Christmas time review

I realized two things the other day. 1- I haven't blogged hardly at all about our fun Christmas season, and 2- I didn't take very many pictures. So This post won't be as exciting as it could be. Here are some of the fun traditions new and old that we have and did.
-Built Gingerbread houses
-Went to the Christmas concert at the conference center
-Saw the lights on Temple Square TWICE!
-Saw the lights at Willard Bay
-Drank a lot of hot chocolate
-Spent the entire Christmas weekend with our families
-Went to Kyle's family's annual Christmas party where. Santa comes every year.
-Went sledding on Christmas day with cousins.

We are always so busy during Christmas, but we do it because we LOVE it!
This year I was secretly hoping that we would have at least heard some good news about a baby or already adopted before Christmas. I pretend to be tough and realistic about adoption and how long it might take, but a girl can dream right??!! I was feeling really sad in the beginning because I didn't want another Christmas without a little one. I received a blessing from family and instantly felt of my Saviors love. The rest of Christmas I was able to focus on the true meaning of Christmas. I felt the spirit of Christmas... the spirit of the Savior. I hope everyone was touched some how this Christmas season by the spirit.

The anonymous gifter

We were babysitting for a friend tonight and we came home to a little present on the door.

It said "Merry Christmas Andrea & Kyle (for your adoption)"

It didn't have who it was from.

We opened the gift to find this adorable blanket and $50.

We cannot express how much this kindness means to us. There are so many people who have contributed to our adoption. There is no way that we could put into words the love and support we have felt from those around us. It makes me want to cry!

To whoever left the gift THANK YOU we feel so loved!! Also I am in love with the turtles!

Favorite time of year

 

We love Christmas time! I'm so glad that Kyle loves it as much as I do. We just decorated our home and it never feels as homey as it does when we have our decorations out. We also got to see my sister sing in a Christmas concert at Temple Square last night so we walked around looking at the lights too. We are excited to start the Holiday season!

Thankful

Around Thanksgiving we are so much more aware of the things that we are grateful for. Here is a little list of some grateful thoughts recently.

Trials

Oppourtunity to adopt

The Atonement

A nice home

Family

The holidays

A strong marriage

School to gain knowledge

Two vehicles

Eggnog season

Talents

Steady jobs

Two working feet to walk on

The great neighbors we have

Good wholesome entertainment

The gospel of Jesus Christ

Christmas tree

Ice cream

Snow

Service and how it blesses us

Safety

Exercise

Food

Prophet

Toby (our dog that lives with the parents)

Love received from others

Health

Comfy bed

Some of these are silly and some very serious, but we are so grateful for the amazing life we have. We are surrounded by loving family and friends who do so much for us. We are also grateful for our future Birth Mother. We hope that she finds peace in her decision to place her baby. We don't even know who she is, but we know she is out there and we love her already.

Hope you all had an amazing Holiday!

A walking man!

Kyle can walk again!! He is so excited to get working again. He is going back within a week or two. He is pretty sore, but the Dr said that he will be for a while. The Dr also said that the foot looks great and is healing very well. Kyle is determined to run at least a half marathon this coming year.

Kyle is such an amazing man. His surgery did not stop him from serving others around him. Every Saturday morning he serves in the temple and then he goes again with me another day of the week. He kept our house spotless and did work around our apartments. He also has had his best semester yet at school. He is so positive and great to be around. Seeing him is my favorite part of the day.
Love you Kyle!

Birthday fun

Yesterday was my Birthday and it was awesome!
Kyle knows that I like making Birthdays a big deal so he always makes it a fun day for me (and I do the same for him). His present to me was money to go shopping... my favorite! So I got to pick out some new clothes. He invited family up for dinner at the restaurant of my choice and then we came home for cake and ice cream. It was nice of everyone to drive up, we had a good time. Then Kyle and I went to see wreck-it Ralph (we have been  like little kids waiting for this movie to come out ever since we saw the trailer) It was really funny!

Yesterday I was thinking about how excited I am for my children's Birthdays. I can't wait, I know for sure that they will be huge in our family! I love having little traditions. Pinterest has so many fun ideas for parties and surprises that I want to try out. Birthday's are the best!

Quilts

I have been trying to figure out what colors to do the nursery in considering we don't know what gender our future little one will be. My mom, Kyle and I went fabric shopping to see what we could find and we finally decided. We picked out some fabric and started sewing (my mom is quite the seamstress and I am not haha, so she taught me how and we sewed together). The picture above is not the completed blanket,  but you get the idea. I'm excited to start buying things for the room now that I have colors picked out! 

We are making an identical quilt to give as a gift to our birth mother on placement day. I hope she likes it. I just wanted them to have something that they can both have and share to remember each other. 

October

I haven't blogged in a while and I thought I would just put all the pictures from what we did in October. We had a very fun month. 

