Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Now this is some Good Mail!!!

Wouldn't it be lovely to receive a postcard from every state in the mail?
I'm hoping to have a whole set! : )
I am participating in a postcard exchange over at the Fairfield House.
Please check it out.


Monday, March 29, 2010

sweet stuff...

I am a girl.
I love girly things.
Pretty much anything, well...pretty.
frills, scallops, ruffles, flowery, and anything else you can think of when you hear the word girly.

1. GIRLY post it notes
seriously, so cute.

2. spring bird's nest decor
isn't this little doll soo sweet?

3. baby blankets
i love all things sweet!

here are just a few of some recent sweet stuff.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Bear + Babe = Fun Duo!

This sweet babe loved our big teddy bear that my m-i-l gave us at the shower a few weeks ago.

This boy is too sweet! I can't believe how BIG he's getting.
The teddy bear was just a big body pillow for him!
So cute!
Look at that expression. It looks like he's found a best friend! : )
Yep, they are buddies now!

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Good Mail is BACK....

in ABUNDANCE!!!
Write after I wrote this post awhile back, I got several good things in the mail!

First was from a sweet friend who I used to live with a few years back. She wrote me the kindest things about this little blog and how she missed our late night talks! I think she said she even missed my back rubs. Yeah, I'll admit it. I'm pretty well known for my back rubs. My husband, family and close friends might also I'm well known for begging for my shoulders or feet rubbed! : )

Since she was thoughtful enough to send snail mail instead of just a regular old email, I decided to send her a Good Mail too!
Since, I couldn't find my old labels (I might have used them all) I decided to make some new ones.
I made three different designs! Would you like to know how easy these things are?
All ya do is use Word/Publisher and the mailing labels used for address or shipping. Either one works.
Design your labels using different colors, fonts and clip art.
Print them onto a blank sheet of labels and then cut them out.
That's it! Then write a sweet note to a friend and stick it on the front or back!
I'm pretty positive it will bring a smile or two!
This was the second Good Mail I got this past month. I won it over at a fellow WKU Alum's blog. We've been wanting to read this book and now it's here for us to tear through! Please go check out her inspiring and challenging blog, To Build This House.
Another piece of Good Mail was from Mer all the way from South Carolina.
I guess if you can't be close in miles, you can always share good moments through pen and ink.
The label above is what I made her a few years ago.
This was her Good Mail label that she made. I love that as soon as I saw this label (before I saw the return address), I knew it was from her!

Thanks for the Good Mail, friends!

The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity. ~Walt Whitman

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

I've Decided....

this might be my spring wardrobe.

Before anyone thinks it... I know I MUST clean my mirror really soon!
I've worn this dress twice finally after it sat in my closet for oh...6 months.
pair it with a long sleeve shirt and leggins
and of course some flats
and to me you've got a winner!

What are you guys excited about wearing this summer?

BTW, Thanks for all the sweet comments and prayers regarding our baby status! : )
I know so many others are going through similar things or even tougher stuff. You guys are in my prayers too!

Monday, March 22, 2010

A post I'd rather not write...

This has been one of those posts I'd been debating on whether to write. Should I? Shouldn't I? Because when it's put out there...it's well, out there. Then you are vulnerable to every awkward comment, pushy advice, and just plain ignorant responses from people. Don't get me wrong, not that I think you guys are not sweet, helpful, and super encouraging. It's more that word travels and running into people in public sometimes produces the results I mentioned before. But like I've mentioned before on this blog, I'm trying very hard to make it about the REAL me. Not just the pretty pictures I post, the fun craft ideas, the sweet memories I share...but the hard stuff too. The Good, Bad, and UGLY is what I want to be about. Because God has given us all a story of redemption and we should be sharing it. Encouraging others through it. So here is just a slight portion of my (and our) story.

