17 Weeks

Day 257 Waiting for our miracle babies

I have made it to 17 weeks! In 19 weeks the doctor will cut the stitches. Next Friday will be the half-way point. I feel like I'm getting HUGE. I don't think I ever got this big with Gavin, and his gestational age was 24 weeks. I guess it's true when they say every pregnancy is different!

Our Big Halloween Tradition

Day 255 Waiting for our miracle babies

So this is a lot later coming this year. We have been SUPER busy. But, at least we got it finished! Anyway, from our house to yours... We give you the haunted gingerbread mansions of 2009.

Here's a shot of the two houses together. The house on the left is the one that Malone and I did. The house on the right is the one that my brother, Garth, and his wife, Laura, did.

This is Garth and Laura's mansion. They imagined their house was the headquarters of a head hunter. I thought they did such a good job with that idea in mind!

This is the house Malone and I decorated. Have you ever read the book called, "The Witches" by Roald Dahl? Well this is what we imagined the witches lair might look like in that book. So we did lots of crooked angles on the house and we used food coloring to paint the walls purple and grey.

We normally use a pattern that a lot of people recognize. For example, last year we patterned it off of the haunted mansion in Disneyland, Paris. But this year with everything going on we decided to just do a more simple design. So we made up our own!

Week 16

Day 250 Waiting for our miracle babies

So, I decided just now that I want to take a weekly photo to document my progress with this pregnancy. Because of the possible complications with my prior history of incompetent cervix, every week completed is something to celebrate. So, as of today I am 16 weeks along and this is my photo. I have to admit it's not the most beautiful picture of me. After all, it's late at night and let's face it... I'm pregnant and not feeling my best. But it will have to do because I'm not about to get all gussied up. This is REALITY people! Now if only I could find a way for our birthmom J to do the same... unfortunately she does not have a digital camera. Darn it!

Bet you never saw this coming...

Day 246 Waiting for our miracle babies

So, many of you have been asking what the surgery was for. I have to admit, I purposely didn't answer because we were waiting to see the outcome. But after months of keeping this secret, we can finally share with the whole world that I am...

PREGNANT

Yes, you read that right! I am expecting! My due date is April 9, 2010. Today my surgery was a cervical cerclage. It was necessary because of my prior history with Incompetent Cervix. Everything went well. Although we aren't out of the woods yet as far as risks are concerned, we passed a major hurdle today. So long as the bleeding slows down and I don't get an infection, things will most likely be ok. In fact, one doctor told us that so long as complications don't happen, the chances of the cerclage failing are only about 1%.

This pregnancy is such a miracle, it was completely unplanned and unexpected. When I was pregnant with Gavin, doctor's told us it was a "statistical fluke." AKA according to them, it never should have happened. Then after Gavin was born we were specifically told we would never be able to conceive again without major medical intervention. I guess this just goes to show that doctors should take into consideration God's influence.

So here's the somewhat condensed story. Don't worry, I won't get too graphic! Remember back in July when we were called to go to North Carolina to adopt a baby girl? Well, that call came at 4:30 in the morning and we packed in a frenzied hurry. In the frenzy we managed to forget to pack the... birth control. So all told I managed to miss about a week of my pills. (A little side note here... I don't actually take the pills as a contraceptive. In fact, my body has always served quite well as its very own contraceptive. The pills are actually used to manage my PCOS, or poly cystic ovarian syndrome. Without them I have incredibly screwed up cycles.) Anyway, unbeknownst to us, a whole week of missed birth control can really screw up your whole month's cycle and you can ovulate. Apparently that's what happened to us. I actually ovulated for the first time in probably 2 1/2 years. And it was just our luck that this one time, we managed to conceive. I guess even though the adoption of Jaida failed, there really was a reason we needed to go to North Carolina!

It was only a short time after our birthmom, J, selected us that we found out about my pregnancy. Of course we were floored. I can't even tell you how much we both cried. We have been so terrified that we will lose this baby the way we lost Gavin. But we called our caseworker with LDS Family Services right away. Charity told us that because J had already selected us, we could move forward with the adoption plan. Of course that's what we wanted, but we knew it was J's decision. We were strongly prompted to talk to her about it as soon as possible so that she could make her decision before becoming too emotionally tied to us. We were just so afraid to hurt her. Telling her about my pregnancy was very hard. We explained to her what our desires were, and then told her we loved her and would understand if she needed to choose another couple. We even told her that we knew of some really great people if she wanted some suggestions. She asked for some time to think about it, and we agreed to give her all the time she needed.

