Charlotte, Ikea, and Snow

The weekend after Mark's birthday we headed to Charlotte to celebrate with the family.  It called for snow all weekend, so I was glad when we woke up on Saturday and there wasn't any snow yet.  We were able to meet up with my parents for breakfast and then head to Ikea to pick up the dresser for the nursery.  I always have so much fun at Ikea and could stay there all day just wandering...but Mark doesn't love big crowds quite the way that I do so luckily we knew exactly what we were looking for and we knew they had it in stock (thank you Ikea website!).  We've started putting it together, but aren't quite done so I'll wait till its finished to post a picture.

Once all of our very important shopping was done I was ready for the snow to start...and right on cue it started coming down around 4:30 and came down fast and hard for a few hours.  The dogs had a blast playing in the snow and Mark hung out on the porch all bundled up in his snow gear drinking a beer.  I guess he is missing the summer time where he could just sit outside, enjoy the weather, and have a beer while he grilled.

Mark's mom LOVES birthdays and so made an absolute celebration out of the evening...complete with ice cream cake - yum!

January / February 2013

Typing a recap of 2012 has proven to be harder than I had expected...and it taking much longer than I had expected (that post coming soon...I hope!).  So in an effort not to fall to far behind in 2013 here is a brief recap of the past month and half.  Time is moving s.l.o.w.l.y. because we haven't had a whole lot going on.  Which also means that waiting for that phone call is getting harder and harder for someone who is as impatient as I am.   I've got my fingers crossed that it will be soon...but we know that God has our baby already picked out and that His timing is perfect!

January 2013
We spent every weekend at home this month, which was really nice and a welcome change to our being gone almost every weekend in the fall.  We recuperated from the busy holiday season, did a little nesting, and just got to spend time hanging out with each other and hanging out with friends.  Thanks to Christmas giftcards we were able to get new floor put in the kitchen (which we LOVE ).  We also ordered the glider and put it together one Friday night (I know, we are exciting right?!?).  Then we picked out the paint color and painted the nursery, with some help from awesome friends.  Here's a sneak peek.

This is one of those colors that looks different in different lights...
anyone want to guess what color it actually is?!? 

Brightening up the dark brown/blue nursery with some white/yellow-

No this is not our nursery the glider hung out in the family room for a while! 

February 2013
I can't believe the month is more than half over already...as slowly as this year is going...its flying by at the same time!  We were in town for the first two weekends of the month and this past weekend went to Charlotte.  Mark turned 31 on the 8th and so we spent a week celebrating his birthday.  It started with breakfast at his favorite place (Chick Fil A) and ended with a beer tasting (March Madness Style) with several of our good friends.  I think Mark had a blast!  The girls tried to do a wine tasting, but it didn't work out quite as well as the beer brackets.  As you can see in the below pictures, our friends did use the evening as an opportunity to swap out the pictures in our family room frames using magazine articles.  Thanks guys...i get the hint that the pictures that came with the frames are starting to get boring!

Presents for the birthday boy

Notice the new pictures in the frames?  The one of the girl in a bikini has got to be my least favorite (and of course its the first one everyone sees).  The sad part is that I had no idea that the pictures were different until hours later when someone finally told me!

This past weekend we went to Charlotte to continue Mark's birthday celebration!  Despite some blizzard like conditions (okay that might be an exaggeration...but we did get to see snow!) we made it to Ikea to get the dresser for the nursery!  It may take us the next 6 months to put it together, but when we do the nursery will be almost complete!!!  Pictures to come...

Christmas 2012 and New Year's Eve

We had a super busy Christmas holiday, but it really reminded us how fortunate we are that most of our family lives within a few short hours of our home.  With Christmas being on a Tuesday, it gave us the perfect opportunity to take a four day weekend and actually see all sets of parents.  This is the first time that I can ever remember that we celebrated Christmas with my dad before Christmas, rather than in January.  

We started the weekend by picking up my niece Bella on our way to Hickory, so she could celebrate with us too.  We were able to spend all day Saturday with my dad, Karin, Bella and the four dogs (our 2 and their 2).  We hung out, exchanged gifts, ate delicious food, and took a hike through the woods with the dogs.  

Late Saturday night we left, headed almost an hour west to get Mark's grandma and then drove to Charlotte so that we could wake up and celebrate Christmas #2 on Sunday morning with Mark's dad and family.  We had a great relaxing visit with them on Sunday.  And...Mark and his dad dressed like twins, which was pretty funny to see.  

