Beauty (or, thoughts working in a nap room at a daycare)

A dark room. 

Sound machine on. 

Young kids fighting sleep. 

Each personality so different

Each one full of joy. 

Full of dreams

Hopes

And love. 

May we instill in them a desire to keep their dreams and hopes alive. 

To always see the beauty in the world. 

For heartache to not crush them, but build them up. 

For them to realize that what makes them beautiful is their soul. 

Their hearts. 

Their minds. 

The things we cannot touch or see in a photograph. 

May they always know the beauty they bring into the world. 

Into my life. 

Running Update

Long time since I have posted ANYTHING. 

So here is a quick update 

After our first half marathon, we decided to do roughly a run a month for the year 2014. TONS of fun :-)

We started off 2015 by heading back home to Orlando to run in the Walt Disney World runDisney event, which was AMAZING. our goal this year is to run in Disney's coast to coast challenge. 

Other than running, life has been decently depressing. July we tried our first round of IUI. Big failure. But we had figured it wouldn't work the first time. Unfortunately, days after finding out we had to go to sister in laws baby shower. 

We tried again in September. Another failure. We celebrated four years of marriage once again knowing our family was not growing any larger. 

Then the holidays came, and the joy held a bitter sweetness. We celebrate with my husbands family because we live near them, and we are the only ones without a human child (we have fur babies but no one else seems to want to count them). 

So we rang in the new year, and celebrated 4 years of heart wrenching infertility. I guess that's why I haven't written in over a year. There's just been so much heartache for us, and I HATE sharing only bad things. 

So, onto some good things!!

Last March we moved into my in laws basement. Mostly to save money for those expensive fertility treatments, but also so that we could pick up and move when Chris graduated and got a new job. Good news, Chris is about a month and a half away from graduating. We are praying that he will get a new job in this new field within the next two months, and then we can move out of the basement late April, or May. 

Once that happens, we plan on looking into the adoption process. Figuring out what we need to do, where we need to get our finances, etc. Maybe I'll blog more about it all. I'll have to see how I feel this coming year. 

Marathon Completed

First, it's been a while. 

Marathon training can really take a lot out of a girl!!

So for anyone following who isn't Facebook friends with me... We finished our marathon in 6 hours, 19 minutes, and 34 seconds!! Okay. So it's not a super impressive time, but at least we finished! 

A photo of us after we finished the marathon! I was STARVING!! According to my run keeper app, I burned around 2500 calories. I think that's a pretty good reason to be hungry :-) 

Other than a couple issues with pain, we made it through unscathed. Hub's was very emotional as we crossed the finish line. He was so happy and thankful we were done. I was mostly hungry. It never really hit me until after I ate some food that it really happened. That we really finished. That we actually ran 26.2 miles. Yikes!

Now we just have to plan for our 2014 year. Out plan is to run a race every month (nothing longer than a half marathon though). 

Running Partners - Some extra thoughts

I came across this passage today while reading, and seeing as I just posted about how much I love my husband for being my running partner, and how great it is having him there to support me. How great I feel being able to support him...

 Two people are better than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10, NLT

Now this really applies to so many areas of our lives. It's basically why God made Eve. Because together, she and Adam would be better off than if it was just Adam. Together they had more of a reason to work hard and live and basically do anything.

Changes

I’ve been thinking a lot about how much I have changed over the past year and a half.

Some of it small.

Some of it big.

Some of it has been me finding myself.

Some of it has been me finding God.

Running Partners

I have been thinking a lot lately about the changes in my life.
Over the last year or so I have moved across the country, started attending and gotten involved with a new church (very different from what this girl grew up with mind you) and started finding out a whole bunch of stuff involving my health and our journey with all this crazy infertility stress.
Then this year started... My husband got his health straightened out and decided he needed to run a marathon with our church. You can read more about that here. So, we started. And through the soreness, aching muscles and intense pain, we pushed. We kept pushing. Through the sweat, the tears, and the occasional issues with sugar levels and getting dizzy (me not hubs) we persevered.
Then I realized something.
I HATE the feeling of rest days. I get antsy. Anxious. I want to MOVE. I want to RUN.
Seriously. When did this happen? When did I actually start to enjoy running?
I mean, i USED to like running. when I had to run the mile in PE class. Pushing myself to get faster, better times. Pushing myself to beat all the guys. All of a sudden, I’m feeling that same energy again. That same push to keep me going.
I’m also enjoying learning about myself. ABout my body. How far I can push myself. I have learned that while I wanna give up around the halfway point and need encouragement to get going, I’m finding that the last portion of the run gets me wanting to push farther and faster. I want to get back to the car and to my water bottle. Hubs, has a different problem. He enjoys the whole thing. Around the halfway point is where he is still feeling great, and encourages me. But when we hit the last portion - the one where I feel excited and pumped, That’s when he need the encouragement to keep pushing through.
It’s one of the great things about having a running partner. :-) They encourage you and support you when you feel your worst.
I guess this just means that I have one more reason to love my husband for being my running partner. He pushes me to do better and go farther.

What are we Teaching?

I work with kids a lot, and I enjoy every minute of it. I've always loved working with kids. And our journey with infertility doesn't make it any harder. In fact, it makes me love spending time with them even more. Crazy?
Maybe.
Maybe I'm just thankful that God has placed me in a position where I get to spend so much time with these young kids, teach them and most importantly, learn from them.
But then comes the hard part. The constant reminder of "what kind of example am I setting?"