Lately we've been having quiet time at our house instead of nap time. Lilly still falls asleep, but has 'a little rest' instead of a nap :) The rule is she has to stay in her room on her bed, so I'll give her toys to play with, or she'll just play with her stuffed animals (she calls them her friends). The past couple of days Lilly's been playing with her barn during quiet time.

This is how we found her taking a little rest like this the other day.On Sunday the family that sat in front of us at church was having their little girl paint rocks with water! I thought this was a really fun idea, so today Lilly and I grabbed an Easter basket and went hunting for rocks. We took them home and I filled up a bowl with soapy water (why not have clean hands while we paint) and we painted and scrubbed our new pet rocks. Lilly thought it was a total blast and so far today I think we've painted them 5 or 6 times.
Mike is back in school, he only had a few days break but he got a lot accomplished in those few days. Mike added electricity to our shed in the backyard. Now we can have late night badmitten matches with light :) He also started building our deck, it is going to be so much fun to have a deck. Mike has a few more boards to nail and then stain it. Again, Mike is so awesome when it comes to home projects, I am lucky!

I've been thinking a lot about family lately and how important it is to me to have people in my life that love me unconditionally and offer support to me. I can only hope that I offer the same to them. I can not imagine what my sister, Angie and her family go through.

My trial of infertillity is so microscopic compaired to having a child with cancer. I have to say this, Angie is my hero her faith in Heavenly Father amazes me and part of my testimony was built on her example. Angie, I love ya sistah!

Angie has been by my side throughout all my life, even though I made our Mom make Angie play with me growing up, she did and we had fun, she was there for me when I was screwing up in my life and took me in and MADE me go to church, she was there when I got married, we actually worked at the same place twice that was FUN (good ol Slaveco and the giant empire) she was the first person to know I was a mother (we were having lunch together when I got 'the call') she was there when Lilly became legally ours, She cheered us on when we moved to Utah and actually moved here too :) she's been there for me for everything. I admire you, Angie. There are no words to describe how lucky I am to have you - thank you. This picture was at the court house the day Lilly became ours legally! (Mike, Amanda, Lilly Angie, Kaelyn & Jacob)

Almost 2-years ago we sold our home in Washington and made the trek to the west. A year or so before that Mike and I began thinking about Mike returning to school. Of course this would of been impossible for us in Washington, our morgage was too much for Mike not to work full-time. So we put the idea in the back of our minds and kept living life. A few months later Mike recieved the news that he was getting laid off. This was not happy news, at all. I had just 'retired' from my career and became a full-time stay at home mother. We talked to several family members and our wonderful hometeachers about what to do. The answer was already there... go back to school and put Mike's amazing talent to use. It was the logistics that were killing us, we loved our house, our neighborhood. I was making amazing friends through a local playgroup and life was happy and good. Changing that was going to be really hard, but we kept getting firm answers. 1. Sell your house 2. Move away from Washington 3. Go back to school
We put our house on the market and it sold in 2 DAYS! I was stunned, I thought for sure it would take months, but it was meant to be. Our house that we spent almost every day the first year of ownership repairing, remodeling and loving to bits wasn't going to be ours anymore. I suppose you could say all of our hard work paid off. We headed to Utah where we looked at over 20 houses in 2 days and placed an offer on a house. It was insain, but I didn't want to move more than once and we had to act fast, we wanted to sell and buy all on the same day.
We moved our family to Utah and began a new life. It was hard, it's still really hard but I am proud that we followed the spirit and are here. We've been blessed with finding a job that I can go to at night and still be a stay at home Mom during the day. Mike is realizing his dream of becoming an artist as a profession can be a reality, not just a hobby. We will probably never be rich, but I know that because of our sacrifice and faith we will be happy.
Mike has another year left of school, and I can hardly wait for our next chapter to begin. (I am deffiantly not the most patient person) I see Mike's brother and our friends graduating from college it really makes me excited to find out what happens next. I've been trying to enjoy the moments we have now and look at all of the bursts of light we create. I know we will never be able to relive the college years again (we are getting old) :) and it's such a fun time. I also know that not many 30 somethings are in college and also own their own home. Our family is unique and really lucky to experiance life that isn't quite typical.

We had a very busy weekend. On Friday we traveled to Idaho where Mike's brother and his family lives. They recently had a new baby girl and we were invited to her blessing. Lilly was so excited to see her cousin Belle (they are only 2 months apart in age) and they really had a great time together. The played on the apartments playground, ran around everywhere and on Saturday they got to go on an Easter egg hunt. I only took one picture of Lilly with her new cousin Sophie, and well... it didn't turn out too good. But Lilly loved the baby and wanted to hold her and especially give her binki to her. Sophie is such an easy going baby too. I loved holding her, I love being an aunt! I didn't have to change one diaper the whole time :) Also, thanks to Lilly's awesomeness of being potty trained!

