On the Tough Days...

If you read my blog often, you know that I typically try to remain really positive, especially when talking about adoption and the adoption process.  I want to make a blog book with all of my posts and I would love to be able to show the book to Baby Harrill one day, and I don't ever want them to hear me say something negative about adoption.  But, I also wouldn't be painting an accurate picture of adoption if I didn't talk about the tough days.

The tough days are those days when you realize how badly you want for your baby to come home.  That there is a spot in your heart just waiting for that baby, and that empty spot physically aches the longer you wait.  With pregnancy there is a count down, you know roughly when your new baby will arrive.  With adoption there is no count down...it could happen today, it could happen  next month, it could happen next year!  The wait can be good, it gives you time to get the nursery ready, pick out a daycare, save money, spend time as just a family of two, and really prepare our hearts to be parents.  But the wait can be hard, it can be excruciating  it can be sad, it can be lonely, but the wait is part of God's plan!

On those tough days, when I'm feeling sorry for myself and wishing that I could control my own destiny, I'm reminded of Jeremiah 29:11.  "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope".  What a blessing to know that I don't need to be anxious about my lack of control in this situation, because I am NOT supposed to be in control.  God is in control, He knows exactly which baby is going to be joining our family and His timing is perfect!  A friend, who is also waiting to adopt, recently reminded me that God had our babies chosen long before we even made the decision to adopt.  I know all of this is True, and although the road is still difficult at times, this gives me peace in the process.

So what do I do on those tough days?  I come home and spend time with my amazing husband and awesome puppies!  That always seems to make everything better :)

2012 Recap

 I absolutely can not believe how quickly 2012 flew by.  As I type this we are already 1/2 way through January, 1/2 way through February, 1/2 way through March!!!!.  I really don't know where the time is going.  I am thankful that we have kept ourselves so busy though, because I was afraid the adoption wait would drag, but these past 6 months were gone before we knew it...here's hoping this spring proves to be equally as exciting and busy!

*As you look at the pictures below, if you click on them they will get big enough to see without a magnifying glass :) *

January 2012 
Settling in back from an awesome trip in Las Vegas, Christmas with Jenn's dad, and  praying about a very important decision (hint hint..something we decide in February)

February 2012 
Mark's 30th Birthday, beach trip with friends,  spa weekend for Shannon's 30th birthday (no pictures), and after many prayers we made the decision to attend an adoption information session with our agency!

March 2012 
We decide to move forward with the adoption process and complete our preliminary application, trip to Charlotte to celebrate Mark's mom's birthday and tell our parents that we are starting the adoption process.

April 2012 
Attend our first adoption conference at our agency, visited with friends and family in Charlotte, and managed to catch a Bulls game

May 2012 
Mountain Trip with friends, Charlotte for Mother's Day, Finally some free weekends to work on our massive amounts of adoption paperwork

June 2012 
School wrapped up for Mark, Summer officially started, Jenn took a trip to lake with the girls, Mark to the beach for a Bachelor party, Home Study completed, Trip to MD to visit with Shannon and Brady, and  annual trip with friends to Charleston and Hilton Head.

July 2012
Philadelphia with Catelyn to visit Bryan, Mountains for Jon and Sarah Jean's wedding, Melissa and Eric's wedding in Raleigh

August 2012 
Officially on the adoption waiting list (August 1)!  Trip to NJ to visit with family, School starts back, Summer comes to an end

September 2012 
Fall started off with a bang...our friends threw us an amazing adoption shower Click here  and here  for pictures from a previous blog post.  We hosted our first (and likely only) adoption yard sale Click Here to see pictures from that post.  Then we went to Maryland to spend time with Shannon and Brady and celebrate his 2nd Birthday!  And then we went spent time with Mark's family at Myrtle Beach...Remember? (click here)

October 2012 
Three weekends this month were spent in Charlotte; Girls weekend, wedding weekend, and then our 2nd adoption conference.  The last weekend we got to enjoy a high school football game and some time with family!  Click Here to remember

November 2012 
Flapjack Fundraiser, Panther's Game, Jenn turns 30!!!! and Thanksgiving.
Click Here, Here, and Here

December 2012 
2012 Ended with month full of time with friends and family, Christmas parties, illnesses, and Christmas!
To Remember Click Here  and Here

I know this is a l.o.n.g. post, but I know that when I look back on this blog after a few months I will be so glad that I did a 2012 recap.  It was tough trying to remember what we did each month but so fun to go back and look at pictures and remember all the fun times.  I hope to stay on top of it this year so that I don't have to spend 3 months of 2014 trying to remember what I spent all of 2013 doing!

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 :) )