Happy Memorial Day

Memorial Day always marks the beginning of summer - pools open, long weekend, typically warm weather, picnics, grilling out, extra family time...it a great weekend!

This year is certainly no different.  But each year on Memorial Day I genuinely try to stop and think about the real reason for this holiday.  I am so thankful for the men and women who defend our country and the freedoms we enjoy.  :)


And Kamdyn is celebrating too :)

'Twas the Night before Mother's Day...

...and I cannot stop thinking about how overwhelmingly thankful I am to not be dreading tomorrow.  For the first time in 4 years, I am not wishing tomorrow would be over before it's even begun.

I would literally cry myself to sleep on the night before Mother's Day.  I would cry because I didn't want to go to church and see all the moms with their adorable children.  I would cry because when we went to lunch with my family I would need to smile an be happy to celebrate my incredible mom and sister for the wonderful mothers that they are...but I still felt left out.  I would cry because even though my sweet husband always did a little celebrating because I am Kaitlyn's step-mom, it didn't change the fact that I wasn't a "real" mom.  I would cry because every solitary place I went, there were mothers.  I would cry because quite frankly, it's not fair.

Tonight, as I'm sitting on my couch looking at the little miracle who has made me a mom - I cry for different reasons.  I am so, so thankful to be her mom.  And I have realized that while I think about Julie most every day anyway, Mother's Day will always be a day that she will be in the top of my mind.  While Kamdyn will grow up calling her Aunt JuJu - the reality is that Julie is her birthmother and Kamdyn wouldn't be here without her.  And I wouldn't be a mother without her.  So, not only will I be celebrating being a mom tomorrow, every year on Mother's Day, I will celebrate Julie...for giving me my reason to celebrate.

With all the thankfulness I have in my heart, there is still a little place of sadness for all the women who are sad tonight thinking about tomorrow.  I pray that I never forget what that feels like.  While that might sound strange to most of you, I actually think that pain makes me a better mom.  That pain reminds me how badly I wanted to be a mom.  That pain allows me to be compassionate and empathetic to all those women who are experiencing pain caused by infertility, loss, or loneliness.

I will spend my day tomorrow celebrating moms, being thankful that someone in this world finally calls me Mama, and praying for those who desperately wish they felt like they had a reason to celebrate tomorrow.  I hope you will join me.

Lots of Love -

Happy Easter

Happy Easter

Love, Kamdyn

Sorry for my silence lately.  I've been adjusting to life with that adorable little bunny above.  I will be back this week with some updates and LOTS of pictures.  Enjoy your Easter with family...I know I will be thanking the Good Lord for all of the blessings in my life!

Happy Easter -

23 Weeks & Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, Blog Family!

It's a little Christmas present from me to you that this BUMPdate is up a day early :)

Here is the 23 week BUMPdate: 12/25/13 -

And the side-by-side from last week:

I think she had quite a growth spurt this week, no?!  Both Julie & I thought it was quite a change from last week.  It's really hard to believe that next week we will be 6 months along.  SO crazy.

She is now over a pound and 11 inches long.  She's about the size of a mango this week:

I needed to find a picture that would give me a little size clue because one single mango on a white background wasn't helping me picture how big she is.  This picture really made me stop for a second.  She's actually that big right now.  Crazy.

In other developments this week, if Julie were to play a little music and begin dancing Kamdyn would recognize the movement.  Soon we should be able to see Kamdyn moving from the outside of Julie's belly.  {I'll say one more time that I cannot wait to lay on the couch and feel her move for hours upon hours…or until Julie gets tired of me! :)}  Blood vessels in her lungs are developing to prepare for breathing and the sounds that her increasingly developing hearing can pick up are preparing her to enter the outside world.  Loud noises that are becoming normal to her {dogs barking, loud music, vacuum cleaner, etc} won't even phase her when she arrives.  {Julie, feel free to make as much noise as possible!  We have a loud family! :)}

I will be back this weekend with a recap and photo dump of the incredible Christmas we've had.  We are so blessed with family we genuinely enjoy, laughter, health, and joy.  We have unloaded and unpacked so many amazing gifts this Christmas - but my favorite gift this year?

Not only what's inside that belly - but the people who are in that home.  That family is one of the most incredible, life-changing, out-of-nowhere blessings I've ever experienced in my life.  Not only for me, but for the many people who have fallen in love with our story.  Many of you are reading this blog post because you know me in real life.  Others of you are reading this blog because you've heard about our story from someone you know who knows someone I know.  It has always been my prayer {and Julie's} that our story would be bigger than us…we wanted to share our story because we hoped it might inspire others to give intentional acts of kindness to others.  The magnitude of her act of kindness will never stop being incredible to me - but I am honored and humbled that this is the life God has given me.  I'm so thankful for this gift and have vowed that I will never stop telling Kamdyn the beautiful story of selfless, humble, Godly love that brought her into this world.

