Peanut Update

So just a quickly update on the new little peanut.  I am now 12 weeks, which is nice to reach.  This is officially the furthest pregnancy for a singleton baby, which is quite happy!  We just had our ultrasound checking for specific body parts (i.e. 4 chambers to the heart, 2 parts of the brain, 2 legs, 2 arms, stomach, bladder...etc) and everything looks really good.  We thought for a moment that we might find out the gender, but from one angle the tech said it definitely looked like a girl and from another angle, definitely a boy, so we will continue to wait and see if we get to know in another month.  Because this pregnancy is so high risk, I get to have either a heartbeat check, or ultrasound every 2 weeks.  It's alot of appointments which is a pain, but it is so nice to not have to wait a long time and wonder in between if something may be going wrong.

In the meantime, I got some interesting news about me.... I have been feeling just absolutely exhausted lately!  I assumed it was a normal part of the joys of pregnancy added on top of the joys of being a mother to a newborn and just having recently returned back to work to boot.  Well, turns out, that there is a bigger explanation for it. Apparently, I have a disorder called Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.  The diagnosis comes because the mono virus (which I have had like 10 times in my life) currently has flared up along with some other virus I had never heard of, nor knew I had.  Together it means pretty much... I am exhausted!  I do feel very blessed though that I have a job where I can sit at a desk and relax rather than be up and about.  When I googled this disorder, I found that less than 1/5 of people with this disorder are able to work full time!!!  That is huge!  So many are only able to work part time or are on disability all together because this disorder is so debilitating!  After work, I am incredibly spent and it takes all remaining energy to rock Xander to sleep at night if I am lucky, But I am so very grateful that I can continue to work and provide financially for our family and I am even more grateful that I have such an amazing husband who has stepped in to fill all the gaps where I am lacking and who is taking such good care of Xander, both during the day while I am at work, and at night when I just so tired!  He truly is amazing and does it without even complaining! Despite the hardships right, I definitely can still see the Lord providing for us and I am so very grateful for those blessings!

A Super Sweet Mothers Day Gift!

This power point came from Xander's amazing birth family.  It was the sweetest thing ever!!!!  This Mothers Day was such a sweet one anyway, but this absolutely made my day!  I was totally taken aback at the thoughtfulness, This family already gave us a beautiful baby, but we absolutely love that they joined our family too and that they so sweet and wonderful!  We couldnt love them more!  PS... I totally bawled when I saw this!
Happy mother’s day from fl fam

View more presentations from mtymouse83.

Mothers Day 2012

This Mothers Day is one in which I have much to be thankful for!  Mothers day has generally been an incredibly difficult day for me.  Either I was wishing I could have children without the ability to get pregnant or mourning the loss of our boys and other miscarriages.  This year, I have the sweetest little thing on the planet who I get to be the Mommy too!  What more could I ask for?!!?  And on top of that, We are expecting another little baby!  Blessings are abounding!  This day is a great day, and I am so thankful to be able to feel that way.  Because Mother's day falls on Sunday and our church is early, Eldon began celebrating me on Saturday when we had time to relax and enjoy.  Eldon made me a yummy breakfast of French Toast (one of my favorites).  We then got to have fun with this cute smiley guy doing his photo shoot for birth mothers day.   Most of the rest of the day was spent cuddling and just hanging out with each other, until we went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner with Eldon's family to celebrate his big brother's birthday.  Laughs and jokes all around!

  On Sunday, Eldon spoke in church.  He did an amazing job (had me either laughing or crying the entire time!)  He was so very sweet and thoughtful to me and to our mothers in his talk.  He also had a special section dedicated to Xanders birth mother, which was so important and special to me!  We also got to see both our moms and spend time with each of them.  We also had the wonderful opportunity to skype with our nephew who is on his mission.  That was a nice treat!  After that, we went and spent some time at the cemetery and brought new flowers for the twins grave site.  This was Xanders first visits to his big brothers grave site.  It was a very peaceful feeling to have Xander there with me and it made it much more barable to be there. We finished out the day with dinner at my parents house.     

It was a beautiful day and I am so very grateful for the difference this year and for the joy that it brought.  I am so grateful to be a mother!  I couldnt ask for a better job title!  It means the world to me!  I am also so grateful to my mother and to Eldon's mother.  We love our families and definitely would be missing out on so much without them.  Happy Mother's Day all!

Birth Mother's Day

The day before Mothers Day is Birth Mothers day.   I think it is extra important that these amazing women get more than one day to be celebrated!  We absolutely adore Carolyn as a person, and cherish her as a dear friend, let along celebrate her courage in making the choice to place Xander in our family.  She is our Hero and I just dont think we could love her more!

 To celebrate Birth Mothers Day, we found this amazing shirt at the R House Couture.  The statement on the shirt says : Adoption: Adored and loved by both my families

This is exactly how we want to raise our son, to know that he is loved and cherished by many, especially those whose sacrifice allowed him to become a part of our family (a fact which we will be eternally grateful for!)  Xander will always know the miracle of his birth and how he came to be a very special part of our family.  He will always know and celebrate his birth mother and his birth father and their family members.  He will know that he came from amazing people, who love and care for him and who trusted us with his care.  Adoption is something that is celebrated and cherished in our home and Xander will always know he is special.  We absolutely love adoption and we absolutely love his birth mother!  Sorry this post is a little late Carolyn (but you got the pics personally).  Happy Birth Mothers Day and Mothers Day!  We hope you feel loved and cherished as well.

