Expect the Unexpected {life update}

Expect the Unexpected {life update}

Been pondering what to share this month and I suppose it may be time for a bit of a personal life and family update.. Fittingly so with this being the month marking 1 year ago that we received twin baby boys into our home. Seems a bit surreal and sorry if you already know all the stats, but I wanted to write it down for my own remembrance 🙂 

Last July 5th we said good-bye to our first lil boy #MrSunshine and a few days later we welcomed twin 4 1/2 month old boys into our home on July 11th. Because it wasn’t any legal or criminal issues, but merely a lack of proper support, as soon as birth mom was back in shape the boys returned home, no questions asked. I won’t say how many questions and doubts I had, but I chalked them up to me being overly sensitive n attached to the boys in wanting to keep them. In those 5 months we had definitely fallen in love with Bubba & Buddy and were heartbroken telling them good-bye on Dec. 7th. We were not in any rush to take new placements in allowing ourselves proper time to heal (more on that another day.) Also I kept somewhat in contact with mom and told her we would like to support and help her with the boys when she delivers new baby girl in February.

On a personal life level, just prior to the twins leaving we felt led to do a few tests and check out why I have been having such severe menstrual cycles. Crippling to the point of vomiting and, well, I’ll just end it there. We didn’t really receive the quick fix we had silently been hoping for, except that the Dr. recommended I double or triple my pain meds and swap off with tylenol and ibuprofen. My body had become immune to ‘2 advils’.. He, however, felt pretty strongly that I probably have endometriosis. And if you know anything about it, the only way to confirm it & repair it is through surgery. He suggested we check out the Creighton Model FertilityCare System and do some blood work as cheaper alternative ways to definitely track what is going on with my body. So during this kid-break, we took the opportunity to take the classes & learn the CrMS charting. We have been really impressed with it so far. God opened and closed some doors pretty clearly to us in what to pursue, and at this point we are happy & at peace where it led us.  If you have any questions feel free to ask, & hopefully we will have more answers in the future.

December & January We took a Florida vacation, celebrated the Holidays with family, partied in the Smoky Mountains and just did life TOGETHER..  Emotionally we just really needed each other. And I didn’t see myself being ready for another attachment in quite awhile. The end of January, I was in contact with the twins’ mother and we ended up watching Buddy while she was in unexpected labor with baby.. she was not early but with many complications, it was prolonged and we ended up getting Bubba a few days later and were so enjoying babysitting them! They seemed kind of in shock but definitely recognized us and our home. Baby made it, but by a series of complete miracles and would end up having a month stay in the NICU.
And then the text came…I was actually rather shocked and my heart was kind of confused with all of it: “The boys’ trial home visit has been disrupted and they will be staying with you again for awhile.” Babysitting was suddenly placement. Of course I was excited to see them, love on them and watch them grow again. But so much had happened in those short 8 weeks and my heart was not prepared for this at all.. They turned 1 a month later & we got to celebrate their birthday with them! But at the same time, it tore me apart. So confusing and traumatizing for them. So disappointing for the bio mom & family.  That’s not all, we also got 2 more of their siblings, aka sisters. Two days later 3 year old Glitterbug came & a month later we brought Miraclebaby home from the hospital. Yes we are busy and yes it can be overwhelming. Also YES, our hearts are full!

Look at all those hair!

 

There are so many things I wish I could tell you about them and their lives.. But obviously it is not my story to tell. Just know that these are some of the sweetest and most beautiful children around. 3 out of the 4 are high energy kids, and cause me pure exhaustion by the end of the day. They have adjusted to us and life here quite well, perhaps better than what we have!