Thank you for making this little blog a part of your life.  You are one of my biggest blessings.  :)

Merry Christmas -

Grown up Christmas list

How is it possible that Christmas is tomorrow?!  I am enjoying slow time with my family over this break.  I'm not wishing away time.  I'm living in the moment.  I'm snapping pictures.  I'm eating lots.  I am being present in the present gratefully.

Do I ever know this!  I could make a list a mile long of things I want for the holidays that aren't really things at all.  I want children to not be sick, I want families to be together, I want peace, I want open-mindedness, I want kindness, I want families who want to have babies to be able to, I want cancer gone - the list could go on and on.  But none of these are things that Santa can just throw on his sleigh and bring.

Here's what I do love about Christmas though.  It's magical.  People are kinder.  They say please and thank you and Merry Christmas.  They smile more.  There is power in the season.  And I love that.

Give away something that can't be bought today.  I promise it'll be the best thing you do for yourself today.

:)

Finally {Black} Friday

This week has been SO awesome, because it went by so quickly.  In fact, if this weekend could slow down just a little, that'd be awesome!  :)

Our Thanksgiving was very low key - actually, we didn't even eat turkey.  Nobody in my family really loves turkey, so we decided to have an Italian Thanksgiving.

To be quite honest, I could eat hot dogs on Thanksgiving as long as I am spending it with the people I love.

We are headed to spend time with Kevin's family today - can't wait to see them all.

I will leave you with some pictures from our day yesterday.

Shopping the ads before lunch.

This girl cracks me up.  I'm so thankful for her.

Sam & Uncle Kevin were enjoying football.  Uncle Kevin wasn't so much enjoying football because his darn Packers couldn't get themselves together.

Maicey was hot - she didn't have any shorts at Oma & Opa's house, so Rob problem solved and made shorts out of Sam's old pants.  With the leftover fabric, he made them both hats.  Very handy.  :)

Gosh, I love them.  :)

We were the first group of people to get into Toys R Us last night.  I got a great deal on my nephew Aiden's Christmas gift.  And had fun with my family!

This man was such a trooper.  We are in line at Kohl's in this picture and he had a huge arm load of stuff  because we determined that a cart would only inhibit our ability to move through the store.  :)  It was wonderful quality time together.

Enjoy your weekend, Friends!

19 Weeks & Happy Thanksgiving!

Here is the 19 Week BUMPdate - 11/27/13:

Every Wednesday I just get SO excited every time Julie texts me.  Well tonight, when I opened my text to see the new belly pic, this is what was there:

That's funny stuff, guys.  Admit it.  They crack me up.

Ok, here's the real BUMPdate:

And the side-by-side from last week:

I think she looks higher - Julie says she feels higher.  :)  She weighs about 8 1/2 ounces and is about the size of an heirloom tomato

Her brain is designating specialized places for her various senses and she is beginning to be able to recognize sounds.  Her kidneys continue to make urine and the hair on her head is beginning to sprout.

Because it's Thanksgiving, I want to take a moment to give THANKS.
{Thanks to Kelly from Kelly's Korner for the idea!  :)}

This Thanksgiving, I want to give THANKS for...

Traditions.  I am a sucker for holiday traditions with family.  I ADORE nothing more than going over to my parents house and spending time with the people I love.  We don't have to do anything special - just be in the same place.  I love it.

Having enough.  We are certainly not wealthy.  But we have enough.  We have a beautiful apartment that we've made into a home.  We make enough money to have all the things we need and many of the things we want.  We have enough and I'm thankful for that.

All of YOU.  I cannot really tell you the ways this blog has changed my life in the past 5 months.  What started out as a simple and easy way for me to document our life has turned into an amazing creative outlet for me that others have come to look forward to as a part of their daily routine.  I am so thankful that people are interested in our story and care about us enough to read each day.

The K's in my life.  Kevin, who I would be lost without. He lets me dream bigger and keeps me grounded all at the same time.  Kaitlyn, who has broken me in to this job of being a mom.  Our Kangaroo and her family, who have restored my faith in humanity and become such a blessing to our lives in friendship and support and who are giving us the most obvious K I'm thankful for this year.  Kamdyn Murphy, I am SO thankful for you.  I haven't even met you and you have changed my life.  The sheer fact that I get to be your mommy is without a doubt my biggest reason for giving thanks this year.

School.  I am thankful for my education, but more than that, I am thankful that I go to work each day with a dedicated faculty of some of my closest friends.  And I am so thankful for my Students who are absolutely some of the sweetest and most incredible kids I know.  I tell them all the time that they are going to change the world, and I can't wait to watch.




