So my sister-in-law already broke in with a post announcing that I have aged even more. Gabbi is so sweet. She is my absolute favorite sister-in-law under 5'5"! :) Oh, wait, Danielle is probably under 5'5" now too. Shoot. Okay she's my favorite sister-in-law with two adorable kids! Anyways, I am now 31. It's hard to believe that last year at this time, we were just getting back from Africa. JB was graduating. We were about to go in for IVF transfer #4. We were packing up our condo. JB and Ronnie (Ebby's husband) were getting ready to move our stuff halfway across the country. John was getting promoted to captain. What a difference a year makes. It's been a quiet birthday around here. JB is on nights so there isn't a lot of time to celebrate. Yesterday he asked me if I wanted to do anything special. I told him that I already got the best birthday present ever on May 7th and that it is okay to let 31 slip by quietly. I did get another one of those Willow Tree people from my awesome husband. I got one on Mother's Day and one for my birthday. Now don't start thinking that me, "miss anti-clutter" is starting a collection. I do not collect things. I will always be anti-knick-knacks. But having a couple of them is fun! Here are the two I have: Willow 1 and Willow 2. Yesterday, the wifia surprised me with a card and . . . folks, probably the best gift of all. Joia made her infamous ice cream sandwich cake for me. I LOVE THIS CAKE! I had asked her after she made it the first time if she could decorate one (thinking ahead to Isaac's first birthday!) She jumped ahead and tried it and it looks awesome as you can tell from the photos! I am excited because I have another piece in the freezer waiting for me to eat it today sometime. YUM! Joia posted some more pictures on her blog yesterday. You can see those by clicking here. In other news, Isaac had his 2 week appointment today. He doesn't mind the doctor at all except when he has to get naked. This kid does not like to be cold and tells you so emphatically. He is doing great in all areas and is now 7.11! I cannot believe how much he has changed in two weeks. Last night he had a good night and mom got some good sleep. He did a 10pm, 1:15am and 4:45am feeding. Not too bad. Normally, each feeding takes me about an hour, but he was so hungry at 1:15 that he was fed, burped, changed, swaddled, and out cold by 1:40am! Ebby got up at 6am and did the 7:30am feeding so I could get a good nap. Bless my guests! Ebby and I are going out for lunch and going to run some errands today. The birth announcements have come in so I am going to mail those. Watch your boxes. And, if you aren't someone who would probably be on my mailing list but you would like a birth announcement, leave a comment. I have plenty of extra and would be glad to brag on our boy to you! So, thanks Gabbi for wishing a "Happy Birthday to me!" :)
P.S. On a more somber note, my heart is incredibly heavy today with the news of the death of one of Christian singer Steven Curtis Chapman's adopted daughters. You can read the story here. What makes this story even more painful is that she was hit in her driveway by her older brother.
Steven Curtis Chapman is an amazing singer songwriter. I am not sure if I have ever shared on his blog that he was my initial inspiration to adopt through China and the sole reason we went with America World Adoption agency. He and his wife had three biological children when his daughter began nagging them to adopt. They have adopted three girls from China. There is a spot on this link that you can post comments of support. Please pray for this family during this amazingly difficult time.
9 comments:
Wendi, thank you for sharing about the Chapmans, I had just briefly heard a snippit of this on the local Christian radio station this morning... how sad. I watched the video of her and her dad, she was sooo sweet.
hey! happy birthday wendi! i didn't know it was today! anyway, i have been looking at the blog a lot and reading it. every time i read it, i get more and more excited to see you guys! i can't wait! tell John i said hi,and make sure you give Isaac a kiss for me! i love you!
Wendi! You are so cute!!!
Happy Birthday, Wendi!!! I know this must be the best birthday you've had in a while. I am so incredibly happy for you and your husband that little Isaac has come into your lives.
I've just spent about two days reading through your blogs, and oh my gosh, Wendi, so many of the posts could have been written by me. All the infertility stuff was so familiar although we never got as far as IVF. Back then, Pergonal was the major fertility drug (clomid was like taking a placebo for me), but even mega-doses of Pergonal couldn't persuade my ovaries to make more than one follicle.
We did IUIs, and one time I really thought it had finally happened. I did a home pregnancy test and it came out positive. I was ecstatic. Then, since I worked at a medical school, I ran over to the clinic to have an official pregnancy test done. When the nurse called me and told me it was negative, my whole world shattered. Talk about going from the mountain top to the lowest valley.
And when I cried and cried to God asking what was so horribly wrong with wanting a child, my husband would calmly say that God had a plan and we had to trust Him. I knew in my heart of hearts that this was true, but it was sooo hard to believe that not getting pregnant could be God's plan for our lives.
After six failed attempts with Pergonal to get my ovaries to cooperate, my infertility doctor finally said that we'd reached the end of the line. So we decided to pursue adoption. We started with one agency and that didn't work out. So we tried another agency that did foreign adoptions. I was 34, but my husband was over 40 so we weren't eligible to adopt from most countries. Only Guatamala would consider us.
By the time we got all the classes and paperwork done, the president of Guatamala decided that he was closing the country indefinitely to new applications for adoption.
Finally around Christmas time, we were on our way home from church and someone had made one of those insensitive comments and I was in tears. I turned to my husband and said, "I just can't do this anymore. If God wants us to have a child, he's going to have to drop one in our laps." Three weeks later, we had a two and a half year old daughter placed with us through a private adoption.
Was my Lord waiting for me to surrender it all to Him? I don't know. I only know that He is faithful.
I really identified with so much that you have gone through. I'm so thankful that your dreams have come true. May God bless your family.
I hope you had a wonderful day today. Happy birthday!!
Julie
COOL CAKE!!!!! Yum!
Happy Birthday again.
Hope it was GREAT!
Thanks for sharing the SCC news. So sad...but God is bigger.
Isn't SCC such a blessing in so many ways?
Oh and I don't collect things either...other than those precious Willow Trees! :)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BIG SIS! I love you!
Hi Julie! THanks for the intro. Great to meet you!
Happy Birthday Wendi! I know this is late (I thought I had your birthday saved in my Palm Pilot but it's actually your anniversary date), but at least it'll be posted under your blog under your actual birth date!
Looks like it was a great one.
Ice cream cake! Yum!
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