Earlier in the month Kyle's grandpa passed away after a long battle with Parkinson's disease. Kyle loves and respects him very much. Even though it was sad to say goodbye for now, the funeral was like a big reunion for the family. Kyle's cousins are awesome and it was great to spend time with them.

Here is Kyle with his siblings.

 Here is most of the cousins that were there. Kyle just loves them!

 The Saturday before Halloween we had a little Ewert party. It was fun to see all the little ones in their costumes. 

This is Kyle and our brother-in-law Josh wearing the leftover piniata.

 Me loving on Jaycie. We are so in love with this little one!

I always make sugar cookies for Halloween so We carved pumpkins and made cookies for FHE.

 On Halloween we had a fun party with our friends Dara and Brian. I wish we had gotten pictures of them. Here are our costumes.

Me a basketball star.

 Kyle Jack Sparrow.

We are getting way excited for the upcoming holidays. We love this time of year!!

waiting

I was just on itsaboutlove.com browsing through a few different profiles. It really hit me hard that there are so many great families waiting for adoption to happen for them. I really do hope that they all have the opportunity. Especially us! I really feel for those birth moms looking for a family for their baby, there are too many to choose from. I hope the right birth mom is guided to us quickly!

Sending good vibes to all waiting families out there!

Pass along cards!

A family friend Amanda designed our pass along cards for us and we love them! 

What do you think? 

We will be ordering these and giving/sending them out to EVERYONE! 

a day in the life of a gimp

So as you saw in the last post, Kyle had surgery. Well for anyone who knows Kyle one thing that stands out about him is his energy. He is such a busy body. These last few weeks have been sad, yet funny to watch as he tries to entertain himself. He can't drive and so once he is done with his homework (he has been rocking school this semester!) he has to find things to do around the apartment. Things I have come home from work to...
Fresh Baked Cookies
A re-organized office
Pictures hung in different places
a spotless apartment
Kyle sitting on the coach playing his hunting game on the wii
Kyle drawing
a tree trimmed
furniture re arranged

I keep joking that he is becoming domestic haha! But it really is amazing what he still does considering he can't put any weight on his foot. I take him along on all my errands just to get the poor guy out of the house.

Surgery #2

Poor Kyle has bad feet. He likes to call them duck paddles, I call them hobbit feet. They are SO flat! He has had a lot of pain from them and finally in January he had surgery to hopefully feel better. Yeah that one was not enough to get rid of the pain so he was sent to another surgeon for total foot reconstruction. With this surgery he can't put any pressure for two months. For anyone who knows Kyle you know that he is a busy body. It is like torture to sit around. So now that he can't work for a couple of months he just hangs out at home after school and studies his brain out. But let me tell you he does not just chill, he is still a busy body. I will come home to the entire house spotless and today he made cookies. He amazes me! 

I also wanted to post some pictures from our fun weekend. We went to the Salt Lake City Farmers Market with my mom.    It was legit! I have never wanted so many veggies in my life (and I LOVE veggies). We wheel chaired Kyle around.

 After the market we went up the canyon to visit the Ewert's while they were camping.

Kyle uses this scooter to get around. 

 Bradley our favorite one year old!! I'm totally in love with this little man!

 Yeah Kyle is kinda a crazy driver.

 Vince using his umbrella shield.

The campground was full IN SEPTEMBER! It is such a warm fall... I'm pretty much in love with this time of year! 

Approved!

We are approved and online! We are so excited! We have been so busy getting approved that it is a strange feeling to finally be here. We are going to make the best of the "finding" time by staying proactive. First on the list is making pass along cards. We will be sending them to everyone we know so that we can get our info out there. If you would like to have us mail you a pass along card please leave your address in a comment or email it to me at andrea.kyle.adopt@hotmail.com.
Also speaking of getting our name out there..... We are more likely to be chosen by a Birth Mother through word of mouth/friend of a friend rather than just leaving it up to our profile online. So if any of you feel comfortable enough to give out our information on your Facebook or on your blog we would really appreciate it. Our profile can be accessed at itsaboutlove.org profile # 27853256.
We are grateful for the help of our family, friends, and even strangers that have helped us out in this process. We have felt your love and support. Thank you!!

The best weekend!

Last weekend was awesome. We wanted to have one last fun filled weekend before school really got started for Kyle and this was perfect.

It started out with Kyle's friend Dan's wedding. It was quite the party. His wife's family is from mexico so it was full of traditions that we have never seen. My two favorite parts were when the men had to throw Danny in the air and the awesome Latin dancing in the end. 

Here are the Groomsmen. Best friends in high school and now they are all married!

 Kyle showing off his suspenders.

Saturday we went to Swiss days up in Midway with some of the Ewert clan. We love to go to fairs like this so it was a lot of fun. 

