2011 Recap

I find it fun to reflect on the years past.  It's nice to see how things changed.  This year, it's pretty clear what the highlight was...

But for memories sake, here's a month by month recap:

January was filled with the waiting game as we waited for baby boy to be born after his due date being moved back six weeks.  We were excited, scared, nervous, and overwhelmed.

On February 7, Baby S was born.  He was perfect, and we were thrilled.  After a challenging time at  the hospital that day, we went home feeling uncomfortable about the situation.  The next day S decided to parent and we went home empty handed.  The rest of the month was spent grieving over our loss and trying to move on.  My most vivid memory of this time was when we came home on the 8th, Jeremy went outside to get the carseat and I could hear him crying from inside.  He couldn't do it, he just kept saying that there should have been a baby in there.  It was heartbreaking and we both realized just how much we wanted to be parents.

Little did we know that on the last day of that heart-heavy month of February, that our daughter had been born.  March 10 brought complete joy as we received a phone call about Anna and picked her up four hours later.  It was a whirlwind but I remember it like it was yesterday.  Our lives changed forever this month!

April brough adjustments as we learned to be new parents.  Anna got to meet our bishop for the first time at the Easter Vigil Mass and we had him give her a special blessing.  We also met Sister Ana Pia for the first time (she was the head of Catholic Charities) and it began a special friendship.  She just loves our Anna (or Annita, little Anna, as she calls her).

Anna was welcomed into the Church on May 8, Mother's Day.  It was so special to share that day with my daughter.  It's the first Mother's Day in 3 years that I cried all through Mass out of tears of joy instead of heartache.  It was beautiful!

June was filled with lots of trips to the pool and may fun outside activities as a family.  We also celebrated my grandparent's 59th wedding anniversary!  We have such wonderful examples of marriage in our families!

In July Jeremy and I celebrated three years of marriage.  I am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband!  I look forward to many, many more!

We took our first vacation as a family of three in August.  Jeremy's family took us to the Ozarks and we had a blast!

September was a very busy month.  Anna started crawling at the beginning of the month (six months old), and we quickly realized she was going to be a very fun handful :-).  We celebrated Anna's Adoption Day on September 19.  What a wonderful day!  The next day was my 26th birthday, and it was the best birthday gift ever.  Also on my birthday, our dear friends had their son Matthias.  A week later, our other dear friends had their son Theodore.  What a wonderful blessing the month of September was!

In the month of October we got to do all things fall.  We took Anna to the pumpkin patch, dressed her up for Halloween, played in the leaves, etc...  We also attended Theodore's Baptism as his Godparents and enjoyed our trip up north to see them!

Nothing too eventful hit us in November, but we thoroughly enjoyed being thankful for Anna on her first Thanksgiving.  She also started walking at the very end of the month, at 9 months old.  Everyone kept telling me how busy things got when they started walking, but I've really enjoyed having a walker.  She follows me around a lot and it's fun to watch her explore at a whole new level!  She now enjoys places like the Children's Discovery Museum because she can intereact. 

Finally, December.  Anna filled our Advent season and Christmastime with complete joy.  We are so blessed to have her in our lives and we thank God for her each and every day.  This month we had our dear friends come visit and seeing Anna, Matthias, and Theodore together was absolutely beautiful.  We had many different Christmas celebrations, enjoying our time with family.  Unfortunately 2011 went out with the stomach flu for all of us.  First Anna, then the next day, Jeremy and finally myself today.  So despite our not so fun New Year's this year, we know how much we have to be thankful for and we look forward to seeing what 2012 has in store for us.  Hopefully another adoption :-)!!!

This is how Anna plays peek-a-boo.  She covers her ears instead of her eyes.  We're not sure why, but boy is it cute!

Anna and daddy enjoying Anna's "laptop" that she got for Christmas.

Anna and daddy enjoying the ISU game we went to yesterday!  Anna even got one of the balls they threw out and she enjoyed playing with it the whole game!