2008 Blessings

I just realized from this title that I could put down two thousand and eight blessings from this past year, but I don't exactly have the time for that many... haha So, while this was a hard year in retrospect, there were quite a few blessings... so here are a few:
1. I found (re-found) Soul Cysters... and it's corresponding online message board for woman who have the same infertility problem that I have (and if you didn't know that we have and infertility problem... talk to me :)) The women there have been such a great support system and I can type anything there that Steve just doesn't want to listen to :)
2. My oldest turned 4. I can't believe how old she is getting! wasn't just yesterday that I was dreaming of having children... then holding her in my arms. She is such a smart little cookie... to smart for her own good sometimes :) Mommy loves you Faith!
3. On that same note... My second little girl turned 3! Who would have thought that after the first child took two long grueling years to conceive, the second would be a surprise and not take any time at all, in fact I was waiting for a new cycle to start before I realized that I was actually pregnant with this child. She is such a character! Mommy loves you too Megan!
4. I actually became pregnant this year! and it only took three cycles of me watching things to do it. While we did lose Corine, our loss was Heavens gain! I am saddened that we didn't get to know Corine, like I know the other two... but I know that Jesus will be telling her stories of her mommy, daddy and sisters over the years and I look forward to the day when Jesus will let me hold her again. Add to this one... I got to spend 13 wonderful weeks with this precious child (and did feel her kick me once).
5. My mom got to come visit... and stay for a month! I know I have said this before, but I am so glad for all the visitors we've had this year! I am amazed that my mom actually go on a plane and left the comfort of her home to be bounced upon by her grandchildren. I am also glad that she was here when I took my HPT that was positive and gave us Corine. I am glad that "butterfly Grandma" isn't juat a name but an actual person to my girls, that means a lot to me.
6. We got to visit family in Ohio when Kim got married! I love weddings and to be there when it's your own family is even better!
7. I have great doctors. Even though I have not been to the Dr's office since the miscarriage, they were very compassionate and wonderful in the situation. I just hope that I will be able to use them again soon. :)
8. Susan, my mother-in-law got to come visit. This is another one where I am so happy that my children know who "Grandmum" is in real life and not just pictures. The time we spent with her was so precious. And to have Susan here on Thanksgiving was great. And I love that she says that she has three granddaughters, two that she can hug and one that Jesus can hug!
9. Aunt Becky came to visit!! This one was such a surprise, as Beck lives in South Africa as a missionary there, but took an extended furlough this year and was able to come visit. Beck is my sister, via me moving in with her family when I was in High School. She means so much to me. Love ya beck!
10. This was my goal... 10. So My last one... My husband! I love him SOOOOO much, I couldn't live without him. He is the best thing I could have ever hoped for as a little girl, and then some. Steve was so supportive and willing to do so much for me when we miscarried, and he hurt and grieved just as much as I did. I know that God put us together, and I pray for many MANY more years together. I love him more than I could have thought was possible, even on my wedding day... It's an old saying, but I love him more now then on our wedding day, and less today then tomorrow.
11. OK so that wasn't my last one, but these last ones will have to be quick... My MOPS group, with out them I would be so lost!
12. Our church, the people are some of the best, and were really supportive with everything that went 'wrong' with Corine's pregnancy... and attached to that my care group... which is just a small extension of church, but these people mean a lot to me!

OK... So have a Happy New Year everyone!! May the Lord's blessing upon us all in this coming year!

<3 Christina

Christmas Pictures

The Smilebox Christmas letter was so much fun I decided to do another one from all our pictures from Christmas... so here it is. :)

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Christmas Newsletter

A friend sent me one of these and I decided that I just had to make one too! It was so much fun. I am doing this in loo of cards this year (am I getting lazy or what). Enjoy!!

Make a Smilebox greeting

Sick kiddos :(

I have a different sick kiddo now that is not the kiddo that was sick last week.

Megan is sick now. She has the sniffles, watery eyes, cough... the whole bit. In short she is miserable! This poor girl even slept in the rocking chair last night (and is doing so again tonight) so that she can actually breath (it's so hard to breath laying down when you're stuffed up). Faith had this same thing last week and missed two days of school because of it. So we have been watching a lot of movies lately, so that sitting on the couch isn't so boring.

I pray that Meg feels better and can have a happy Christmas day on Thursday.

Me, a Grandmother?!?!

