3,000th post

I started this blog in December 2006. Along the way I have deleted some posts so in reality I know I've published far more than 3,000 posts, but of the posts currently available on the blog, this one is number 3,000. On quite a few occasions over the past three years I have seriously contemplated bringing an end to the blog, but thus far I have always changed my mind at some point as here I am still writing and uploading pictures. I have no idea how long I will keep blogging. I started it when we began to pursue the adoption of two children in Ukraine. The first post summarized the first 4 1/2 years of our efforts to become parents. Back then I didn't include many photos in my posts. When we realized several months later that Ukraine was a dead end for us, we contracted with a second US adoption facilitator and also tried IVF for the first time. The first fresh transfer of three embryos resulted in an early miscarriage, but the first frozen transfer of one blastocyst a few months later resulted in us becoming parents in June 2008 when Nadia was born. We never

pursued adoption again. We did two more rounds of IVF. The two fresh transfers resulted in Ian (12/09) and Oliver (08/12), and the last frozen transfer resulted in our third and final miscarriage (2013).

Our lives are very different now than they were in December 2006. At that time I was an Assistant Professor working toward gaining tenure and promotion to Associate Professor. I received both in 2008. We were living in Catawissa, attending First Baptist Church in Danville, and Paul was a FT graduate student at Bucknell University working on his master's degree in chemistry. We were driving a Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla. At that time our debt included student loans (Paul) and a mortgage. Our vacations were almost always to other countries. The previous summer (for example) we had gone to Aruba for one week and on a three week trip to China (I taught there for two weeks).

Fast forward almost 12 years and our lives are very different because we are no longer childless but rather are the homeschooling parents of a 6, 8, and 10 years old. Our house in Watsontown is messier  than the previous house because of those three bundles of joy. We've been attending Christ Wesleyan for four years, I'm currently a FT adjunct at Bloomsburg (entering my 10th year there), and Paul is back at the family business only as of December 2017 he now owns the company. Over those 12 years we've gained weight, lost hair (Paul), and gained more grey hair (Ruth). Paul earned both his Master's and Ph.D. in chemistry during that time. He used those graduate degrees for three years while he was an adjunct professor. After working in the field of education for 20 years, I became a stay-at-home mom after Oliver was born and that continued for five years. We are now driving a Sienna minivan and a Mazda. Paul traded in the 2009 Prius for a Mazda in May. I'm still singing alto in the church choir. That statement has been true for me for more than 30 years. Our only debt at the moment is a loan from my retirement account that I plan to pay off within the next nine months. We have wills, life insurance policies, cell phones, a Kindle, an iPad, and power of attorney documents. We didn't have any of these twelve years ago. In 2015 I upgraded to a smart phone, and Paul made that same upgrade within the past year. I also switched from a point and shoot camera to a DSLR camera over the past 12 years, and my photography skills have improved quite a bit over those years (although of course I still have plenty of room for growth!). We no longer have a desktop computer. We went from having cable tv all year to only having it during the NFL season, and we've used our Roku to stream Netflix, Amazon Prime, Right Now Media, and the like instead. When I started the blog Yvonne had two children (now she has eight) and Wendy had one (now she has four). Aside from the birth of my three children, probably the biggest change in my life over the past twelve years was the passing of my mother in 2016. My dad got remarried last year. Our vacations have mostly been in the USA since we became parents, and almost all our vacations for the past nine years have included other relatives. Either my parents or Paul's parents joined us or we have stayed with relatives such as Wendy in Chicago or Aunt Janet in New York. Prior to having kids we traveled as a twosome.

I was thinking recently of how different this summer has been to what summers used to be like several years ago. A typical day used to include a walk to the playground (with me pushing a stroller) in the morning and a trip to the swimming pool in the afternoon. I would usually talk to my mom and mother-in-law as we walked to or from the playground. Now this summer I don't think we've walked to the playground even once. I miss the exercise. Instead the kids are involved in many more camps (why is everything called a camp in the

summer - would it be taboo to call it a theatre class?). So I spend a lot less time outside and a lot more time in the driver's seat of the minivan although the boys and I did spend three hours at playgrounds today during her camp. Nadia wants to do a three week theater camp next summer (meaning it would meet three hours a day M-F for three weeks). We shall see; I'm very read for the two week camp to end this Friday. It is a bit of a challenge coming up with things to do with the boys while she's in camp (to avoid coming home in between and cut down on the driving time). If I had to pick my favorite summer from the past 12 years, I would pick one when Paul wasn't working because he was a professor. He did spend a lot of time up at the desktop computer in the master bedroom, but he was able to join us for all vacations, day trips, almost every meal, etc. And he was able to help with chauffeuring. Meaning he might take Nadia to theatre camp one day, and I would take her the next. Or he would take her and I would pick her up. I remember Paul enjoying listening to the Ramona the Pest books and the Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe series that I read at the kitchen table during meals. It was very special to share those moments together as a family of five. It doesn't seem like we'll ever experience that again. The kids and I would have loved for that time to last longer than it did. It's a reminder again to soak up the special moments in life because you just never know when they might end. I had no idea the last summer he was at home with us that it wouldn't happen again, and I had no idea in December 2016 that it was my last Christmas with my mom. I have regrets regarding some choices I have made in the past, but I have no regrets for the time I spent with my mom (on the phone or in person) or the time I have spent or am currently spending with my three precious children.