OUR GARDEN IS GROWING...

SATURDAY, AUGUST 17, 2013

Oh August, you and your dreaded heat.
You force us to stay indoors. 
I hear it's not suppose to cool down in California UNTIL the end of September!?

Well, in the meantime I've been catching up on my summer 2013 series,
(pretty proud of myself)
but still have part 3 to add, which I'll get to once August is through.

We enjoyed a few other, super fun activities, before school started this Thursday

and survived the 2 days of school this week!
Yep, 2 days :)

The kids were relieved it wasn't a whole week.

Me too, it eases us into the whole thing.

BUT,

The 

MOST 

important

 summer

 development 
so
far

is...

THIS!

7.26.13

Baby's breath!

EEEEK, surprise!

Cardboard signs & DIY chalk paint

We held off telling anyone about this little bloom to come

for obvious reasons, the 3 month wait.

And then......

I lost sleep, unintentionally, for about a month,

 trying to figure out HOW I was going to share with everyone.

Let alone, the struggle to hide my rapidly changing body.

:/

We had waited THIS LONG to expand our family,

a simple phone call or conversation wouldn't suffice,

forget that, it wouldn't do my blessing justice.

////////////////////

*This is where I depart from the now and take you back a bit.

////////////////////

See, hubby had been indecisive about more kids for YEARS.

YEARS!

He'd say yes, he'd say no, repeat, repeat, repeat.....

He had legitimate reasons and concerns that I completely understood,

 I think at times my own issues got in the way, causing an overturn on his yes's,

boo

and other times I think they were just excuses.

*FYI hubby isn't the bad guy here,*

God's the miracle worker, hallelujah

and this is all about what God did in our lives! 

I had no choice but leave it in God's hands, after rejoicing with his yes's 

and being discouraged with his no's, too many times.

We couldn't escape the 'when are you going to have more kids?' question.

Everyone. I mean everyone, would ask and they asked for years.

lol

Dress- Ross clearance, shoes thrifted.

Finally after getting different answers from hubby, I said, without disrespecting him 

as my covering, my best friend and hubby, 

that the desire was too great to be diminished with time,

or with his indecisiveness.

That my babies were more than enough.

I didn't desire more kids because I was feeling neglected, empty or an early onset of

 empty-nest syndrome, but that I felt in the deepest part of me, I wasn't done.

Not expanding our family didn't sit well with me,

but I would respect his decision and never press the issue, have an "oops" moment 

or bring it up.

That this deep, deep, desire went beyond he and I, 

it was now between me and the Lord.

That if God decided we were done, it would hurt but I would accept it.

When we took this I was about 14+ weeks along.

Who was I to complain or be ungrateful.

I'd been very fortunate to have 2 healthy babies,

one of each, a loving husband and so many more blessings.

That's much more, than many families get the opportunity to have.

Having more wouldn't complete me but it would fulfill my deepest desire.

I hadn't been the typical little girl who played with dolls, by choice, or baby dolls.

I never dreamt of my wedding or even how many, if any, kids I'd have.
I just hoped one day I'd get the opportunity to have both.

So there wasn't an ideal I was trying to achieve.

I just knew without doubt,

I WASN'T DONE!

It wasn't something I could shake but it was something I decided to leave in God's hands.

I told hubby if he really didn't want more children I understood,

and if he really wanted me to stop desiring them, to pray it out of me,

basically have God remove that desire.

I told him I would neither pray that God put the desire in his heart or take it out of mine.

It was simply going to stay between the Lord and I.

Prayer and petition to the Lord is always the answer,

but for some reason, I wasn't going to pray about it.

 God knew my heart.

I trusted Him.

That was it.

I wanted to represent all my babies, especially the one not with us.
God gave me this a few minutes into taking the photos!

Well over a year ago, I began watching some adorable babies from our church.

And guess what happened?

Hubby fell in love with them hahahaha.

So much he began talking "crazy", saying he might be open to revisiting the whole

baby thing. 

WHAT'CHA Say?!

I was happy but I thought to myself, "buddy, I'm waiting on God".

Hubby kept his word, a few months later we discussed it fully and began praying about it.

After a few more months, it turned into a "YES", and I believed it this time.

It was different.