Enjoy the pictures of the cutest thing on the planet!

Surprise, Surprise

So.... many people know someone that this type of thing happens to, we kinda hoped it would happen to us, but we never thought it would be so quickly.  If you havent made any guesses yet, and dont already know.... I am pregnant!  Yes, once again we are embarking on the journey of maternity.  We are hopeful that Xander was the miracle we needed in our family to open the doorway for others.  So far everything is looking really good, but only time will tell if this is the magic one that sticks!  This is Number 8 biologically for us.  All the other pregnancies, (other than lucky #7) were conceived through fertility, this one.... Surprise!  That in and of itself, is quite exciting as we didnt think it was really possible for us to conceive without some medical treatments, and the last two have proven that despite the past almost 6 years of nothing.... guess what... we can get pregnant on our own!  Also, all the other losses have been completely independent of each other.  All the tests that we have been able to run show there is no reason that if everything works correctly biologically and genetically, that we shouldnt be able to produce a healthy child.  Again, only time will tell, but that news is also very hopeful.

The biggest difference this time, honestly, is Xander.  Already in the brief time he has been a part of our lives, he has given so much healing to our hearts.  It is amazing the sense of peace that comes from a sweet little spirit coming to a family.  It truly is a miracle!  The amount of love and joy that he has given so quickly, has made so much difference.  I am so grateful to him and to his birth parents for this amazing gift that was so very needed.  Dont get me wrong, everything that happened before him is still gut wrenching and so hard, but it all led us to Xander, which while an incredibly difficult road, it had such a happy ending!  Had we not suffered with infertility and loss, we never would have looked to adoption at this stage in our lives.  There is no doubt in my mind that Xander was meant to come to our family and we are so very grateful that he did.   I am still incredibly anxious with this pregnancy.... I think I always will be, but it is very different this time.  It would be terrible to lose another child and we hope that never happens again, but regardless, we have been blessed to be Xanders parents and if we never are blessed with another child, We will still consider ourselves incredibly blessed.  This feeling and attitude has helped to survive the multiple doctors appointments and the medication and waiting and especially the unknown.


So here is a picture of the little peanut.  I am 10 and a half weeks and everything looks good.  My due date is right around Thanksgiving... Nov. 27th (for now) and Xander and this little peanut will be less than 10 months apart!!!  That part is a little crazy, but when they are older, I am sure we will absolutely love that they have a sibling to be so close with!

3 Months Old

Time is flying by way too fast!!!!  Xander is growing so much it amazing.  He doesnt have another check up until 4 months, so I dont have his stats, but I wanted to keep the blog updated anyway.  Even though, I dont know his weight, I can say he is a BIG BOY!!!  He definitely doesnt miss a meal and has the rolls upon rolls to prove it!  Even though he is only 3 months old, He is already in his 3-6 month clothes and filling them out quite nicely!  We are going to have to go to 9 months clothes very very soon, but we are grateful for such a healthy baby.  Xander is also a very happy baby.  He is really starting to look at things!  He has some toys on his carseat that he loves to just sit and talk to on the drive.  Its beyond adorable!  He is laughing and cooing all the time!  Especially in the mornings, but unless its feeding time or nap time, for the most part, he is generally a very happy guy.  Xander is currently working on his trunk control.  He holds his head up really well for brief periods of time while laying on his tummy (his brain is so big, its get heavy and he has to rest before taking another peek at the world around him).  He is loving sitting on laps facing out so he can see and follows people around when they walk in front of him.  He is especially good at finding Daddy.  He loves his Daddy very much since he takes such good care of him while Im at work and searches for him constantly if he is not in view.  He is also beginning to be quite the couch potato and loves to watch the bright colors on tv.  His current favorite movie is the chipmunks great adventure (the one with the hot air balloon race- yes its old!)  But it has bright colors and fun music.  He watches this while we get ready in the morning and he seems to enjoy it in short bursts.  We are working on rolling over as well.  He can do it from his side but at this point doesnt seem motivated to roll from front to back yet, so we will keep working on it. When he is on tummy, he does act like he is already ready to start army crawling.  His coordination wont come for a while, but the desire to move and get things (like the dog) is very much there in the twinkle in his eye!!

Overall he is a healthy and happy little guy.  He has brought such joy into our home, especially during those happy smiley moments.  It just melts our hearts!  We love him so much and we are so glad he is our son!

Work Baby Shower

After returning from Maternity leave, my work was so sweet and through us a baby shower!  This was awesome to have with Xander a little older because we were able to get some things that we needed that were not just new born stuff.   They enjoyed getting to have Xander come to work as well.  All those women love it when babies come! Of course!  It was alot of fun and we so grateful for the generosity and kindness of my coworkers!