It has been over 4 months now being a family of 6. Let me tell you, becoming an instant family of 4 kids, ages 3 and under is no joke. And 1 year twins in the middle?! Of course the first month is all fun and everyone is doing great. Month 2 the crazy is high and the real is coming out, turns out 8 wks can raise alot of insecurities for babies. Month 3 we all just want to quit; but we keep reminding each other of that moment we knew God wanted us to say Yes and we keep pushing through, verbalizing that we embrace this life and family. Month 4 we have found a new normal and most days we feel like we are ready and ok for the long haul this appears it is going to be. And we are learning how to specialize in each individual to bond with them instead of lumping them together in an overwhelming sense where no one feels valued. We actually love doing this again & treasure having a family. Routines have definitely taken shape and bring security to us all. I don’t know how I do it most days, but have discovered that the best way to not become overwhelmed is to not ‘plan’ to accomplish anything. Lessen my expectations. Be satisfied in playing on the floor most of the day. Feel full and accomplished without crossing off a to-do list. Believe me, it is still a work in progress, that last one. But I have to constantly remind myself what is most important and not just in a cliche type of way. FOR REAL. Currently I am learning how to carve out time for what God wants me to do on a personal level and am in search of soul rest even in the daily ‘crazy’ schedule.
Recently I was kind of berating God, why He had brought us to a place of peace in saying Yes, and then just left us sit and fend for ourselves in this difficult journey? Why does it suddenly seem like a heavy burden to bear?! He reminded me of the verse my yoke is easy and my burden is light and that I had been trying to carry this yoke alone. I need to come away with Him, into His yoke and it will be free & light. That takes intentionality. Time to stop. Rest. Commune with Him and allow Him to guide every footstep and not just go go go…. In the midst of 50 things pounding in my head that need to be done, schedules & appointments nearly colliding, visits being rescheduled 5x in 1 day….I am learning to literally lift up my hands and say, You control it God and make it work out. Show me what I can cut out or do to make it work. I know You care & You will make a way. 

I just really wana shout out to my amazing husband & partner in all of this, he pulls more than his share of the load. He changes just as many poopy diapers as I do, bathes the boys 99% of the time, does the nightly ritual of putting baby to bed & 100% cares for the boys if they wake during the night. Not only is he the entertainer of all things play in the evenings, he is also the first one out of bed & has coffee brewed for me when I drag myself out 10 (or 20) minutes later. He often cooks us breakfast, or half of it at least & never complains about helping me with last minute meal prep. He never leaves the kitchen until the table is cleared. If it looks like the dogs may fare too richly under our table he will find the broom & remedy that. He washes many dishes, and loads/unloads the dishwasher whenever there is a need. Many laundry-day evenings will find him helping me clear our bed and put away what I didn’t get folded yet. If I’m feeling like I need space, he usually figures out a way for me to get groceries alone or takes the kids on a drive or takes them outside. Anytime there’s even the slightest opportunity that one can ride along with him, he will be the first to suggest it. My chocolate stash stays well supplied. I am so grateful that he helps me around the house until the toys are picked up and things in order so that I can sit with him after the babies are in bed. There’s alot more, but you get the picture, he is Super Amazing & I wana be more like him. I’m seriously so humbled how well he loves me in word & action. 

We were very grateful to family for watching our brood so that we could celebrate our 5th Wedding Anniversary in May. It was seriously one of the cheapest and best vacations we ever had. Originally our plans were a bit more elaborate to celebrate the big five. But then when we had to downscale we knew right away it was the perfect opportunity to relive our first dates and part of our honeymoon in MO. Something we had often talked about doing, and I’m so grateful circumstances led us in that direction. While it is awesome to make new memories, it is so soo good to stop and remember where we came from and how it all started. Even experience those first heart flutters again. 😉

We took the kiddoes to the zoo and the parade.. felt like big accomplishments and they loved it! They spend many hours on our swing set Dan built and the pool has been brought out of storage. We also added 2 baby kitties to our family and thankfully their airways seem to handle frequent squeezing quite well. They absolutely love pizza, so Lil Caesars has seen us quite frequently! We have had more than our fair share of sicknesses, Dr. appointments and teething irritability and are always so grateful for the few days of good health! And we have gone on multiple road trips, we love traveling and the kiddoes do fairly well with it as well. So yeah, its been pretty interesting around here.

