Weekly (monthly) Update

Now... for the update.

It's been a busy few weeks (as you can imagine) around this house. I have had lots of doctor's appointments since the fertility clinic we used to help us get pregnant with the boys allows former patients to come for early OB care when this happens. It was nice to see everyone there again and lovely to get those early sonograms.

I've also been having higher than normal blood sugar. My endocrinologist had me start keeping track after I found out I was pregnant since I had gestational diabetes last time and I've had a blood test that put me in the prediabetes range. My fasting blood sugar is higher than normal almost everyday and we're working on that. I'm having to watch what I eat and take insulin. All of this is very disappointing to me. My weight doesn't put me in a high risk category and I don't have much of a family history, except having had gestational diabetes. I just hate having to monitor my carbohydrate intake, but it is important for my longterm health and the health of new baby, so I'm going to do what I have to! Besides my fasting blood sugar, everything is fine and I'm hoping hoping hoping that after this baby is born that my body returns to normal, though I think that this may just be something I have to deal with if not in the immediate future, then over time.

Other than that we've been just living.

We had a very small party with another family for mister W's birthday. It was a couple of weeks late, they got sick and then we got sick, but we finally pulled it off.













Both miss L and mister W got presents, which is just beyond thoughtful, and both enjoyed them.



Even little Ben got a gift. I can't think of a more perfect little guy with a perfect gold heart. Happy first birthday in Heaven little man.



We have had our typical hair doing days.



We've had our typical playing days too. I love how well they play together.



I love that stage when babies start showing themselves. Mister W is a boy who likes to put things in other things. He does it with anything he finds, including little people.



We were a little sick in there somewhere.



Miss L is going through a dress wearing ballerina phase. This is a photo of her dancing.



This is her bow.



Mister W did his first finger painting art project while miss L expertly painted with brushes.

















We even had some nice weather for the year's first bike ride. Miss L still LOVES her tricycle.



...and mister W has inherited the car.



We got an easel and it has been a favorite toy ever since. I love seeing what miss L comes up with to draw.



We rearranged our living room and it's the best! Mister W helped his dad put together a new tv table.



We played even more! This was their "house." Miss L is usually the mom and mister W is the brother. :o)



Mister W got his first black eye though it doesn't show up well in this photograph. I do love the faces he makes. This "O" mouth face is one he does all the time. I love it!







He's also still making cute messes when he feeds himself.



Miss L is just cute.



My mom and dad came for a visit.

We visited an aquarium.







Miss L loved watching the guy throw grubs into the tank for the fish and turtles to eat.



We also went to visit some family in North Carolina while they were here. We always do fun stuff with them and this visit was no exception.

We saw horses training for a race.







We saw some very tall pine trees.



We watched my nephew run and miss L decided that when she gets big she wants to jump the "turtles."



We played with cousins.



Miss L even shot this photo of herself in a mirror.



...and that's about it! Mister W is taking steps, but not walking so let us hope he does that soon. I'll keep you posted!

See you soon!!!

A little announcement

Okay... it's been forever.

I'm going to start with this tonight and then tomorrow do the update because I have a little something I have to get out.

Mister W has something that he wants to announce.

He's going to be a...



He's so excited he's dancing!





He isn't the only one who is excited though. Miss L is used to being the big sister. In fact, I'm pretty sure she's the BEST big sister there is, so obviously she's excited too!





In fact, we're all pretty excited.



It's hard to believe that just about four years ago a doctor told me I'd never get pregnant with my own eggs. Honestly, that was a blessing to us. Without that news we never would have adopted miss L and our lives just wouldn't be what they are. Please don't misunderstand me. Miss L is a HUGE blessing to us, but we don't believe that God creates the suffering of the loss of infertility or adoption, but rather through the aspects of loss in those places creates something good.

Brad and I had talked about having more children. Obviously Ben leaves a hole in our hearts that cannot be filled by having a hundred more children, but it seemed that our family here on earth would easily fit three children. We have always talked about adopting again (and still do!) and that seemed to be the option that made the most sense. Our genetic issues are dicey and we definitely don't want to have another child that has to suffer through a heart defect. Plus, it's not like having biological children was exactly natural for us, either. No matter... we had plenty of time!

You know that phrase that goes something like, when we make plans, God laughs? :o)

Just around the time of mister W and Ben's first birthday I discovered I was pregnant. It was sort of a shock. We'd always joked about it happening and I think we'd always hoped that it might, even if that were a remote hope. We knew the timing was interesting too. It was our own little miracle delivered near Ben's birthday and I'm entering my second trimester right around the anniversary of his death.

How can we not be overjoyed? How can we not see this as an amazing gift? We are relishing the wonderful surprise in all of this. What an amazing God we have and we are so thankful for this blessing.

We are a bit nervous, of course. We'll have our first fetal echo in a couple of weeks. Hopefully everything will be fine. Ben's defect was part of a family of defects called left ventricular outflow tract defects. They range from defects that you may not even know you had to Ben's defect, Hypoplastic Left Heart. The chances of our having another child with a defect in that family according to the cardiologist is around 10%. According to the geneticist we saw in the hospital... 10% to 35%. (of course when I had both those conversations I thought... don't need this information cause that's not going to happen! ;o) We're just praying and praying that nothing is wrong. I'm not sure how we'd survive all of that again, but I know that it is what it is and we'll deal with whatever we need to. Obviously we'll keep everyone posted.

