A Beachin’ Good Time

This weekend, we took an impromptu mini-vacation for ourselves. Totally unplanned, totally last minute. We decided to drive a few hours north east to the Michigan Lakeshore. Let me just say, it was WONDERFUL! We both completely let go of the every day stress and decompressed on the beach. The weather was awesome and we both sunbathed and relaxed in complete bliss. Time stood still while we were out at the beach, playing in the water or reading through our books and magazines. I am so happy that we made this last minute decision and took off. While my house could use some serious TLC as far as cleaning is concerned, I didn’t care about a thing while we were away.

One thing though that I kept seeing my mind wander to was watching the families around us, particularly those with infants and toddlers. I imagined what it would be like if Nick and I were on vacation with our future child. How fun it would be to splash each other in the waves or build sand castles. I saw new moms breastfeeding their babies and walking up and down the beaches cradling them in their arms. I paid attention to families at the restaurants and how they handled the kids when they became unruly. It just gave perspective and once again enforced my wish to want to be a mom. I know that I want this more than anything in the world. Over the years I have heard people talk about what they call “the pull” or “the calling” to want to me a mother. While I have had this throughout my infertility, I am feeling the call and pull more and more these days. Its to the point where I do nothing but think about being a mom. It’s the first thing I wake up to and the last thing I think about when I fall asleep. I have also started to have vivid dreams about becoming a mom through adoption. I am hoping that these are signs for good things to happen in the near future. 

While we try to patiently wait for the call, I am scavenging the internet for anything and everything about adoption. Probably not entirely healthy, but I can’t help it. I have to do it. What if I miss something. I am also getting the incredible itch to start putting together the nursery. One of Nick’s Cousin’s from CA has 3 boys. While they were in town, she gave me leftover diapers and formula to use for our baby. My best friend from Germany sent me a message last week with pictures of baby outfits she’s been keeping locked up for our baby. It made me cry when she told me. I am so thankful for these little things. However, it has put in full-on nesting mode I think. I have already set-up our baby registries with Amazon, Babies’R’us and Target. I will probably go out later this week and start getting some things. In my dreams, we get the call and I am completely unprepared. The stores are closed and we go the hospital with nothing. I know I am overreacting, but I want to have a peace of mind, knowing I at least have things in place for the first couple of weeks while we are at home before we’ll have our shower and buy the bulk of everything we need. 

Now, back to the beachin’ good time that we had in Michigan. I really have to say, I was pleasantly surprised at the beauty of the Michigan Lakeshore. We have been to Wisconsin a lot. This was the first time we were on the other side of the lake, and certainly not our last. I can’t wait to go back soon! I will let the pictures below speak for themselves. 🙂 

I hope everyone else had a great Labor Day weekend and enjoyed this beautiful weather! 

 

 

What we’ve been up to…

Its been a while since I last posted, so I thought it would be time for an update. Not that much has happened since the last post, but I feel disconnected if we don’t at least post every couple of weeks.

Since our last post, we have had our plumbing issues resolved, resulting in 2 fully working bathrooms. As soon as the work was completed and the bathrooms were cleaned, I kicked Nick out of mine and back down to his bathroom. It is heaven having my stuff in its rightful place again and not worrying about him having to use it while I am in there. 🙂

The engine light on my GMC and the dealer became best friends last week. It started with the engine light on Wednesday afternoon. I scheduled service on the car for that Saturday. Leaving the car dealer, I felt assured that whatever they had to fix (which was under powertrain warranty) was done. Wrong… Saturday night, the engine light came back on. So, back to the dealer Tuesday morning. Guess what…. after we picked up the car, the light came on AGAIN on Wednesday morning on my way in to work. At that point, I was ready to kill either the car or the guy at the dealer. We were scheduled to leave on vacation Friday morning. Knowing that we’d be driving hundreds of miles, I HAD to get that issue fixed, fast! So this time, I made the dealer come to my work and get my car. It ended up being the same thing 3 times. The first 2 times they replaced whatever part seemed to need fixing. The final time, they replaced the entire thing (something to do with the exhaust valve bla bla bla). Its finally fixed and the light has not come back on (knock on wood).