And just like that we are halfway through 2017 already and it feels like it was just January. I’m presuming the rest of the year will evaporate just as quickly. One day blends into the next and the months slip away without us hardly noticing. We hope to look back at these days with fond memories and not just a blurred image. Are you saying Yes to what matters today?

If you enjoyed this post and would like to connect on a more personal level, please connect with me. Or if you need prayer, I would love to be in touch with you! Email me at capturingjewels@gmail.com -Follow me on Facebook or on Instagram. To follow along on our journey and not miss any posts, subscribe to the blog [top right corner] or follow my blog Facebook page, not just my personal one.

“Life” on our Anniversary

“Life” on our Anniversary

Today is just a lil different than what I had imagined.. But it’s ok. I’m choosing to cherish the moments as this is what our imperfect, perfect life looks like! No, we still don’t have the ‘normal-family-life’ thing downpat, but come’on, I seriously doubt we’d be happy if we lived the American-normal. Most of the time I feel like we fit into a mold too much the way it is. Who defines ‘normal’ anyway?! lol

Being without any kids for the past 2 months we decided we’re gonna go spend a few days in Nashville for our 4th Anniversary this year. Who lives just a few hours away and hasn’t spent time touring the famous city of Nashville? Yup, that would be us! So we were getting all excited and planning what we wanted to go see….. But Dan kept holding off on making actual motel reservations, because, as he said, “what if we’d get some kids”?!

Sure enough, on Tuesday morning we were discussing that we should get our reservations made that evening and a few hours into the day. We get a phone call asking if we’d take 3 lil boys. Uh-oh. See, we’re just licensed for three. And next month is #mylilgirlie’s court to see how her trial placement with her bio Dad is going. And with not knowing the outcome we were not willing to fill up our home n not leave a space for her, just in case. So I called our placement lady (in our county) and she said she’s make a few calls. Turns out they’d gladly up our number but we’d have to get another room ready and we can’t do that without getting a storage building or adding a lean-to…(which I have been bugging dear hubby for) cuz I want to help as many as I can! So we sadly had to say no, but I felt complete peace about it. Before I hung up, she said, Oh looks like I’m getting a child into custody right now. I almost squealed, Yay, we’ll take that one! She says, It’s a baby. And I’m pretty sure I squealed for real then. We’d love to have a baby! So I had to wait to hear back, and a few hours later she said they couldn’t find a judge to sign and won’t be able to remove the child till tomorrow, but it’s a 10 month old lil boy.

Waited till mid-afternoon to finally receive the call that he’s in custody and I can come pick him up. I came into the office to hear him giggling the most deep, adorable giggle as he was playing with an FSW’s kids & just loving it. He took to me right away. Needless to say it was evening till I came home, not only a bunch of waiting and signing I had to turn around and go back for more after I was 5 min on my way home. Thanks to Lil Ceasar’s we had a relaxing eve to get him bathed and ready for bed. [Minus going thru the nastiness of a small bag of stinky clothes–needing to get Clorox as they might be contaminated from the drugs.] He did super well, took a 45 min nap and woke up after 7pm, and by 9pm and only a few tears later he was out again! And he slept till 9am!! I was just a lil freaked out and secretly delighted when I woke up during the night and the next morning and the lil champ was still soundly sleeping!

