Kirsten turns 5!

Is it November of 2014 already? Where did the time go? I'm sitting here writing this with coffee in my hand and deceptive sunshine streaming through the window, but I am not fooled! It's cold outside. Fall has finally hit Arkansas, and I am grateful for the changing seasons and the changing leaves. We've been a little busy with life, but I don't want it to hit 2015 before I update on the fun we've had this year. In May, Kirsten turned 5. There were five candles on her horse cake and tons of friends who helped her celebrate at her horse birthday party. 

There were horse cookies for favors, but that was literally the only thing that I prepped for the party. It was at Cedar Ridge Farms in Benton, and they provided just about everything from the horse rides, cake, and piñata to balloons, decorations, and paper products. We were excited to find them, and they did a great job! 

 Kirsten had been talking about having a pony party all year, and she was thrilled to have her friends there to help celebrate with her. Look at that face! She was pretty excited! 

 Kirsten loved looking at and petting the horses, but Joshua was brave enough to ride!

Look at him go!

This is the beautiful horse cake that they provided. 

At home we celebrated with cupcakes decorated by the birthday girl! She is becoming such a big helper in the kitchen and loves to help me bake and decorate. Look at that tongue stuck out in concentration. The cupcakes were delicious and cute, too! 

I really can't believe that I already have a five year old in the house. Time really does fly, and it's exciting to see her grow and change. I am privileged to be her mama!

An Adoption Story

 

We are so excited to announce that we are adopting! We’re in the middle of this story that has an author that is so much better at writing our lives than us. I’m really excited that I finally get to share it with all of you. Like super excited. Like a kid the night before Christmas excited.

Before Jeremy and I got married, we talked about adoption as this abstract concept that we may one day be interested in. We talked about it again when we went through some infertility problems early in our marriage, making it more of a reality than an abstract. So I guess you could say that adoption has always been a topic close to our hearts. Fast forward eight years, and we have been blessed with three adorable (well, I may be partial, but I think they are adorable) biological kiddos. Those of you who know us well know that Caleb was far from an easy baby. Bless his heart, we love him so much, but his newborn phase wasn’t a cakewalk. A common problem with preemies, Caleb was born with an esophagus that wasn’t entirely formed. The result of that was him spitting up everything, and sometimes what seemed like even more than what, he ate and endless crying from the pain that came along with that. There were so many 4am mornings cradling him while he (make that we) cried.

I say all that because when I went to a women’s conference in San Antonio with some friends when Caleb was four months old and saw a video about children who needed sponsors, my first thought didn’t seem rational. My first thought was that I didn’t just want to sponsor a child, but that I wanted to adopt a child. You’d think that after months of massive projectile vomiting, I’d be about ready to move into the next phase of life. But God had other plans.

I absolutely love that God’s way is not always the most rational way. Actually, the majority of the time it isn’t. God’s way is one of irrational love. Our God is full of boundless, completely irrational love for us. How awesome is that? And we when seek Him, His irrational love springs out of us. Praise God for that! I kept remembering the verse from James that says, “Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.” There are so many ways to go about that, and even though the path of adoption seemed a little on the crazy side, it seemed that God was leading us there. Adoption kept coming up over the next few months, rational or not, and this time I was listening.

 

About a month later, we went on a road trip to Florida, and I brought up the subject to Jeremy. We were driving on Thanksgiving Day because of the time constraints of pilot training, and the only thing open was Burger King. So over a chicken sandwich Thanksgiving meal in the car, complete with the sweet workers there wishing us a “Happy Thanksgiving” as they handed over our food, we talked through adopting. I honestly expected Jeremy to say no or at least be hesitant to the idea, but instead, he said, “Why not?” He was fully on board.  

We decided to wait until we got to Little Rock and then immediately started looking into the different adoption options…fostering, international adoption, domestic adoption. We had some ideas, some misconceptions, and there was a ton of praying going on about it all. Over the past year, God has placed some incredible people in our lives that have fostered or adopted. We have also had some really great meetings with people in the adoption field that have helped guide us. We are so grateful for both of those!