I have about a thousand photos to share. I know I've been gone too long, but it's late and I'm TIRED! :o) See you tomorrow!

Weekly Update (x3, oh dear!)

It's been a long time and a lot has happened since I last updated.

After we got home from Miami we had a whirlwind week full of doctor's appointments (more about that later) and laundry. We had a lot to do because on July 4th we headed to the beach for our family vacation.

We stayed in South Carolina and rented a little place next door to some friends who vacation there every year. L noticed the water in the lagoon behind the house right away and it was one of our favorite things to look at. The best part was that an alligator lived in that lagoon and would sometimes swim right past our back door.



L loved checking that alligator out!



I was just a little worried about her getting too close to the water.

It's hard to take the camera down to the beach because of the sand and everything else, but one night both families went down to take a walk on the beach. It was a perfect opportunity to take a few photos without too much danger of the camera being destroyed.

Here are both girls running in the water.



L walked right up and stood right in this stranger's beach chair. Luckily they weren't around to be bothered.



The lens fogged up when we took it out of the bag, but I love this shot of the laughing shoulders. It's what being at the beach is all about.



It was super windy, but L didn't seem to mind.



Both girls loved watching this wind surfer.



L found herself a little puddle and we knew that we were not even going to be able to keep her dry after this.





I think everyone enjoyed the wonderful evening.



Sweet Baby C even had a wonderful time.



There was a lot of running as you'd expect with a couple of preschoolers on the beach.





There was even a little flying through the air.



...and even some remnants of sand castle conquering.



L loved the beach. I have to say that I spent most of my vacation sleeping, but what's wrong with that? :o) We had such a wonderful wonderful time sitting in the sun and swimming in the surf.

On Tuesday we went into Charleston from the beach to visit the Children's Museum. There was a special invasion of pirates that day and we were excited to see them come into the museum.

L made a pirate hat.







Some kids went all out with the pirate dress.



And... just when we thought we would melt, the pirates made their appearance!



They then opened the museum and we went in to play.



L had a great time!



We found a little kid area too, and I think it might have been the favorite place in the museum!



We had a great time, and after having been gone for the second half of June and the first half of July, we decided to head back a day early. I was feeling so tired and worn out and poor L was very ready to be home. It was the best vacation!! I was sad to see Brad go back to work!

On Monday after we got back we started another round of doctor's appointments. Way back in June we decided to do a frozen embryo transfer. We had embryos leftover from our last IVF cycle and were waiting to start the adoption process until mid-summer and decided we might as well just give it a shot and use up the embryos we had. We were definitely hopeful, but fully expecting the same results we'd gotten before and we were fine with that. We knew that we'd be parents again through adoption and even though we'd really felt like we'd been led to do the IVF cycle, we also knew that there was no way to know why we'd done it, though we felt like there was definitely a reason. We went forward with the frozen cycle quietly.

Well... we got results we never expected. I ended up with a positive pregnancy test just before we went to Miami. We didn't get our hopes up because we didn't know if it would last, but blood test after blood test kept my numbers rising higher and higher. Finally, having been farther into a pregnancy than we'd ever been before, we headed into our very first ultrasound on June 30th. The doctor found two egg sacs. We were pregnant with twins!!!!!

It's impossible to believe, really. It's truly a miracle. We never ever thought that we'd be going through this experience, but we also know that God can do anything. We are so blessed to be able to go through this special life experience together as a family.

When we got back from the beach we had another ultrasound at 8 weeks. It was amazing to see how much they'd changed and it was amazing to see them again.

Here is baby A. You can see the head is down and the leg and arm buds.



Here is baby B. You can see the head is up.



Here they are together!



Our house is about to be a whole lot busier! Although for now, it's mostly a whole lot sleepier with strange eating habits! :o)

I have to admit I'm a little nervous about the family dynamic of bringing in two more babies into this house where L now reigns supreme. She is such a trooper who adapts well to new situations. She is going to be a great big sister! As my first born though, I don't ever want her to feel displaced, or like she's the odd one out. I'm so desperately wanting to make sure that she always feels loved the way she does right now. I'm reading up on this and trying to make sure that our very unique family dynamic always makes L feel special and not different. I often tell people that being a family formed through adoption is so much more the same (as bio families) than it is different. I know that there are tons of families with biological and adoptive children together. I just want to make sure that ours is successful! That little girl fills my heart with so much love it wants to burst. I want her to always know that no matter how many other little children there are in this house (and our plan has always been and continues to be to adopt again in the future) that she will always be that for me. She's the most precious thing on earth.

This week my close friend Wendy came to visit. I love Wendy. She's one of those friends that no matter how long it is between visits we pick right back up where we left off. L loved her too. We had the best time the past few days. Now... it's back to normal! We're going to be getting in the routine of things right after our lunch and afternoon nap!

We'll have more next week! See you then!