it a bit and have decided to cross the bridge when we get there. We know this baby is going to change our lives and understand that we can't fathom just quite how much yet. With that and no official destinations to discuss, there is no need to worry ourselves, yet. We've got enough going on right now.
Matt and I don't have plans to learn the gender of our little one. Matt has always wanted it to be a surprise and I have learned to let go of my Type A personality a bit in the past few years and can handle not having every detail planned. We both love the idea of looking forward to the best surprise ever.
Since our baby will have two homes within the first few months of their precious life, they will also have two nurseries. My parents were kind enough to offer up a guest room in their home for our little one to settle into. This was fabulous news to me as decorating a nursery was one of the things I thought I may miss out on, given our unique situation. The guest room in our Colombian apartment will double as the nursery. As we expect visitors {hello grandparents!} during the rest of our stay in Colombia, we thought it was important to keep the guest bed, but also give the baby his/her own space. It will be a pretty simple nursery, no paint on the walls, but a room filled with color, homemade art, and lots of love. Therefore the serious nursery work will go down here in Tennessee. While my grandmother was here, she painted the nursery. I love, love, love that three generations of love will make this nursery a special place for our little darling to call home {for a few months anyway}.
We went with vintage gray on the walls and plan use navy in the room as well. Based on if we have a little lady or a little gent, we will accent with coral or green. It's been so much fun to look at nurseries and discuss ideas. Currently we have a few projects lined up including stenciling one wall in the room, painting a dresser, and recovering a rocking chair. So excited to share our projects as they come along.
That's just a few of the details we've worked out so far. There is many more decisions to be made, both big and small, difficult and easy. But so far, I have to say, this is my favorite adventure yet.
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