30

This week we celebrated my 30th bday! It was tons of fun & the perfect little get away from "real life" for a sec. I love my full life, but sometimes a good ol fashion slumber party is just what you need. Especially when you are turning THIRTY....eeeek!! My sister, the fellow birthday girl, pretty much planned the whole weekend and I did what I was told in terms of party prep! But it was perfection! 

We went to chuys for dinner Friday and then came back to Bethos house for a painting party. It was SO much fun and so relaxing. Filled with lots of great conversation, wine and yummy snacks! 

After we created our masterpieces we sat around and ate and ate and ate and talked until after 3am!! 

The next morning we spent the day at the spa and relaxed some more and continued another fun day of great company with amazing friends!! 

So here's to being 30! Ok honestly, I still cringe a little. I liked how 29 sounded much much better. I tried to pretend it doesn't sound old, but it kinda does. However, I don't think I could ask for a better life. I am so blessed. My heart is just so full! And I have a heck of a lot more kids than I ever thought I'd have by 30! Ha! 

Alisha taking her peacock feather very seriously!! 

All of our amazing works of art together! 

A little break for a photo op.

Working hard! 

Sleepy heads! 

Mine was the worst one. For real! 

All of us! 

Ahhhh just post facial and massage!!

So refreshed! 

We did some damage on the cheese and wine trays!

The next day, reunited with my little preshlings! 

And just because. This was today at a play date at the church gym. Nora insisted on laying in all the baby toys, pretending to cry, and zoe "rocking" her and saying, "shhhh baby". Oh heavens! They are just too much and the perfect combo! 

So heres to a new chapter! And even though I feel old, I'm pretty sure it will be the best one yet! ❤️

THE Call!! Our referral.....

Friday night, February 13 at about 10pm we finally, after three years of waiting, got THE call! The call we have been waiting for, hoping for, dreaming about and praying for for so so long! The call setting us on our way to becoming the family of 5 we have been waiting to become! Adding that last, perfect little addition to our lives. 

So here is the story. 

Lance and I were honestly not having a super awesome night. The girls were truly in rare form. Lance was trying to get something done on the computer that was frustrating him and I was refolding a gigantic pile of laundry the girls had dumped out of my neatly folded basket. Both girls had just fallen asleep about an hour late and the house was trashed. We were just not at the top of our game and spirits were feeling a little defeated on this particular night. 

I had just finished saying "let me work on the computer it is clearly frustrating you" and as I sat down the phone rang. I looked at it and FROZE. Called Lance over and picked up the phone with a shaking hand. It was our case worker. She apologized for the late hour, but said she thought I would want the call right away! She told us that she had a referral and asked us if we wanted to move forward with her info. Duh! So she told us a little, sent a file and we waited, staring at the computer. No file. I called her back and said, "So sorry, I know it's 10:30pm but I see no file and my pinky fingers are going numb." Yes you read that right! I said those words and that was actually happening to me! What!? Odd response to excitement/shock huh!? 

She resent and then the email appeared. We were both still in shock. Is this really happening? Can we even take another kid? The ones we already have about did us in tonight! I joked with Lance before we opened the email and said, "so still want another baby!?" We laughed in a nervous/excited kind of way. Still just reeling in the emotions of the last half hour. 

And then there she was. 

Our daughter. 

No doubt about it.

Anxiety gone.

Fear gone.

Those crazy twins sleeping down the hall. Ah, they will be fine. 

That was her. 

The one we have been waiting for. 

So adorable.

So darling.

So chubby even.

The perfect baby. 

The most out of the box "birthing" experience. But that's what it was. In that moment, my third daughter was looking at me on a computer screen from across the ocean. I was a mommy to three now. I was sure of it. I was sure about her. We both were. In an instant. 

I went into crazy excited mode! Called my mom about 23x but no answer. Then I called my sister and she picked up right away. I told her that we got THE call!! She got her husband on the phone right away and was literally at our house within minutes with her referral pictures printed on card stock and displayed on our mantle. I then called my cousins and one picked up. She answered with, "you got THE call didn't you!?" Ha! It was super late at this point so it was suspicious.

