2016 was the year for which we had waited and prayed for so long. After several difficult years, we were finally able to grow our family, and we are just in awe of God's grace.
Past Reviews: 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 {It's crazy to look back over the past 8 years! Praise God from whom all blessings flow}.
In January, I celebrated 3 years of remission from Crohn's, which was such a blessing! We started the Save the Date Challenge with our church, which started a year of fun dates with my love. We also finalized the contracts for 4 additional embryos, and they actually ended up shipping in January as well! We got to meet our sweet niece Henley Caroline, and baby sit PK while she was being born :)
As we looked ahead to our third embryo transfer in February, I was diagnosed as pre-diabetic and started taking Metformin in preparation. Our community group started walking through the Re|Engage study, which was a great opportunity to focus on our marriage, as well as grow closer to our group. Mike had a work event that took us to College Station, where we also got to see sweet friends. And of course, we transferred 2 precious embryos, which meant starting PIO injections. We planned a weekend getaway to Stone Canyon Ranch, which was a great way to relax and spend time together as we waited for our pregnancy results. The month was also filled with fun birthday celebrations.
In March, we found out we were pregnant! We were cautious, but the Lord was gracious to provide SUPER high beta numbers that continued to rise. The high beta numbers made us wonder if both embryos implanted, and we soon found out that we were in fact expecting TWINS! Best. News. Ever. I celebrated my 10 year blog anniversary, and I also started attending the Shiloh infertility Bible study. It felt strange to start the study right after receiving our good news, but it ended up being so helpful and healing.
We got to hear the sweet sound of our babies' heartbeats in April! We had a little scare with the pregnancy that resulted in an ER visit. Thankfully, everything turned out to be ok, but I was placed on restrictions to help heal the diagnosed subchorionic hemorrhage. I also took my last PIO shot, which was a happy, happy day. I was also busy preparing for my friend Amy's wedding, and Mike's office moved to McKinney.
In May, we had our first Level II ultrasound where we found out that we were having a boy AND a girl! We could not have been more excited! We went out that same day and bought our cribs to celebrate. We made it past the first trimester and were finally able to make our public announcement. That was a very fun and special day, as we were able to share our embryo adoption story more publicly. Since our family was growing so quickly, we also purchased a new family vehicle: a new-to-us Honda Pilot that we dubbed the Babymobile :)
We headed to Chicago in June, where Mike was able to officiate Morgan and Alec's wedding. We were able to spend a fun day exploring downtown, as well as get sweet time with the Judge family. I worked a week in the office while Cindy was on vacation, and it was fun to be back in the office for a bit. We had our anatomy scan, where we were able to see the sweet profiles of our babies. I helped set up and coordinate Amy and Chad's wedding reception, and Mike preached both at his parents' church and at Mercy Church.
In July, we started our baby registry and celebrated PK's birthday with some gymnastics. We celebrated our 5th anniversary {5 years!}. Because we headed to San Diego for a week, we made that our big celebration. It was so nice to be away and on the beach for an entire week! Our air conditioning went out at the end of July, and because I was pregnant and super uncomfortable, we decided to make the best of it by renting a hotel room and heading to dinner and ice cream.
August was full and busy. I worked in the office again while Kirston was on vacation. We headed to San Antonio for our first baby shower, which was a sweet time of celebrating with a lot of people who have prayed so much for our little ones. I made a day trip to Magnolia Market with Lindsay and Susan. We revealed the names we had chosen for our babies: Eli and Maddie, and I passed my glucose test {yay!}. We also had our Dallas baby shower, started back meeting with our community group after a summer break, and we took our maternity photos {which I shared here on the blog in September}.
We had our third and final baby shower in September, which was given by sweet co-workers. While we were excitedly anticipating our little ones, we were still saddened by reaching the 1 year anniversary of our miscarriage. It was a mix of emotions as we remembered the little ones we lost and continued to prepare for the little ones to come. We were in the midst of finishing up our baby to do list, and taking a prepared childbirth class when an irregular heartbeat was found in Maddie. We were sent to Labor and Delivery for further testing, where we found out that I was also in preterm labor. Thankfully, they were able to stop labor, and I was put on bed rest until I made it full term. Mike got his own guy's diaper shower, we finished up {and revealed} the nursery, and I was able to get our freezer meals ready.
In October, we were anxiously waiting for {and counting down to!} babies. It felt a little strange to be celebrating the arrival of Eli and Maddie while also still mourning and remembering the loss of our other babies last year. We were thankful for the Lord's grace in all of our babies' lives. The days in October ticked by slowly, as I tried to make the best of bed rest. Thankfully, my restrictions were lifted at the end of the month, but no matter what we did, babies waited until November after all. I blogged about how my dad had been diagnosed with cancer, which was really difficult. But we were trusting the Lord to take care of him as we waited for his surgery.
November was officially baby month! On November 2nd, we welcomed Elijah Winn and Madeline Grace, and we were instantly in love. The month was pretty much a blur, but we tried to take as many photos and document as much as we could so we don't forget those precious early days. On more than one occasion, we turned to each other in awe... "we have 2 babies!" :)
December was filled with all things baby, as we continued to figure out life with twins. There wasn't much time to blog, so there were only a few updates and a boat load of baby photos. Eli and Maddie turned 1 month old {!}, and we got to celebrate our first Christmas as a family of four!
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We started 2016 full of hope for our little family, and it became the year that the Lord answered our prayers. There were certainly challenges, but after so many tough years, we were able to rejoice over all that the Lord provided for us. Praise God from whom ALL blessings flow!
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