2011: Our Family’s Year in Review

This is the second or third year I’ve done this; and honestly it’s for my own memory’s sake and not for any other reason.  I don’t pretend that it’s interesting!  lol But 2011 was a crazy year for us (hello, new house and adoption process beginning!) so I want to document it here in one post. 

 

{January and February and beginning of March}

Had some crushing losses on houses – a total of 3 in this time that we walked through, fell in love with, signed paperwork for, and then “lost.”  Super discouraging time but kept pressing on and looking at houses!

 

{late March}

Found out we were getting a house!! (Praise God!)  We got the call when we were out at the movie theater seeing The Adjustment Bureau so that movie will always hold an oddly special place in my heart.  Totally started bawling from happiness when we got the call. 

 

{April}

Armed with the knowledge that we were finally getting a house, we went our very first adoption informational meeting, led by Connecticut Child and Family Services.  We heard all about the options open to us and got a good overview of our choices. 

 

{May}

I traveled to Cedarville with my parents to see my sweet sissy-poo graduate from college. 

Closed on our house on Monday, May 16th (9 months and 1 day from when we moved in with my parents…YES I was counting).  Took a week to paint, start a wall demo, and move in; slept in our house the first time the following Sunday night. 

We also had our first house visitors that month!  Josh and Lindsay and Jake (our BFFs) came to visit us over Memorial Day weekend.  Jake finally got to see the beach, which is good because the poor kid had only been saying “beach” since February…lol!

{I love these two sweet boys!}

 

{June and July}

During these months we explored several different avenues for adoption (five in all).  We continually got doors closed.  It was an extremely frustrating time but we continued to keep pursing our options.

I was also asked to the maid of honor in the wedding of one of my oldest and dearest high school friends!  She was in my wedding and I am thrilled to be in hers.  She’s getting married next June.

On July 8th our sweet boy turned TWO!  Since we still felt freshly-moved-in, we decided to have a very simple family dinner with just my parents, my grandparents, my brother and his girlfriend (now fiancé!) and my sister.  Chris’s parents watched Luke eat his cake via Skype.  I cooked an Italian-themed dinner.  It was sweet and simple.

 

{August}

We celebrated our FIVE year wedding anniversary!  We had big plans to go to Boston, but for a variety of reasons, we chose not to go.  It is still on the list for the future!  We went to Cheesecake Factory instead – one of our favorites, plus we ate there on our honeymoon the night before we flew to Mexico, so it always reminds us of that happy time. :)

I also became an independent representative for Wildtree!  I sell 100%natural food products via home parties.  It’s a super fun source of outside income from me…and I get to talk about one of my favorite subjects….healthy eating. ;)

August also ended up being the month that we lost power for five and a half days due to Hurricane Irene…..*shudder*.  I hope we don’t have to go through that again anytime soon!

 

{September}

On the 4th, my sister got married!  I was the maid of honor, Luke was the ring bearer, and Chris and I sang/played at the ceremony.  It was SO much fun – I wish we could do it all again….except not…you know what I mean! 

On the 17th, Chris turned 28 and my brother got engaged to a wonderful girl.  We celebrated with an engagement dinner that night. 

We also made our way to Cedarville for our 5-year reunion, which stretched into the first weekend of….

 

{October}

Being at Cedarville with friends was a BLAST.  It was super hard to be away from Luke that long, but all-in-all, I don’t regret it.  We got to spend a few days with some of our most favorite people on the planet. I’m already looking forward to the 10-year!  :)

Also this month, we had our very first home adoption meeting with our social worker!  I realize that I haven’t actually shared this here yet, but we officially started on the path to foster-adoption through the state of Connecticut!  Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!  We are currently in the thick of the paperwork/parenting classes aspect of adoption, and hope to be “ready” for a child (on paper) by the spring. 

We hosted Chris’s parents for the weekend.  It was fun to show them our house and the area.  Luke absolutely loved having some one-on-one time with his grandparents!

I started teaching piano lessons again.  So thankful for the chance to keep using my music teacher skills and to make some extra money for our family.

 

{November}

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house – first time ever!  We kept it low-key with just my parents, my grandparents, my brother, and Chris and Luke and I.  My sister and her husband weren’t able to make it up from Tennessee. :( 

Besides missing my sister and her husband, it was a blast!  I cooked my very first turkey and nobody keeled over from food poisoning.  I was TIRED at the end of the day, though!

 

{December}

I turned 27 on the 7th.  Chris ended up with my birthday off so that was a wonderful surprise.  And something I will now expect from here on out. haha

This was the very first Christmas (we’ve been married for a total of six Christmases now) that we were able to celebrate on our own.  All the other years we had been staying with my parents over the Christmas holiday, so our Christmas morning had been with them.  It was such a gift to be able to have Christmas, just the three of us.  We got up, took our time, and had a quiet, peaceful morning before heading out to my parents’ house.  I loved every minute of it. :)

{Christmas Eve at my aunt and uncle’s house}

Looking forward to spending New Year’s with some very special friends!

Well, that wraps it up for our family recap!  Thanks so much for following along – see you NEXT YEAR! Ha. Ha. HA. ;)