So much, I talked with the mommy's I babysat for

and shared our newest and possible future development.

They were just as giddy as I was,

but in complete confidence of course because now we were praying about the when.

About July/August of last year I stopped childcare,

with the intent of being fully available to my kids as school was going to begin,

they would need more of my attention

and

the biggie,

 I was clearing some of my commitments for the baby we would hope to have.

Being good friends, they totally understood.

We finally decided to try months later,

trusting God to do his thing.

We were a little freaked out.

 Would it happen instantly 

or would we get the chance to let it sit in our brains,

you know, that we were ACTUALLY doing this!?

If it was meant to be we'd conceive,

if not we'd accept it.

Well friends, it happened!

And after a month of losing sleep(wk 9-13),

researching the internet,

Pinterest -GASP-I never go there, but I did this time,

and praying about it,

God gave me this idea.

It incorporated everything I was concerned about or unsure of how I could pull off.

1. We had a beautiful setting, no traveling and free

2. I had to do this on my own, as no one could know

3. Hubby has literally grown this flower garden to what it is now, props to him

4. I purchased "Baby's Breath", exactly what I needed to represent

my babies and the one to come, in a floral theme and used greatword play

5. The signs were free- cardboard and DIY chalk paint

6.God gave me the wording for everything and wings to represent baby #1

I wanted to do something NO ONE had done,
Or at least nothing I'd seen online.

I wanted it to be unique to us.

It was all God!

This is the photo we mailed out to all of our family and closest friends,
surprising them entirely!

We told our kids 1st (that'll come next)
family 2nd,
closest friends 3rd,
and finally everyone else on FB on  8.5.13

The responses we've gotten have been amazing and comically varying,
from

completely supportive,

joyous,

and relief that it's finally happening,

 to  

hunches,

astonishment,

and "fighting" over WHO gets dibs on the baby lol

I love these people 

////////////////////

8.2.13

Now lets backtrack slightly to when we shared with the kids.

 Since my focus had been entirely on telling the adults,
I sort of forgot to work on the delivery method for our own kids.

So there I was, scrambling to do something memorable for them.

 Again, I looked online for ideas but mainly what NOT to duplicate.
I'm sure what I did is similar to other's reveals.

I had really wanted t-shirts that said "YOU'RE GOING TO BE A BIG SIS"
"YOU'RE GOING TO BE A BIG BROTHER, AGAIN"
but not enough time and what I ended up doing actually worked.

We had planned to reveal our little secret while at dinner but I FORGOT the cards and gifts!

And I'm glad I did.

It wouldn't have been as special due to distractions.

We brought them home, told them we had something important to share with them,

and that was it......the questions started.

'Are we going to LEGOLAND?!'

'We're going to Disneyland?!'

Hubby kept saying, 'It's bigger than that'

I kept saying, "its big in importance NOT in size", but no one listened.

When they shouted and jumped in unison 

'WE'RE GOING TO DISNEY WORLD!'

I had to stop it before it got out of hand or became the largest disappointment ever. hahaha

I repeated, "its not big in size but very important to our family"

They didn't care, they wanted their surprise lol

At that point we walked them out back

and gave them "their" gifts.

They were excited for sure.

What the heck? Was the look we got,
confusion,
laughter,
and them continually saying, 'WE CAN'T WEAR THESE!'

Then the laughter just kept rolling.
They still didn't get it!
They were still thinking we played a silly joke on them.

So we then game them their cards,

that HAD to give them a clue.

NOPE, still nothing. 

We had to give them hints on WHO would wear those tiny sandals.

And then we said, "we're having a baby!"

 I think they were a little in disbelief but were genuinely happy.

Well, there were a few moments when my son just shut down and his face became very sad.
I thought to myself, there we go, we ruined this kid. He's feeling shifted.
We had known from previous conversations, that they DID in fact want more siblings.
 I wasn't sure what the deal was.
It wasn't that at all.
After asking him what the matter was, he said quietly,
 'I thought we were getting real presents' lol oh son.

After that we just continued to giggle about the shoes and it was over.

Sandals- Old Navy Clearance
Little signs-online finds

My happy babies <3

So there you go friends,
we're having a baby :)



Our gender reveal here