Nick left his job at his old employer Wednesday and took Thursday and Friday plus the weekend off to decompress and get ready for his new job. So Friday morning we decided to drive up to Wisconsin Dells (America’s Waterpark Capitol of the world). We stayed in Wisconsin Dells itself at the Mt. Olympus Resort and Water Park. It was a great weekend. Well…. sort of… minus the sunburns and my sprained ankle. We played in the water, went on slides, visited the theme park next to the water park and had a blast Friday. It was overcast and in the mid 60s, so it was pretty chilli. BUT, the park was pretty much ours and we didn’t have to wait long anywhere. Saturday was a different story. It was sunny, warm and the weekend. on the way to the park, you would have thought that they were giving something away for free. It was soooooooo busy! Once we got into the park (it opens at 10 AM, we got there at 10:15 AM), all the rides already had long lines building. We were lucky enough to get into one of the go-kart tracks fairly easy. We ended up spending most of the day at the wave pool and in the lazy river. When we got to the lazy river however, I had the glorious idea to jump in to get us an empty floatie tube thingy. Well, I didn’t land right on my right foot. It hurt like hell. The pain went away pretty quickly, but it has since been super swollen. So I am trying my best to stay off of it now and put ice on it, but it may be too late. I stayed on it pretty much for the rest of Saturday in the water park and Sunday when we drove to Milwaukee for German Fest. We walked around there all day and I ended up having to drive home because Nick had a couple of beers. By the time we got home, my ankle looked like it had an egg grow out of it. It doesn’t hurt, unless I bump into it or twist it in a weird kind of way. I just hope that everything will heal and go away in a couple of days.

Last night we returned home and today is Nick’s first day at his new job. I heard from him mid-day and he seemed pretty happy to be there. As I am sitting here typing this, he has not come home yet. But I bet he is excited and happy all around!

In regards to the adoption, we have printed our profile books and are waiting for them to arrive in the mail. Those will then be sent to the adoption agency for distribution to their birthmother counselors. Whenever they speak with expecting mothers looking to make an adoption plan, they will then show profiles according to their expectations (i.e. the expectant mother wants to see white couples in Illinois that have no children in their 30s.. just an example). Once she has viewed the profile, she usually decides on a family or 2 and then the agency will set up a meeting. This is what is called “The Call” – that a birthmother has chosen our profile and would like to meet with us. At this meeting, we both get to know each other and she makes the decision afterwards if she wants us to adopt her unborn baby. Depending on how far along in the process she is, we may accompany her on pre-natal visits or possibly be invited to the hospital for the birth when it is time. It will all depend on her wishes.

So for now, we’ll do our best to prepare for the call and continue our networking efforts. Our final home study report should arrive in the coming week and then everything is official and we should get our DCFS Foster License. It can technically happen anytime from now, it’s just a piece of paper that can be expedited if we’re chosen before the official report on us comes out and the license arrives in the mail. But as far as the paperwork for the home study, we did everything we needed to do to move forward to the next step, which is to wait. As I said many times before, it can happen any day. We might wait a month, a year or get the call next week. We wont know until it happens. Until then, we’ll continue to network and get our name out there.

Thank you for everyone that is reading our blog, following our journey and praying for us. The path to parenthood has certainly not been an easy one for us. But we are confident that this is the right path and pray for our miracle baby every day. I know that he or she is out there, its just a matter of finding each other.

100 Beers

In case any of you don’t know, we live in one of the suburbs in Chicago. Chicago is notorious for having horrible, long-drawn out winters, but having beautiful summers with lots of festivals along our beautiful lake shore. This includes many other places in the Great Lakes region. This was one of those weekends, with many fests along the lake. We headed over to the famous Summerfest in Milwaukee. Its the world’s biggest summer festival in downtown Milwaukee on the lake, that hosts hundreds of bands over the course of 2 full weeks. Headliners this year included Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars, Usher, Paramore, Green Day, etc. We try to head over there every year and enjoy the food, bands and of course people watching.

