Last day of work

Today was my last day working as a process engineer...at least for now.  Who knows if I'll ever go back, but for today I'm done.  It felt really weird walking out.  There have been a lot of weird feelings lately.  Feeling nervous and excited, feeling ready to go and wanting to stay, insecurity, hurt feelings, apprehension, delite, and many others.  It's been a crazy few weeks.

At this point, I'm ready to get there, have my house set up, and see what my new life looks like.  It's been a long day.  We did get most everything moved in this weekend.  Greg's mom is here and with her motivation we got pretty much every box unpacked.  Things are coming together!  We do our first aid/CPR training Thursday, and then we head up there with the last of our stuff.  Greg's mom flies out Sunday morning so we'll be dropping her off, heading to church, then heading back to Cherokee to start our time there.

Our new changes

I posted on Facebook, but thought I'd go ahead and give a few more details about what's coming up in our lives.

We are headed on a new adventure.  We're going to go work for Cherokee Home for Children as relief parents.  It's totally a fluke thing (AKA God thing)...we had not been thinking about doing this in any way.  Two days before Christmas my mom asked if I'd take her and my kids to Cherokee to see my grandmother who was visiting my uncle.  My uncle is the director for CHFC.  While there he was talking about this Public Relations position that was open.  I started thinking, "hmmm, I'd be really good at that!"  So, we talked more, he showed my mom and I around the home and everything and I texted Greg, "think you could live in Cherokee?"  There were a few problems with that already: 1) the position really needed to be a male since the other part of the job was to fund raise (sometimes in very conservative churches, hence why it needed to be a male) and 2) I'm the director's niece.  Not to mention the fact that I wasn't completely convinced Greg and I even wanted to move to Cherokee at this point.

We figured, what the heck...so, Greg and I submitted our resumes along with a proposal to split the position into two with Greg and I splitting the workload.  We were met with a phone call saying it just wouldn't work.  The position reported directly to my uncle and being that I'm his niece it just wasn't the right thing for the home.  We totally got it.  We were VERY disappointed.  I didn't realize how much I really wanted it to happen until my heart totally sank during that call.

A few days later we got another call with another opportunity.  My uncle asked if we would consider being house parents.  We really weren't sure...house parents are a whole different ball game.  We have small children, I have a great job, we live a very comfortable lifestyle, we live down the street from my parents, we'd have other people's kids in our house, could we be good examples, do we have what it takes, how would our children adapt...these and so much more started going through our heads.  Filled with questions we asked my uncle at least 20 different things.  We prayed, and talked, and prayed, and talked, and decided this is something God put on our hearts and in our lives.

To give more history: Greg is adopted.  He was adopted at age 2.  He lived with a foster family for over a year before his parents got him.  He (and I) have always felt strongly that without places like Cherokee and other similar resources there are far too many ways for kids to fall through the cracks.  By giving homes/families to children who need them, we are fulfilling something Greg has always felt passionately about.

We had one more hurdle...convince the board that we should be able to be hired despite my relationship with the director.  We prayed and prayed the entire board meeting.  We finally got the call late that night and were officially offered the position!  Wow.  We were really doing this!  After waiting for some loose ends (AKA my bonus) at work, I gave two weeks notice and we're heading that way soon.

We move next weekend and officially have kids in our home starting March 7th.  I still feel a little shocked and honestly ridiculously overwhelmed.  Packing up our house, deciding what to keep and what to get rid of, figuring out how to do a birthday party for Beth (who turns one this week), and still working everyday up until the day we move has totally maxed out my stress threshold.  So, prayers for my peace level are much appreciated.  I will hopefully continue to include you all on our adventures!

Exciting changes heading our way...

There are exciting changes heading our direction.  Don't really want them all on the internet quite yet, but I do hope that as things change around here that I will also be a little more motivated to keep my blog up to date! (and we are NOT pregnant...that seems to be where everyone's mind goes first!)

Other things going on in our lives: Bethany is turning ONE this month.  Crazy.  We've had some drama lately with her weight.  She was not gaining weight like she was supposed to.  I ended up deciding to wean her...that was a very difficult decision for me.  After having nursed Bruce for 18 months I was feeling a lot of guilt about weaning her, but in the end it was the right decision.  She just wasn't gaining weight.  She has been dropping percentiles and at her 9 month appointment she had dropped to the 5th percentile for weight (still in the 95th for length).  Our pediatrician was concerned so we started supplementing all her bottles, but she still nursed for most of her feedings.  When we went back for a check up at 10 months she had dropped to the 3rd percentile.  Red flags and alarms were going off.  I started crying that the drs office, asking if I had to stop nursing.  He said no, but that I had to record every ounce she ate so I'd need to pump exclusively.  Um, no.  So, we used up what was left in the freezer and supplemented with formula.  All of her bottles were double strength...

