2015 Recap (Part 2)

High:

Micah forever became a Hague! A good friend who has a law degree but normally stays home with her two sweet baby girls offered to finalize our adoption of Micah, and we gladly took her up on it. It made an already fun day even more fun having a familiar face there, especially since Jeremy couldn't be there in person. The paper trail to get his new birth certificate has been an adventure. We're still waiting on that months later, but we are ecstatic that Micah is officially ours forever.

 

High: 

Daddy came home! A sweet friend took pictures and helped us welcome Jeremy home. I'm so grateful! Everyone was super excited to have him home, and it really was one of the easier of the transitions that we've had with this sort of thing. I mentioned in the first part of the recap how we've learned some things along the way, and one of those things is that the transition of him coming home is made easier when we've left space for him while he's gone. This works both ways, as Jeremy is inundated with five more people than he's used to having around all of a sudden. It's not all roses, as you can imagine. Transitions are always hard, but we settled into our normal routine again fairly quickly.

High:

This one started as a low because Jeremy missed our 10th anniversary in August but ended with a high because we coordinated and planned and plotted, and with the help of both of our families, we took a 10 day second honeymoon to Venice, Croatia, Turkey, and Greece on Royal Caribbean Cruise Line. It was the most relaxation that I've had since maybe our first honeymoon. Although I used #secondhoneymoonsarebetterthanfirsts the whole time because truly, getting to spend time with just Jeremy in this stage of life is super fun. We're at this sweet spot in marriage and life. Yes, the kids are chaotic. And yes, our life holds all kinds of uncertainty most of the time. And yes, we still have our fair share of disagreements from time to time. But we are also at the point of marriage where we know each other well. We have faced obstacles and disagreements and generally have a better understanding of how to come at those now. We have a better understanding of what it takes to do this whole marriage and parenting thing; putting God first, putting the other person first as well, and managing our expectations. We fail at this time and time again, especially when there are four other little people thrown into the mix along with crazy work schedules and just life. So this second honeymoon was needed, appreciated to the utmost, and hopefully was used wisely. We talked through a few hard topics and discussed how we felt loved by the other and what we could do to love each other more as we go into the next ten years. And we laughed, a ton. 

Our view of the canal from our hotel in Venice. 

 Sailing away from Venice on the cruise ship.

Walking where Paul walked in Ancient Ephesus (a surreal moment for sure).

Our cruise ship anchored in the sea off of the Greek Island of Santorini.

Gorgeous, breathtaking views from the village of Oia on Santorini.
(With a donkey thrown in for good measure. Because when they say you shouldn't try walking down the stairs because the donkeys are aggressive, you should listen.)

There was so much beauty, but it was the beauty in honor of God in cathedrals and churches in every area that we visited that caught me off guard and had me in awe. That, along with the wonderful people we met in each place that we went, was definitely my favorite part of the trip.

High:

We celebrated Joshua's 5th birthday this year with a fun ride on the trolley in downtown Little Rock and lunch at a restaurant in town called All Aboard where trains round the ceiling and deliver your order. We've never done either one of these popular Little Rock attractions, and it was a huge hit. Can you tell from Joshua's face?

     

High:

We love fall in Arkansas! It's one of our favorite times of the year to be outside enjoying the beauty that God has created. I normally make the kid's Halloween costumes, but with our trip and general busyness this fall, store bought came to the rescue. We had a band of superheroes join us this Halloween and were invited over to a friends for their annual Halloween bash. All of the kids were adorable in their costumes, riding around our friend's neighborhood on a hayride.

Low:

Micah had a liver biopsy because his liver enzymes have been elevated since birth. He was a champ through the whole thing, making friends with all the doctors and nurses like he does with his sweet smile and charming personality. All of his blood tests and ultrasounds have shown a perfectly normal liver, but we should find out the results soon.

High:

Christmas in Pennsylvania and New Years with family in Gatlinburg. Overall this year, a reoccurring theme has been family. We have had so much support from them this year and have had so many wonderful opportunities to spend time with them. I hope we don't ever take this for granted. We are grateful for the visits and ability to visit family, for their willingness to step in and help take care of kids for health related issues and just for us to get away. We are currently in Pennsylvania visiting with Jeremy's parents and his sister who is also here visiting, and we'll be headed to Gatlinburg with my side of the family for New Years. There may not be snow on the ground outside, but there is fun inside with the train around the Christmas tree to entertain everyone, a fire in the fireplace to sit around, and someone to always play a game of hide and seek or go on a scavenger hunt with. We also made our annual trip to the mall to visit Santa. 

 Kirsten did not want anything to do with jolly old St. Nick. 

Can't wait to see what 2016 holds! Probably some more highs and some more lows, but hopefully more blog posts!