We are back to the normal routine of life, and Mike is getting ready for finals and finishing up final projects at school. So these next few weeks should be busy too. Mike is taking Spring and Summer term, so not a whole lot of time to relax. But we decided he should get all the classes he can in so he can graduate as soon as possible, hopefully in another year or so. If anyone knows of a job for an artist, let us know :)

I entered an Essay Contest it's not the best I've ever written, but it was fun to try and do something I've never done.

Here's my essay:

Three Blessings
Mike and I had been married for 5 years and purchased our first home together. We decided to actively try to conceive. We both knew that there was a possibility it would be difficult for us, I had been diagnosed with endometriosis & PCOS. We hadn't been preventing pregnancy for about a year and decided to meet with a reproductive specialist. Many tests, appointments, hormones, and months of negative results the specialist determined IVF was our only viable option. We now had been actively trying to conceive for almost 2 years. Three years of nothing and many disappointing, frustrating moments we came to the answer we had been looking for, ADOPT. This was our FIRST BLESSING, peace came over our home. No longer were we concerned with my broken body, and negative test results. We began a new journey to build our family, and it felt good.
After 6 months we were approved to adopt. Our caseworker called to tell us that a birthmother was looking at our profile she was scheduled to deliver via c-section January 18th. We were excited, but tried not to get too attached since 9 other couples were being considered. A week later we hadn't heard anything so we figured didn't get selected. Our caseworker called a few days later and told us the birthmother had not decided yet, but would like more information from us. We e-mailed the added information to our caseworker and didn't hear back. On January 9th our caseworker called, a baby girl had been born on January 8th and the birthmother wanted us to be her parents! This was our SECOND BLESSING, we were going to be PARENTS! We were so excited, January 10th was a miracle day. It was the hardest and best day of my life.
When Lilly turned one we promptly began our adoption paperwork It's been two years since we started try to adopt again. We are still waiting to be chosen by birthparents. I want to say that this time adopting has been just as peaceful as the last time, it hasn't been. I have moments of clarity, and peace. Not often enough, we pray for our family to grow, we pray for comfort. We've been sending out letters and cards to our loved ones pleading for their help. We celebrated our ten year wedding anniversary this year and I will also be 30. Life still continues at our home, we love each other and thank Heavenly Father and Lilly's birthmother every day for our Lilly. But something is missing, we long to have another child and Lilly even prays for a baby brother or sister, we are missing our THIRD BLESSING. It seems harder this time too Lilly is feeling the loss of not having a sibling, this breaks my heart. It's harder than knowing I will never conceive. Because it's something I can not give her. I can only hope and pray that something big will happen soon.

Labels: adoption

The weather has been pretty nice the past two days, so Mike finally had a chance to build Lilly's swingset! A few weeks ago Toys-r-us had one of the swingsets we were considering buying on sale, so we decided to go for it and just keep the boxes in the shed until the weather got nice enough to build it. Most of the reviews for the swingset said that it would take 8-12 hours to build, well Mike being the craftsman he is built it in 6 hours!!! Lilly is EXCITED (to say the least) she LOVES her swingset! She also got to help with the build and is pretty proud of their acomplishment.

I am so thankful that we are able to own our home and not rent. It's been a blessing for our family. Even though our home is small and is old with old house issues, we enjoy it. It's so nice to be able to have a swingset in our backyard for Lilly to have a safe place to play and be a kid. Also we got to keep our dog, Bryn. Mike probably could of gotten through school sooner if we would of just used the equity from our home in Washington for school and rent, but we wouldn't have the joys of our home and our backyard oasis. Also, if we do move when Mike's done with school we will still have our equity :) So we will be able to buy another home were ever we end up. Pretty awesome and worth the sacrifice of time.

This video is of Lilly playing on her swingset, and introducing Goaty Goat (her BFF) and Bryn. We don't have the swings on yet, we are missing a couple of bolts so Mike just left to go to Home Depot to get the things he needs to finish everything.


Thanks to everyone who looked at our website last month, we had our most hits ever - 849! February we had 773, our 2nd biggest month. Also thank you to everyone who added our adoption button to your blogs, it's so nice to know that we have friends and family that are helping in all sorts of ways to bring our next baby home. If you still want to add our button there are directions on our side bar, or you can click here We are still waiting for a birthmother and birthfather to choose us to parent their baby. We pray every night for them and also for Lilly's birthparents. If you want to we would really appriciate your prayers too. When we are choosen, and when we are blessed with another sweet child is all up to Heavenly Father - so prayers are helpful to us. I know I pray every day for patients. One of the many things that adoption is teaching me is to endure and to have faith in Heavenly Father's plan. It's hard for me to have to wait, but having Lilly as my daughter was worth the wait and pain of infertillity. So I know that it will be all worth it, and our family will be blessed, hopefully soon :) (I Know, I'm still working on the patient part) :) Oh, and if you would like to watch the adoption profile video I made you can see it here. Thanks for all your love and support! Now come and play with us on our new swingset :)

Labels: adoption