Baby K is on the Way - Part 2

You all know the drill, I'm writing in real time - but not publishing until we have a little more information and are sure everything is ok with the baby. I'm apologizing in advance to all of you who have asked and I have boldly lied to your face. I hope you forgive me! :)

I have to be honest in saying that I think I have spent the past few days in complete shock.  Julie kept asking if I was excited - and of course I am - but there is still a really huge part of me that doubts that this is real.  Perhaps it's all the failed attempts we've had, or maybe it's just that I'm a bit skeptical to begin with - I don't know - but I just haven't allowed my heart to truly believe this is for real.

Bless Julie's heart, she has been worried about me I think...of course, she doesn't need to be - but I think her compassionate heart totally understands that I just can't quite wrap my head around this.  She went into her doctor's office to beg for an ultrasound, but they told her it was too soon.  She did take one of their pregnancy tests - that came back positive as well.  :)

With each piece of confirmation, my heart allows a small piece to believe this might be for real.  :)  

Today (August 14th) was my first day with kids at school, but was also Julie's blood work for the official confirmation.  As I was sitting at practice with my high school kids, Julie called with the results.  Her HCG was 283 - they told her not to rule out twins.  My heart skipped a few beats, but I am just SO excited!  

I will be back tomorrow with a little week-by-week belly pic update to get us all updated. 

Lots of Love -

Baby K is on the Way - part 1

You all know the drill, I'm writing in real time - but not publishing until we have a little more information and are sure everything is ok with the baby.  I'm apologizing in advance to all of you who have asked and I have boldly lied to your face.  I hope you forgive me!  :)

On August 11, 2013 at 4:14 AM, I received this picture in a text message:

Along with another text that said, "In case you were wondering, you're going to be a mom!"

Let's all just take a moment to have a collective amount of tears of joy, shall we?!

To be honest, in that moment, I'm not sure the weight of that text or that picture really hit me.  Sometimes I'm not sure it still has.  This entire experience has been so surreal - and this phase is certainly no exception.

Before we go any further, I feel like I should explain the Baby K part of the title.  Before Kevin and I were even engaged, we started talking about baby names.  With all 3 of us having names starting with a K (Kevin, Katie, & Kaitlyn) - we quickly decided (by we, I really mean I) that our children would need to hop on the K train.  So, our baby has been known as Baby K - until we know the gender, then we will call it by it's name.  :)

Anyway, back to the real point -

I had asked Julie to only text me, because I wanted to be able to tell Kevin myself - so I *tried* to go back to sleep for a few hours (yep, didn't happen), showered, and scribbled this little note to him:

He works until 2:00 AM on Saturday nights (DJing at a bar), so I knew this 8 AM wake up wouldn't be high on his list of preferences, but I simply couldn't wait any longer.  I handed him a blank envelope and he groggily opened it.  The look on his face as those words in the card registered to him is something I will never forget.  This is an experience I think both of us thought we would never get to experience together - we assumed we would be getting a call from our attorney when our baby was born or we were chosen.  Not exactly storybook, to say the least.  Thank you, Heavenly Father for knowing what we needed, even before we knew it.  After a quick hug and kiss, I was off to work for the day.

How I made it through the morning without telling anyone, I will never know.  But I did.  As we broke for lunch, I quick texted Kevin and told him to meet us at the restaurant.  I wanted my closest family to know ASAP since they already knew the dates of the procedure - they knew we would be finding out soon anyway.  So he showed up at the restaurant and as he kissed my mom, he said, "Hey Barb, I wanted you to see what I got this morning."  Confused, she opened the card, read it, re-read it and then burst into the most joyous sobbing I have ever witnessed.  As the card was passed around the table, I remember thinking to myself take it all it, this is what you've been waiting for - these people have loved you through the valley and here we are on the mountain tops.  With tears in the eyes of every person at that table, I'm not sure I've ever felt my heart more full.

I decided at lunch that I had to go see my dad.  I knew I couldn't do anything else until he knew and I knew I couldn't tell him any other way than face-to-face.  I made up a story about needing to drop something off and we went over to their house.  My dad is a man of few words and he doesn't show emotion very well - but when something really touches him, he gets a little choked up and his nostrils flare just a little.  I saw it.  And that chokes me up.  He's such an amazing Opa and I am so honored that I get to make him an Opa again.  God is so amazing.

As I went to bed that night, I just kept looking at that picture.  Those two pink lines.  Trying to let it all sink in and reminding myself that, indeed, this was really happening.

I will be back tomorrow with another Baby K is on the Way on as the reality begins to sink in.  But, before I go - I just want to say THANK YOU.  Thank you for supporting us.  Thank you for your interest in our story.  Thanks for reading each day.  Most of all, thank you for praying for us.  The power of prayer is a remarkable thing and this baby will always know the story of their "blog family"  :)

Lots of Love -

a LITTLE weekend recap...

