3 years...

My love and I celebrated 3 years of married fun today!  We started our morning with an ultrasound of little man, so that was a good start.  He's a long legged boy apparently, and measuring a week ahead of schedule.  

The day today actually reminded me a lot of the day we got married, pretty fall colors and a cloudy sky.  It was a bit colder 3 years ago today, but the look of it was the same.  

We ended our day with dinner at James at the Mill and a re-enactment of our top layer of our wedding cake.  and I ate my whole piece, while Bryan barely at half.  I'm always the dainty lady.  

our big day!

 One year in vegas!

 Two years, I was in Ukraine, i like to go polar opposite from the previous year in vegas! 

we celebrated with a facetime date.  

three years!  (taken this weekend...i was too busy food photographing tonight, and maybe too tired to take a picture)

dinner!  so good!

tonight's cake, i still love our wedding cake.  buttercream with raspberry filling! :)

3 years of marriage of course has had it's ups and downs, but I do feel like our marriage get's better every day, and I am thankful.  

this time last year...

i have been thinking about this week last year as October and fall is settling in here in NWA.  it was the week i spent in ukraine with abby,  ginny, and matt!  looking back on it, it really was such a sweet and peaceful week.

matt and ginny met their daughter.

abby spent time with a little sweet girl, that will soon officially become her and daniel's daughter.

we had great fall weather, smooth travels and settled into a little ukrainian routine.  breakfast and coffee, work, lunch, work, dinner, talking and laughing until way later than we should have been awake!  the slow pace let us really take it all in.  we enjoyed this slow pace at the orphanage and truly made friends with caregivers and doctors and got to see little personalities come alive.  we enjoyed getting a better glimpse into the kids daily routines, meal times, nap times, and seeing more of what life was like for them.  i really feel that God specifically used that week in my life to see His goodness.

i get so excited at the thought of this little girl being home.  

thank you God for sending me to Ukraine last October, and for every detail you over saw during our time there.  i can never be thankful enough!!!

 and you can't really beat the desserts and tea time!  maybe i'll fix myself up some ukrainian treats this week to celebrate!

happy october!

hawaii. ukraine. houston.

those three words don't really go together, but some how they all come up in this blog post! :)

our dear friend shawn is making the move to paradise!  we had a going away dinner for her and spent an evening talking and getting excited about her big move to hawaii!  she is officially there, and i can't wait to visit her in paradise!!

Aloha!

shawn got baby b this onesie.  he is all set now! :)

The ladies got off on their TEAMWorks Ukraine trip and traveled home this past weekend.  God truly blessed the trip, and I am so thankful for their willingness and hard work last week, I know they are exhausted.  You can read about this week's trip here.

Braces and shoes for the trip!  Wow, that is a lot of feet! 

the ladies at XNA, ready to start their trip! :)  i counted 8 hours ahead constantly trying to think of what they were doing!  it was an honor to be able to pray for their trip and the children while they were gone.  

Hadleigh turned 4 years old this month and since I was out of town for her birthday party weekend, we celebrated early!!  Soooooo...we had a Hadleigh/Ahmi sleep over party just for her.  We ate yummy food, went shopping, watched a movie, and made a quick trip to the pumpkin patch and then finished up with lunch at Gee-Dad's house.  She is sweet, funny, kind, smart and we are so thankful for this little birthday girl!!!

her dinner choice, catfish hole!  fun!

oh how i love her.  

This past weekend I went to see my bestie Mariellen!  I was SOOOO excited and got a great deal on a flight to houston!  This was my first trip to see her in her new town, and we had so much fun!  She treated me to a massage friday morning while she worked, so I spent the morning at starbucks in a comfy chair and then enjoyed a massage, relaxing and when she was done with work a mani/pedi!  it's probably the most relaxing day I have had in a long time!  it was nice to be there and know that i could just relax, because there wasn't much i could do all the way in houston! :)

we had dinner at this great place in houston called "Tiny Boxwoods" and it was connected to a plant nursery.  i was excited to meet mariellen's new houston friends.  i am so thankful she has made such sweet friends in texas!  we had dinner inside, and enjoyed sitting on the patio afterwards!  they had amazing desserts, and i had toffee gelato with shortbread cookies and sampled their warm donut holes with vanilla glaze and chocolate dipping sauce!  it was a pregnant gals dream come true!  

 i loved spending time with little Mac!  he is so sweet and says the cutest things right now.  i told his parents i hope our little boy is as sweet and cuddly as he is! :)

 cupcake break from a day of shopping! 