The next day we "surprised" my parents with the news. The word "surprise" being used loosely bc apparently my sister text my mom the night before saying "you are gonna be sooooooooooo sorry you turned off your phone!" So she pretty much knew. But we were able to surprise them none the less and show off her pics for the first time! 

Lance's parents joined the group of "important people unable to be located" and we had to wait almost a full 24 hours to get them! They were in a conference all day and weren't available to talk! But we finally got them via FaceTime Saturday night and they were TRULY shocked!! It was funny because we were rushing to feed the girls dinner while trying to get out of the house for a Valentine's date as the girls clung to my legs because they have what I call "mascara anxiety". No joke, when the makeup comes out they know they are getting left and freak out! So when we popped the news, the chaos of our current life, mixed with the phrase "we got THE call for a beautiful baby girl!!!!" was kinda funny, but ohhhhhhh so exciting!! 

So needless to say we are all thrilled. However, these last few weeks have been the hardest of my life. Having a child across the ocean with no real timeline as to when we will get her home or what she is doing daily is very very hard. It's on my mind CONSTANTLY. I pray a lot. A lot a lot a lot. 

So now we just pray this girl home. That's all we can do. 

Posts to come soon on the process as it unfolds!! 

Thanks for sharing in our excitement!!

Love,

The happy family of 5!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Mimi seeing her 5th grandchild for the first time! 

Girls rockin their new big sister shirts before the big reveal!

Sitting in the car outside Lances office after officially accepting our referral the following Monday afternoon!! 

Valentine's Day date the night after. We were seated in the exact room and spot where our rehearsal dinner was 8 years ago. It was such a great night as we sat there counting our blessings and reflecting on the last 8 years of marriage and the fullness of our lives! 

 A picture I made us take before opening the email and seeing her face. See, don't we look worn out!? 

Mimi and Grandpa seeing her for the first time! 

Yep, I took a picture of the email before we opened it! 

Computer crashed

So I wrote a whole huge, long, totally "deep" post about our referral and the past few weeks of life since the big news! However, it's on my laptop that crashed and I'm working on recovering it. I think the raw emotion and feeling that day when I wrote it would be more true to the emotions of that day, that amazing week! So im going to try my best to get my original post back. 

But know we are so excited, scared, anxious and in awe of our awesome God!! 

I've not followed through on promised posts before (e.g. the girls first birthday, our summer vacation...) but this I WILL follow through on!!

Praise God from whom ALL blessings flow for creating this perfect baby girl! 

Hi there.

I would write a really meaningful post about life, the kids and our adoption. But honestly, we are just so ready to be done waiting, saving money and jumping EVERYTIME the phone rings. We are just ready to have our baby here. So I'll leave it at that for now!  I will say that we are having a giant garage sale at the end of the month that I will post about soon. But for now, on a more light hearted note, I am changing my hair to one of these lovely extremes Wednesday and am super excited! It was time for a change! Anyone who knows me well knows how much I love hair dye!!! Done professionally that is. 

Stay tuned. ;) 

Thoughts today.

Here is what's on my mind today! Why is adoption so expensive!? Is it satans way of keeping children oppressed or is it God's way of allowing believers the opportunity to be his hands and feet in this process? 

Regardless, it's frustrating. It's humbling, and a faith building experience and has shown us God's glory in big ways, but it's also frustrating. Really frustrating. I heard some crazy, awful, depressing statistics today about children in Honduras. There is a big need there for adoption of children. I went over to our agencies website and jumped when I saw that they had a program. Then I scrolled to the bottom of the screen and saw a big, fat, $41,999.00! Wow! 

I know only crazy people look into adopting more children before their current adoption is even done with or paid for. But I just wish it was cheaper. I wish every person who felt a pull on their heart could afford it and say "Ok God, tell me when!" 

