...Because I Love to Share.

I’m coming up on ten years of owning this domain. It started as a photography blog/business, and I used to blog almost every day. Some days it was interesting, and sometimes I was so bored that I wrote a poem about my pumpkin scone. But I have kept this little space here on the inter-webs to come back to every now and again because I will forever have this dream of one day blogging more about my life. I don’t find myself particularly interesting. I’m not famous, and I may never go on to do anything noteworthy to be added to the history books, but I love my family, I love being a mom & I love sharing.

“Are people even reading blogs anymore? Is this still a thing? :Check: :Check: “Is this thing on?”

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The question always comes up “Why do you post so much online?” And my answer is this. “Because I love to share.” I do. I always have. I love connecting with people and making people feel less alone, especially if it’s by sharing something funny, sad or embarrassing that I’m going through.

I tell myself every couple months “Well once my kids get a little older… once life settles down… once I get the house in order… once I get a better handle on creating content… etc” The truth is, I always have an excuse to not show up here in this space because I think I’m not put together enough for people to find me interesting or actually care. And, well, that may be true. Maybe no one reads this and maybe I spent 20-30 min downloading my thoughts and feelings just to send it out into the void for no one to care, but I’m realizing that I’m okay with that. I want to be able to look back on this time and have a record of how life unfolded.

Life is messy. Life isn’t perfect, and not every photo is going to be perfectly curated, and I’m okay with that. I just want to be able to show up. Put together or not. So, here you go, here are some photos of our life lately… Happy Tuesday!

Verona Marie: A Birth Story

I have sat down to write this blog post so many times over the past 3 months, and I just knew that I needed a video to help better express our excitement and joy for this new addition. She was the promise that God told me about late at night, as tears soaked my pillow. She is worth every second of those 20 months of waiting, every second of heart ache and pain. She is a sign of redemption. She is my rainbow after the flood. “Rona” means “my joy” in Hebrew and “covenant or oath” in Gaelic. And that is exactly what she is to us. Our sweet rainbow baby.

If you want to hear the most laid-back, stress-free birth story, well I have one for you! Friday, June 30th, I went in for a prenatal massage, told the masseuse to do her worst and send me into labor. Contractions started as soon as I left the room. I began timing them, and for the next 5 hours, I had 30 second contractions every 2 minutes. It was bizarre, but consistent. After a quick call to the on-call doctor, they had me come in to be monitored. We walked around the maternity floor for about an hour, with just a little progress in dilation, they decided to admit me. 

I had a decent night sleep, with the contractions slowly intensifying. But when they checked me at 10:30am, I was still only around 3.5 cm. The doctor called an audible and without a minute to think about it, she broke my water and BOOM. We were moving. My contractions stayed at about 2 minutes apart, but quickly became extremely intense. I labored for almost 2 hours, and then received my epidural. 

After the epidural, I expected my labor to slow down, like it did when I had Jonathan. I washed my face, brushed my teeth and then took a nap. Thirty minutes later, I woke up with the urge to push. The nurse checked my progress and with wide eyes told me, “don’t push, your baby’s head is right there.” At that point my mom and sister in law arrived. I asked if I could quickly put some makeup on because I wasn’t prepared to do this just yet. I got my foundation on, the doctor walked in at 1pm, the lights came on and with 3 contractions, 7 minutes and a few pushes, Verona Marie was here. 

“Wait, did that really just happen?! That was so easy” i couldn’t believe she was here! So fast! So easily! It all felt like a dream. There was this moment that I will never forget though, as she was crowning and the doctor said “oh she’s going to be blonde.” I felt this instant flood of emotion, and couldn’t contain my joy, my excitement, the culmination of all my prayers & dreams, she was going to be blonde, just like God told me she would be. This was HIS story of Rescue and Redemption. His plans for our family, He knew them all along, He just needed me to surrender and allow Him to work. And man did He deliver. She is more perfect than anything I could have imagined for us. She truly is our joy. 

She feels like the piece that was missing, and Ryan, Jonathan and I couldn’t be happier. Welcome Verona Marie, we are so glad to have you here! 

All photos taken by Alyssa Fallon of Grace & Goodness Photo