4 & 5 and 12 & 24

Our handsome nephew turned the big 5 years old earlier in the month.  bryan and i took him for a "special day" in little rock!  we had pizza for lunch and then went to the museum of discovery, toys-r-us and ended our day at TCBY!  we had so much fun and we sure love this little man!

And my girl Had is turning 4 next month.  we got to spend some time "running errands" together on saturday afternoon and then did some pictures on sunday at the farm for her birthday!
love this sweet girl.

 and hadleigh is not only going to have a new baby cousin, but a new baby brother or sister in march.  babies galore!  elizabeth bought these belly stickers, and even though i was a bit resistant, she convinced me to take pictures with her!  she only had even number stickers, so i am really 23 weeks, but 24 was the closest we had to work with!

i didn't have the flu...

oh, friday may 11th was a crazy day for me!  i worked all day, and felt awful!  and i had pretty much felt awful all that week.  i should have known something was going on, other than me thinking I had the flu...but apparently i'm a little slow sometimes!  and, let me back up a little bit.  tuesday of that week, we had a TEAMWorks golf tournament planning meeting at jose's.  about mid-way through dinner i started feeling really bad, just very quickly.  by the time i got home, i felt like i had a fever.  after turning our house upside down to find a thermometer, i took it and it was 101.  that combine with some aches, i thought...great...the flu, in May!  the next morning, i felt fine, no fever, so i carried on with my week.  the only thing is when i went to fix my breakfast, which usually consists of eggs, i decided i hated eggs and could never eat them again!  all week long, i could only eat what ever the one thing was that didn't make me sick to think about.  so friday morning, we booked our plane tickets to travel to Ukraine for the first week of June...and i felt icky, off and on all day!  i chalked it up to travel nerves and the huge to-do list in front of us preparing for the trip.  friday afternoon, after almost throwing up in my car multiple times, i decided to investigate one other possibility.  after 3 different tests over the course of 12 hours, and nearly fainting, i figured out i didn't have the flu, we were expecting!  i was so in shock, not because we didn't want to have a family, just because i didn't think it was on the table right now since i was traveling to Ukraine, etc.   so i didn't tell B until the next morning.  and i felt so sick when i woke up, i knew i couldn't keep it from him much longer.  i always thought of telling him in some fun and creative way, but i was too sick to be creative.  i am thinking that surprise was the last thing he was expecting to hear that morning.

week 8!
so we went to the doctor to confirm and had a really early ultrasound since i would be traveling internationally just to check on everything.  here was our first glimpse at our little "blueberry" at just under 8 weeks!

week 9

i spent week 9, as my friend ginny says, "growing a person" while in ukraine, and bought this sweet little horse as my first baby purchase at the market in kiev

week 12 

we went on an around the state tour to tell our family we were expecting! we told my mom before we left and then we hit the road.  friday, we left fayetteville and went to fort smith and told Joe, Liz and Hadleigh, drove from there to Little Rock for dinner and then to Searcy.  Saturday morning we got up and went to tell bryan's grandmother and then drove to bryant to tell my grandparents and aunt.  afterwards we drove to heber springs to the lake and we told bryan's mom, dad, brother and niece/nephew!  we actually tried to get riley to tell them all for us, but he said "no, way!"  sunday morning we stopped and told his other grandmother and then met my dad and kay in alma for lunch on the way home to tell them the news.  Whoa.  it was a crazy weekend, but we really felt like we wanted to tell as much of our family in person, so we did the best we could.  i had to call my other grandmother and the rest of the aunts on the way home, because there was just no way we could make it up there after all that traveling.  but, they didn't mind at all.  :)

(no picture, because it's hard to take pictures while in a tornado!)

week 13

pa and susu had a bassinet just waiting for the day we would need it apparently.  they delivered, and having a piece of furniture in our house made it seem more real!  

week 16

and at just under 16 weeks at my next appointment, my doctor took a peak to see the gender of the baby!  Oh Boy!  :)  i think it took around 24 hours for it to settle in with me!  EVERYONE kept saying "girl!" so when she told us, definitely "BOY!" i was shocked!  