When we went back for her 11 month checkup she was up TWO WHOLE POUNDS!  Yay!  That shot her back up to around the 45th percentile.  The dr was thrilled and I was so relieved!  That being said, we're still watching her calorie intake very closely, but are hopeful that she'll maintain this weight gain.

Other news, Bruce is growing like a weed and seriously funny.  He says so many silly things and likes to talk about his brother "Rica".  Not sure about that, but supposedly imaginary friends are good things.  He loves preschool and comes home every day telling me that he had fun!

'Til next time...hopefully not 6 months from now...but I make no promises!

Silly things to remember about Bruce

He only likes to pee in the backyard...yeah...weird. He asked to do it one day and now thinks he has to.  We have at least established that other "eliminations" have to take place in the potty, no matter what Kaya (the dog) does.  Little boys still do that in the potty...Boys are weird.

He says "don't a-get" all the time.  He's really saying "don't FORget", but it is usually interpreted as "don't get" which makes him very confused...and us.

He LOVES his baby sister.  He's very sweet to her...almost all the time.  Except this morning, when she was crying and he was tired of it and I overheard him say "be quiet or put your head down, if you don't do it I'll do it for you."  Um, what?

He has a very strong love for instruments and a very good memory for names.  I bought him a shirt with a drumset on the front.  He loved it and remarked, "this is my 'Ray' shirt".  We had no idea what he was referring to and upon questioning more he told us, "um, you know, like the drummer at my wedding."  He was referring to my sister's wedding, also known as his wedding, in which she had the very awesome Walt Wilkins and his band.  None of us could remember the drummer's name, but I looked it up and sure enough it's Ray!

He can remember "movie" quotes as well as his dad.  Every day he speaks in multiple movie quotes (or TV) and we have to figure out where on earth it's from.  Its humorous and strange all at once....again I say, boys are weird.

And as I'm typing this he's eating a frozen waffle...no really, frozen as in straight from the freezer.  I have no idea why, he told me he likes it that way.  And he sure did eat the whole thing.

Today, one year ago...

I finally got a very very faint second line on the pregnancy test!  So faint, I wasn't completely sure I wasn't just making it up!  We were at Greg's sister's house in Arkansas so they got to know first and then we drove back through east Texas and shared the news with our friends the Bowers.  What a great memory, can't believe it was only a year ago and now we have our little cutie!  Four months old, rolling over, and keeping life interesting!

Bruce's funnies...

Here are a couple of Bruce-isms from the last few days.  Today at lunch he was talking about thunder and Bruce told my mom he was "scared a little."  He then asked her if she was "scared a big."  I love the way their brains work...makes sense that you can be scared a big if you can be scared a little!

In the car I was asking about church and what he learned.  He was talking about Jesus and we started talking about how it was because of Jesus that we'll get to go to heaven someday.  He was very curious about how Jesus was going to get him there.  I was trying my best to explain in 3 year old friendly language and he was getting frustrated.  He finally just said, "I think Jesus will just get me there in my carseat, it's okay Mom."

My favorite thing he does is start every sentence with "Iiii hink..." translated to mean: "I think"...and then he spills out his theory on what's going on.

Of course there are more that I can't think of, but I'm going to try and do better about updating these things!

Mr. Bruce

Yesterday was the memorial service for my very special friend's father.  I have been so emotional about the whole thing ever since I found out.  I keep putting myself in her position and her mom's position and my heart just hurts.  When she told me that he'd passed away, the only things I could think of to say were that I was praying for her, and that my heart hurts for her.

The memorial yesterday was beautiful.  I cried a lot.  Thankfully Bethany did not.  She was all wrapped up in the Moby wrap and slept the whole time.  Greg and I spent the three hour car ride home talking about it.  How beautiful the service was and how inspiring it had been.  We talked about how being there motivated us to be stronger in our faith and stronger in our marriage.  Seeing how many people were truly impacted by this man's life was incredible.  Hearing how humble and loving he was, was inspiring.  I would venture to say, that in my coming years, yesterday will be a day I look back on as something that reshaped me as a person.

I'm so thankful for my friend and for the life that her dad gave her.  I'm so thankful that he played a large part in shaping her into the special person that she is.  I am also thankful I had the opportunity to know him only briefly and that his life will continue to bless many more generations.