Later that day J asked us to drive down to see her. We were so nervous. But when we picked her up we felt an overwhelming sense of peace. She directed us to a park and we sat down on a bench. She told us that after she was able to get past the shock of our announcement, she was able to think about it clearly. She told us the most important thing about adoption is that the baby goes to the right parents. Then J told us that she felt from the very beginning that we were the right ones and that my pregnancy didn't change that. I think that was one of those moments that just drew us so much closer to her. She is a truly amazing woman. It was interesting though, she did say that if we had waited to tell her, she probably would not have made the same decision. We are so grateful we followed that prompting we had.

So, the long and short of it is that we are expecting two babies!!! The doctor plans to remove the cerclage at 36 weeks and expects that at that point I will have the baby. That puts us around mid March. So that means these two babies could be born as little as 3 weeks apart! So basically that means.... TWINS. We couldn't be more thrilled and are so thankful that God has provided this opportunity to us.

We will find out this baby's gender in about 4 weeks. Oh, and I felt the baby move for the first time last night.

Stressed...

Day 242 Waiting for our baby through the miracle of adoption

It's been a stressful week. Things at work have been crazy, yesterday our birth mom J had contractions that sent her to the hospital (don't worry, she was sent home), and tomorrow I have an important doctor's appointment. The doctor's appointment is prepping me for surgery that I will be having Monday.

I have never had surgery before and I'm totally freaking out. The surgery isn't too complicated, but it's crucial that it go well. It's one of those scary things that I wish was already over with. But have you ever noticed that in these kinds of situations time seems to slow down? Anyhow, Malone and I would appreciate prayers from all of you. And, if you feel so inclined, you are welcome to join us in fasting on Sunday for a positive outcome.

A Great Weekend

Day 239 Waiting for our baby through the miracle of adoption

This past weekend was so fun! Our birth mom, J, and our birth father, T, came up to visit us. On Saturday they drove up together and we took them out to eat at our favorite pizza place here in town. After dinner, T went home. We're still working on building a relationship with him, but so far, we have gotten to be on pretty friendly terms. Hopefully things will go well and we can open up this adoption a bit more with him. Anyway, after dinner, we took J to our house and gave her the "grand tour." We sat and talked for a while and she showed me pictures of her two other children she has placed for adoption. They are SO CUTE!

Then we took her out to one of the local corn mazes/haunted hollows. We go every year, and thought it would be a fun tradition to share with her. Garth, Laura, Ashley, and Jesse came along with us and we had a ton of fun. We listened to a storyteller, ate kettle corn, launched gourds with a giant slingshot, took a wagon ride, rode a train, jumped in a giant pile of hay, went down a VERY slow slide, and walked through the blackout maze. J and I had so much fun walking through the blackout maze arm in arm trying not to crash into walls! It's been a long time since I laughed that hard. To top it off, we walked through the haunted hollow and corn maze. After that we were pretty well exhausted, so we headed home. We chatted for a while and then crashed for the night.

The next morning we all dragged ourselves out of bed and J came with us to church. Then we went home, ate lunch, and the real fun began. While J was here she wanted to meet the family. So by the end of Sunday, J had met my mom and all but three of my eight siblings and their families. She also got the chance to meet a couple of our family friends and my grandparents. I was a bit worried that we might overwhelm her since our family is big and noisy, but she liked everyone.

We are SO blessed that such an amazing woman selected us to place her baby with. And we are SO lucky that she lives only a few hours from us so we get to see her often. We're already looking forward to our next visit with her!

In other news, we are going to be extremely busy and stressed over the next couple of weeks with some different things. Next Monday especially is going to be a difficult day, so we are asking for prayers on our behalf.

Drum Roll Please...

Day 233 Waiting for our baby through the miracle of adoption

Today was an awesome day. We had our ultrasound with our birth mom, J, and we also met our birth father, T, for the first time! It was so exciting, I can hardly contain myself.

So, I will try to describe for you how the ultrasound went.

First, the nurse called us all back. You could tell she was sort of surprised to have all four of us back there. But, to her credit, she took it all in stride and didn't even flinch when J explained that we are adopting her baby. There was an awkward moment at that point where Jeena had to expose her belly and... yeah... while we all averted our eyes. But then, the ultrasound tech said, "there's your baby!" We looked up and there on the giant screen was the most precious little baby. The nurse showed us the baby's profile, hands, feet, organs, etc... I was nearly speechless the whole time and trying not to embarrass myself by sobbing like a 3 year old girl. Then the nurse asked us if we wanted to know whether the baby was a boy or a girl. All four of us just about shouted at her: OF COURSE!!!

So the nurse pulls up the most perfect little shot of the baby's teeny tiny heiny. Of course, the baby was completely obedient and didn't even hide for a second. And the nurse said...

"I have never seen a more clear, perfect shot of a GIRL! 100%!"