Monday, March 30, 2009

A visit from friends!


Me, Addison (16 mo), Shanna & Lydia (6mo)


On March 21,2009 we got a visit from our friends Shanna, Rick, and Lydia. They were in town from North Carolina and stopped by to visit and see our new house. Shanna and I have been friends since middle school, that's been about 13 years ago! We played basketball together at Eagleton (GO LADY ROYALS! LOL), were great friends in high school and college, and even worked together at an afterschool program. Then, long story short, Shanna went to NC on a mission trip, moved to NC, fell in love, got marriend and had Lydia in Sept. 2008. Even after all these years and the miles that seperated us, we stayed in touch and visited when we could and have remained such great friends. Shanna, Rick, and Lydia are moving to East Asia later this year for a God called mission and I truly believe that even the vast ocean could not tear our friendship apart. I believe Shanna and I will be friends FOREVER!!


Our Girls!



Addison and Lydia




Saturday, March 21, 2009

Daddy's Mowing Buddy-


Saturday, March 21,2009

Today Addison rode the lawn mower with Daddy for the very first time and LOVED IT! So now Jason has a lawn mowing buddy for the summer! She actually cried when we took her off the first time and so Addison mowed the entire yard with her Daddy.








Addy G getting to check out the mower by herself.







Addison and Jason both enjoyed spending the day together!

!

First trip to the Zoo! March 20,2009


Hangin' out at the Zoo!


On the first day of spring we decided we would take Addison to the zoo for the first time. Addison loves being outside and loves animals so what a perfect trip for her. We went around 2:30, which is right at Addison's nap time but she took a short nap on the way there and wasn't grumpy or whiny at all.


Addison & Jason checkin out the Rhino.


Jason telling Addison about the beavers.

These beavers were HUGE! We were shocked how big and scary looking they were! LOL


Addy G loved looking at all the animals but she only said "Bye Bye" to the Red Panda. She looked at it and said "kitty kitty". It was precious. And as we strolled away she told it "bye bye".

The Red Panda

Addison pointing at the "kitty" (Red Panda)


The petting zoo has always been one of my favorites at the zoo because I love animals. Addison seemed to enjoy brushing the goats and was not afraid at all.


We had a blast at the zoo and we got season passes so that we can go back all year long and visit other zoos such as the Chattanooga & Nashville Zoo.
If you want to see all our pics from our trip to the zoo click on this link-


http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2018624&id=1071250782&l=8cc351482e

Friday, March 20, 2009

A little bit of history...


So here is just some basic background information about our family.

Jason and I started dating in the summer 1998. He had just graduated high school and I was going into my senior year. We dated a year and a half and then got engaged on Dec. 24,1999. So young I know but it was just meant to be! Jason was picked out just for me by God. He is everything I had ever hoped and prayed for. He is loving, thoughtful, HILARIOUS, loves his family and most of all loves God. And after being engaged for a year and a half we got married on Friday, June 29, 2001. It was such a beautiful wedding and our friends and family made it such a wonderful day.

After being married for about a year we decided we wanted to start a family. We only tried a few months and then found out I was pregnant on Sept 13, 2002. This pregnancy ended in a miscarriage when I was 11 1/2 weeks pregnant. This of course was devastating to us and our families but we knew that God would bring us through it. And He did! He gave us comfort and strength beyond measure. Our families and friends were a great support to us and we are so blessed and thank them for being there for us!


After our miscarriage in October 2002, we tried for several years to get pregnant again with no success. So my regular OB/GYN doctor referred us to a fertility specialist. This doctor found a cyst on my right ovary and said that I needed surgery to remove it. I had the surgery in April 2005 to remove the cyst and endometriosis. The cyst was tested and found to be benign. The fertility doctor said we could pursue treatments or try again on our own to get pregnant. So we opted for trying on our own. So we spent the next year or so trying and to no avail. So we went back to the fertility doctor and he found yet another cyst. He said that we had to do a second surgery on Feb. 19,2007. And here is the rest of the story:

"God said No because He had a better Yes in store!"

Saturday March 31, 2007 was a day that we will NEVER forget. That was the day we found out that we were expecting a great blessing from the Lord; the day our lives changed forever!