He seems to have a good mix of being a content, happy lil guy with lots of smarts and just a lil bit of temper I think… Smiles super easy and copycats alot, constantly giving me giggle fits and then he tries to laugh with me. He’s been crawling and pulling himself up, so I suppose this will be interesting if he continues to be this active! Wasn’t so keen on the baby food, but I think it was mainly the spoon thing as he loves to eat with his fingers and picks it up and handles it really well. I’m not quite sure what all is normal for a 10 month old, but he doesn’t seem to be behind at all. And is a healthy weight, coming in just a tad on the short side. His happy demeanor has earned him the web name of MrSunbeam. MrSunbeam

So, that brings me back to today. It’s our Anniversary and so far I’ve been to the Health Department and Walmart. It would be fine, but I keep thinking about being in Nashville and it’s just not cutting it! I know we will still go and I’m looking forward to that. I am happy, very happy tho; I know, with the timing of everything that this was meant to be- MrSunbeam here and us at home. So, I can happily be sad. [it’s true]. We’re just gonna get a babysitter tonight and go eat some yummy steaks and see if we can find anything else to do that may seem romantic [NOT grocery-shopping either!]. Mmm now my mouth is watering.

Funny story, my wedding pictures are still not in albums. I was going to scrapbook them so I never put them in an album. Now that just looks overwhelming. So maybe we’ll go get some albums and stick em in for now, beings they’re all printed. We did have such an amazing wedding and I never tire of looking at our beautiful pictures & reliving the fun, giddy feelings. No doubt the biggest piece of amazingness was in the man that I married. I was so in love and hoped like crazy it would only get better. Indeed, I am being truthful, not cliche when I say it has! He spoils me rotten and loves me dearly. I am so thankful that he is an awesome leader and provider for us that I can trust 200%. I love him like crazy and couldn’t ask for more.

Here’s a couple wedding pictures —

 

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I got this last one made into a 16×24 canvas from Canvas On Demand for us. We like to get 1 big thing that benefits both of us for an Anniversary Gift and thought this was perfect 😉

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Out with the Dead, in with LIFE

Out with the Dead, in with LIFE

DSC_0081Dan&Julia editedWe recently had the opportunity of hosting some ‘new friends’ and we were really blessed in sharing time with each other, along with parts of our stories, and praying together. As they were preparing to leave, I gave them a print of the above photo along with our contact info. A lil bit later she comes back to me and says that as she was looking at this photo she saw something she felt like she was supposed to share. She sensed that like as in the picture, the background looks dead and brown with old buildings, and the foreground is just lightly turning green and showing life. That it is where we are at in our life right now; even though behind us we have had hard times where things seemed kinda dead, old and brown…that they are starting to change. And we will be beginning a new kind of life-that is “full of life”.

I was so blessed by it and felt like it was from God..I just wanted to document it 🙂

Be blessed, God is always so faithful!

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2 year Anniversary

2 year Anniversary

So May 19 has dawned again and today has been so unlike any 2 year Anniversary I could have ever imagined.. Life really has changed drastically here with my whole leg still being bandaged up from my surgery 5 days ago. Mornings have definitely been the worse and this morning was no different, me, not being able to get out of bed alone and then when I finally do so with my hubby’s help, sitting in the bathroom in a chilled state of sweat, feeling extremely nauseated, sipping on water to calm my stomach. However, once I have food and more pain prescription in my system things definitely start looking up! June 2014 039Yep, this is pretty much my station, not being able to bend my knee whatsoever.

However this Anniversary Day did find us doing something together, my dear hubby hauled me in to my first Physical Therapy visit. Where they took off my bandages for the first time and I got to see my incision with 8 staples and the other 4 small cuts with stitches. It really does look good, but with my queasy stomach I didn’t want to think about it too long.

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And then we went shopping- (or rather Dan ran into Walmart, lol) We needed gauze and bandages, I know, super romantic!

After that long adventurous journey I was exhausted, and hubby had to go to work a few hours. So my sis said she would stay with me. And while she was here, she proceeded to clean up the house and prepare some food. I had told her along with my mother-in-law and sis-in-law that if they felt led they could fix us a meal or do whatever they wanted to spice up our evening. Well, they truly did just that!

