We started trying to have children in May 2002. After pursuing fertility treatments, domestic, and international adoption, our daughter Nadia Renee was born on 6-24-08 (at 36w4d). IVF #2 resulted in Ian Alexander, who was born on 12-12-09 (at 34w3d). Oliver Elliot (IVF #3) was born on 8-7-12 (at 31w6d)! Three other pregnancies (in 2005, 2007, and 2013) ended in miscarriage. Our family is complete! We are so thankful for our three miracles!
Seeing this picture (which Wendy took yesterday) makes me wish we were in Indiana right now. This photo shows my nieces and nephews in front of the plane that was my Grandpa's from three years before I was born until his death. My cousin, Joel, who lives in Indiana now maintains and flies the airplane. I remember my Grandpa giving me flying lessons in that airplane when I was a child and teenager. I remember my mom was rather concerned when I was taxiing back to the hangar because I could just barely reach the pedals (you use with your feet to steer the plane when it's on the ground) and was overcompensating and swerving to the right and then to the left, etc. I would have loved for my children to experience taking a flight in my grandpa's airplane. Maybe some day they will. The musical was the reason we didn't head out to Indiana.
Yesterday we left the house at 9:30 to head to the Children's Museum. First the kids played in the museum, and then they participated in a program for one hour about songs from around the world. Then we headed to a 60th birthday party for one of Paul's family's business's biggest customers. The party was held oat a house right on the Susquehanna River. We took a ride in a motor boat at one point in the afternoon, and the kids were able to see the Priestley House from the water for the first time. Ian sat with Paul and I in the back of the boat while Nadia and Oliver sat with Dave (the company's office manager/ salesman) and his wife. After the party we headed home so the kids could change and then we went to the Alliance church for their first musical performance. This morning Paul's parents came to our church and took the kids out to lunch and back to our house while Paul and I went out for our second date. We went on two dates (including this one) over the past 12+ months. My dad gave us money to go out to eat since we were separated on our 15th anniversary due to our trip to Ohio. Since my dad gave us money, Paul splurged and got a NY strip steak at Texas Roadhouse. This evening Paul's parents joined us at the church for their second performance. We appreciated that they babysat the kids while we went out to eat.
Last night Oliver was only on stage for the first two and last two songs, but tonight they kept him on stage for the full hour (although some other young children were still taken off for the middle part of the program). Nadia did a better job with her solo tonight than last night. She did a good job on her speaking part both nights although she did need a little prompt for one of her lines yesterday (knew the line but missed the cue when to say it). I was really impressed with Ian both nights. I wish my mom could have seen how much he had improved. He was smiling to beat the band (yay!) both nights and singing most of the time and doing the motions most of the time. During the "Bench warming blues" song he enjoyed pretending to play a blow up guitar last night and a blow up saxophone tonight. He knew his quartet well, but it wasn't really a quartet. Everyone was singing the song (although 4 kids were at microphones you couldn't hear them in particular). Oliver sang part of the time and did some of the motions. I would say to compare the three kids when they were four years old, Nadia did the best by far, and Oliver did better than Ian did at that age. Ian has come a long way though! I am thankful this church offers this program each summer. There were about 35 kids in the program this summer. Next summer hopefully the kids will also learn all of their Bible verses. They learned all of them in the first several weeks, and then once we started making trips to Maryland we got off track with memorizing the verses. Oops! In a few weeks all three kids will be starting up the new season of the kids' choir at church. It will be Oliver's first time in that choir. They sing once a month in church (Oct-May) and do two programs (Dec/May). The kids are also excited about AWANA starting back up in a couple of weeks, and that will force us to get back in gear with memorizing Bible verses each week (which is a very good thing).
Seeing this picture (which Wendy took yesterday) makes me wish we were in Indiana right now. This photo shows my nieces and nephews in front of the plane that was my Grandpa's from three years before I was born until his death. My cousin, Joel, who lives in Indiana now maintains and flies the airplane. I remember my Grandpa giving me flying lessons in that airplane when I was a child and teenager. I remember my mom was rather concerned when I was taxiing back to the hangar because I could just barely reach the pedals (you use with your feet to steer the plane when it's on the ground) and was overcompensating and swerving to the right and then to the left, etc. I would have loved for my children to experience taking a flight in my grandpa's airplane. Maybe some day they will. The musical was the reason we didn't head out to Indiana.
Yesterday we left the house at 9:30 to head to the Children's Museum. First the kids played in the museum, and then they participated in a program for one hour about songs from around the world. Then we headed to a 60th birthday party for one of Paul's family's business's biggest customers. The party was held oat a house right on the Susquehanna River. We took a ride in a motor boat at one point in the afternoon, and the kids were able to see the Priestley House from the water for the first time. Ian sat with Paul and I in the back of the boat while Nadia and Oliver sat with Dave (the company's office manager/ salesman) and his wife. After the party we headed home so the kids could change and then we went to the Alliance church for their first musical performance. This morning Paul's parents came to our church and took the kids out to lunch and back to our house while Paul and I went out for our second date. We went on two dates (including this one) over the past 12+ months. My dad gave us money to go out to eat since we were separated on our 15th anniversary due to our trip to Ohio. Since my dad gave us money, Paul splurged and got a NY strip steak at Texas Roadhouse. This evening Paul's parents joined us at the church for their second performance. We appreciated that they babysat the kids while we went out to eat.
1 comment:
We would have loved to have you here!
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