7 Quick Takes

 I don't do these often, but since life is soo crazy right now. A numbered post will probably be the "quickest" way to go.
1. Tomorrow is hubs birthday one more year & he has a milestone birthday.
2. I have no gift purchased nor even know what to get hubs ( well his lists of wants are normally out of the $$ range of birthday presents) he needs/ deserves a new truck, etc.
3. Getting ready for the 2 monkeys to descend on our house for the next week.  Thank goodness it's finally looking a little like spring so they can go outside for a little bit each night, so they don't tear up the house.  Just hold away the rain.
4. Received my gift in the mail from 2013 Gift Swap.  Yeah.. Love the cool owl Cup, plus all the pampering goodies.   Thanks G!
5. Hockey--winding down after a short season.
6. Did I Mention we are ready for spring, after snow this week, so ready to be done w/ crummy weather.
7. Got a text with picture of monkey # 1..  with his dinosaur spikes, silly me thought it was a mohawk.

5 Fav's Spring Edition

5 Favorites's I can't wait to see as Spring is finally emerging.

1-Flowering Trees

2-  Daffodils & Tulips.. can't wait for them to emerge

3. Hostas.. ..

4. Colorful Flowers.

5. Container Gardens. I Heart creating them.

PS. I took all these picture.. They are all of glorious places we get to play in the dirt at !! see why I can't wait.  I've also been working on our website. So I've been posting a LOT of pictures this week.. Just puts me in such a good mood.. SUN please come out.. we've missed you these last 6 months..


Boston.

Optimistic

I got an exciting piece of mail this morning!!

The local practice of catholic doctors, who are just family docs, they have no formal OB on staff, one of the docs, dabbles in OB.  Has added a new staff member. drum roll please...............
A Physician Assistant with 13 years experience  who in their words has special areas of interest: NFP & Creighton Model Fertility Care & Napro Technology. I have googled her & can not find out anything about her... :( 

Excited but scared.. what is she trained in? With who? Well I should be happy that I don't have to drive 4 hours out of state to see someone for napro.. .. something is better than nothing.. right.

If you are in (or near ) S. E . MI area & interested in knowing specifically where she's located. send me a PM ( luckysunshine25 at gmail dot com )

I might have to pay  a visit soon to check her out..

5 Fav's

1. I am a fan of word art. I haven't seen this one before.

2.  Shark Steam mop ( Get the 3 setting one ) works on wood, and scrubbing feature for our tile floors too.  I probably wouldn't have converted our house to hardwood floors, without this guy.

3. Our living room & family rooms need makeovers bad.. until we get new furniture I am stuck with my husbands bachelor pad, blue leather couches in our family room.. This rug I think will warm up the room.. & brings some other "color" into the room..

4. more word art..  entitled "In this House" which all statements hold true --in this house.

5. beach..

Book Review - Facing Infertility

I finished reading " Facing Infertility" by Jean Dimech- Juchniewicz

It took me a  while to read this one, it took time to process each chapter as I read them. At the end of each chapter they had questions for reflection & discussion, it also had a paragraph for "friends & family" , and each chapter concludes with a prayer.

Some of the reflection questions that stuck out:
How has your current struggle to conceive a child affected your sexual relationship with your spouse? It made me really think that "we" have to get back to the before IF relationship in the bedroom. IF does change things & make them at times more robotic. I have been working on this & trying to do a boudoir makeover.

I liked the reassurance that we are doing the morally acceptable treatments, after reading thru discerning treatment. I just wish I knew about NaPro sooner. Still hoping for a Na.Pro doctor to come to our area.

The book touches on "sin". I mentioned a couple weeks ago a mission I attended that they did this exercise & had everyone renounce a list of what seemed like 1000 sins. I mentioned that they brought up miscarriage & infertility. The book talks about sin & infertility. It is a lot to write about, so I will let you read the book to find out more. I will leave you with this from the book;  All forms of suffering,including infertility  are the result of original sin. If we want to blame someone for infertility blame human sinfulness. God did not create infertility! They are talking about it in the sense that this sin is contracted not committed.

Last one I'll touch on from the book. Priorities : 1st - Relationship with God, 2nd Relationship with Spouse 3rd can be a multitude of things like career, volunteering, neices/nephews, etc.  The third priority is what you have the deepest desires in to meet the deepest needs.

I recommend reading the book when you have some time.



What's on my nightstand now to read:
A) The Linacre Quarterly ( the Journal of the Catholic Medical Association) my FIL is a member & passed it along. It has several articles on NFP and/or N.apro.  He thought it might be interesting reading.
B) Hour Detroit. = local magazine --it's the March issue..  April will soon be here.
C) the Two Week Wait - novel by  Sarah Rayner.. the title popped out to me. IF'ers all know about the 2WW..  .. from reading the cover, it's a novel, about someone's looming biological clock. ( right up my alley ) as I feel I'm on that ticking time-bomb road.

Adoption Part 2

Last night, I was got very emotional as I wrote the post. So much that I couldn't even  proof read it. So I apologize for the choppy post.

I thank God, that my husband's mother chose life for him, because this was only a few short years after abortion became legal in this country.  She could have easily chosen that route.

I love that my  husband works every day  for our family. Some people think a family has to be 2+ ?
As soon as we married we became a family, I have to accept that God has control over how big our family becomes. After 4 weeks of 4th grade studies on the 10 Commandments. I feel like I need an extra trip to confession, to confess a lot of envy & coving my neighbors goods, even if they are bratty kids. I have to learn to be happy with what I have & not unhappy with what I don't have.  A tough lesson to swallow. 4th grade CCD has been very enlightening this year.