In February, I heard the word I had been dreading to hear: infertile. I mean I had thought about that word, researched that word, and knew that the possibility was high. But to basically hear it come out of my doctors mouth, it was to say the least... surreal. All my life all I've wanted was to have a family and to be a mother. Don't get me wrong, I love my husband and my life now. Nothing is really missing, but I know soo much more could be added. Obviously we are passionate about adoption and always knew we'd want to adopt. But I've always wanted to be pregnant and experience that whole kit and caboodle.

But with that one word, my dreams seemed to be snuffed out. Of course, my doctor was going on and on about mild fertility drugs and how it all works. I of course, was off in my own world thinking about how that one word was changing every dream I'd had for my life. All the thoughts of Scott's face when I would tell him we are pregnant, that first look when they put the baby in your arms, and taking them home to introduce them to their new life! She brought me back by asking one question: "Have you and your husband decided what measures you'd like to take to get pregnant?"

"Uh...well, we'd like to have a baby." is all I could get out. She went on and on about various options and how we'd need to discuss it. I asked a few questions, but no, we hadn't discussed what measures we'd like to take to get pregnant. We only had one measure in mind! ; ) and that's all we'd talked about doing while trying to get pregnant. We'd sort of counted my days and such things, but nothing regarding others joining the forces (i.e. medicine, doctors, tests, and such). I did ask for us at this time one of the key questions: money. "How much do these different options usually cost?" She just said that every insurance was different. And as quick as the appointment started, it seemed to end just as quick. Don't hear me wrong...my doctor is lovely and wonderful. I would recommend her to anyone! This post is not at all about her, but about the baby making business my body is not providing! : ) She left the room, and the nurse came in to see if I needed anything else. I asked her some more questions as I was finally coming out of my cloud of "Is this really happening?" I walked out and was talking to the billing/scheduling lady more about insurance and payment options for fertility treatments. She told me that insurances are different when it comes to paying for the medications, but they pay nothing on the tests & appointments during the treatment. That made my mind reel, and I just simply asked, "Well, will it cover today's appointment then?" She said she didn't know until she submitted it, but doubted they pay anything on it. I asked how much the appointment cost and she said $136. That is when the emotions started to come!!!! Isn't it funny how little things make the gates open for emotions that are ultimately tied to bigger issues.

Let's rewind for a minute and talk about my history & the reason I came to the doctor on this day. I've been on birth control for irregular cycle and cysts since I was 16. My first year in college, I had decided to stop taking my pill because I hated being on medicine. Well, it royally screwed up my cycle and I had missed like 6 months. Then it was doing the opposite (get my picture) for only 3 days between my cycle. YEP...you heard me right 3 days of nothing between each cycle which lasted for about 3 months until they stopped it with medicine. Anyways, after this episode they did some tests and determined I had PCOS (Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome). Since then, I've stayed on some form of birth control or hormone to help regulate everything. Switching doctors at college, then back at home, and then to my most recent...every doctor has differing opinions on if I really have PCOS (it's a hard thing to diagnose). Flash forward several years, and I am again having the problem I had years ago with the stopping for months. THIS is why I went to the doctor. I knew they needed to make me start again: 1. for health reasons (it cannot be healthy to go without this for a long time and i was starting to feel that) 2. yes, we did want to get pregnant.

So I was a little bombarded to immediately hear the word infertile. Obviously, with my history I knew that this could be a possibility. I just thought that we might have some conversations asking us more questions and helping us make sure we were counting the days correctly. Other stuff before immediately talking fertility medicine. I asked her something along those lines, and she pretty much said that these options were our hope of getting pregnant.

Anyways, back to my breakdown in the hallway... I just couldn't believe that it was going to cost us this much for just the mild stuff. What if that didn't work? Would we go on to more extreme measures? What if... What if ... What if...

So I finally cleaned up my act, asked the nurse (who happened through the hallway) more questions, and since Scott was still at work, I went to a dear friend's house for some encouragement. She had me to take heart, believe and hope in the Lord. Her story (though different than mine) gave me hope and reminded me that doctors can't determine everything. ONLY the Lord can.

