Birthdays, Snow

Hudson celebrated his 2nd birthday on turkey day this year!  We were in Texas for this, so we had a little party at our house for a few friends and neighbors before we left.  He loves tractors, so we did a John Deere party, played pin the wheel on the tractor, had some cake and snacks.  He pretty much stayed glued to his alphabet train and scooted around the house on that the whole party, but her knew the party was for him and the presents and his cake were “Hudson’s”. 

Lilly turned 4 and we had a jumping party.  She had lots of friends from school and church there to celebrate – I think they all had a good time jumping and being silly.  She also had snow on her real birthday – two years in a row – I think now she may come to expect it.    

It was fun to have our first real snow in NC, we have had one more little one since then.  I can’t believe how cold it is here compared to Texas – a real winter for sure!  We’ve already built our first snowman!

We took 2 weeks and traveled to Texas (driving) over Thanksgiving.  We saw both sides of the family, all the sibs, and great grandmothers.  We had a good time visiting, just a lot of driving in the car.  The kids did well, though, and enjoyed staying in some hotels.  In Tyler we went to the zoo and in Houston we rode horses and fished – Lilly caught her first fish! 

I am so behind, so here it goes!!!!

  Well, since it is December 17th, I thought it about time to get out a Halloween post, I mean, really, what have I been up to?  So for Halloween, the kids were Spiderman and Strawberry shortcake (complete with the red wig).  They had fun at a church fall festival and also trick or treating in our neighborhood – it is so nice to be in a neighborhood that actually does this now! 

Our Family Miracle

So I don’t know who all knew we had started the process of adopting for the second time.  Hudson is adopted, and we had such a great experience with that, we kept feeling God was calling us to a third child.  We had filled out the application and started some online training at night. …… Then one day things changed.  I was looking through the application and a question kept standing out – Are you pregnant?  I was like “no.”  After 3 failed IUI’s after Lilly, a blocked fallopian tube, and lots of scarring from a c-section, they had said it was pretty much not going to happen.  But, on a whim, we decided I should take a pregnancy test just to make sure before we were too far along in the adoption process.  This time we were having a hard time getting the process started – one agency put us on a waiting list, the other we liked alot, but things were taking a long time.  We now know, God was saying, “WAIT”,  I have other plans. 

So, the next day, I took the test and it was positive.  I was like, this just does not happen.  But three tests later, they still said positive.  So, yes, we are expecting Burk #3.  I still can’t believe we are having another baby!  I have heard the heart beat three times and seen the baby twice.  Right now we are almost 13 weeks and due sometime in June – depending on when the c-section will be planned. 

“My plans are not your plans and My ways are not your ways”.  This rings true to us because we thought we had it all  planned out, how to have this third child, but God has other things in store.  Some say we are having this child because we moved to North Carolina and were more “relaxed”, others say because we have adopted a child, but I don’t believe it works that way.  God had such a specific plan for us, there is nothing Brian or I could have done to have this child on our own.  There was no trying or planning on our part, because  this was all God’s ultimate plan for our life and our family.  I feel truly blessed and know how precious this life is that is growing inside me.  I don’t want to take any of this for granted or forget this experience. 

We pray for a healthy pregnancy and for our growing family.  We love you all!  Merry Christmas!