Almost at midway point

I am amazed at how fast time has gone. We're approaching week 20 and God continues to be very good to us. The baby continues to grow, Mimi is getting just a little bigger each week. Her last weigh in was at 118.5, from her starting weight of 112.5. 6 pounds is pretty good since they say the average gain is around 20 lbs. My guess is that the weight will start coming on during the second half when the baby begins to really grow quickly and exponentially.

We recently had dinner with Evelyn, Justin, and other co-workers of Mimi. Evelyn is about 2 months ahead of Mimi in her pregnancy. It is pretty funny because they are doing all the research on child care, stollers, cribs, etc. All these things that we will need to be doing very soon too. Luckily, we keep in close contact and can benefit from their research.

Mimi and I have been a little bit lazy on researching these things. I think we both are pretty busy with work that we really fail to address the needs of the baby at this particular time. I would not say that it means we don't care, I think it is not having the full mindset that we are going to have this baby and it is coming is about 5 months. One of the first things we need to do is get our names on the waiting list for these day care centers. The waiting time is terribly long, and so everyone always says we need to get our names on the list. In all honesty, I would rather keep my baby at home, hire a nanny and see if my parents can be around to monitor what goes on in the home. If my parents were not around, my paranoid thought pattern would be to hire a nanny, and then rig the house with cameras in each room that I could then view from a personal website and monitor every so often. The latter is going a little bit too far, but that would be interesting.

I'm also realizing that we might want to take a class on birthing. I'll be the first to acknowledge that I don't know much about it. I have seen a woman giving birth once in my life and it certainly was interesting. I just want to make sure that I'm prepared for our own child. I guess this is where reading the material that Mimi has for me would be helpful. So this is kind of funny. Mimi said that she knew I had not yet read the section of the book for dads. I asked her how she knew and she said that when she was younger, she would put a string in the book as a marker, and if the string was no longer there then she knew the book was read. In that little body of hers is a mind that is full of traps and schemes to know information. There are other things that I would share about how she finds information, but I cannot post them here. However, if you are reading this, you know what I'm talking about when I say that you are good at finding out information.

I continue to struggle with getting my work stabilized. In fact, the further I go with these projects, the deeper I find myself. For instance, the private practice situation has a few promising leads, but it might take a large effort for me to follow these leads. It is through Seaton Hospital. I also met with the president of the San Mateo County Psychological Association and she encouraged me to pursue assessments for adult ADHD. This is actually a relatively untapped market and could be a strong niche for me. Then there is the desire to pursue psychological consultation services to board and care facilities with Ton, which is an interesting endeavor unto itself. I agree that this could be very lucritive, but a large amount of work that I just don't think I'll have the time for. I found out recently, that a 44 bed board and care facility charges 5500.00 per person. I calculated it out to be about 2.9 million per year, not including all costs involved to run the place. That seems like an awefully large sum of money. This is something to consider in the long run, but something to do with a few people who actually have capital. I can then lend my expertise in this area. I guess the thing of it is, when the baby comes, I must shift my attention from the work to the home. I have to and I must put the family as priority. God knows that I enjoy my work, but the family must come first. The home is my sanctuary, where I can find peace, safety, and security. For those who don't have that, I can see how life might be very difficult. This is why I can never let this leave my mind, that home is where I need to put my family first with God as our leader, and make this the priority of my life.