Our "Normal" Life

Well, I guess you could say we're all settled into our "normal life." On July 2nd, we'll have been in this house for a year! Time has flown by! That also means... that on July 3rd, we'll have had Adde girl in our family for a year! She is the sweetest pup! We are in love with her!

This is the best picture I could snap of her! She barely slows down unless we're giving her some love.
She's such a sweetie!

Last week, Austin and I finished our backyard! Technically, we started on our back yard in April. But, it's all done now! We planted (get ready) two chokecherry trees, two spruces, one ash, two blueberry bushes, two raspberry bushes, one honey berry bush, one blackberry bush, eight karl forester grasses, zucchini, several types of peppers, tomatoes, peas, cantaloupe, some annual flowers, AND sod! We have grass in our entire backyard! Well, everywhere now! I'm so happy it's done. The only things we didn't get done this year are curbing around our flower beds and a fence. But, that's ok! It feels good to be done for the year :) Now, we'll just have to keep up with the weeds. 

For our anniversary, Austin built our raised garden bed. I love it! I think it looks perfect in the corner of our yard. I sure love that man! 

This is the view from our back deck. Look at that cute garden!
Don't mind all the construction in the lots behind ours ;) Soon enough, we'll have a nice fence around the yard!

Here, you can see all the trees and grasses lining the back of our yard.

This may not look like much... because it isn't ;) But, those are our berry plants! We'll cut the grass straight, get some curbing, fill the flower beds with mulch, and get a nice window well cover. BAM! It'll look like a million bucks.

I'm so happy about our yarrow! These were maybe 10 inches high last year! Now they're pushing 3 feet!

This coreopsis may be my favorite bloom so far this year. They're right in front of our front porch.
They'll get big and full soon!

Our precious front door :) I love our little wreath.

I'm so excited for the 4th of July! I'm learning to love summer more and more. I don't like being hot... and my summer wardrobe could use some work. But, the nice weather and fun things to do outdoors are so great! We haven't gone camping yet - thanks to our yard work - but, we're planning on going soon. We're lucky to live so close to such beautiful mountains and forests. We were just talking to a friend the other day about Utah "having it all." Somethings for everyone to do outside in every season. I love it!

For future/potential "expectant mother meetings," I'm making photo books. I like the idea of leaving one with an expectant mom so she can really get a better idea of who we are. My hope is that we can always portray how genuine we are. I don't think I'll ever master first impressions, so hopefully a photo book will help! ...and this blog, our parent profile, and even our adoption Facebook page.

So, other than our backyard, life has been pretty normal. Routine, I guess. But, you know what? I love it. I love having a home, our cute (crazy) dogs, friends and family we can count on, and I really love Austin! haha. He's such an amazing guy. When I say he's the best, it's because he really is the BEST.

Two whirlwind weeks!

Did I mention...

WE'RE ON ADOPTION.COM?!

(In case you didn't read my last post... I did.)

WE are SO pumped. Really. Things are feeling so real!

On another note, I thought I would just update you on what's going on in our lives.

I (Molly) visited my parents for a week. We celebrated Erin (my little sister)'s pregnancy with a baby shower, watched the superbowl, visited all the resaurants and stores I've been missing, and mostly just spent some good, quality down-time together. It was awesome. Three of the four of us siblings were there. Erin and her husband, Stefan came down. Ben (my older brother), his wife, Courtney, and their three kids came for three days. Of course, my parents were there - hosting everyone and making us all feel like royalty.

Austin stayed home - mostly due to work. But, we also didn't want to have to board our sweet dogs at the kennel for so long. Isn't my husband the best? While he was home, you know what he did?! He added shelving in our pantry and got it all painted for me!

This is how it looked when I left

Now look at that baby! So organized!

I sure love my handy man.

Since I've been back, we've spent a lot of time together! Austin took the Friday before Valentines Day off work. That day, our niece, Polly had a "rendezvous" at her school. It was a sort-of cowboy themed party where any of the students could set up booths and sell things they made, baked, or even little trinkets they bought. Austin and I joined Paige, my sister (Polly's mom) and her little girls to visit the rendezvous. It was pretty fun to see the kids using their "beaver bucks" to buy so many fun things.

