It's Possible

It's possible that I am a bit too addicted to blogs. I mean, I did just get home after a 13 hour drive with an 18-month-old...and I am checking blogs at 11pm at night!

I'm hoping to post pictures of our trip to North Carolina tomorrow...if I can get out of bed!

Wordless Wednesday {Why We Keep the Doors Locked}

Staying Home

I always knew that when I had kids, I would stay home with them. Maybe it is because of the wonderful memories I have of my mom being at home with me...I don't know how, but I just knew that was what I would do. Brad and I talked about it early on in our relationship and he felt the same way...so that was that!

I have now been a stay-at-home mom for 8 months! I must admit, the transition to being home all the time by myself was a lot tougher than I expected. It was strange to get up in the morning and not really have a reason to get out of my pajamas!

But after a few months, we started to get into a routine, and this became the new normal. In some ways, it is exactly like I thought it would be. In other ways, it is soooooooo much different! I would have to say, though, now that we're all settled in here, I absolutely LOVE staying at home.

I love not having the stress of a job and the worries of deadlines and things like that. I love getting up in the morning and having the whole day ahead of me, and getting to plan what we do and when we do it. I love that I can be flexible and do things at my own pace. I love that I'm here to take care of the house, although sometimes I do find that part of the staying at home to be a bit challenging! Since we're here all the time, I just get it cleaned up and then it gets messy again! Before when I cleaned it up, we were gone all day and when I came home...it was still clean! I have realized though that this is just an ongoing part of life and I try not to worry about it too much now.

More than any of that, though, I love the huge amount of time I get to spend with this little guy:

I love the snuggles and the wake-up giggle I hear when I creep into his room in the morning. I love teaching him new things and being able to hear him start to say new words. I am amazed to see him learning and growing, and I love that I get to see this.

Don't get me wrong - there are hard days, too. The hard days are so much harder than I anticipated. The days when Matthew is sick or clingy or cranky, the days when I don't feel well or when I'm exhausted and he just won't nap...those days are hard. Sometimes being home is very lonely, and when Brad arrives home I just want to talk his ear off since I haven't seen another adult all day! I try really hard to get out of the house, to spend time with friends, to go and do things...but still, sometimes it just gets lonely.

Still, all that little boy has to do is to waddle over and give me a kiss and I know without a doubt that for us, this is the right thing. For me, being home is absolutely where I'm supposed to be, and I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.

Let's Try This Again

For the last little while when I checked my blog, all I could think was "ick" when my new design came up. So I thought I'd try to make it a little more "me" - I think I have achieved it! Only time will tell I guess :)

It's been a fun and busy week around here. Matthew has been learning new things that just keep me smiling. One of my favorites is that he has learned to say "Cheese!" and he seems to recognize that he needs to smile and look at me while saying it. Check out this "cheese"!!!!!

His new "cheese" knowledge comes in handy for getting good photos! I love this photo of Matthew with his grandpa and cousin Ben. We had a picnic with Grandma and Grandpa this week when I was going crazy from being stuck in the house. It was the perfect weather and we were so happy to go and play with cousins Ben and Emma for a while!

We are spending more and more time outside these days as Matthew is finally learning how to navigate grass! He will finally let us put him down in the grass and he is happy to walk around the yard now. We love playing in the sandbox, although I had to convince him several times that sand is not actually for eating! Can you see that he is thinking very hard about if this is just a giant spoon???

I've been running up a storm this week and am so happy that my knees aren't giving me any trouble. I even tackled some hills this week (and felt it the next day!). I am hoping to do another 5k in June and hope to be able to beat my time. It's been a fun week and now I am off to make some packing lists for our quickly approaching vacation to North Carolina!!!!

Wordless Wednesday {just plain cute}

So What About Four?

Being a family of three is wonderful and we are so happy to have started our little family. On my mind these days is the when and the how of becoming a family of four. Adoption is amazing, but there are some parts of it that I find hard and sometimes discouraging. Why does it have to take so long and why does it have to cost so much?

Is it worth it all? OF COURSE! Are we super excited to begin the process again? Without a doubt! I just wish sometimes that it wasn't such a long process.

Here's where we're at right now in thinking about number 2 (no big announcement yet, I'm afraid):

1. We want to adopt again.

2. We have decided on a country...we think!

3. We have to wait until Matthew has been home a year for our homestudy to be sent and for us to be "on the list" again - which puts us at September.

4. We will hopefully start our next adoption sometime this year.

5. We have been paying off debts and saving so that we can start again.

6. Selling the motorcycle will help the process along and will mean that we can start several months sooner...please pray that it sells!

7. We are open to either a boy or a girl...but I'm kind of thinking a little brother for Matthew would be so fun!

8. As with Matthew we are open to some special needs and are considering and praying about what we may be open to in terms of medical concerns.

9. We only have 2 bedrooms so we are discussing creative ways to make things work with two little ones :)

10. We are trusting God and know that He is in control of it all, and that even if it takes a while we will one day nod our heads and say that it was worth it all! Just like we did with Matthew!

I hope one day to have more details to share...but for now that's where we're at!