We've been so busy preparing for Fostering that I've almost been too busy to touch this raw development in our life. We know we are going to do nothing right now (besides the normal old way) to help us get pregnant. To be honest, I realized just yesterday, that I had let my heart believe that adoption and fostering will be it for us. I realized this when my sister was talking with me about a stroller. We'd been debating since not knowing what age child we'll foster, which kind to get. She said something that all of sudden made me think..."Well, you might want to go ahead and get the kind with the carrier so you'll be ready when you get pregnant."

When I get pregnant. She didn't say if..she said when. She knows our situation and it made me realize that I had just assumed we would never get pregnant without going through all the fertility meds help.

I had seemed to even be content with it. Being content is obviously NOT a bad thing, but I think it was a faith issue here. I had given up faith that God CAN make us pregnant. I know whether God decides to give us a child through my belly, fostering (for just awhile) or adoption that HE IS IN CONTROL and can do AMAZING things. I just have to hope and trust in HIM.

Anyways, that is just part of our story. I'm so interested...what is your story? Is it infertility, cancer, dealing with the loss of a loved one, singleness, living with fear of the unknown, debt, struggling marriage, or the million other things in this world that leave us longing and hurting.

Let's all take heart, believe God, and wait on Him to write the rest of our story instead of presuming we know what He'll do.

"Now to him who is able to do far MORE abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be the GLORY in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen."
Ephesians 3:20-21



Sunday, March 21, 2010

Surprise Shower!!!

My sweet family surprised Scott and I with a Baby Shower for our future Foster children.
They led us to believe we were having Family pictures and dinner together. To our surprise, we found several of both sides of our family and close friends there.
We were obviously very excited.
They did a Raggedy Ann and Andy shower theme since we did not know if we will have a boy or girl (or both) foster child(ren). And we used red gingham in the nursery.
We were blessed with soo many presents and are very THANKFUL!!!
My niece Emerson helped and was so cute carrying the presents to us. The little doll I am holding in this picture was mine from when I was little. I didn't add a picture of this, but my sis-in-law gave us a poem about Fostering that had us all in tears (this is why i'm not posting a pic...I'm not a pretty crier). Everyone made this day so special!
The food was also really good. Shower food (finger food/appetizers) are seriously some of my favorite foods! But I only captured the yummy desserts. These were made by my German sister (a girl who came to live with my family for johnah's senior year that left our sister), Nina. She is seriously is a chef...seriously. She went to school in Germany and is always bringing us delicious treats. Aren't they the cutest.
These are my sis-in-law's famous red velvet cupcakes (look at that homemade icing)!
My sis's famous sugar cookies (that we used as our wedding favors with a tag that said "life is sweeter together"). They are definitely my favorite cookie ever!
We couldn't feel more grateful for all the AMAZING support given to us during this journey.
The Man and his Mom with one of her gifts to us. Isn't that bear soo cute and uh,, sooo big.
don't worry, we found a spot for it!
A few of the amazing women in my life!

Thank you Johnah, Moma, and everyone else who made us feel soo special, supported, and LOVED!

Saturday, March 20, 2010

I like things old...

My whole life has been like this... I enjoy things old. That have history or lots of livin in them. For instance, when I was a child my friends and I used to play in my Daddy's old house at the end our lane. You see my Daddy grew up in a 2 room house...YES, a TWO room house. His dad, 2 brothers and him grew up in a house with just a kitchen and then one larger room to sleep/live in. The bathrooms were outside. Well, it is still on our property and has since became less dependable to go inside or I'd go back and take pictures now. While we were growing up, our family would use it for somewhat of storage purposes. It was perfect for little ones to play and use their imaginations. I remember thinking we were like the Box Car children who lived on our own out in the woods. It is really a magical sort of place in my memories!

