Turns out I make gold

Of the liquid variety ;)

***If breastfeeding isn't your thing you might want to skip this post***

It all starts with a drop. A beautiful, made it to the bottom of the bottle, drop. 

Yes folks, she's at it again :)

The mommy that has never given birth is making milk again. This time in hopes to nurse baby C. 

Breast milk is SO good for babies and breastfeeding is such an amazing bonding experience. 

After lots of quality time with the pump I'm starting a tiny stash for this bambino. 

And until my supply hopefully becomes enough to feed him, I have some amazing mamas willing to help me out with donated milk to supplement. 

While this round of lactation induction hasn't been as easy as it was with Luke, my progress is encouraging. 

Our spectacular expectant birth parents are completely supportive of my plan to provide baby C with breastmilk.  Here's to hoping we have a great nursing relationship. 

PS: midnight pumping sessions are the pits so if anyone is awake between midnight and 3am feel free to message and keep me company ;)

Heart to heart

Adoption can be a roller coaster journey. 

It's full of highs and lows, elation and heartbeak and not just for the adoptive family. 

I want all of you to know that we are aware of this. We know that many of you have laughed and celebrated with us and many of your hearts have broken right along side ours. If you've ever shed tears reading this blog you aren't alone. 

Yet you keep coming back and we thank you for that. We thank you for having the courage to take this journey with us again because it is not without risks. 

While I firmly believe you can't really know how you will feel about your adoption plan as an expectant mom until the baby arrives, I can tell you this ...

My relationship with our intended birth mother is amazing. I love her to pieces and we have become such great friends, family really. We communicate daily and she is nothing short of a miracle in my life. 

She feels very positive about her adoption plan and is fully aware of all the emotions and sacrifice that go into such a decision. She is the strongest person I know, period. 

She has amazing family around her who fully support her adoption plan and we had the distinct pleasure of spending quality time with them during our September visit. I miss them all terribly. 

Our adoption will be open. No one is giving up a child here. We are all gaining more family and couldn't be more excited about the future. 

As we continue to prepare for our journey please keep everyone in your prayers. Your support has meant the world to us. 

Look what's washed and ready to go!

Adventures in fencing

No ... Not that fencing!

This fencing! 

It began with a call to diggers hotline to mark the lines. They came, they spray painted, we rented a 2 man auger and went to work. 

First hole hits a line. No where near the markings from diggers hotline!

We call AT&T and diggers hotline and they both come back out. It was our AT&T line and since we aren't subscribers it's no biggie ... phew! And as for diggers hotline ... they suddenly found 2 lines that weren't there before. Two lines that ran directly where the fence needed to go. 

There's no way this was going to be easy right?

So my amazing hubby and in laws dug the holes by hand and wouldn't you know they didn't find a single line in the process?!

Now that the lines were out of the way we could go back to using the auger and quickly finish the side holes. After manually digging the back 9, these ones should be a breeze. 

Yep ... a few holes down and the auger gets stuck ... in the ground ... like REALLY stuck. Did you see that one coming? 

About 5 hours (give or take), mounds of clay and one hole to China later ... 

The auger was free!!!

Sadly the day was now gone and so our fencing story is to be continued ...

But Luke held his first bug! Hello cricket!

He was a big fan and kept signing for more when the cricket would hop away. 

Stay tuned!

3 weeks ... say what?!

We are almost down to 3 weeks!  How did this happen?!?!
While my mind can't quite wrap itself around this my body has been in FULL nesting mode for some time now.  Just ask my poor hubby and his ever expanding "to-do" list ;)
It began with our closet which seems like a perfectly logical place to start since it has nothing to do with baby ... or does it?  Our home was built before master suites and walk in closets were a thing.  So for 7 years hubby and I have not been able to share a closet.  Until now thanks to my amazing parents!!
BEFORE:

AFTER:

Being able to put ALL our clothes away in the same room, being able to get dressed in my own room, life changing!
Next up on the list?  All those shoes that are constantly piled up by our front door.  Again, for seven years and suddenly having a place to organize them is life or death.  These are serious first world problems people!
BEFORE:

AFTER:

Thanks for taking me to Ikea for my birthday mom!  This one has been equally as life changing!
Ikea also proved to be the solution to all those pesky containers taking up floor space in my kitchen!  Dog food in one, recyclables in another ... they suddenly needed to go!
BEFORE: yeah sometimes I get too excited and forget to pause and take a before picture. 
AFTER:

It turns out retractable in cabinet storage isn't just for new construction homes ;)
Next up ... yes this list continues ... you still with me?
A FENCE!!!  This has been on my wish list FOREVER!!  We have two dogs that currently need to be taken out to potty on a leash.  Challenging at best with a toddler.  Doing this in the winter with a toddler and infant?  Aint nobody got time for that!
So we saved our pennies in a "fence fund" for 7 years (that's a lot of pennies) and waited for the perfect sale and voila!
BEFORE:

AFTER: stay tuned on this one. Per our "fencing post" this has become quite the project.  Update is all post holes have even dug and we are scheduled to complete on Sunday!! And then ...
So wait ... I can just open the door when the puppies have to go out?  No more finding shoes, a coat, gating off the toddler ... holy life changing.
And because God was blessing me with boys and not girls it was time to trade out this table I got on Craigslist ... more Ikea <3
BEFORE:

AFTER:

Now to start packing for our big adventure ...

Tubes

Ear infections. 

Please let this be a thing of the past for Mr Luke. 

He has had 6 double ear infections in 5 months and constant fluid on his ear drums in between. 

Antibiotic after antibiotic and repeated trips to the chiropractor and we still couldn't get a handle on it :(

Enter the ENT and tubes. 

Surgery morning selfie!

It's okay Dad, I got this. 

Watching a little Curious George before they came to make him loopy. 

Someone's been given versed. 

Surgery took all of 15 minutes and he was back getting spoiled by the nursing staff. 

On our way home!

He was so brave and mommy only cried once. Here's to hoping this is as life changing as everyone says. This kiddo deserves some relief. 

Jamberry spree for Baby C

We have been so blessed with people wanting to help us reach our fundraising goals to help fully fund this adoption and we are at it again!

Don's amazing cousin has offered to host a Jamberry nail fundraiser for us. What are Jamberry nails you ask? 

Only the coolest thing to ever happen to nail art! They are so easy and last way longer than expensive salon manicures. 

I promise when you see all the amazing designs you won't be able to resist!

A portion of all sales goes directly to our agency to help with adoption costs. 

You can browse from the comfort of your own sofa and make your purchase online! How easy is that?!

They have your holidays covered 

As if you don't already have enough reasons to love Jamberry here are a fee more. 

 To browse and order you can use this JAMBERRY LINK.  The online party lasts 2 weeks so get those orders in :)

Thank you for all of your support. It means the world to us.