Monday, which to many was known as Christmas Eve, was "Grandma's Birthday", and we make a whole day celebration out of it.  If we didn't go to Christmas Eve service, we would never even know that Christmas was the next day.  We try to make the whole day about grandma, even though she whines and complains the whole time about having to celebrate another birthday :)  This year though, she admitted was one of her best birthdays so far! 

Is it sad this is the only picture I got of Grandma's birthday?!? 

Then Tuesday, Christmas morning, we woke up at Mark's mom's house.  We opened stockings (the gifts in the stockings are always so good, there is no need for gifts later in the day - but Mark's mom always outdoes herself).  Then we continued the tradition that Mark's family started several years ago, of going to the Soup Kitchen and serving the homeless.  Mark and I join every other year, since we split our Christmas mornings between my mom and his mom.  This year, Ken's girlfriend K.C. was able to join us too, which made it even more special.  I didn't take many pictures at the soup kitchen, but I did manage to catch one of Sally, all dressed up with her fanny pack on :) 

After serving, we went home opened some gifts and then headed over to my mom's house for dinner and Christmas #4.  My mom always outdoes herself with the cooking and this year was no exception.  We had lasagna and about a hundred different desserts.  

Despite the fact that we managed to squeeze 4 Christmas celebrations and Grandma's birthday into four days, the weekend actually felt quite relaxing and it was so enjoyable to be with family and celebrate the birth of our Savior.  I'm already looking forward to next Christmas (and with any luck maybe there will be a baby Harrill at our next Christmas celebration)  

Since Christmas was so busy, we decided to have a relaxing New Year Eve and New Years Day.  We went over Nick and Nicole's for New Years Eve and had a party... just us, them, and the dogs!  I even got to wear my pajamas to the "party" and really that was all I needed for the night to be an awesome one :)  New Years Day Laura and Michael had everyone over for a brunch...which I'm hoping becomes a tradition because it was such a good idea!  (hint hint Laura).  

Can you believe that 2012 is over?  I still am not used to saying its 2013!  

December 2012

December was another busy month for us, although we were actually at home for several of the weekends and it was so nice to get stuff done around the house and actually enjoy our Christmas decorations.  Mark LOVES everything about Christmas...this time of the year makes him so happy.  And although I could probably go all season without decorating, he gets so excited to decorate that it becomes contagious and I end up loving it too!  

Last weekend in November - Picked out our Christmas Tree 

First Weekend/Week in December

• Cut off 10 inches of hair and donated to Locks of Love 
• Kidney Transplant Christmas party at the Museum of Life and Science 

Second Weekend/Week in December - 

• Jenn gets sick with Bronchitis (hence why there are no pictures this weekend)
• Mark's work Christmas Party
• Small Group Christmas Party  
• We got to see Liz and Chip while they were in NC for Liz's graduation from her Ph.D program! 

Third Weekend in December -

• Jenn still sick...and now with Vertigo too!
• Annual Christmas Sweater Party (Friday)
• Date Night (Saturday)
• More Christmas parties
• Small Group Cookie Exchange

The forth weekend of December was also the beginning of our Christmas celebrations with family, so I'll save those for another post...stay tuned!  

Blog Facelift

In case you can't tell, I've updated the look of the blog a bit.  So feel free to snoop around, check out the "pages" across the top (why adopt, fundraising, about us, etc.).  I'm still learning how to blog, so this will be a work in progress.  Leave me some comments and let me know what you think of the new look.  And I promise to have another blog post by the end of the week...a recap of December 2012 (I've almost caught up to the right year at least :) )

30th Birthday Weekend

Well...it finally happened!  I turned 30, the BIG 3-0.  It actually didn't feel different than any other birthday, but because it was a milestone birthday we did do some big celebrating!  Shannon and Brady came down for the weekend before my birthday to help me celebrate and Mark planned a dinner out with friends, followed by some drinks at one of my favorite new places.  It was an awesome birthday and I'm so glad that so many of my favorite people were there to celebrate with me.  My actual birthday was on Thanksgiving this year, so I got to spend the day with family, which was really relaxing and enjoyable.  Here's to 30 being my best year yet!

Me, Shannon, Nicole 

Mariela, Amelia, and Me

Jess, Me, and Karli

LOVE these two!  So glad they came to spend the 

weekend with me :) 

Is he not the cutest little boy ever?!?

Adorable!

Brady and his favorite "Code-man"

My sweet neighbors made me this car and brought flowers!

Why adopt?

This has been a post that I have been thinking about writing for a long time, and I'm not really sure why it has taken me this long.  I think I was afraid I wouldn't have the right words, or that all of the thoughts in my head would not come out right when written down.  I was also afraid that I might offend some people, so please know that nothing I say below is meant to be offensive, or to put down others who have chosen adoption for reasons other than our reasons.  We know adoption is a personal decision and  that everyone chooses adoption for a different reason, all of which are justified and equally as important as ours...this is just OUR story.  

