The Miracles of our Growing Family

An amazing series of MIRACLES have occurred to allow our family to grow. As many of you know we have had great difficulty having children. Cassidy took a lot of work to get to this earth. Approx 1.5 years ago we tried again to have another baby. After 5 months on medication my body quit reacting to the meds. The next options were to increase the dose on the medication which would most likely increase the side effects. The side effects made me very difficult to live with and sometimes I was afraid I might do something to hurt Cassidy. We decided that was not an option. The next options would be something much more expensive possibly invetro fertilization. At approx $20,000 a pop and no guarantees we decided that was not a realistic option for our family. We have always been very open to adoption and so that was the option we chose.

So began the long journey to adoption. The paperwork took us from June 2008-October 2008. In November 2008 we were approved for adoption. We were now out there for all birth moms to look at and decide if we were the right family for their baby. This includes a lot of waiting and after months of actively participating in the adoption process you are left with no formal way to participate. We began looking into adopting through the state of Idaho. Most of these kids have been removed from their biological parents because of abuse or neglect. We learned that any age they come with issues of all kinds. As crazy as it sounds we made some decisions about what we would be willing to deal with and continues the search for our children. We were especially excited about adopting a sibling group. This felt very right for our family.

We have tried to adopt several children as sibling groups. We have come very close to being selected but have fallen just short. The emotional roller coaster has been very similar to the infertility struggles that we have faced before. We have learned through these trial that the Lord has a much greater plan for us and when it is revealed we will have more blessings then we can handle. This is the case right now in our lives.

At the end of June I began having a symptoms of pregnancy. So David went to the store on the Sabbath and got a pregnancy test and SURPRISE!!!!! YOU'RE PREGNANT!!!!!! We were not trying in any way to get pregnant but we weren't preventing it because we thought it was impossible. As far as we know I have not ovulated without the help of the medication since I was 20 years old. I am now 30. Life is so crazy. God's Blessing are so amazing. I am approx 12 weeks along and the due date is 2/22/10.

I have been feeling really well. I have had very little nausea. I have never been nauseated at work and have never had difficulty doing my job. I have been so blessed this pregnancy. I will work 2-12 hour shifts and feel just great and then the next day I am off I will sleep and sleep and sleep. My main issue is fatigue but again it has never affected me at work.

BLESSINGS,BLESSINGS,BLESSING,BLESSING. Thank you Heavenly Father for knowing what is best for our family.

In other news we are going to New Mexico this weekend to a family reunion with my cousins. We will be gone for 9 days and will be driving for nearly 38 hours and 2532 miles. I think we are crazy. The doctor had many warnings for me to keep my feet up and never ride for more then 2 hours without walking around. Many stops were already scheduled in for Cassidy's sake. We have a portable DVD player and lots of snacks and hopefully she won't hate the car by the time we get home.

David is back in school full-time. This is his last year. YEAH!!! He has full time classes now until the beginning of May with only 2 weeks off at Christmas and one week off for spring break. In March of next year we will start our advertising again and we will hopefully have a booming business.

About one hour after we found out I was pregnant we had a meeting with the bishop and I was released from my role as Young Women's president. I could obviously see the Lord's wisdom but it still made me very sad to leave my girls. I still don't have a calling. Just enjoying going to church with no responsibilities.

Thanks to everyone who kept us in their prayer over the last several months as we tried to adopt. We are still grateful for our experience with adoption. We may try to adopt later. We will just have to follow our inspiration from the Lord and see what God has in store.

Love much,
Cheri