And after hearing the above statistics I mentioned, I emailed Lance and asked him if we could consider a Honduran adoption next. He emailed back that he would be willing to "tuck it away in the back crevice of his mind!" Ha! I'll take it. 😄

That's all. 

A more positive post next time I promise. 

Midnight cooking

I am up boiling chicken at midnight. Yes, that's right. And let's be honest, this isn't the first time I have been up cooking at midnight. 

I have come to try to avoid grocery store trips with my little sidekicks lately at all costs. As I was folding laundry around 9:45 tonight and mentally going through my day tomorrow which included grocery shopping and taking a meal to a friend who just had a baby and still lives in town (some people manage to stay cool and live in the city even post kids I suppose), I decided it was just not worth it and made my list and did a 10pm grocery store run. 

The thought of dinner meltdowns stuck in rush hour traffic tomorrow delivering food practically pushed me out the door actually! 

So here I sit in my lovely toy filled house waiting for my chicken to boil. Have I mentioned how I love seeing little reminders of the little people every where I look? I don't think I will ever get tired if it! 

However I have made a New Years resolution to get more sleep. I really stay up too late, a lot! I think it's starting  to make me look old!! Seriously. But I so enjoy the calm. And once I clean up, put away laundry (or shove it out of my sight-let's be real), have my nightly date with my best friend the steam mop, do my quick Instagram scroll-obviously, and read my little bible study it's just late. 

But aside from trying to sleep these new wrinkles away, I am truly trying to spend more time just being silent and waiting to hear God. It has occurred to be rather abruptly the last few days that God is allowing me a golden opportunity to be still and hear Him. As this adoption lingers on and on and on with a truly painful silence I have gotten really good at griping and being annoyed at God for his silence. I have filled my every free moment with something to take my mind off how hard it's been to wait and have spent MUCH to little time just being still. Just being present with God. Just listening. Praying. Existing in the now with a hopeful anticipation of what is to be revealed. 

So I am trying to each day just stop and be still. Asking God what it is he is wanting me to learn in this time of silence. I'm anxiously excited to see what he is teaching me in this season! 

Happy Middle of the week friends! I'm off to chop this dang chicken and throw together some chicken pot pies. If only we could eat wheat I would make one for our family too! Chicken pot pie was one of our weekly staples before a certain small person came into our lives and seriously shook up our dinner options! ;) 

Stay tuned. I just KNOW we will have some news to share soon!! 

Toddler tantrums

So I think we have hit the "terrible twos" a little early with Nora. Bless her, but it simply pains the child to be forced to do something she didn't come up with. And don't get me wrong, I'm all for giving a kid a few choices and being flexible on activities, but sometimes the answer is just NO and that's it. This concept? Not such an easy one for my sweet Nora. 

Our current daily battle is shoes. The child only wants to wear summer sandels! Sandels that are two sizes too small and just too cold to wear in this weather. Today I was kind of over the fight so I let her take off her boots and put on her old, falling apart beach shoes. She had on her beautiful little church dress with mismatching socks and peeling water shoes! As she, sooooo happily I might add, marched to the car to go to church I just could't bear the look of the outfit. I know, I know, but sorry some things are just not ok. So I told her she had the choice to get a baby doll if she took off the shoes. She totally got what I meant, locked eyes with me and took each shoe off one by one with a look that could literally kill! She then kept here eyes locked on mine while I put on the replacement (still inappropriate, but better) shoes and we drove to church. 

One we got to church she went to the nursery and sat down on the floor and started trying to get her teacher to take her shoes off all while looking at me like "haha I found a sucker who will do what I want!" It kinda made me laugh and realize this little human of mine is hilarious and stubborn and strong willed! 

When I went to get them she waved bye bye to everyone, pointed to her feet and said "no no shoes on" and then marched her little prissy tushie down the hall!

Oh how I love her! I could go on post after post, but you get the idea! Oh toddlers, you keep us humble! 

Anyone else have shoe battles!? Bring on summer and bare feet!