So having the inside track into a pregnancy center. I don't know about other areas, but the # of girls(women) that come in & want to put up for adoption is very, very slim.

A kid I used to babysit, adopted & their agency told them to be creative to find a kid. The agency's around her just don't get a lot of referrals for girls wanting to give up their child for adoption. So the agency suggested many different methods to let everyone know you are willing to adopt  on social media,etc  that if they knew anyone, to contact their agency, 2 months nothing, they meet again.. & the agency lady says well we need to think outside the box, and jokingly said.. well it's not like you want to advertise on a billboard or anything.. Thoughts occurred & 2 weeks later, they had a billboard on a busy interstate, with a picture of them & some catchy phrase about wanting to adopt..  Shortly after they welcomed a little boy to their family.

Another couple I know from church, adopted after suffering IF, the same amount of time as us..  the only scary part is we never see them together any more.. ( not divorced ) but someone is always working to afford the " adoption ". My husband says when we have a kid, he doesn't want to bring us apart. When we have a child, we should be a family together, not separated.

more at another day.

adoption

I know on a particular FB page. I have outed my self as being older & still TTC.
I want to expand on the adoption closed door.

My husband comes from a family of  7 children.
My inlaws were married young.. 20 & 23

They weren't able to have children, but back in the late 60's & then early 70's there was not much advancing in the way of infertility except Adoption. Well that's at least how they perceived it.
After many years TTC. They adopted their first daughter..  From their eyes. & How it is explained to me, back then, they really only had to be open to "loving" a child.. their was no big expense to adoption. ( except diapers & formula ). All their children were adopted thru the same place. A home for expectant unwed mothers. ( it was a huge 100 acre campus ) they could house 100's of women. If the children were not adopted, the center would hold them in the orphange, til they were adopted. ( it was run by nuns) in the late 80's this placed closed to pregnant women, but still operated as an orphanage/foster home til the late 90's.  So in basic terms, they put their name on a waiting list ( usually not that long ) and if they wanted boy or girl or either.. and when a child became available, they would get a call.

So my SIL , Husband & BIL adopted in the 70's were all closed adoptions. Then miraculously after adopting 3, they had 2 biological children  about 20 months apart. several years years later, they took in a pregnant teenager ( unofficially adopted into the family #6 ) her mother had passed away, her aunt that was supposed to be caring for her kicked her out because she was pregnant, she lived with the family,she gave up her son for adoption, and she lived with the family until she got married in her early 20's. Their last adoption  child #7 was in the late 80's things had changed more, but was still"free" the nunnery called & said we have a little girl that is going to be born in a few days.. & we think she would be a perfect fit for your family. So they adopted # 7.. a little girl. her mother was a college athlete , who didn't want to abort..

By this time, my in laws had started one of the first pro-life pregnancy clinics in our area. They would run into many girls who's parents would kick them out & these girls would sleep at their house until they could talk to their parents & mediate them back into their families. ( my husband has memories of LOTS of pregnant girls sleeping on the couch ) In 2000  they purchased a neighboring home to house pregnant women who were either homeless or kicked out by their familes (it's still in open today) Okay back to adoptiion #7 .. her mother I assume had remorse, several years after adopting, but she had terminated all rights at birth.. I guess every year on the girls birthday she would send cards & sometimes gifts. but the parents wanting a closed adoption never gave her any of the things. ( but kept them in a shoebox ) Their reasoning being at 18 if she wanted to find out, they would tell her. None of the others that were adopted wished to find out who their adopted parents were ( including my husband )  #7 however did.. and she felt kinda betrayed that they kep that stuff from her .. but so the story goes.. #7 is in regular contact w/ her birthmother, who she looks very much like & is athletic like her also.  So thru all these adoptions, their were no, homestudy's, paperwork, lawyers, etc. and/or very little lawyer involvement.

 My husband on the other hand feels like he was abandoned & kicked to the curb. and wants nothing to do with his birth family. ( he has been thru many years of therapy - so know we've been there ). I don't pressure why he says no to adopting for us..the only thing he ever mentions is I'm not "buying a child" which is what it seems like now a days. ( knowing that adoption may be our only hope for a child to love & cherish) I just pray that something in his heart will change.   Somedays I just wish a stork would drop a baby on our doorstep. Cuz that's how it seemed he appeared.

I'll leave you with ...  I'm looking for the key to unlock our door to adoption.
( well maybe a big money tree too )

5 Fav's

My five Favorites for the week.

1)  Crunch Granola.  Daily  necessity  & Gluten Free.  + they donate a meal for a hungry child with every purchase.

2) Rightfully Raw.  I thought going without gluten & dairy, I was going to be doomed to a life of boring food.. OMG was I wrong.. Thankfully I met this awesome raw food company who produces wonderful treats each week for our farmers market..   I wish I had more time to make more of my own raw creations, but I am in love with what they have each week. I usually have my 15mos old nephew with  me each week,  & HE DEVOURS anything she puts in front of him..  So I get some macaroons each week & they are my treats instead of cookies..   She also had some delicious brownies this last week.. well & the key lime pie.. well .. i'll stop there, cuz i could keep going.

3) O.X.O. apple slicer/divider.. has saved me a few trips to the doctors office.  Let's just say I've cut my hands a few times with my super sharp knives.. while trying to slice an apple on my way out of the house in the morning. 

4)   Spring Clothes.. & peasant tops.. I am not a big fan of collars.

5) Brother  Label Maker -- OMG.  I use this thing ALL the time.  Printing address labels, return labels, file folder labels, Pricing stuff for a garage sale, bake sales, you name it.. A little bit OCD on organizing.