2015 Recap (Part 1)

2015 has been a great year for the Hague family! Our verse for this year was Proverbs 3:5-6. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and and He will make your paths straight." This verse has been posted to the mirror in my bathroom since January, reminding me daily that my own understanding is not what I should be clinging to. Instead, I should be trusting the Lord in everything, acknowledging Him in everything. That's an easy thing to want to do but a very hard thing to act out daily. Thankfully, I'm not doing this on my own. We've had some really big highs this year and a few lows as well as you can't live life without some of those thrown in. And as a good friend recently pointed out to me, we definitely have had a lot of situations this year where we've had to trust the Lord and do just what this verse asks. I pray that we've lived this verse out this year as we've walked in those situations. As we near 2016 and seek out a new verse to put up on our mirror, I decided that we should post some of our highs and lows here since I haven't updated the blog since bringing home our precious little boy Micah in April. 

High:

We brought our Micah home in April! Everyone in our family adores this little guy, and we couldn't quite imagine life without him. I thank God daily that he let me be his mama. Micah definitely has his own little fan club by way of Kirsten, Joshua, and Caleb. They love their baby brother! Kirsten especially adores him and wrote a book in her first grade class recently about her favorite day ever, naming the day that we adopted Micah as her favorite. Most of the time I spend my time trying to keep them from squishing him because they love him so much, which is far better than the alternative of them not liking him and me trying to persuade that. I should start counting the times I say "careful" or "gentle" each day! 

High:

Kirsten had a great time with Jeremy at the Daddy/Daughter Dance on Valentine's Day while I got to go to the IF:conference at Fellowship Bible in Little Rock. This was a win all around since Kirsten is a big fan of Daddy, and I loved being able to spend some time with a great group of women learning and growing in the Lord. Kirsten also had a great end of the year in Kindergarten and got the award in her Kindergarten class for being the Cheerleader in class, always cheering others on for their accomplishments. This isn't surprising at all since she is also the biggest cheerleader in our house. When someone else does something great, she's the first to give praise. I kind of love that about her!

Low:

We said goodbye to Jeremy as he left for four/five months. Life without Daddy around is never easy. We all miss him like crazy when he's gone. This was our third go around at this type of thing, though, so I feel like we've learned some things along the way to prepare us. Keeping space for him in our lives, keeping him in the loop and involved in parenting decisions is never easy on the front end, but it always pays in the long run. So while we missed him a ton, we kept things going with tons of help. And although I breathed a collective sign of relief each night when everyone was asleep, we made it through. We also had tons of people praying for us and tons of people helping us through this. One sweet family brought us dinner one night each week, every single week without fail. Others invited us out at every turn, and we had a steady stream of family coming and going all summer long. 

High:

We celebrated Kirsten's 6th birthday and Caleb's 3rd birthday with grandparents who came in to help us celebrate! Jeremy's parents came to celebrate Kirsten's birthday, and my mom came to help me throw Caleb's party. Every other year we throw a party for our kids, and their off year is spent doing something fun with just our family. Kirsten wanted to paint, so she painted a pink elephant to celebrate this year right before Jeremy left. When Grandpa and Grandma came into town, she got to celebrate again by going to the zoo. Who wouldn't want to celebrate turning 6 twice? Caleb loves dogs, so his 3rd birthday party theme of "If You Give a Dog a Donut" was easy to come up with. Friends came over, we ate donuts, read the book, went on a scavenger hunt, and ended by decorating kites that everyone got to take home. He was a big fan of his donut shaped cake!

High:

We went on a trip around the country to visit family right after school ended for the summer. First we stopped in Pennsylvania, and next we went to Florida. All in all, we were on the road for about a month. I had help driving on every route of our trip which was a huge blessing when it comes to traveling with four kids. As you can imagine. There were lots of rest stops, lots of bottle stops, lots of crying, lots of snacks, lots of movies, lots of food stops, and a few hotel stops on each leg of the trip, but we made it. And it was worth it. In Pennsylvania we stayed up late catching fireflies and telling jokes. We played outside every day in the kiddie pool, running around the fields, and at the park. And much to everyone's delight, we went to Idlewild, a fun amusement park that is just for kids. In Florida, we spent tons of time at the beach, celebrated the 4th of July, and spent time with cousins at the Marine Science Center, the movies, and the Museum of Arts and Sciences. 

Low:

We spent part of our trip to Pennsylvania in the hospital. Micah was diagnosed with aspiration pneumonia and bronchiolitis during our stay in Pittsburgh, and we found ourselves with a four night stay at the Pittsburgh Children's Hospital. This was a blessing in disguise as we were surrounded by family. Jeremy's parents and sister, who was also visiting, went ahead with their vacation plans, and the three big kids did all kinds of fun things while I was free to snuggle and love on the little man. He was his happy self during the whole ordeal, and the Pittsburgh Children's Hospital was wonderful in every way. 

High:

Everyone started back to school in August! Kirsten started first grade, Joshua started pre-k twice a week, Caleb started in a three year old class twice a week, and even Micah started in a class twice a week where some wonderfully sweet grandmas love on him! He loves it, but I think they love his snuggles more!