So, WHY?!?  This is one of the first questions we often get when we tell people we are adopting.  We absolutely love talking about our decision to adopt and are actually happy to answer this question and to share our story with whoever might want to listen.

First things first...adoption is not a "last option" for us. We are not adopting because we "can't" have children, we are adopting because we feel called to adopt!   Mark and I have talked about adoption for a long time, even before we got married.  We always knew it would be a part of our life story, we just didn't realize we would be having the adoption conversation in our late twenties early thirties.  We imagined that adoption was something that we would do after having a few biological children, maybe in our late thirties.  God had an entirely different plan for us, and we are so glad that He did.

*Side note, I know many people do adopt because they can not have children and for others it may be a "plan B", please don't feel that I'm judging...I'm not....for us though, that is just not the case* 

I truly believe that God makes no mistakes.  He has placed us exactly where we are meant to be at this time in our lives.  He led us to a Church that has a huge focus on orphan care and many adoptive families.  He placed adoptive families in our lives, and when we didn't get the hint He placed even more adoptive families in our lives.  Mark's dad was adopted when he was young, my step-mom has a special adoption story of her own, my niece Bella was adopted as an infant, Gabriela (who I have babysat for the past 7+ years) was adopted from Guatemala  and our neighbors just adopted the most beautiful baby girl, Daphne.  God has been doing some serious work in our hearts for adoption, and we didn't even realize it!

I wish I could say that we saw God's "signs" from the first moment adoption entered our lives, but of course we had our own plans and thought we were in charge of our own destiny.  When we decided that we were ready to discuss having kids, we focused that discussion on biological kids.  After we tried for a while, we had to face a choice.  Proceed with more advanced medical options or reconsider our plan.  Believe me, I know there are many ways to have a baby, I've thought about all of them and prayed about all of them, and adoption has just really stuck out in my mind as the way we are to have a baby at this point.  Let me be clear, we have absolutely nothing against fertility procedures.  We tried a few basic things, and I always just felt that it wasn't right for us.  I must say that through this process, we were surrounded by the absolute best friends and family in the whole world.  Had God not placed those people in our lives at that time, who knows where we would be.   Our friends, families, and small group were there to listen to us bounce ideas around, provide support when needed, and support us regardless of what decision we made. 

By deciding to proceed with adoption, it does not mean that we are settling!  Its quite the opposite.  We are so very excited to add to our family through adoption, we truly believe that this is God's plan for us at this time.  Would we like to add to our family through biological kids some day too?  Sure, why not!  We would love to have a houseful of both biological and adoptive kids.  We do not favor one way of adding to our family over another; both are such special ways to bring a child into a family.  Through adoption we have the opportunity to bring a child into our lives in a way that most people never will.  Many people may not understand, much in the way that those of us who have not given birth to a baby may not understand that.

Not only does adoption feel like a "calling" for us, something that God placed on our hearts and really worked through our hearts to make a reality.  But it is also a perfect picture of the Gospel.  God adopted us into his family as sons and daughters.  Jesus died for our sins so that we could have an everlasting relationship with God, our Father.   How could we ignore our calling to do the same thing, on a much smaller scale.  To bring a child into our home, to provide them with unconditional love, to bring them up in the Church to know their Heavenly Father.   James 1:27 calls us to care for the orphans and the widows - We are so excited about sharing the love of God with the birth family, with our baby, and with everyone who feels touched by our story.  We are adopting first and foremost to glorify God.  Yes, we will gain with a child, yes our family will be more complete, but we will also bring praise and glory to God's name, and that's really what its all about!

Reading through blogs a few months ago, I found this one from one of our Pastors, Danny Franks, at The Summit Church.  He and his wife adopted a baby girl a little over a year ago and were one of the many Summit members who were motivation for us in this process.  This whole post is awesome, but this part really resonated with me.  I think he outlined the call to adopt  perfectly 
"Adoption isn’t something you do because of romanticized notions of adding to your family. Adoption is something you do because you’re convinced that God called you to care for the orphan. It’s that calling that gives you strength. It’s that calling that helps you persevere. It’s that calling that helps you understand that you too are adopted, you too are strong willed, you too are a hot mess that God still loves unconditionally" (http://dannyfranks.wordpress.com/2012/10/12/year-one/)   

Thanks for hanging in there, it was a long post.  I promise to finish up my monthly recaps (and then hopefully do a 2012 recap), with pictures very soon!