Anyways, back to present day, I still like old things. I love thrifting around with my husband and on with my Moma too. Even our house has some livin to it. It was built in 1953, and was owned by only ONE family before us. I love that. Sometimes I like to imagine what it was like for that family. Their names were the Van Conia's and they had four children (2 boys and 2 girls). I can see those children running around the house and up & down the stairs.

And there is the one spot in our house that I just love.
The little phone nook.
Do you see it there above our hamper?
It's a little cozy spot that you usually only find in mid-older homes where a phone can sit.
Well, we don't have a land line as most don't any more since cell phones took over! : )
But couldn't you just see Mrs. Van Conia sitting there chatting away to a girlfriend about how her homemade jam didn't thicken up just right or how her husband was giving her a break by playing with the children outside after dinner.

Ok, maybe I'm the only crazy person who imagines such things. But I do.

BTW, this hanging above that sweet little nook. It was a wedding gift, and I just love it. It is by none other local artist, Kelly McLelland. She's amazing, really!
Since we do not sadly have a land line where I can chat away to my girlfriends on the hall stool, I put our picture here and
this sweet little bird that my parents gave me for Christmas. Isn't it soo cute. It holds a tea light.
This is another old piece that if you remember my very kind sis-in-law got the Man for Christmas. We have fallen in love with it. It's so deep and the back is high for tall people like my Man. She bought it from some old family friends. What tales that chair has heard I'm sure.

If only it could talk.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Home Study and My Craziness...

Wanna hear the most random story ever...

ok, good...that is what i thought!

well, it starts with us making the appointment for our Home Study.
We had it set for about two weeks in advance, and were anxiously preparing for it. We had heard some of the things they check for. Some things we already had done, but we've never had children full time in our home so we had some stuff to do. I cleaned out our hall linen closet (I must show pictures soon...too bad I didn't take before pictures) and moved our medicine to the very top shelf. We also put on some cabinet safety pulls, outlet covers, and door knob cover thingys. Anyways, a few days before our Home Study, I started to smell something when I would come in our back door. Now I grew up in the country, and I swore to Scott that it had to be a dead mouse somewhere. Well, the smell obviously got worse over the next day. Finally, my husband went under the house to find we had a dead opossum. Yep, you heard me. Dead Opossum. It must have gotten under the house from a hole near our heat/air unit and then couldn't get back out. Ok....now a normal person would have rescheduled the Home Study. But I assumed it would all be taken care of by the appointment. Wrong. So our poor social worker had to endure the nastiest of all nasty smells. I was soo embarrassed. Anyways, everything went fine.

The dead oposum is gone. our house now smells back to normal. And our worker was gracious and the Home Study seemed successful. But it was for sure a nutty day. I got a major headache...maybe due to stress. maybe the smell. I almost forgot about a meeting at work so I didn't get to our house until right before the scheduled Home Study.

But I did have a bright spot. My Moma went to my house to make sure Scott had help to get things straightened up and see that the bed was made. She also brought us some flowers to cheer up the house...even if it was stinky.

They are beautiful.
All these flowers lately are doing me some good. Making me soo excited for spring.
I might blow this one up.

Now that the study is done, we have just a few more steps. Almost there. Maybe another month is what I'm thinking. Maybe longer. But our worker did say we are eligible to do respite care now. That's cool.

I really need to share pics from our sweet shower. I've been trying to find a home for all the different items. It's slowly working their way into every corner, nook and cranny in our house.

Here are just a few shots of how our home is changing to get ready for the child(ren) that we will get to help.
bottles we got at the shower...washed them up.
There are soo many little parts that are going to be soo hard to keep up with. : )
Then there is our fabulous car seat that my Moma and Daddy got us. It is really great because it goes from 5lbs. to like 45lbs. Since we have no idea what size child we might get, this is a great gift.

Just as we are making homes for all the stuff they might need, I've really been praying that God will also be preparing the spots in our hearts and family that these child(ren) might also fit into.


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