Married Life :: Day 3,288

3,288 days with my favorite guy. 9 years since we said "I do!"

We have been through a lot in our 9 years together, and I would say that this last year has proven a tough one. With the busyness/chaos of 3 little ones, job changes, the return of health issues, a global pandemic...  life is crazy and busy and full. And navigating marriage in the midst of it all can be a challenge. 

But as tough as this season can feel sometimes, I am reminded of how much I love Mike, and how thankful I am to have him by my side. Life is hard. Marriage is hard. But I'm thankful for both of our commitment to figuring it all out together. It matters that you have someone by your side, willing to endure the hard things, remembering that you're both on the same team. Because then life is beautiful. Marriage is beautiful. And I'm thankful for ours. 

With 3 little ones, it's hard to slip away for any kind of real date nights, and especially now in the middle of a crazy pandemic. So we decided to do the best we could at home, and we ended up having a pretty fun {and different} anniversary date!

Earlier in the day, we sat down with our wedding photo book and showed it to the kids. I enjoyed walking through the memories of that day, and it was so fun to share it with them! It was funny who they recognized, and who they didn't, how excited they got when they saw Mommy and Daddy on the page :)

We ordered take-out dinner and dessert from Cheesecake Factory to enjoy, separate from the kiddos. We put them to bed and enjoyed our delicious dinner in peace and quiet :)

The traditional 9th anniversary gift is pottery, so I thought it would be fun to incorporate that theme! There's a local pottery studio in downtown McKinney that offers in-studio painting. But with COVID-19, they started offering take-home options, which turned out to be perfect for us! I ordered a couple of pottery pieces for us to paint for a fun date night. Our cheesecake was our creativity boost.

We painted a plate, that will now be dubbed our official "cookie plate," since we tend to eat a lot of cookies together. We also painted a little cement planter, reminiscent of our flower-picking children :)

We will drop the pieces off again to have them fired, and then we'll have a fun memory from our 9th anniversary. Something different and fun!

I'm so thankful for our fun at-home anniversary date. There's no one else with whom I'd rather quarantine, Babe! Here's to 49 more years! :)

Operation Turtle Rescue

Mike found a turtle in our backyard a few days ago, and he has been kicking himself that he didn't catch it for the kids to see. Well, this morning, our little turtle friend showed up again, so Mike scooped him up and saved him in a box so we could show them! He waited outside in a box, and we could hear him flop about while we waited to feed the kids breakfast.

We told the kids that Daddy found something fun, and that we would take him back to a safe place. They were so excited to meet their new turtle friend! They even named him Teo {Maddie's suggestion}. We walked him down to the pond at the end of our street to place him back in the water with the other turtles we have seen. But not before we got to look really close at him :)

Turns out, Teo the Turtle had zero interest in returning to the water. He sat there for about 20 seconds, then marched right out of the water and back up the hill toward the houses. The kids thought that was SO fun, as they got to follow it around for a bit. Eli and Maddie wanted to get as close as possible to the turtle, and we had to remind them not to scare it. Aiden was definitely excited and interested, but when the turtle got too close, Aiden would back up. It seemed to be safer from a distance haha.

It was a fun morning adventure to "rescue" our little turtle friend, even if it seemed like he wasn't wanting to be rescued. Again, we're so thankful for the little things, the fun things that bring such a simple joy to our kids. Who says you can't have a wildlife adventure in the suburbs? :)

Social Distancing :: Day 121

Rinse and repeat. Deja vu. Same old, same old. Groundhog Day.

Take your pick. Because we feel like we are running the same day over and over again haha. 

But we're thankful. The Lord has taken care of all that we need, and we have the ability to stay home, spend time with each other. It can be hard, the days are long, and we miss other people and the ability to just go and do something. But we are thankful for social distancing, modern technology, and our health.

We're thankful for the ordinary and the every day. For the little things. Little ones are good at helping you stop and notice the little things. They find such joy in simple things, and I am thankful for that perspective in this time. 

We're thankful for fun surprises like a hot air balloon flying over our house, right as we headed out for a morning walk. We're thankful for morning walks with Daddy.

We're thankful for dandelions. ALL the dandelions haha. We're thankful for sweet boys who say "here Mommy, I found you some dandelions!"