Kyle and Maddie

Sunday was Jaycie's blessing. She is the newest member of our family and we are falling in love with her! I wish I had taken a picture.

Monday we spent the day with my family fishing at Millhollow. It is Kyle's favorite  place to fish because he always has good luck there. It was the perfect temperature and such a relaxing day. We loved it!

 Kyle would live in the mountains if he could.

 Tuesday we were home because Kyle had school, but we decided to have a fire up the canyon for dinner.

We have really enjoyed this summer, but we are both very excited for fall. We are holiday junkies so we can't wait! 

TOU 1/2

For as long as I can remember I have wanted to be able to run. When my friend Dara and I started working out together last summer we couldn't even jog a mile... not even a 1/2 mile without stopping to walk. This summer Me, Dara and her sister Krista decided to train for a 1/2 marathon to whip ourselves into shape. I have been amazed at how quickly we trained our bodies to run. It has been the best summer because I have been outside pounding the pavement with Dara!

Here we are before the race (me, Dara, Krista)

Sprinting to the finish!

My hubby, mom and sister came to see my race.

 Kyle has been so supportive of my crazy running schedule.

 I would never have done this without these girls. They are the best training buddies!!

I love running and I can see how people kinda get addicted! I can't wait to train for another.

Random Friday Thoughts

I have really enjoyed this summer, mostly because I have been outside running a lot. I have been not wanting cold weather to come. I end up feeling cooped up by the end of winter every year, but this week I have had the fall itch. Fall is my FAVORITE season. I love the temperature, the trees, the holidays, the cloths. Everything! I have been thinking about Halloween a lot this week too and I think I may throw a party this year. :)

Kyle starts school on Monday. He has been working so much this summer that it might feel like a break to go back to school. His only comment about it right now is that he is tired. Poor guy.

I have really been loving my job lately. I just got a promotion to Training Coordinator of the center. Training has been my favorite part of my job thus far so this job is perfect for me!

Tomorrow I run my very first half marathon. I can't believe it is real. I started running over a year ago with my friend Dara and we couldn't run a mile without stopping. Now we are running at least three on easy days and we have done up to twelve on long runs without stopping. It is crazy what our bodies can do if you work for it. The other day I told someone that I was a runner and it just felt so wrong coming out of my mouth haha. I will post pictures!

We have had all of our paperwork in for quite some time now and we are getting really anxious to get our profile up and be officially approved. It is crazy to think that we can adopt at any time once we are approved! I hope our time is soon!

FSA regional conference 2012

Saturday was the regional families supporting adoption conference. It was actually the whole weekend, but I was only able to attend some of Saturday. Kyle couldn't come so I had my mom come (she is always so supportive and is fun to be with).

 The first class was about nurturing relationships made from adoption. It was co-taught by a adoptive mom and a birth mom. The next class was my favorite. It was all about managing the stress of being the "perfect parent". She was very educated and such a good teacher and on top of that she is an adoptive mom. She talked about how parenting is already overwhelming when you have societies expectations looming over you, but on top of that you have a birth family that may have expectations as well. She said that we need to realize that our children will just be who they are and we need to let them be. Just because you adopted them does not make you any better of a parent or more prepared than others. Anyway I can't even sum up how much I learned from her class.

Last there was a keynote address by Megan Johnson. Visit her website to learn more about her. She had an accident that caused her to become a wheelchair bound for the rest of her life. She is a speaker who motivates people with her positive attitude about life. She was so funny and inspiring. She talked about how sometimes we have this vision for how our life will turn out and almost always it turns out different than we dreamed, it's even better. 

Things I learned: I don't need to be so consumed with being perfect (the perfect mom, wife, employee, friend) I just need to do the best I can do with what I have.

I am so grateful for how different my life is than I always dreamed it would be. I absolutely LOVE my life and the experiences I have been through have made me the person I am today! I would never trade that in!

I learned more about open adoption and how much your family can grow from it.

I learned that adoptive parents that still mourn their infertility are more likely to raise adopted children that have issues with poor self esteem and identity problems.

The most awesome part of our adoption journey so far is that there are so many opportunities in the adoption community to learn and get educated about not only adoption, but for life. There should be conferences like these just for parenting or life in general! 

My poor me moment

In the adoption process I have made it a goal to not focus on infertility being the reason for us adopting. Although I know that it is the road that lead us to adoption I feel like adoption is not our second choice it is just another step towards starting out family. With this mind set infertility does not just disappear. I am sometimes reminded that I can't make a baby come (biological or through adoption) when I want it to come. I have no say  in the situation. All I know is that we have faith that if we are proactive about it our family will grow soon!