Polly is getting so tall! haha. I love that she is showing off her "beaver bucks."

We had all weekend to hang out and get things done around the house. We went shopping, got a *Costco membership, and Austin cooked us and amazing steak dinner for Valentines Day! Monday was Presidents Day so we were both home again! We spent the morning tending our nieces and nephew, came home and played with our dogs, relaxed, and watched our favorite show. Presidents Day night, I went out for a girls night Paige and Polly. We went to dinner and shopped around the Outlet Mall so Polly could spend her birthday money. Too much fun! Austin and Lorin, Paige's husband, stayed home with the younger kids and had a guys night.

*We're real adults now!

That's about it! I'm starting to get back into the swing of things now that I'm home from my trip and our long weekend is over. Austin said he was not ready to go back to work yesterday so I forced to him to get extra sleep last night. haha!

We are so excited to be getting our lives and our home ready for a little addition. We've been pray hard and, since you're here reading this, we ask for your help too! Whether that means including us in your prayers, helping us spread the word, or just offering kind words... we'd really appreciate it!

Thanks for reading! Check out the other tabs under our cover photo above!

Another huge success!

Oh my gosh. Life has been such a whirlwind lately! I can't even believe all the amazing things that are happening.

Today, I started crying - because of chaos, stress, but mostly happiness. We are making such headway in our biggest dream! It's incredible to look back and see how rich our life is because of the wonderful people in it.

We spent the weekend at an adoption training in Salt Lake. We signed up for it about a month ago and (thank goodness) remembered it on Wednesday - three days before! I'm so glad we didn't forget and miss out. It was AMAZING. We were thinking about not going. It was a big time commitment and I'm going to be gone all next week... so, we were back and forth. But, like I said - AMAZING.


We arrived on Friday, ready to learn but kinda "meh" about the whole thing. Like, what could we really learn? Find a birth mom, get a lawyer, pay the money, and boom - we get a baby. Right?

Nope.

This whole training featured me laughing, crying, freaking out, and feeling so pumped and ready. I was a mess. But, what's new?

We heard from maybe 15 or 20 different people. Case workers, adoptive parents, adoptees, birth moms, biological moms, lawyers, people who have been spammed (spammed?!), everyone! Anyone! We learned about profiles and etiquette in the adoption world. We learned from some peoples' mistakes. We learned what to say and what not to say.

Thank goodness we learned about all different resources and people to go to for help. The best, most comforting thing we took away from it all is that we have so many people rooting for us. We feel like we're part of this new "adoption" world. The best part is that anyone can be part of it! Some people there hadn't ever adopted, they weren't adopted themselves... they were just passionate about it all.

We learned that adoption isn't just an event. It's an on-going, life-changing, constant, forever thing. Birth moms don't just fade away. Kids don't just "forget" they were ever adopted. It's not how it used to be. Adoption lasts forever. No one keeps it a secret. It's something to be proud of. It's a wonderful thing!

More often than not (well, almost always), people have "open adoptions." The birth mom is part of these children's lives. And, just as important, she's part of the adoptive parents' lives. Birth moms are family. Now, there are different versions of open adoptions. But, I love that it's the norm.

Being adopted isn't something to be ashamed of. Its not something to keep secret. In face, its not healthy for children who were adopted to not know where they come from - or WHO they come from. Its ok to talk about it! Pregnancy isn't in every mother's plan. Motherhood isn't always in ever woman's plan - at least not at certain times.

Placing a child for adoption is a brave, selfless thing. I can't believe the love and selflessness these expectant mothers and birth mothers have. I'll tell ya though... I'm grateful for it.

So, if you're interested in knowing more - of if you're at all tied to the adoption world, get educated. There is so much good in the world of adoption.


Want to know what I'm most excited about after this weekend?

WE ARE OFFICIALLY ON ADOPTION.COM!!

Go look! <<< Click riiiight there!

Share our profile! Help us get the word out! We are ready to meet our expectant mother and get the ball rolling!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!