And one more adorable BUMP picture!  Happy Thanksgiving from our little turkey

I genuinely hope each of you has an incredible holiday with the people you love.  Thank you for making The Rokusek Family Blog a part of your Thanksgiving.

Lots of Love -

Monday Morning Musings

Yesh, this weekend flew by!  As was to be expected, the holiday craziness has set it and we are going 50 miles per hour.  I am going to work really hard this year to be intentional with the time I spend.  I want to enjoy this season with my family, just the way it is.  Kaitlyn was talking this weekend about "next year Kamdyn will be able to pull ornaments off the tree" or "will we be able to take our annual trip to Chicago, even with a baby?" - these things tugged at my heart because for as much as we have prayed for this baby and as ecstatic as we are for her to finally be here…the reality is that the way we do business as a family will be changing drastically.  Those of you reading who know me in real life know that this doesn't bother me one bit as far as day-to-day life…but holidays - OH BOY.  I am a creature of habit when it comes to holiday traditions.  I think there is nothing more important than those special family traditions around the holidays - and two things are about to happen 1) my traditions are about to be changed {WHERE is Kamdyn going to sit in the seating arrangement at my parent's house on Christmas night?!} and 2) Our family unit {Kevin, Katie, Kaitlyn & Kamdyn} is going to develop our own traditions {these are hard to develop when we only have Kaitlyn every other year for every other holiday}.  The thought of this makes me a LOT excited and a little LOT anxious.  Anyway, here's the point - I want to cherish this year with our family just as it is, because I know it won't be the same ever again - that's not bad, just different.  :)

On Friday night, I enjoyed a blissful night of scrapbooking.  I just love this time with my friends working on Kamdyn's scrapbook.  :)

Festival of Trees was the perfect kick off to our holidays :)  The studio always performs the weekend before Thanksgiving and it always, always, always puts me in the holiday spirit.  Speaking of holiday traditions, we have a few photo traditions before the show, as I looked back at these I got tears in my eyes.  Sometimes I wish I could just stop time.  Stop babies from growing up.  Or even just re-visit these days.  But since I can't - pictures serve as the perfect way to remember.  Freeze time.

The top row of that collage is 2010, the bottom was this weekend.  3 years.  The blink of an eye.  Impossible to believe.

We also decorated our home for the holidays this weekend.

I just love my house at Christmas time.  It puts me in my happy place.

Speaking of my happy place.  My fabulous, talented husband took pictures of Kaitlyn, Sam & Maicey this weekend.  {I'll also put in a disclaimer that I took many of these because Maicey refused to cooperate for Kevin!}  I'll leave you with a few of my favorites.

Have a beautiful week, friends!

Finally Friday: Halloween Style

Welp, regular blogging these days has consisted of my Thursday morning BUMPdates - and while I am proud of myself for at least being on time with those, I am missing blogging about my regular life - so here we go.

I sat on my couch last night in a quiet house because Kevin is still in the hospital.  He had quite a bit of his colon resected on Monday morning to *hopefully* take care of his diverticulitis, which has been flaring up numerous times this year.  He has been in a great deal of pain, but we just keep praying that each day gets easier and he will be back to normal in no time.

I am beyond exhausted today because Halloween in an elementary school will do a real number on the adults in said school.  My sweet fifth-sters were more than a little "off" yesterday and while that makes me exhausted, I try really hard to remember what it's like to be 10...so I try to be patient.  As exhausting as yesterday was, the sad reality is that today is going to be worse.  I will work hard to enjoy my Friday with them.  :)

After work yesterday, I stopped at my sister and brother-in-law's to see these two pumpkins:

It was a cold and dreary day, but that didn't stop these trick-or-treaters.  They came back with a bag of candy and big smiles!  :)  I was just glad that I got a chance to see them - I never get tired of it.  Ever.

My sister texted me today to give me a little sneak peak of what arrived at her door yesterday:

Yippee for baby bedding!  Any of my readers who know me in real life will be SO proud of me.  This bedding is based on the alphabet and has an elephant on it - I swore I would never do this, but I just am in love with this adorable bedding, so with a little coaxing from my mother, sister, best friend Jamie and my 5 year-old niece calmly explaining to me that I could just cover up the elephant if I was scared...I've decided I can move past this minor detail and move forward with this bedding set.

Evidently God is playing tricks with me because the next day I was going through the little welcome bag from my Target baby registry and look at the little toy included

Yep, real funny.  I get it, I'm going to try to move past my phobia - but let's not push our limits, shall we?

And lastly, I got this last night

{melt.my.heart}

So, HAPPY HALLOWEEN {a day late}

from our BOO to YOU.

Have an awesome weekend, Friends -