I'm sorry for my silence lately, friends.  I have to admit, it makes my heart warm when I hear someone tell me they've missed my daily check in's.  Quite honestly, I've missed my LITTLE daily check in's too!  The simple fact that people even read this LITTLE blog of mine is still so crazy to me.  

Back to my silence.  I'm sorry about that...between school starting, Platinum back in regular season practices/games, and just day-to-day life - I just needed to carve out a LITTLE time to sit down and blog.  There has been one other LITTLE reason I haven't had much blog-time...I am so excited to be able to FINALLY have a LITTLE something to talk about around here!!

Spent Friday night with my mom, sister, Maicey, Jenny & Emma eating dinner and then shopping for a LITTLE someone:

Spent Saturday afternoon cheerin' for my Hawkeye's!  Next year there will be another LITTLE fan in our house...

And spent Saturday night at the Above the Barre Retreat with our competition kiddos.  This has become a long standing and VERY popular tradition almost since the studio opened.  At the Retreat, we were able to spill our LITTLE secret - in the form of this:

Not to worry, I will be back tomorrow {and everyday this week} with LOTS more details.

In the meantime, HAPPY SUNDAY, friends!  Thanks for caring about our {growing} family.

Lots of Love,

F.I.N.A.L.L.Y. Friday

It's our first full week of school, and I'm telling you - Friday seemed to be a long ways away.  Teachers, can I get an AMEN?

I feel like we're finally getting into the routine of things in our room and getting some things done.  Some.  Not a lot, but some.  I have a really sweet group of kids this year - so I'm really excited.

This weekend my aunt & uncle are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary.  50 years.  That is insane to me.  In a world today when it's far more common (and a lot easier) to just quit, I love encountering couples who have successfully done this marriage thing.

In addition to the anniversary being celebrated, I'm excited to spend time with extended family that I don't get to see very often.  My dad's family is very close - but the extended part of that family lives all over the United States.  There aren't many events that bring them all back together anymore now that weddings are over and funerals have stopped for awhile (Thank God) - so when we get to celebrate happy events all together, I really look forward to that.

Hopefully I'll check in Monday with some pictures from our time this weekend.

Enjoy your weekend!

The Best is Yet to Come

This little picture has gotten me through lots and lots of days where the sadness I feel about our inability to have babies has just overtaken me.  I'm not really a pessimistic person, so the glass is almost always half full for me.

That little sprout growing out of that huge tree stump is so symbolic to me of so many things.  I think about the hope that can come in the most impossible of places.  I cannot tell you the amount of emails or conversations I've had with people since blogging about this journey that have gone something like this: "we had trouble getting pregnant too" or "you have no idea the strength I've gained from reading about your battle - THANK YOU FOR TALKING ABOUT IT".  These conversations humble me, but they also remind me that in the midst of this dark season in our lives, I might be providing hope for someone else.  It only takes ONE single light to lighten the dark.  Just one.

That little sprout also obviously symbolizes our future child(ren).  Growing out of the dark and hard time in our life.  But growing nonetheless.

And the thought that this is not our final destination is just such a remarkable reminder.  Although my present situation is certainly not what I would've chosen, it's exactly where I'm supposed to be - and for that, I will be thankful.

Be light today, friends.  :)

Monday Morning...again?

Welp, the first few days with kids is in the books and I have to say, I LOVE THEM.  They are fun, and eager to learn, and just great kids. However, I was BEAT by the end of Friday and I am wondering how on Earth I'm going to make it thru this week.  It'll be ok, right?

My nephew Aiden's 5th birthday party was this weekend.  I love that kid so much.  He is spunky and sassy and quite frankly hilarious.  It was an awesome way to spend part of my first weekend back.  :)

Yesterday, I spent about 4 hours writing lesson plans.  It's sort of like riding a bike - once I get back into the swing of things it won't take that long - but MY GOSH, that took forever.  It certainly doesn't help that I'm a bit of a perfectionist and that I rarely just "do what I did last year".  Yes, I certainly could just pull out my plans from last year and copy them - but there were things that weren't perfect and/or didn't work last year - so why on Earth wouldn't I change them this year?!  This is my 6th year teaching fifth grade and I am just now figuring things out - seriously.

I'm sad that this awesome cool summer weather is coming to an end tomorrow.  I hate hot weather, so this summer has been so awesome because we've been able to have windows open and take nice walks where it isn't so humid that I feel like I'm in the rain forest.

I have no idea where all of that just came from...but I guess it was floating around in my head somewhere.

Happy Week Friends -

Throwback Thursday

Christmas 2007