I'm taking a cue from Sarabeth, who just wrote out a long update on their family life the other day on her blog. I have been meaning to sit down and blog about a few different topics: the end of foster care, my pregnancy, Clara, to name a few . . . but just haven't gotten around to it. So, since I am sitting here on the recliner, as per order from my husband, who is at a church meeting all afternoon, I might as well do some reflecting and updating on our lives over the past few months.
First of all, our foster girls left on February 13th, and that was a very emotional weekend for all of us. They called us two nights before that and said to get them ready to go on the 12th, but we were kind of caught off guard by that, and asked to keep them an extra day. We had told Kerry Ann that we would need to be done on the 20th because we were going out of town for almost a week and they would need respite care, so it would make more sense for them to just go by then, as we are now done with foster care. The first few days after they left, I spent time putting together a binder with typed out journaling and pictures for each set of kids that we had over a year and a half, which ended up totaling 24 kids! I'm glad I got that done right away, because I don't think it would have happened if i hadn't. It was a sad thing for us to say goodbye to those two precious girls, but it was definitely time, and we know that God is calling us to stop for at least several years, while we focus on the three little girls He is giving us. We still want to be involved in foster care in some way in the next few years . . we're still praying about how we can help.
Jeremy and I took a trip to Cashmere for a few days and left Clara with my parents, then headed up to Marysville to stay at a house on the sound owned by some friends of my parents for a few days. We had originally planned to stay in a hotel in Seattle for 2 nights for our "babymoon," but thought that I probably didn't need to be walking all over downtown Seattle, up and down those hills, for 2 days, since I had started some minor contractions even at that point (30 weeks). We went to the Redmond Town Center for a few hours, stopped by a "fancy grocery store" (Haggens . . . it's fancy to us, compared to our normal Safeway or Walmart) and basically stayed at their house for a day and a half, watching the Olympics, reading, sleeping and just resting. It was great!
Jeremy finished his coaching season at the beginning of February, and finished it quite well, i might add! They won the last 3 games of the season (they only won 5 total) and slid into the last playoff spot, which, after the way their season started, was a huge accomplishment! They got beat pretty badly in that playoff game, but that's ok. Overall, it was a good experience for Jeremy, but he has already told them he won't be able to do it again next year.
Clara has become quite the little two year old. She recently moved into her "big girl room" and has done very well with it. She has a rail the length of the bed that prevents her from being able to get into the bed by herself, so I don't think it occurs to her that she probably could get out . . . which is fine with us! SHe has to wait for us to come get her. She is so proud of herself for moving in there! She is definitely processing what changes are coming soon . . . she has twin baby dolls named "Emma and Vannah" and she brings them almost everywhere with her. This week, when I was at the doctor a few times, she told Jeremy and my sister that "Mom is at the hospital. She's checking that Emma and Vannah are ok." It will be interesting to see how she does when the babies arrive . . . since the foster girls have left, she has become quite the demander for attention around here. She really is not a big fan of playing by herself for very long stints of time, unfortunately, but she's getting better. She is really into doing little craftsy things at her new table, like cutting and gluing, and playing with her Diego toys or our little activity mat that she and i made together.
As for me, I am pretty uncomfortable. In fact, as i write this, I need to shift positions, even here on our super nice recliner that Jeremy went all the way to Spokane to get for me from his grandma's house. I have gotten to the point that i'm not sleeping well at night . . . have to shift positions about every hour or two. Last night, I seriously felt like i could FEEL my hips expanding. Fun times. Being pregnant with twins brings a lot more drama than with a singleton baby . . I now have to go to the doctor's twice a week to be on the monitor for a while for contractions, as well as the babies' heartrates. Just two days ago, we couldn't get Emma to cooperate, and I was having some contractions, so my doc sent me to TG later that afternoon for an ultrasound that ended up taking 2 hours. I know that all of these precautions are good and necessary, but it's frustrating, too, because even though i know these babies should stay in there another 3-4 weeks, my body is screaming for them to get out NOW! So, when I hear that I'm starting to dilate a little, or when I have pretty bad cramps all last evening for about 2 hours, it's hard not to just want to head down to the hospital and get this thing over with! So, I am going to pack my bag later this afternoon, as my theory is that, if i do that, they won't come for another month and my stuff will just be sitting in a bag . . . but if i don't get it ready, they'll probably come tonight. :)
That's us right now. Most likely, the next time I sit and write on here might be with some pictures of our two new little girls . . . but we'll see. Maybe I'll be put on bedrest in the next few weeks or something, and then I'll find things to blog about to give myself something to do!
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