This year, we took a different spin on it. Schatzi had the great idea to head into Milwaukee’s downtown to their historic Third Ward, a warehouse district with tons of bars and restaurants on its way up. It’s Milwaukee’s version of what know in Chicago as Lincoln Park. After walking around for what seemed like forever (it does when you’re hungry) and searching for a place to eat (I was desperately looking for a place that served brats!), we ended up at this bar called “The Wicked Hob”. Because the weather was awesome, we got to sit outside on their patio, next to a table of 5 guys. While ordering our drinks and food, we noticed they were already well on their way to get hammered. As our waitress Emilia came to bring our drinks, the guys started negotiating with her about a beer deal, wanting to order Spotted Cow (a Wisconsin Beer) at $2 a pint. After going back and forth, they proposed to her that if they were to order 100 beers, would they get them at $2 a piece. She said yes. They were dead serious! Emilia went back to her manager to get approval since this is sorta outside the norm. She came back 10 minutes later and said “Yes, we can do this, but it will have to be in plastic cups and we’ll have to clear off your table”. The guys were ecstatic, having fulfilled a live dream of finally being able to go to a bar and order 100 beers. As the evening went on, we got to know them and chat & laugh with them. They were the main attraction of the bar and the third ward for the night. I’ll let the below pictures speak for themselves. All I remember is the slogan of the night for anyone interested in these guys and seeing their table “Want a beer dude/lady?” We got drunk with them, along with the rest of the bar and all the people that walked by, getting free beer handed to them.

So what happened with Summerfest you might ask? Well… we sorta got stuck at the bar with our new friends, for obvious reasons. By the time we finally left, it was too late to head over to Summerfest. But I think the night was still a success. Only in Milwaukee can you go to a bar and order 100 Beers! 🙂 🙂 🙂

       

Relaxed Weekend!

Nick and I had a super relaxed and fun weekend together. Probably the first of its kind in a loooong time. We moved into our house at the end of September last year, and it seems like since then, we’ve been going non-stop. This weekend, we both decided to spend time with each other. And we did do just that. Friday night, we vegged on the couch, watching movies, and were so excited to sleep in Saturday morning. Of course, we both woke up at 7:30 am and were ready to get up. So we had a nice breakfast, took Pebbles for a nice walk and decided to head to the local Farmers Market. On the way back, we stopped and got our grocery shopping done (which is an errand… I know, but it was fun to go together). We were in and out in no time.

We then spent the afternoon chillin’ at home and spending time together. It was cooler outside, so not really weather to do much outside. However, we were content inside. Saturday night we headed over to the local Village Fair and Taste, had dinner, enjoyed the sun set and headed home to cuddle under the blankets watching TV. It was simple, but awesome to do this together. Its been so long since we did NOTHING!

Sunday’s forecast was gorgeous, sunshine and upper 60s. We got up late (9 AM!!), had breakfast and then took Pebbles to a nearby forest preserve. We hiked through the woods and had an awesome walk with her. It was heaven being outside. Gorgeous weather and a little breeze. Pebbles was super excited and happy to be out and about with us as well. On the way home, we stopped for lunch, getting oohs and aahs for Pebbles in the backseat of our truck. She always gets people to smile when they see her (she’s a puggle). The rest of the day, Nick did some weeding, I did some laundry, we took naps, spent time chilling on the patio, reading, and just simply relaxing. Sunday night we finished our preparation questions for the home study and had Chipotle take-out for dinner. This whole weekend was like a little mini-vacation for our marriage. We’re both relaxed and re-charged for the weeks ahead.

Here’s a snapshot of our trip to the forest preseve

Next weekend is Memorial Day weekend and we’ll get 3 days off. I am so excited! YAY. And then, one more week and my mom will come visit us with my aunt from Germany. I am so excited to see her!!

I hope you all had a nice and relaxing weekend as well! I love summer and can’t wait for it to get hotter outside!!