it's about love

Last September, after having a couple of miscarriages, we decided to pursue the adoption route to bring children into our family. Soon after starting the process we discovered we were pregnant so we stopped and concentrated on me being pregnant. Fast forward 5 1/2 months to the birth of our little William, who survived almost 2 months but passed away on March 28 due to being extremely premature and very sick. While we were in Utah for the viewing and burial I asked my mother, who had a similar experience, how long after their baby died did they start the process of adopting my brother. She told me they couldn't stand to wait very long and my brother became apart of our family less than a year later. I was quite shocked they could move on so quickly and told her I didn't think we'd be ready for at least a year to even begin thinking about adoption.

I was wrong. About two days afters we got home I started feeling like we needed to start the adoption process. I pushed the thought away and kept telling myself that we were still mourning our son and we weren't ready. The thought persisted so I mentioned it to Anthony a day later. He also felt that we should start working on it all. It's a pretty involved process. We started it in April and have just been approved as of July 13! We've been told the waiting time could be anywhere from 6 months to a year, or more. We are choosing to be optimistic and plan on getting a call any day now.

We are so excited about adoption! At some time in the future we'll try again on me carrying a baby but for now we'll go this route. We want children so badly but the thought of putting my body through all that again is a bit daunting. Not to mention the possibility of losing another child. So adoption is such a wonderful blessing!! We are grateful for the love, support and advice we've received throughout these past months! We've felt the Lord's guidance through this process and know He's very aware of our lives. We still miss Will every day but know he'd want siblings and we can't wait share his story with the rest of our children.

Please spread the word and send anyone thinking about adoption to our profile. The link is on the top right corner of our blog. We'll keep you posted on the progress!

Merry Month of (mostly) June

This past month has flown by for various reasons. Here's a post of what has been keeping us busy.

-Anth ran in a relay race - Beach2Bay, 6 on a team, each member running a little over 4 miles. I'm pretty sure they came in first place :) I want to run it next year.

(He's in the white, long sleeve shirt, crazy- yes!)

-I flew up to New Jersey to watch Steve and Michelle's kids for a week while they went to Utah. It was a much needed break/get away/be with family time. I had so much fun! Their kids are hilarious and so well behaved! Plus the weather was beautiful, most days in the high 60's-low 70's, and cooler nights, not the 115 degree-with-heat-index-hotness of south Texas. We Ty-Dyed shirts, made cookies, painted and made a bus out of a huge box, went on bike rides and played in the back yard. Thanks Bruderer's!







-I finished 3 quilts but can only post pictures of 2 because I haven't given my newest niece Addi hers yet. Which means I have 2 new nephews and 1 new niece. Cutest babies ever!! (The first one was for Beck but I never took a picture of it when the last border was put on or after it was bound, so it's not so cute, but in real life it was. Think light blue border. The second one was for Calvin. I decided to machine quilt it myself, without a real quilting machine so it took forever but I love how it turned out.)



-Anth's first Father's Day! He got a grill so we did kabobs. We made Fazookies but I don't have a picture, delish! I also gave him a tie tac with Will's picture on it but the jeweler isn't finished with it yet. I think he had a pretty fun day.



-And for those that know I love a good battle wound or just any bruise here's a picture of Anth's sprained ankle.



-I have something else I want to post about but will wait for another week. Stay tuned :)

Houston

Anth and co-workers had a training up in Houston last week so the wives decided to tag along. While they had a week full of long meetings we got to explore Houston.

Everyday: This was a typical sight throughout our stay. Even though it's in Houston, it usually takes 1-2 hours to get there. Not my favorite thing. It actually made me appreciate Corpus, crazy I know.

Day 1: Houston Zoo - Loved how shady it was, b/c it was hot! One of the wives that came brought her 2 kids which always makes for a good time. You can't go to the zoo w/o getting a drink from the Lion, scary!


Day 2: Houston Space Center - Pretty cool place. I have a season pass b/c it was only $3 bucks more than an all-day pass. The space ships are so huge! I highly recommend the tram tour, you get to see the control center and all the different space ships :)



Day 3: Lunch and the park. The plant where the men were meeting had a fabulous park. I didn't get any pictures but they had all the old, super fun and probably dangerous-by-today-standards toys. A merry-go-round, teeter-toter, medal slides, and bouncy chickens and horses. I'm pretty sure us wives had just as much fun on these toys as the kids.

Night of Day 3: Kemah Boardwalk. It was so movie-ish. Rides, games and shops right on the water. Anth had a pretty fun time.




Day 4: One of the moms had to head home (the one with the kids) so the other mom and I went to the Temple. It is such a beautiful temple!!! We also stopped by IKEA, I bought a peeler :)


I had a fabulous week. It was nice not to have to be alone and I got to experience one of the biggest cities in the USA.

Ooohhh Mandy!

Hopefully you know I'm referring to the song by Barry Manilow.

One of my great-est friends came to visit us in last week. Anth had recruiting up in Utah so it was a perfect time. She flew into San Antonio b/c it's so much cheaper. Her plane was supposed to arrive at 3pm but it was delayed and she didn't get here until 10pm. San Antonio is 2.5 hours away and by the time I received word that she was going to be late I was almost there so there was no-way I was going to turn around and come back later. So I went to the temple distribution center (I would have gone to the temple but I wasn't wearing a dress), Costco, and then read at Barns and Noble for about 3 hours (they have very comfy chairs).

Her trip here was filled with swimming/body surfing in the gulf, a 16 mile bike ride (where we almost died), eating yummy mint brownies and mexican food, bonfires on the beach, ferry rides, and late night talks. It was so much fun having her here, thanks for coming Mandy!!

BIG 27

Anthony turned 27 last Sunday! It was a great day! I'm pretty sure one of his best birthdays ever :)
It's hard having a birthday on a sunday and with all the crazy-ness of the past couple weeks it really might not have been the best one ever. But we got to go to church and the Young Men's Pres told everyone it was his birthday. We got invited over for some really yummy dutch oven and then pretty much invited the ward over for banana cream pie, his favorite. Thanks to the Warner's for great food and letting us invite everyone over and to everyone who helped make it a great day for Anth!



Anth and Melissa using the leftover easter candy as make-up (blue lips)




Anth and his banana cream pie!

A Beautiful Day

William's viewing and grave-side service were beautiful. It was a perfect day. The purpose of the viewing was for our family and friends to meet our little boy. There was such an amazing feeling of love and support all day long. We can't thank everyone enough for everything. Thank you to everyone who came or wanted to come to the viewing and to everyone who drove up to Laketown. We miss Will so much but know we'll see him again and that he really is in a better place.

Viewing & Graveside Service

We have finalized our plans for Friday. This is the tentative plan for now and any changes will be sent out:

Viewing:
Russon Brothers Mortuary (Bountiful, UT)
Friday 10 am

Graveside Service:
Laketown, UT (near Bear Lake)
Friday 1:30

There will also be a small luncheon afterward at a local church in Laketown.

For those of you who would like to come, please do but do not feel obligated to come. We love you all and again thank you for your continued support.

Anthony & Lynette