week 17

we went to gulf shores for the week!  this coincided with the olympics, so we literally, ate, sat at the beach, went to dinner (and TCBY) and came home and watched the olympics every night!  it was a great week!  i felt my first little taps of movement while laying in the beach chair.  so that was a fun development!  baby B already loves vacation.  

week 18

family fun night.  everyone thought it would be fun to see if they could feel baby B move, since i can!  hadleigh took this picture with my phone.  in case you can't tell, that's joe and liz taking turns trying to feel baby B moving, they didnt' have any luck, but it gave us a good 30 minutes of entertainment.  probably too early anyway, but a good try.  

week 20

we had our longer ultrasound for all the measurements at 20 weeks.  i had said a couple of times, i doubted we would do the 4D.  but, the ultrasound tech we had was SO nice and put him in 4D during this ultrasound, so of course, once she showed me, i was excited to see his little face.  we loved watching him move all around, in fact, do a complete flip at one point.  i could have told her that he did flips, because i felt him do one one evening while laying down reading a book to hadleigh, and so she confirmed this for us! :)

and that catches us up to the half way point!  i do not journal or write things down very well, so i am hoping to add some stuff weekly.  i told kati that my baby book might consist of our text message history patched together with random blog posts.  

During those couple of weeks were I was sick feeling every time my feet touched the floor, I just ate any thing that sounded good.  B said he had never seen so many fast food restaurants on our checking account.  Arby's...Taco Bell...Sonic...ridiculous.  Since I have felt better I would say that the newest obsession has been breakfast at Panera, and even that has settled down some.  My friend Kate introduced me to the concept of "second breakfast" and I have totally embraced this.  I eat something right when I get up, usually before I walk on the treadmill, and then eat again around 8:00.  I love second breakfasts! :)  Here and there I have really wanted something specific, like one day I could not stop thinking about french onion dip.  I drove to the store, bought it, ate some and then the next day I thought it sounded disgusting.  The most consistent things have been milk, and even more importantly chocolate milk, and bagels with cream cheese.  These are things I love any way, but I could just swim in milk...all the time, which is funny.    

we are so thankful to raise this sweet little fella that is on the way.  i have been praying for him to be kind, good hearted, giving, respectful and most importantly to live his life for Jesus.  we are so thankful for our family and friends that have joined us in being so excited over him.  

we'll expect to see his little face around the first of the year!  

June Ukraine Trip: Arrival to the "Sanatorium" and First Few Days!

(I have been on a blogging freeze until I finished this post...finally, done!)

We arrived at our "health sanatorium" late Sunday evening after a comfortable but long 6-7 hour ride to the settlement where the orphanage is located.  This orphanage is just outside the city of Kharkiv, and we were so thankful to be there.

tall skinny ukrainian trees

Let me paint the picture of our arrival, just because I definitely don't want to forget. :)  we pull up to these huge iron gates, it's super dark with the exception of a few street lights here and there, alex jumps out of the van, goes through the walking entrance and disappears into the night to find someone to unlock the gate to let us in.  minutes pass and creak, the big gate opens and in we go.  so hilariously random.  health sanatorium, ukraine, dark, iron gates, forest.

How. Did. I. Get. Here?

haha, well lufthansa brought me.  and God.  well, really just God via lufthansa.  he led me to love ukraine.  love, like so much my heart aches for it, longing to hold the children i know are laying in beds and rooms, day in and day out.  we do the crazy unloading thing and haul our stuff to our new home for the week.  down a long sidewalk, and to what looks like an ancient dorm.  up to the second floor we go, and we are let into our room.  3 beds, mattress pads and bare pillows only, a tiny toilet and TINY bathtub/shower combo (with no shower curtain or door) and i felt tears spring into my eyes.  i think the tears came because i thought we had no bedding or towels for the week...and i think that was worthy of a tear.  i mean obviously we would have been fine, but i was tired, and looking forward to a bed i wasn't scared too badly to lay in.  olga asked if we would be ok staying there, and we said "of course!" because we could have done it!  but luckily, a "nurse" brought us sheets/pillowcases/duvet cover for the bedspread and towels.  Praise God!  we were all cracking up at this point because we were so thankful and sad at the same time because we had seen what was going to be under our sheets.  bummer.

the little bathroom

we all slept really well, and woke up to head to our first, as we would start referring to them "soviet breakfasts."  we took in our new place and walked to the dining building where we were served in a giant room alone, while every one else ate in another large room to the side.  our little stay came with "4 delicious and well balanced meals a day and a juice before bed."  our ukraine team told us the food and meal schedule was just like it was in the soviet union, and we definitely jumped into experiencing a little soviet union with both feet.  one of the ladies who cooked and brought us the food was so nice, and we complimented her food, and she just beamed!  it was so sweet, so we continued to tell them when ever we could how great the food was, there was just so much of it, we could not begin to finish it all at every meal.