This weekend I had a moment that I was not proud of. Another goal of mine is to stay positive and not get jealous of others when I hear their good news of pregnancy and adoption. I feel like everything happens for a reason and I should not make a special moment for them about me and my trials. I should not need special treatment. This weekend  someone that I love announced their pregnancy in front of a large group in a really fun way. I was shocked and instantly started crying. I grabbed my husband and hurried away so that I could pull myself together before anyone noticed. In that moment I had thoughts like.... Why does it happen so fast for some people, this isn't fair, we have to try so hard and have gone through so much, why me. Kyle was great at letting me get those feelings out and being on my side while I had my pity party. As soon as I stopped crying I was totally embarrassed that I had done that. I just did what I promised myself I wouldn't. I made an awesome moment for someone else completely about me. As we went back to the party it was obvious that a few people knew I had been upset and I know they were trying to make me feel better. I appreciate their love and understanding. As we were leaving I talked to the momma to be and told her that I was sorry and that I am so excited for her family and her little one. She is so great so of course she was very nice to me about it and I hope she knows that I really am happy for her.

I guess this moment proved to me that I am not immune to feelings of infertility and longing for a baby. I have been saying (and it is true) that adoption has given me so much hope for our future and I have such a good feeling about it. I love that we can be proactive in finding a child. I just need to focus on what we CAN do instead of what is happening for other people.

Zoo Keeper

This summer Kyle has been working part time at the Willow Park Zoo. I love that his position title is zoo keeper! It is a very small zoo with mostly birds located in a park close to our house.  He has had a lot of fun and has learned some fun things. He even gets to pick up the huge python!

Adoption interviews... CHECK!

Today we met with our case worker for our individual and couple interviews. I was a little nervous, but it was very chill. Sara is great and she made us feel very comfortable. Usually at this point the case worker lets you know what you need to differently, but she said that she was very impressed with everything and no changes are needed! PHEW! So now there are a few minor things to finish online and then next week she is coming to do our home visit. After the home study visit she will compile all of our information from forms and from online and create what they call the home study. Once she is done she turns that in to her boss to be approved. This could take a month or less. It is beyond exciting that we will be approved so soon and especially now that we are finished with our part. Sara mentioned that it was awesome how fast we have gotten things done... haha guess I was stressing about that for nothing.
When we were done we took a silly picture because we were so excited!

Adoption update!

So it has been a while since I have given an update about our status. Well let's just start by saying that this summer has been crazy busy, mostly because of all the awesome plans we have had, but non the less super busy. I feel like we have every moment of the day planned out and not enough of those moments have been working on our paperwork. I have been kind of on a roller coaster of emotions this week mostly about feeling really bad about not being finished with our paperwork yet. I feel like I wouldn't want my future child to think we just took our time getting approved. And what if we missed our opportunity, maybe we felt urgency because there was a situation that we needed to hurry for. Also on the flip side we are actually very close to approval now. We just turned in all of our documents (finally... it took forever to get our stinkin birth certificates). We had a surprise new eight pages full of questions to fill out that we are finishing tonight as well as polishing up our profile to be perfect. We are meeting with our case worker Sara on Thursday to complete our interviews and hopefully she will tell us we are ready for the home study.
It is crazy to think that we are potentially going to be approved within the next few weeks. That means that at anytime we could get a call about a baby.... Yeah just got goosebumps! I feel like I am pretty prepared for whatever time frame this process will take, but I can't help but be anxious.
So now you all know how it is going! When we finally get approved we will be sending out pass along cards with our info so you all can spread the word for us :).  

The 4th was awesome this year!! We were a little bummed that we couldn't spend it with our family for the traditional 4th breakfast, but our day was so much fun!

We spent the afternoon at Bear lake just chilin on the beach.

Here we are after breaking for lunch.

When we got home we had a BBQ with our best friends Dara and Brian and their kids. The food was delish and we had a great time! Thanks for inviting us guys!

 

We ended the night with a fireworks show. We brought a few little fountains and Brian got a big aerial. Poor Aylan was so afraid of the fireworks.

We are so grateful for America and the freedoms that we have because of it. 

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KYLE

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!

(Kyle enjoying delicious dutch oven peach-berry cobbler)

It has become a tradition that we go camping the week of Kyle's birthday. We invite everyone and whoever can come comes. This year he chose a campground up left hand fork canyon. 

Kyle getting ready to fish on the first morning. As you can tell he is super excited.

 Fixing a breakfast fit for a Birthday Man.

 My Dad enjoying the relaxation. We were so glad that my family came, we had a lot of fun with them!

 The campground was so beautiful. It reminded us of the Sacred Grove.

 Our site was right next to the river so we enjoyed cooling off.

 Mother looking lovely!

 We played jenga for the first time in years and I caught this picture of it tumbling.

 Having fun with my sister

I had to go for a run for my training and I took Toby. He was so tired after haha.

 Dan joined us for a day to hike and fish. We are so glad he came!

We really had a great time. We had fun and relaxed a lot which was so needed. We both felt like we could have stayed for another week (although there is nothing like a good shower after camping!).