Best Holiday In a Long Time!

This Christmas and New Year’s has been the best we have had in the past two years. Two years ago, on Dec 19, I was flown into the hospital to have my daughter, at only 30 weeks. She was born on December 23rd and we stayed in the NICU until February 11th. I have a few previous posts about it all. It was a really turbulent time in our lives, but we made it through. Our daughter, just turned 2 and she is perfect, intelligent and incredible! But for the last few years, Christmas time has filled me with anxiety about the memories of what we went through.

Then, on top of all the anxiety I had last year, my entire family came down with the stomach flu on Christmas day! We spent the day, and several sub-sequential days, taking turns puking! It was awful! UGH!

So this year, we tried not to plan much, and play it by ear. Not jinx anything. But it turns out we had nothing to worry about! This year, the worst thing that happened was that my husband got a head cold! We had such a wonderful time being healthy together! We were able to go on some adventures like the Zoo and a few ghost towns.

It was wonderful!

Finding Myself Today!

Yesterday I was really struggling with the idea that I can no longer experience carefree moments or spontaneous adventures. Well, today instead of wallowing in”poor me”, I decided to be proactive! I took my daughter and husband outside and we all played in the sprinklers! It felt so great to run around in the water and laugh hysterically!

Sometimes in the rush of responsibility and parenthood I forget to find the joy in the everyday. My daughter’s laugh and her enormous smile when in tickle her! My husband’s lips on mine as he says good morning. These moments are perfect.

I need to make sure I don’t take them for granted.

Here is the smile that lights my heart on fire!

Lack of Sleep Haiku

Sleep like a baby? 

I haven’t slept in so long!

At least she is cute…

Magical Summer Nights

I love to lose myself in the nostalgic feelings of a warm summer night. The crickets chirping in the bushes, and the light wind rustling through the leaves  reminds me of a time when I had no cares or responsibilities. When anything was possible and I wrote the rules. Summers were full of endless possibilities and infinite adventures. 

My life may not be as simple now, but summer nights will always be magical for me. It helps that I am a teacher because I have the entire summer off! That is pretty magical! 

As if we were never apart

Even though my mom, dad, and brother live in Ohio and I live in Arizona, it never feels like we are that far apart when we get back together. When we are together we just pick up where we left off! Tonight, around the campfire, we shared which family vacation we liked best as children, but it was so hard to choose because there were so many! As we each shared, we all laughed at the shared memories and we realized how thankful we are for being so close. My husband enjoyed hearing the stories and being apart of tight little group. I love my family. 

My family

I have to admit, my family is pretty fantastic!  We had a very fun day  going to church and making a nice meal. I also got to meet my brother’s girlfriend, which I was nervous about! He hasn’t brought a girl home in 4 or 5 years, so this was a big deal! She was sweet and cute and I adored her! YAY! 

    
    
 

Debating

After going through the Foster Care orientation training last night, my husband and I are both in agreeance that God is leading us to foster/adopt (which is incredibly exciting). Now, the next question we need to discuss is what we are going to do about having our own child. We agree that we want to have our own baby and adopt, however, we need to decide which comes first. Biological or adoption? 

Originally, we were going to begin trying to get pregnant in March, but if we foster/adopt first then we need to push that back. But if we do biological first, then maybe we should start trying earlier? 

These are the questions my husband and I are debating. They are huge, life-changing questions and we do not want to make a decision lightly. Thank you for all your prayers and words of wisdom. If you have any comments, please let me know! 

Night!

It is that time! Time to snuggle deeply into our blankets, and shut out the world. I hope you all have a fantastic and restful sleep! 

  

Family Visits!

The school that I work at has recently switched to a modified year round schedule, so we are now on our 2 week Fall Break. I must say, I am really going to enjoy this schedule! Tomorrow, my aunt and uncle are coming to visit, from St. Louis! I haven’t seen them in a long time, so I am really looking forward to seeing them. Plus, this will be their first visit to my home in Arizona!

It will be so wonderful to be able to show them the life that I have built here, and how much I have changed over the couple years. I am pumped!

First time Gardner!

As a child, I remember going to the local nursery with my parents and picking our flowers to plant in our garden. It was always a highlight for me! Now that I have my own home, and we have repainted the house, I went out and got some plants! I can’t wait to get them in the ground!