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!
Although I enjoy the pictures of my kids right now, part of the reason I take the pictures and videos is to capture them at these ages to enjoy in future years. Maybe it's because I'm an auditory not a visual learner, but my visual memory is very poor. I think of the ancient quote, "The faintest ink is more powerful than the strongest memory." Of course they weren't referring to photography, but I think the same principle applies. And that's the reason why I do the annual birthday interviews with the kids. I did Ian's today. I'm only seven days behind, which isn't bad. I also uploaded two videos today of the kids singing in church. To be honest, I was tempted to just delete them because Oliver was not on his best behavior to be sure, but some day I'll probably think it was cute, which is not what I was thinking while it was happening. It reminds me of story I was told many times as I was growing up of when I was a toddler. My dad was the pastor and was leading the congregation in singing a hymn. My mom was playing the piano. I stood up on the first pew where I had been sitting, turned around to face the congregation, and attempted to "direct" the congregation with my arms just like my Dad was doing.
This is the Duquesne Incline we rode in Pittsburgh. I took this photo at the top.
To me that story sounds incredibly cute, but when it happened my mom said she was dying of embarrassment. Now that I'm a mom I can understand her reaction better than I could before I became a mom. Something like that is cute when it's someone else's child doing it, but when it's your son talking to the girl next to him when he's supposed to be singing on the platform at church, it's vexing not cute. However, I think even my mom must have found what I did humorous after some time had passed by or I wouldn't have heard the story. Hopefully some day I'll enjoy seeing this video, and even more I hope that in the future he will do a much better job of SINGING with the choir instead of playing with his tie or talking to the girls on either side of him. I wish they had put the top row of kids on the step above the bottom row because it was really hard to see Nadia. I will say that Ian is doing a great job. When I remember that at the age of 4 (Oliver's current age) Ian was too scared to even come up on the platform, it puts Oliver's behavior into perspective. There are three videos below - Ian's 7th birthday interview, the kids singing in the 9:00 service, and the kids singing in the 10:45 service. The pictures in this post are from three cameras - some with my old camera when we were in Pittsburgh (I still haven't posted all of them yet!), some with my new camera, and the two photos from church were posted on the church's Facebook page today (not taken by me).
A photo of part of our choir as we were singing "O Holy Night" yesterday
Although I enjoy the pictures of my kids right now, part of the reason I take the pictures and videos is to capture them at these ages to enjoy in future years. Maybe it's because I'm an auditory not a visual learner, but my visual memory is very poor. I think of the ancient quote, "The faintest ink is more powerful than the strongest memory." Of course they weren't referring to photography, but I think the same principle applies. And that's the reason why I do the annual birthday interviews with the kids. I did Ian's today. I'm only seven days behind, which isn't bad. I also uploaded two videos today of the kids singing in church. To be honest, I was tempted to just delete them because Oliver was not on his best behavior to be sure, but some day I'll probably think it was cute, which is not what I was thinking while it was happening. It reminds me of story I was told many times as I was growing up of when I was a toddler. My dad was the pastor and was leading the congregation in singing a hymn. My mom was playing the piano. I stood up on the first pew where I had been sitting, turned around to face the congregation, and attempted to "direct" the congregation with my arms just like my Dad was doing.
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