December already?!?!

Oh my goodness this Fall season always seems to get away from me. Between volleyball and back to school and general life craziness, my commitment to blogging always goes away. But I do miss the posting and the chance to write out my thoughts so here’s the usual re-up in December of pictures and random musings by yours truly.

Thanksgiving was a great weekend where I got to see all of my brothers and spend a little down time watching football and eating lots of good food. I am beyond grateful for this crew in their flexibility this year…..they all dropped much of their schedule to help us with WonderGIRL’s spinal fusion surgery down at Children’s Hospital in Seattle and when that got delayed, we flipped the plans up to Ferndale without a hitch.

Now onto December and the holidays!!! In all honesty, I started decorating two weeks ago in anticipation of the surgery delaying things and I’m so glad I did. The cozy factor is in full effect in our house and I (and the cats) love it!

The cutest tree corner I ever did see.
WB found our tree this year!
Kitties approve.

We are still anxiously awaiting a phone call from Children’s to reschedule WG’s big surgery…..please send along prayers and good thoughts as she battles the constant anxiety and dread of when it will happen. It’s been a long time coming so the wait for the date (ha! new tagline) is a wee bit painful. Thank you to all of you who have reached out to check on her…..stay tuned for more details soon!

On moving….

The stars and powers above that be have teamed up to align and we are moving!!! Although we’re pretty content in our current home, we would love to add some more room (separate rooms to be exact) for the kiddos and for potentially more children in our home. We thought our “starter home” was dang big when we moved in….add two energetic school-age children to the mix and voila! We’re constantly on top of each other!!!When looking for our forever home to team up with our new forever family (still gives me all the feels to say that), we had a few key things we were looking for. Extra rooms for more foster/adopted children. A separate living space, especially for entertaining our friends and family and their lovely kiddos! A mother-in-law suite or independent living space for WonderGIRL  to grow into and practice independent living before heading out into the real world (insert extreme Mama anxiety here). The house we found has all of these specifications and we are so lucky we found it when we did! It even has a special nook (see picture above) that the Wonders have deemed our “cool-down” spot to escape to when feelings are strong and tempers are hot.Oh ya and the master bathroom after their recent renovation on the house is !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 
It’s been fun to share the planning and decorating ideas with the kiddos. I can’t wait to be intentional with our spaces and create some calm, happy places for each member of our family (and future family members too!).The “mess” of moving has been interesting to process with WonderGIRL and WonderBOY. Moves before for them have been forced on them and the result of usually negative experiences (a relationship change, being kicked out, foster care, etc.). They also haven’t traveled with all of their belongings before. Sometimes they wander around our current house and point at objects, asking, “Do we get to bring this?” And we respond with “Yes. All of it. We are literally CARRYING all of this into our new house piece by piece, box by box.” Their eyes and smiles get big after this response.

We have also used this experience to teach them about the value of money. That moving into a nice house is a result of smart management of our money. We are careful to tell WG and WB that “we aren’t CHOOSING to spend our money on that” instead of “We don’t have money for that.” They both know we have money (and most likely, much more money in our family than what they are used to) and we don’t want to lie to them with dismissive statements like that. We reinforce these concepts each time we go shopping, create wish lists for birthdays and Christmas, and head out to meals together as a family.

I’m sure there will be more stories to share as this adventure unfolds but thank you for all of your kind support and some of your physical support too (you know who you are crazy friends that actually ENJOY the moving process and have helped us so far). Cheers to new adventures!