Just over a month before that wonderful Saturday morning, I had surgery to remove a cyst on my right ovary and to remove endometriosis. This was my second surgery in as many years. Dr. Keenan is a wonderful feritility doctor, but we had the Great Physician on our side and we didn’t even realize the miracle He was working at the time. We met with Dr. Keenan on March 15 for my post-op appointment to discuss the next steps we would take in an effort to get pregnant. By this time we had met with Dr. Keenan on several occasions over the past couple of years and had formed a comfortable relationship. As he walked into the room and discussed the surgery he had a saddened look on his face. Dr. Keenan proceeded to tell us that because of the fact that we tried on our own for a year after the first surgery to get pregnant and didn’t suceed that in order for us to have our own baby we would need some medical help. He gave us different options varying in aggressiveness and we set up another appointment for April 17th to go back to give him our decision.


The next couple of weeks we began to pray and ask God to make a way for us to be able to afford the feritlity treatments. They are expensive and we really didn’t know how we were going to pay for them but we really wanted to have a baby so we asked God to please make a way. Well God said no to helping pay for treatments because He had a better yes in store.

So on Friday March 30th Jason went down to the church to meet with the deacons and Bill Smith and Bob Zavaterri to have prayer meeting before we were to go into revival. That night I went to Target to pick up a wedding shower gift and a few other miscellaneous items. I had been thinking that my period was about a week late but for me that wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. But I had started laying in the tanning bed and thought that for peace of mind I would just buy a home pregnancy test. I can say that I honestly did not think I was pregnant but I wanted to test just to satisfy myself. I had done this a million times before, been late and taken a few tests and all been negative and then 99% of the time the day after I tested I would start my period. So if for no other reason I bought the test in hopes that I would go ahead and start so that when we went back to Dr. Keenan I would have had a cycle. After I got home from Target I put the tests in my bathroom and didn’t mention a word about them to Jason. I didn’t want to tell him and then get his hopes up and I really didn’t think I was pregnant anyways so no need in bothering him with that with revival getting ready to start and on his mind.

Saturday morning Darla woke me up nice and early, around 7:30 a.m. to go use the potty. So I let her out and of course I also needed to use the potty. When I went into the bathroom I had almost decided not to even take a test because I "knew" what the answer would be. But since I had already bought them I thought "Why not?". So I took the test and sat in the bathroom and waited. I think I sat there for 30 seconds to a minute and looked over on the sink and saw that the test had 2 hot pink lines!! My first thought was "No way." So I studied it for a minute and then I debated in the bathroom for about five minutes whether or not to wake Jason up and tell him or wait until he woke up later that morning because it was so early. Ultimately I decided I better wake him up and tell him because if I waited til later on he would kill me. So I went and woke him up and said "I need to show you something in the bathroom" and he looked at me one eye open and kind of grunted and got out of bed and staggered to the hallway. I stopped him right before we got to the bathroom and said "Now when I show you this don’t freak out", he grunted in response. I went in the bathroom and picked up the test and handed it to him and he did a double take. And I think his reaction was something to the effect of "Are you serious?!" and then just kind of stared down at the test. Jason wanted to call his mom and have her come over and see for herself and she was in shock like us. After that point the rest of the day is kind of a blur.. Later on that morning I took another test and it too was positive. We went to a singing at one of my best friend’s church that night and I told her and her husband about the test and to PLEASE PLEASE pray. Then I bought a digital pregnancy test that afternoon and took that test Sunday morning and it read out plainly "Pregnant".

I called the doctor first thing Monday morning and made an appointment and we went that Thursday, April 5th and that’s when we saw our miracle for the first time on the ultasound. We saw what looked like a grain of rice that flickered. The flicker was her little heart beating.

That was God’s better yes!


Our very first glimpse at our baby!



This was an ultrasound pic of Addison when we found out we were having a girl! .



So my pregnancy was wonderful! I enjoyed being pregnant so much! The only complication I had was swelling of my feet and ankles.

This is me at 35 weeks pregnant.




And after 9 months of waiting and 16 hours of labor our beautiful daughter, Addison Grace, was born at 12:05 am November 27,2007.

Addison Grace just moments after she was born.

What a blessing!!

This is our blessing from above today:


Addison is now almost 16 months old. I will be adding some pictures of her during her 1st year in another post. I just wanted to share a little bit of our history :-)