Birth Mother Sends Breast Milk to Her Child

I had 2 articles published pretty close together. Now, I realize that many of you may not care about all these articles. I'm not hurt or offended. But I post them here so I have them all in one place. It's what I do.

This particular story really touched me. This birth mother pumped so her daughter's parents could feed her breast milk. What a huge sacrifice. This is my response to her story.

Shout Out to All You Step Birth-Fathers...Here's to Steve

I wrote this article in honor of Steve...and all the men like him.

It Keeps Happening...

The other night it was time for dinner. It was me and the kids. I put Sammy in her chair and Micah and Callie got into theirs. The food was there. Callie said a prayer. And I looked around.

All the kids were there. But someone was missing at the table...but it wasn't Marcus. I mean, logically I knew he was at work, so I was expecting him to be at the table. One of the kids was missing. And then it occurred to me that logically no one was missing because we have 4, wait...3 kids and they were all present.

This has been happening kind of a lot this week. I'm not sure why exactly. It could be because I held little baby Jonas at church on Sunday...or that I finally was able to steal Liam from Grammy and hold him for a tiny tiny bit too. Maybe holding those babies did something to me that wants to speed up this whole adoption process. Or maybe it's just a little soft reminder from the Lord that He has one waiting for us. That we will be a family of 6 sometime in the future. Whatever it is, it keeps happening and it's really throwing off my game. I'm a busy woman and going around looking for kids I don't yet have is kind of crazy. But, in all honesty, I do crazy pretty well.

Daddy and His Girl

Marcus has always looked forward to being a father. When we found out I was pregnant, he was so thrilled. Samantha's birth and diagnosis has changed nothing about his love of being a father...about being her father. 

The other day we went to the zoo and I took this picture from afar. When I looked at the picture when we got home, it reminded me of another picture I took nearly 8 years ago on our front lawn. It has always been one of my favorite pictures. Something about the simplicity of the moment. Just sitting together. Looking at cars. Or people. Observing life together.  

Wedding Day

Lindsey Gets Married

Part II

A few nights before, we all tried on our clothes to make sure we were ready. These kids were killer cute and ready to roll. See that tie? Rose Adams sewed it for Micah. It was an extra tie that Steve gave me so Micah would match the groomsmen...and Rose made it happen. What a cute little dude.

Callie helped get Micah's shoes on because, well, Micah insisted.

Sammy wasn't too excited about this little dress rehearsal. Oh well.

Lindsey and Steve were sealed in the Oakland Temple on Friday night. Lee, Peggy, Marcus, and I attended the sealing and then, the next morning, we headed back to the temple for pictures.

The morning of pictures was long and really nice. The kids did really well. Poor Callie, though, fell and scraped up her leg really bad. Like, really really bloody and scraped up. She was hurt, embarrassed, and devastated that this HUGE bandaid would be in all the pictures. But she got over it and began playing again soon after.

We had some time in between pictures and the reception. I went to the church to help Cindy finish up decorating before things started. Then, we all got our cowgirl gear back on and got ready for the beautiful night.

 You can see her bandage was needing to be changed at this point, but we were out of bandages. Poor girl. It's been a few weeks since this and it's still healing up. But look at how beautiful she looks.

 Love this woman!

Callie and Micah had fun playing with Austin during the reception. Micah and Austin (Lindsey's cousin) are only a few months apart in age. Lindsey was his nanny for a few months.

And Sammy danced with Grammy. It really was a completely lovely night. I loved being a part of this perfect evening. Lindsey, we love you!

We Love the Oakland Zoo

I'm really not one for zoos. They make me sad. But I love the Oakland Zoo. And apparently, we weren't the only ones loving the zoo this past Monday because it was crazy busy. That's what you get on President's Day when moms and dads are off work and kids are out of school. It was a really fun day.

By the drive home, they were all plum-tuckered out. It was a quiet ride home after a fun-filled day.