Yes you read that right, only it’s not quite what it sounds like (I'm too young at the age of 30... and my children only being 3 and 4). In the would of little girls, baby dolls come and go... But Grandpa came to visit last weekend and brought the Christmas gifts that my grandma Hults had bought for the girls. Well, they opened them already, and they are 25th anniversary Cabbage Patch Kids. These dolls look just the way I remember from my childhood, ha! So we went through the whole rigmarole of swearing in Faith and Megan to adopt these babies and be their mommy’s. Then there is the registering of the whole event online. It used to be that you mailed in a card, but now... well they will get an e-card on the dolls birthday. I am amazed!

The girls were (are) so excited! So Steve and I have begun joking about being too young to be grandparents.

None of the doll clothing we currently have will fit these dolls. Luckily one day this summer I bought some doll clothing patterns for super cheep (and amazing enough, one of the patterns is CPK). So my sewing machine will be doing some overtime to create a bit of a wardrobe for these new additions. I do think, though, that preemie sized clothing will fit them. The ‘kids’ are named Cassie Thomasina and Vernie Lauretta (we call her Laurie), these are the names that the dolls came with and the girls have decided to keep them.

Megan with 'Laurie'

Faith with Cassie

The girls with their new babies. A happy adoption ceremony and party :)

Visitors of 2008

We have been so blessed this year with family being able to come and visit us… and the occasional trip to visit them! In May my mom came a stayed for a month while her friend was visiting her newest grandchild. We had so much fun!
This picture is from where I work, it's called Eat'n Park and the smiley cookie is what we are known for. The 'mascot' was there during our 'Beach Party' If you ever come to visit, we'll take you, it's exclusively in PA, OH and WV.

In November Steve’s mom got to come and visit us. She didn’t get to stay as long, but her trip here was great too. We got to spend Thanksgiving with Susan.

Waiting for Grandmum to come on the train, It was cold!

We had a bit of Christmas while Grandmum was here!

Just a few days after Susan left, my ‘sister’ Rebecca came to visit for a few days.


We have also had my dad come to visit us frequently. He has come on both the girls’ birthdays, once in the summer to take us to a baseball game, and is planning to come this weekend (for Christmas)
This is my dad's car, it's a smart car for two. He gets about 40 MPG

We have also had the privilege of going to Ohio for my cousin’s wedding this summer. That was a blast.
Kim (my cousin) and Michael

My Aunt Jan and Uncle Gary (Kim's mom and dad)My Aunt Marge and Megan and Faith, the girls had so much fun!

One more picture, because it was a journey, one that we are still on. The grieving process is lifelong, and I (I think Steve too...) hope to have another child someday soonish...This one is of our precious Corine less then a week before she passed away.


I am thankful for so much this year, despite our loss. I just wanted to get this started and am hopeful I can keep up with our lives here and give our loved ones a glimpse of how we are doing.

Introduction

Well I set this up a few months ago to be able to read a friend’s blog and meant to actually post some things here sometimes.. and just haven’t yet. I have no good excuse! So a little it about us as a family first? My name is Christina, I was born and raised in northern AZ, Flagstaff to be exact. I met my husband, Steve, through my college roommate and an old boyfriend’s mom (they were friends). I knew he was the one from our first date! I was scared to admit that to myself, but I knew it! We were married just 10 months after that first date.. he did propose just a couple of months after that first date. We were married in August of 2000 (so that when we are old and senile we could remember how many years we’d been married by what year it is... at least that was the joke between us). We had our first daughter, Faith, in March of 2004, after two long years of trying and finding out that I (probably) have something called PCOS, if you would like more info about it you may go here. We had our second daughter, Megan, just a short 20 months after Faith in October of 2005. Megan’s pregnancy was such a surprise... I had figured that if we started trying for another one when Faith was a year old, the children would be almost four years apart... well Faith’s birthday came around, and lo and behold I was already pregnant! I have to insert here that I LOVE being pregnant, and it seems to agree with me. As a family we moved to PA in January of 2007 for financial reasons. We actually started trying again for another child last February, and because of the PCOS it takes a while... In May I found out we were expecting again! I was so excited and hoping for a little boy. Long story short... the baby was a girl, she had a cystic hygroma, and an abnormal placenta and we lost her on Aug 6, 2008 at just 15 weeks. We gave her the name Corine Stephanie; Corine is my middle name and Stephanie is the feminine form of Steve. I know that she is in heaven with her great-grandma just fawning over her. I (we) miss her though!