We ultimately decided to follow the path of domestic adoption, open to special needs, and like I said at the beginning, we’re thrilled that God is writing this story. He’s so, so much better at it than us. I love Jeremy’s first response to my question of what he thought of adoption, so we are saying “why not us” to this call we feel like God has placed on our hearts. We’re saying “why not us” to special needs adoption. During our time in the nicu with Caleb and through some of his minor medical issues since, God has softened our hearts as we have seen just a small glimpse into what life is like for little ones with special needs. It’s probably not going to be easy, and life is probably going to be a little messy. We may be crazy, and this is definitely not the normal “two parents and two kids or maybe three” vision of the perfect family we had in our heads when we first got married. And that’s ok. It’s actually even better.

We just completed our home study and were approved as a waiting family. We’re so excited! And now we wait. We wait for God to do His thing. It could be fast or it could be slow. Patience is not always my best quality, but I love that God’s timing is perfect. By God’s design, He has the exact right child out there for us, we are the exact right family for a child out there, and we are looking forward to being brought together. So whether it’s a long journey or a short one, we’re excited that we get to share it with you all!

White Christmas

 

This year, as usual, we packed up and headed in the car to family for Christmas. This is no easy feat with three kiddos, but armed with snacks and movies, we started out. After an unfortunate event where we started out in the wrong direction on the interstate and then forgot our beloved elf "Ingle" (pictured below) causing us to swing back home to get him, we finally made it out of Little Rock. Two days later, we rolled into the driveway of Jeremy's parents home in Pennsylvania, and we were so excited to be there! Although it rained on us just about the whole way there, there was the promise of snow in the forecast. Some of you know, although many of you do not, that I have never had a white Christmas. I was super excited about the promise of that! And I was super excited for the kids that they would have their first white Christmas slightly (and when I say slightly, I mean a whole lot) earlier in life than me.

Our first adventure was a stop to the mall to visit Santa and ride on the train! I had been wanting to take the kids to see Santa for a while, and even had planned to go to a breakfast at the local children's hospital with the kids for games and to sit on Santa's lap, but the ice storm that hit in early December halted our plans. I was glad we waited, though, because it truly took Jeremy, Grandma, and I to get them this close to good ol' Saint Nick. The train was an added bonus and was fun for all three of them.

 

 

 

 

Jeremy's parents house is one of the most inviting, unique homes I've ever had the pleasure to visit. Built out of wood from a barn that belonged to a member of the family, set on a beautiful hill surrounded by an old farm road, acres of farm land, and an orchard, and furnished with antiques, it's tons of fun to visit. The kid's particularly liked the trains that went around their Christmas tree!

Here is the gorgeous farm road all covered in snow!

Other activities we did during the week included building a gingerbread house (it was more like eat the candy while making said gingerbread house)! And of course, opening up presents. They loved the pajamas they got to open on Christmas eve, but I think they loved drinking hot chocolate and watching the Polar Express more!

 

 

Christmas morning was filled with opening gifts from Santa and family. I'm not sure Caleb knew what to make of the whole process, but Kirsten and Joshua sure got into it!

 

 

 

 

We had a wonderful time visiting Jeremy's side of the family for Christmas. And as the farm road photo suggests, we indeed got the white Christmas I had been dreaming of! Can't wait to visit Pennsylvania again soon. We always have so much fun when we go! 

 

 

Joshua is Three!

I have a three year old boy! Eeek! Do you know what that means? Mostly it means that there is an explosion every morning of trucks and trains across the living room floor, Thomas the Train is the most requested cartoon, and that there is a great deal of laughter in our house now associated with bodily functions of all kinds, but it also means that there is an easy going, very sweet three year old boy in our house who loves snuggles and delights us daily with his contagious enthusiasm. Our lives continue to be blessed so much by this little guy! 

Joshua chose to ride on a train this year instead of having a party, so we celebrated as a family on Tuesday and then I brought in cupcakes (Thomas the Train, of course) for his class on Wednesday. 