Breakfast Day 1: Cucumbers/Tomatoes, Buckwheat with Cutlets, and Porridge :)

we arrived at the orphanage and were ready to get to work!  i knew that the laying down rooms were in the building we would keep our supplies and really wanted to get up there immediately.  after some introductions, and some demonstrations on children they brought us, we asked to go to the rooms.  she led us out of the building to another building, and i started feeling frustrated, she was leading us AWAY from the rooms we needed to be in.  however, once we got there, she had taken us to "quarantine" and they needed us just as badly.  so, i started to relax and continue to pray about where we would spend our time and to remember who was in control of every minute.  i love knowing that God was there before us, with us during our time there, and continues to be there with all of the kids we said good bye to.

morning demonstrations in the gym

quarantine kids, we loved all of this room so much.  many are kept here after being in the hospital before they are moved to a room, kind of like a holding room.  the only exception is one little girl with severe seizures who stays there permanently.  we were able to spend quite a bit of time here, talk with multiple caregivers and show them what needed to be done, and encourage them as much as possible.

  

on tuesday, kate ended up taking the swim gear and doing pool therapy with several of the kids.  the orphanage already provides pool therapy for some of the children, and our hope was to make what they are already doing even more therapeutic for the kids they see, but to also really encourage them to get those kids out of beds that never see the pool, and get them in there!  one really special moment was getting to take a little boy from his bed who had NEVER been to the pool or ever been in water and let him feel warm water for the first time.  it was of course very overwhelming for him, but kate held him tight and talked through all the benefits of water therapy for him while comforting him.  

kate was so amazing in the pool.  it was SUPER hot in the pool room (good for the kids, but a bit stifling if you were doing all the work) and like I said, this little boy had never been in water.  it was exhausting to watch just because of the hot temperature and the sheer energy it took to try and hold and calm him.  kate never once complained, and was so patient and sweet with every one of the kids.  i kept having to leave the room and get fresh air, and she stayed in there all morning, and was such a trooper for the rest of the day!  

talking with the neurologist 

 while Kate finished up in the pool, Allison and I headed up to another "laying down" room.  and i just have to say how amazing allison was!  she had such a difficult job because SO many of the kids had needs that could be addressed with occupational therapy.  she never hesitated, but just set out to work.  it was a completely overwhelming job, and she handled it with such grace.   she thought about all their needs, calming, strengthening, interaction, positioning and gave it her all!  she was completely wonderful, and was a blessing to just watch in action!  

 lunch time

 we were so thankful to get into these rooms around lunch time and talk about feeding safety, and getting the kids more upright.  we will keep saying this and showing them until we see all the kids fed in more safe positions!  

 a bit more afternoon time with our sweet little man!

 triple team'ed!  he didn't mind!

this little girl was one of the main reasons we could hardly wait to get back to this orphanage.  we had seen her in 2011, and she broke our hearts.  she was not able to be soothed, and cried, and cried, and cried...  luckily, this year, she was able to be soothed, and we saw lots of change in her. 

 thank you Jesus!  isn't she beautiful?

such a difference from last year, we LOVED it!

a quick break outside, loved these sweet kids!

kate talking to this sweet boy, another one we loved so much!  

this little guy has grown so much over the past couple of years, and is getting so much stronger!  so thankful for that.  

 all done for the day, heading in for dinner!  

i am so thankful that God has allowed to me to go on these trips and know each of these children!  please take a minute to pray over these kids, and TEAMWorks.  We have a TEAM of ladies preparing to leave for our big fall trip on September 29th!  They will work in our home base orphanage, local hospital (NICU and orphan part of hospital) and provide care for families with children with special needs in the surrounding area.  the families have been waiting for follow up care since last october, and we will be so excited to see them again!

and unfortunately, these trips all cost money!  quite a bit of money, so fundraising is necessary!  if you feel led, please consider a tax deductible donation to TEAMWorks!  You can go here and pay via paypal, just click on "give"
link:
http://teamworksteam.org/