I am sitting here with my 2 sweet babies while Barrett has the older kids at church. Miss Molly is cutting some teeth and has not felt good for a few days. I thought while they were both sleeping I would write about our amazing year and clear my head. Here is what we have been up to!
January: After being a bit more grumpy and tired than usual, I decided to take a pregnancy test. I can't tell you how many times I have taken a pregnancy test knowing it will turn up negative. I watched in shock as it showed me 2 positive lines. Having not had the best of luck staying pregnant, I kind of went into panic mode. My thoughts went strait to having ANOTHER D and C. I got sick to my stomach and I am pretty sure had a panic attack. Barrett came home and reassured me things were going to work out and be ok. He is awesome like that. He called our Dr, and we had an ultrasound. I got to see a perfect little beating heart.
February: We took 4 kids and headed to Florida to meet Miss Molly. Adoption is amazing but can also be VERY nerve wracking. Nothing is final until papers are signed and baby is in your arms. I didn't want to take 4 kids out to get a baby and return with no baby. As we were at the airport getting ready to board the plane, I didn't feel good. I went to the restroom where I discovered I was bleeding pretty heavily. I don't know that I have ever felt panic like I did in that moment. We had an ultrasound the day before and things appeared good with the baby but I was freaking out. We didn't want to miss our flight, so I reluctantly got on the plane. There is much more to the story, but when we finally got to Florida, I got checked out and baby was fine. Miss Molly was born on February 11th and I got to be in the delivery room when she was born. A perfectly magical moment. She got to come "home" with us on Valentines day! I will not soon forget the struggle emotionally and physically I endured with we were in Florida for just short of 3 weeks while Barrett and the older kids were home in Utah. I learned a lot about myself in that time and that I hate Florida ICPC!!!
March: So much happened in such a short period of time in 2014! Again, I will not soon forget the emotion of this month. Right after bringing Miss Molly home, we learned that my brother had stage 4 lung cancer. He is not a smoker, so the diagnosis came as a horrific shock. It is not my story to tell, but I will say, I think it has forever changed my life. At the time, his diagnosis was the worst it could be. I don't remember much but walking around in a state of shock for lots of days. My Mom felt it was best (against ALL our judgement) to come home from her mission at this time and did. People have taken part of my experience I had during this time and turned it into something ugly so I will not share it again. I will say during the time while he was being diagnosed I had one of the most spiritual experiences I have ever had. I know the Lord is watching over him and his family. Prayers are rarely answered in a fashion WE want them to be answered in but the Lord answers them in a way we NEED them to be answered in.
April: I celebrated my 34th birthday. Man, I am old! :) We also felt it was "safe" to share our news of our pregnancy with everyone. People in our family had known for awhile, but all ultrasounds showed a baby that was growing.
May: We celebrated Isaac turning 3 and Morgan turning 10. I can't help but think back on the day we got the phone call Isaac had been born. What a magical time for our family. He as an answer to so many prayers by so many people. Morgan is 10 going on 25. She is a natural "first born" and such a strong willed little lady. She is a lot like me and that is good and bad at times.
June: Barrett turned 35 and he got to celebrate by going on a 3 day golf trip with some of his friends. I am NOT kidding when I say if my sister, Nikie, would not have been here to save the day, I don't know what we would have done. Having a big family is one of my greatest blessings but it is A LOT of work. Being summer, having all the kids out of school and being pregnant was wild. Not everyone wants to help when you tell them you are dropping of a wild 3 year old OR all 5 kids. I still owe Nikie pretty big for that one.
July: Barrett and I celebrated 13 years of crazy together! We went to see Wicked to celebrate. We also took our annual Griffin Family Bear Lake trip. I don't think I will ever get tired of it. Such a fun time for our kids to be together with cousins, aunts and uncles. This year the Elwood's bought a condo there and ALL the big kids got to share one giant room there (which ='s no sleep!). I love listening to all the kids play together and share the fun of being cousins. We also got to head to Florida and have Molly's adoption finalized.
August: We had the opportunity to have Molly sealed to us. In true Labrum fashion, things didn't go as planned. Molly was perfect, the temple was perfect and those are the things I am trying to choose to remember. When someone is 8 months pregnant, you probably push your limits with them.
September: I have shared my story before so I will sum it up with this. Finn William came into our life on September 7th. It was a day of all around miracles. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't look at him and know miracles DO happen! We also some how blessed Molly the day Finn was born! I like to cram as many things as I can into one day! We also celebrated Eli being in our family for 2 years. He is such a sweet little boy. He is the calm to Isaac's crazy. He loves to follow his big brother around and we know without him Molly wouldn't have come into our family.
October: This was the month that having 6 kids really hit us. It was a month of adjusting around here. It really does take a village to raise a family. I feel beyond blessed that so many things have fallen into place and we are able to have the help we need to raise our family. Barrett has been blessed with an amazing job that has really taken off in the last year. It has provided me the opportunity to stay at home with our family. It is the first time in our married life that I haven't had to work in one way or another. It is a blessing. If I was trying to work and take care of this rowdy crew of 6 I don't think it would be pretty.
November: I flew out to see my sister, Nikie for her birthday. I took Mr. Finn on his first plane ride. When I was younger, I hated being the youngest. I never felt like part of my family. As I have gotten older, I think I have an awesome relationship with my siblings. I love spending time with them and feel blessed Nikie shared her birthday with me. We also took MY dream vacation to Disneyland!! Oh, I love being there. We took Barrett's parents and his sister, Nicky with us to help manage our wild bunch. It went perfectly and we couldn't have asked for a better trip. Ok, the airport on the way home was a joke, but come on, with that many people you are BOUND to have a melt down!! We also got to see my cute niece, Chiara go through the temple. It was such a great day. I am thankful she is such a good example to our kids. I am also glad family time comes easily with the Griffin's. It makes special days more special.
December: Well, here I sit the last little bit of December. We are getting ready to celebrate Max turning 9 tomorrow! NINE. He is such a smart little boy. He is going to be a math wiz like his dad. He has pushed just about every parenting limit I have. I have learned a lot from him. We also got to spend an amazing Christmas together as a family of 8. EIGHT. I never thought I would be where I am today. In my wildest dreams I didn't think I would be a mom to 6 beautiful kids. I wouldn't trade that for anything in the world. There are days I seriously consider running away but, well, I don't. It is OUR job to be their parents and no one else can do that for us. We also got to see Chiara and Taylor be married. What a FUN day. I am thankful I got to sit next to the love of my life in the temple. It gave us some time to reflect on our wedding day. It has given us a new perspective on the coming year. we are hoping for some AWESOME new changes to come our way.
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