She's Here!

Elsa Mae 

Born on March 3rd at 7:55am

7 pounds 11 ounces

20 inches long

We are so excited to welcome little Elsa to our family! She is so sweet and perfect. We praise God for her.  We rejoice in God's faithfulness as his plan for our lives has been anything but what we imagined over the last four years.  God is so great.

The name Elsa is a form of Elizabeth. Elizabeth was Lindsay's grandmother's middle name, and is scattered throughout my family tree. Elsa means my God is an oath or God is abundance. We also liked the idea of giving her a strong Swedish name. Mae is a name we really liked and also has some family connections. Mae was Lindsay's great grandmother's middle name and is also her aunt's middle name.

Lindsay did wonderfully and I am incredibly proud of her. She get's a gold star.  She and Elsa are both in good health and recuperating well.

As with Aaron's birth, we were honored with the presence of both our mothers,  though in different roles than last time.  Lindsay's mom has been amazing help with Aaron over the last few days and been a huge blessing in our lives.  My mom was able to be at the birth in a doula-like role and was nearly our unofficial midwife when the doctor almost missed the birth.  We are so thankful for both of them in our lives.

We continue to praise the Lord for his many blessings.

and some photos...

Elsa & Lindsay

Aaron & Elsa

Carol (Nan), Aaron & Elsa

Elsa resting

It's a girl!!

Unexpected blessing and a detour

John, Aaron and I are so excited to announce a sweet little one will join our family in March! This pregnancy was a complete surprise. Being in the middle of an adoption, we were NOT trying. After over three years of trying to add a child to our family, three losses, secondary infertility and a year and a half in the adoption process we are so excited to become a family of four! 

It has already been quite a ride. This pregnancy had a rocky start and due to my history it was hard to be excited. Each appointment has continued to bring good news. It was quite a thrill to hear our reproductive endocrinologist say he believes we will have a healthy pregnancy and baby. 

This pregnancy has stretched my faith so much. I have been so fearful at times. Each of those times as I've prayed I hear God tell me to have peace. Not necessarily peace that everything will turn out the way I want it to, but peace in His sovereignty and that His hand is on this little one. 

Really, isn't that what parenting is all about? Faith that God's hand is on our precious little ones and that He will guide us in raising them? I do believe God's hand is on this child. He knew about this little one all along. We pray for God's protection and that He will continue to knit this sweet child together. (Psalms 139)

So, how does this affect our adoption? Let me make one thing clear. WE ARE STILL PLANNING TO ADOPT! Adoption was something we chose, it was never second best or a last option. We feel God lead us down the adoption road for a reason. Even though this journey is taking a detour, our hearts are still drawn to adoption. 

It is our agency's policy that if a couple becomes pregnant during the adoption process their file is put on hold. Our file will be on hold until this little one is six months old. At that time we would go "active" again and would likely keep our spot on the list. As excited as we are about this pregnancy, the timing was quite a shock. I would be lying if I said we didn't experience some disappointment. It's tough after working so hard on adoption the process has come to a screeching halt. We will continue to trust that this is all God's plan and timing. 

Many, Lord my God,

    are the wonders you have done,

    the things you planned for us.

None can compare with you;

    were I to speak and tell of your deeds,

    they would be too many to declare.

Pslams 40:5

Summer Recap

Since I've fallen a bit behind on updating this blog, I thought I would do a recap of our summer. We have had a fun, busy and surprising summer. I can hardly believe summer is over and fall is here!

• Crested Butte! This is the forth year in a row we have taken a summer trip to Crested Butte. It is always a wonderful time with family enjoying the wildflowers, hikes, mountain bike trails and restaurants. 

• We were able to go camping a couple of times this summer. We went with friends both times and it was great! The weather was really good for both trips. The first trip was in State Forest State Park and the second was near Cameron Pass. 

• John and I went to Denver with my parents and brother to see the band Grizzly Bear. This was quite a treat for us. We love music and seeing it live, but are not able to attend as many concerts these days. Thanks to John's wonderful sister we got to go out to dinner and catch the show!

• Our little boy turned four! We celebrated with friends and family. Aaron asked for a "mighty machines" birthday. He is very excited to be four and feels that he is now a big boy. 

Waiting

It's been a while since my last adoption update. There really hasn't been much to update. We are just waiting at this point. It's been a little discouraging and at times it's hard to have believe that we really will have another child someday.

There is always hope though. We have faith that everything will happen when it should and the way it should. It seems clear to us that there is a reason for our long wait, even if we don't know what that reason is yet.

Some changes could possibly happen soon. We are speaking with our agency trying to get all of the information that we can. I will definitely update soon once we have more information and decisions have been made. It's exciting and scary all at once, as adoption often is.

Here is a picture of the three of us. A waiting family indeed!

Working vacation in Fort Lauderdale

I can hardly believe a month has already passed since our trip to Florida! Time has flown by lately.

As soon as we found out that John was being sent to Fort Lauderdale to teach a class, we planned on me and possibly Aaron coming along. It is really wonderful that John has a job that is ok with me and Aaron joining him on business trips. Florida is certainly one of the nicer locations he has been sent. So we began planning a working vacation right away.

What a great way to take a trip together. Since it was trip for work, John's airline ticket, hotel and meals were covered. John was scheduled to work for most of the week.  We decided to extend the trip by a couple of days so that we could spend time enjoying the beach and sightseeing.

After a lot of discussion, we chose to have Aaron stay with my parents instead of joining us. I knew it would be really hard for me to leave him for a week. However, it was definitely the right decision. So much of the trip was spur of the moment, running from place to place and evenings at restaurants. It would have been tough to entertain him all day and keep him under control while out to eat with John's boss. He adores his Nan and Pops so I knew he would be happy and in good hands!

John and I had a wonderful time! John's teaching went really well. He got the go ahead for the next level of teaching courses for his company. I spent the week catching up on reading, catching some sun and of course walking up and down the beach. On John's off time we went to a bird refuge, Everglades National Park, visited a sea turtle rehab facility, enjoyed the beach, kayaked in the everglades and visited the Miami zoo.

The highlight of the trip was definitely kayaking in the everglades! We did a five hour trip that took us through mangrove tunnels, estuaries, a bird rookery and the bay. The mangrove tunnels were almost creepy, they were dark and very swampy. We saw osprey, anhinga, herons and even had a couple of dolphin swim near our boat.

Thanks to family and John's job for making it possible to go on fun vacations! We feel so blessed to be able to take the trips we get to take while only spending a small amount of money. We both love to travel and really wouldn't be able to do as much of it without ways to lessen the expense. Fort Lauderdale was quite memorable. What a treat to have some time alone together. Who knows when that will happen again!

Tender Hearts Baby Home

I wanted to share this video with you all. This is an interview with the gentleman who runs Tender Hearts Baby Home. This is the baby home that our child(ren) will most likely come from. I was incredibly touched by the video. You can tell that Ken and his wife Cathy truly have a heart for these children. What a blessing to know that such a loving couple is caring for the children at Tender Hearts. I pray that God will bless what they are doing in their community.

For more information on how to support Tender Hearts and Ken and Cathy, visit: http://www.nightlight.org/tender-hearts-babys-home-in-uganda/