Here We Are

I'm sitting at the kitchen table looking out into the backyard.

Christmas music is playing and there's a fire in the fireplace.  I like to break all the "No Christmas music before Thanksgiving" rules :)

Hannah is pushing Livvy in the swing and all I can see is Livvy's huge smile.  They are the best of friends...for the moment!

The boys are running around screaming as loud as they can.  Our neighbors must love us.

I just finished the 6-month post-placement report for Olivia's adoption.

Six months?!?!  How can it even be that six months have gone by already?

And how can it be that I've only been kissing these cheeks for six months?

School is going well.  Busy.  It's so busy.  But we make a little progress every day and somehow they are learning so many new things!  Nathan is starting to read and he is beyond thrilled about it.  Matthew is trucking along with much less resistance than last year.  Overall...a good year so far.

Brad is doing so well.  He had quite the health scare over the last six months.  It began in China with pain in the night and got progressively worse as the months went on, to the point where he was not able to eat solid foods.  

Stupid gallbladder.  We are glad that's gone and so thankful it was a fixable problem.

We are dating again.  Each other, I mean.  It has been years of not being able to go out without children being newly home and needing us.  We are in a good place, settled, and everyone is just getting older with no new one on the horizon.  It's a nice place to be and I'm quite enjoying it!  Going out with Brad from time to time and getting through the baby phase with the kids is such a blessing.  

Guess what I did this week?  I slept through the night!  It was just once, but....it was once more than usual!  We are slowly but surely moving in the right direction towards more sleep and less wake ups.  It's glorious.

Here we are.  It's a good place to be.