We're thankful for Daddy's ability to work from home. That it has allowed us to have lunches and coffee breaks with him.We're thankful for extra snuggles.

Thank you, Jesus, for all you have provided.

Crohn's Chronicles :: Labs + Humira + Prednisone

After I had my colonoscopy, my doctor knew that my Crohn's was active again. He could see it, and so could I, on the images he gave me {isn't that a fun keepsake? take-home photos of your colonoscopy haha}. But they still do biopsies and send off samples for lab confirmation.

Labs came back, and they confirmed active Crohn's inflammation. Again, something I already knew, but having the labs to back it up makes it feel more real, for some reason. Since I monitor my diet and lifestyle, we know that the return of my symptoms is because Humira has stopped working for me.

So I took my last dose of Humira on July 8th. It's not doing anything, but I didn't get the confirmation to stop taking it until the day after I took my last dose. So I have officially ended my journey with Humira. In a strange, medically-twisted way, it's bittersweet. I am definitely glad to say goodbye to every-other-week injections. I took 196 total shots over 7.5 years. I cursed every time for 6.5 of those years {until I finally got some relief in the past year with the citrate-free version!} I had 2 pen misfires in the whole 7.5 years, which is not too shabby.

But I am so thankful for how it helped me achieve and stay in remission for so long. I never loved being on a synthetic, biologic drug, but the reality is that it helped me stay healthy. It worked for me, the first time. And that's a big deal in Crohn's treatment.

So long, Humira!

So what's next?

I have a follow-up with my GI next week. I start my new medication the week after that {more on that later, as I'm still learning and figuring it out!} And I will continue taking the prednisone to get the inflammation under control. I have 2.5 more weeks left for that and would appreciate prayers in that process. The side effects have been rough. I feel pretty yucky these days, but I have to keep reminding myself that I am not in any pain. That's a big deal! But it's still something I have to remind myself of over and over, because I am not loving how my body is currently feeling. Aside from the gross {and weird} side effects, I'm back to feeling completely depleted by the end of the day. I do ok until about 2pm, where I seem to just hit a wall and feel my body starting to crash. It's a struggle to make it to the end of the day, and I'm crawling into bed pretty soon after the kids are in bed.

I have been thinking a lot about the timing of my symptoms returning. On one hand, it feels like just another blow from 2020 in the midst of crazy life circumstances and this crazy pandemic. But then I remember the Spirit's prompting to do all of our embryo transfers quickly. Part of the reason we had Aiden so close to the twins was because we knew my health was not guaranteed, and I wouldn't have been able to do a transfer if my disease was active. Being pregnant actually helps keep Crohn's in check, so it's possible I could have flared sooner, right about the time I would have normally planned to space out my kids. And that would have been really hard, knowing that we had to stop doing transfers, knowing that we had frozen embryos still waiting for us...

So I see the Lord's provision in allowing us to be done having our babies before my symptoms came back. What a precious gift. And a gracious reminder on the hard days, when I wonder why on earth I ever willingly subjected myself to 3 babies under 2 :)

Happy 4th!

Today we have had a fun family day, not doing anything out of our {new} ordinary, but still enjoying the time together. We took a morning walk to visit the big splashes {fountains by city hall} and pick the dandelions. We pointed out all of the flags that were displayed in our neighborhood. And we did it all while looking pretty cute and patriotic in matching 4th of July outfits. Because I ordered them back in March, when I thought, "surely all this COVID-19 mess will be gone by Independence Day..." Ha! 

Might as well not waste the cuteness! :)

It seems like there are so many things to be frustrated about right now, in this particular time of COVID and specifically in our country. But we are so thankful for the freedoms that we do experience in this country. We are thankful for the brave men and women who have served to protect and maintain our freedoms. We are thankful for the ability to worship openly and freely.

We love our country, but we know that "our citizenship is in heaven" {Philippians 3:20}. And so when we don't understand the direction that our culture might be taking, or we don't feel confident in varied leadership decisions, or we feel like our beloved freedoms could be slowly slipping away, we can remind ourselves that our hope is not in this great nation, and never should have been. Our hope should rest in Christ alone, as He is our Rock and our Redeemer. True freedom comes through Him alone.

Happy Birthday, America!