Beings my bandages hadn’t come off in 5 days, I wasn’t allowed to shower in those 5 days either, so it was with pleasure that I was ready to tackle that task whether I could stand without my crutches or not, I was gonna do this, one-legged or sitting, whatever works! With a matter of time and hubby’s wonderful assistance we got it accomplished….and when we were finished and came out into the livingroom we were greeted with wonderful aromas, shades all pulled & candlelit house, table set and decorated in the livingroom by my chair, and a big beautiful bouquet my hubby had snuck in for me. It almost made me cry, they truly did a beautiful job!! My sis snapped a few pictures for us and then they all left, leaving us to our own romantic evening…

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June 2014 058June 2014 106June 2014 096June 2014 076June 2014 100June 2014 055 and the food was just as amazing, they had ordered + picked up some steaks 25 minutes away and seriously they were still hot and so juicy and yummy! We were soo tickled!!

June 2014 073June 2014 070June 2014 078June 2014 077June 2014 083June 2014 085June 2014 087June 2014 137 not the most stunning picture, but the flowers sure were!

June 2014 061 my hubby had the wonderful idea of playing our wedding music, which we still just loove listening to! And we looked at wedding pictures, then curled up (just as good as you can curl with a straight leg brace!) and watched a movie.. Honestly, it was one of the most fun, relaxing, MOST enjoyable evenings we had in a very long time!!  (the winning cherry on top was that we weren’t supposed to clean up and they came back the next day and cleaned up the dishes and everything!)

We had the great idea that to save money on gifts we’ll buy something that both of us have wanted/needed…a GOOD (ya know, a Cabela’s one instead of a Walmart one) thermometer that does indoor/outdoor, along with a rain gauge. Plus then of course add in a lil chocolate 😉

Happy Anniversary my love, I love you so deeply that sometimes my heart feels like it’s gonna explode and I wonder how I could love you more, and yet as every year has passed I always look back in amazement because I know I love you more than I did then…how does that work?! We have been through a lot together and I look forward to so many more!!

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Our Wedding Day [part IV ceremony/reception]

Our Wedding Day [part IV ceremony/reception]

We were blessed with a beautiful {hot} day and had our ceremony outdoors. And then {for the sake of my mother’s sanity} we had our reception in the community building-it served quite nicely. I just wanted to include a few of the highlights to give you an idea what took place 🙂 Photo credits go to Gingerich PhotographyDanJulia-346DanJulia-50

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we had fun being ‘stuffed’ in here while we waited for the guests to arrive..DanJulia-345

meanwhile the bridal party was exiting the motorhome and FINALLY ‘almost ready’ to walk down the aisle 😉 DanJulia-18there is ‘something’ about this picture that spells __________? DanJulia-3822012-07-10 Brad's Wedding Photos7DanJulia-3892012-07-10 Brad's Wedding Photos8DanJulia-395 a special time of dedication prayer with our parents..DanJulia-408I wanted to do something to symbolize our marriage…but not the ordinary like candles, sand, rings, etc….. so i started searching, and when I came across God’s Knot I just knew this was it! So absolutely perfect for us and how we view our marriage and want to build upon it! DanJulia-411we are One!DanJulia-53

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Now for the reception highlights… [thanks to my friend Judith for snapping this photo, i don’t have any of the building..]IMG_0624

2012-07-10 Brad's Wedding Photos10bdelicious food…2012-07-10 Brad's Wedding Photos10amazing help that prepared it…2012-07-10 Brad's Wedding Photos9they sang a few requested songs for us..DanJulia-112the lively bunchDanJulia-499everyone:) DanJulia-545some details around our table and the family… 2012-07-10 Brad's Wedding Photos13the cake! thanks to a friend Freda Yutzy. DanJulia-5062012-07-10 Brad's Wedding Photos12a few of us all smiles 🙂2012-07-10 Brad's Wedding Photos11the crazy-fun we had…..2012-07-10 Brad's Wedding Photos14 probably my most favorite ‘toast’ was from my miniature groom & his friends {which i also babysat at some point}DanJulia-550signing the marriage license..DanJulia-568DanJulia-573good-byes……..i could hardly believe the day was already over!DanJulia-576 DanJulia-579

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