Thankful Reflection

17 weeks and 2 days pregnant with our twins!  God is good.

Odessa's embryo adoption pregnancy update for week 17:  Things are going great...most days.  About once a week there is still a bad day, but this is usually following a day where I may have over done it.  Babies are moving and felt almost everyday internally, the rest of the family is still patiently waiting for stronger kicks.  This last week we had another ultrasound and both babies looked great, had a great view of one of them trying to suck its thumb (so cute!).  I recently started on some natural, gentle body cleansers and stabilizers in hopes of having normal hormones after so much hormone therapy to prepare for transfer and carry the first trimester safely.  They seem to be working, and most likely aided in the last bout of feeling nasty!  But afterwards it was worth it to feel and look so much better.  I can't believe we are already almost half way done with this pregnancy!  This time last year I never would have dreamed this is where I would be today, but I am so glad we took the huge step of faith to start this adventure.

On the first day of 2015 we wanted to take a few minutes to reflect on the roller coaster of a year that we have had.  After all, it was only in January of 2014 that we found out about embryo adoption even existing.  Outside of the adoption we also had a quite eventful year.  We have much to be thankful for.

Top 10 highlights of the year:

1.  Oldest Daughter competed in her first organized sport!  She finished her cross country season strong by breaking the personal goals she had set for herself.

2.  Youngest Daughter graduated from Kindergarten and we are now in full elementary school mode!

3.  Odessa's brother got married .

4.  Jeff's brother and his wife had their first baby.

5.  Oldest Daughter participated in a regional level spelling bee, math olympics, and speech meet.  

6.  Jeff survived totaling a car and a deer.

7.  Our tax information AND credit card information were both stolen, but no major results happened.

8.  The current family car rolled 300,000 miles and keeps on going!

9.  We had an 'advanced gardening' first and are now eating a small amount of meat raised on our property!

10.  Jeff coached the first ever MVCA Lego Robotics team.

Bonus: We feel very blessed to be ending our year with ALL adoption, with related travel and medical, expenses  100% covered and paid off!!!  What a great way to start 2015.  

Our next area of focus will be locating and purchasing a minivan for the family, hopefully in early spring.  This is needed not only because of the high miles on the current family car, but also because it doesn't have enough seat belts for our family after the babies arrive.  We are humbled in asking for assistance on this, but we do still have our gofundme account set up, and the sole purpose will be to purchase a vehicle.  Thank you for reading and your continued support of our family.  We have truly been blessed by the support we have received during our embryo adoption adventure.