Birth Announcement

Now that they are finished aaaand reprinted aaaand mailed aaaand hopefully received by everyone . . . here is the front of Kate's birth announcement.  So sweet!

If you need announcements, cards, photo books, etc. definitely check out Mixbook.  We did our adoption profile book, marketing fliers, birth announcements, and will do business with them again.  They have great products, always have discounts/coupons, and excellent customer service!

Still Waiting?

For those of you still waiting for your dreams to come true, they will.  It may not be exactly as you imagined it, but let go and be patient enough to watch it happen.

Adoption Tax Credit

Your help is needed!!

We are lucky enough to be able to finalize Kate's adoption before the end of the year which will qualify us for an adoption tax credit.  This credit will offset less than 25% of our total adoption expenses but it will help.  However, Congress is planning to abolish the current structure of the tax credit which will affect many, many, many people and likely prevent them from creating a family simply because of money.

Regardless of your political involvement and believes, PLEASE sign this petition (http://wh.gov/9jqZ) and share it with others via Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, whatever.  This is not a political statement from me; it is a plea to help others by preventing this change from happening.   I was #909 to sign the petition if you want to me to prove that I signed.  :)

Thank you . . .

Mending?

As I was rocking my precious baby girl tonight, I thought to myself how I could sit there all night long with her and not move.  Then I decided I could truly stay there forever . . . just holding her, listening to her coo in her sleep, smelling her sweet clean skin, feeling her squishy thighs, and letting her fuzzy hairs tickle my cheek.

Then - since I'm a rambler inside my head before I even write or speak it - I thought that if needed I would stay there forever even I had to pee or poop on myself.  (haha)  But then I thankfully started another train of thought:

I could not love this precious angel anymore had I grown her in my own body.  She is mine.  There is absolutely no doubt about that.  My heart is so full that I sometimes feel like I really could explode.  Every time she smiles; every time she coos; every time she giggles . . . my heart begins to mend a little.  Each of those beautiful, precious moments take a bit of the hard parts in my heart and crack them apart so they can escape the clutch they've had on me for so, so very long.  The parts can now remove themselves from my heart, my mind, and my body.  A small hole will always remain in those places.  I know that because I am forever an infertile, habitual aborter.  My history won't ever change.  I won't ever forget how I got here and what I had to endure to be in this very place.  Surely that is why I can appreciate the here and now.

My future has changed though.  Now I am forever a Mommy.  And I am so incredibly in love.

Two Whole Months

Where has time gone?  Kate turned 2 months old yesterday!  Every time I pull out the camera, she becomes more interested in the lens than she is in smiling! That's why Kate is in the beginning of a smile in this photo.  I got what I could which is still amazingly precious to me.  :)

As you can tell, Miss Katherine is growing like crazy and really filling out.  We can’t believe how big she has gotten & look forward to an actual weight/length at her two-month check at the pediatrician.  She is CRAZY strong and pretty much crawled over her Boppy pillow during tummy time last night.  Steve must have been proud of her because he stopped, licked her twice on the head, and laid down in the middle of her room - his new place.

Funny story:  After I was done taking pics with Kate, Mr. Rambler said, “What is that on her legs?”  I excitedly said, “Legwarmers!  They’re called Baby Legs!”  I won’t share exactly what he said (haha), but he hates them and later asked Kate if she was crying because she hated her legwarmers.  It’s all good, though, because Daddy hung Kate’s chandelier not long after that.  Hahaha!  We’ve been working hard on her nursery and it is already looking sssoooo pretty!  Photos to come soon . . .

Concept of Time

If you've been in the land of IF/RPL as long as I have, you most certainly have seen posts on blogs/FB/forums of women who are sharing about their pregnancies and children.  Things like "I'm 35 and 35" (35 weeks pregnant with 35 days to go to full term) and "baby has been out longer than in" (meaning baby is about 40+ weeks old).

Two thoughts hit me tonight and yesterday . . .

1. We've had Kate almost 3x as long as we've known about her.  Mr. Rambler thought that was interesting as well.

2.  I've been Kate's mommy longer than I was able to carry any of my three babies.

WOW.  That concept of time has really changed for me!

Speaking of Kate, she is awesome.  However, this growth spurt of hers is trying to kill me.  Off to tend to my baby pterodactyl . . .

Fighter of All Things Sleep

When Mommy says she'll win the battle of me going to sleep, I smirk.  Fine then . . . I'll just poop my panties!

View this on My Instagram

Our Lil' Pumpkin

Kate wasn't overly impressed with Halloween this year!  I'm sure next year will be just awesome.  Luckily she waited until I changed her out of her costume to poop . . . everywhere.  :)