Since Joshua's birthday choice was to ride on a train, we went up to Branson to ride on the Branson Scenic Railway. The train ride is about an hour and forty-five minutes of scenic overlooks that were especially pretty this time of year with the changing leaves. Jeremy had a day off in the middle of the week, so we took advantage of it and went on a Thursday. It wasn't too crowded, and the kids all had a blast! 

The excitement on their faces totally made up for the "we didn't nap long enough" crying in the car on the way home! Happy third birthday to my sweet Joshua! 

Back to School

When I said September snuck up on me, I meant it! We are already two weeks into the school year, and we are loving the kids new school! After moving, we've had tons of options, and after some research and recommendations, we chose to put them in a mdo program just twice a week. It's not much, but it's all of them! On our days that we are not at school, we are doing a mix of educational and fun activities. I am loving the change of pace! We aren't as rushed out the door in the mornings, and since this is the last year that this is going to be possible, I'm enjoying every moment! It really is a sweet time, because this is the last year of having K home with me. Next it's kindergarten and then driving and college and she'll be walking down the isle to marry her prince...so maybe that's a little over dramatic! But, next year is kindergarten, and so I'm enjoying my spitfire, full of energy little blond haired girl while she is still home with me most of the day! 

Our first day of schools pictures!

And here's a few recent pictures that completely crack me up and make me so thankful that I get to be home with these kiddos during this fun stage in their lives!

Happy school year! 

The End of Summer

September has a way of sneaking up on you! Our summer was filled with vacationing and fun, so before it turns to fall and there are other fun things to update everyone on, here's a little bit of what we have been up to this summer.

Jeremy was on vacation from work from about April until September, and since that has not ever happened before and will probably never happen again, you better believe we took advantage of it!

Our first stop was Daytona Beach and Orlando, Florida where we spent time with family, hung out at the beach, and went to an Air Museum, Sea World, and Downtown Disney. The kids had a blast!

Our first stop at the beach, fully clothed, because we just couldn't wait to go and get in the sand! 

At the Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum in Titusville. 

Waiting for the whales and looking at the fishies at Sea World!

Kirsten became a princess for a day at Downtown Disney's Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. 

Our next stop was to visit family in Tennessee on the way to Arkansas. We had so much fun catching up, the kids love, love, love their cousins, and we appreciated their hospitality in the midst of our journey so much! 

K and J jumping and playing dress up at the same time?!? Little girl heaven!

Trying to get four kids to sit still on the couch and smile at the same time is nearly impossible, but I thought this was a pretty good effort! 

Our next adventure was to Charleston, SC. For some reason I had it in my head that Charleston was eight hours away from us here in Little Rock.

I. Was. Wrong.

When we got in the car at 6am, I was in for a shock when I typed the address into our gps! Nevertheless, eleven hours later, we had a fantastic time catching up with one of Jeremy's best friends since high school and meeting his wife and son for the first time. It was an adventure, and you all know how much we love those!

The kids exploring downtown Charelston and playing in the fountain! 

Our next trip was up to Pennsylvania to visit with more family. The weather was so mild for the middle of the summer! And we were very blessed to be able to see and catch up with Jeremy's sister after not seeing her in a few years! 

Gorgeous double rainbow off of Jeremy's parent's back porch. 

Posing like the flamingos (Grandma's favorite!) at the animal park!

Idlewild Amusment Park! The kids had a blast, and Kirsten and Auntie Em bonded on the roller coasters!

Riding with Grandma on the Trolley at the Trolley Museum in Washington, PA.

And what trip up to Pennsylvania is complete without a tractor ride? Joshua and Grandpa had a great time together!

On the way home, we stopped and saw Matt and Jenn in Ohio and met their little guy, Andrew! The last time we were all in the same room together was at their wedding, back before these cute little kiddos joined our families!

 

 

Our final trip of the summer was a trip just for me...something that I've never done before! Plane rides have never been so relaxing! Jeremy held the fort down at home while I flew back to Florida to see my best friend from high school and go to our 10 year reunion. The weekend was relaxing and so much fun! 

Although we had a great time being able to visit so many great people this summer, most of all, we were blessed to have a fantastic summer together as a family! Three years of overseas living, a very high ops tempo, and then pilot training have taught us to appreciate every single second of family time!