Twice Loved

I just found this post through our agency's posting on Facebook and wanted to share it.  This is exactly how I feel about Gracie's birth mom.  I actually just shared it with her, as well.  It is a beautiful song that is such a tribute to the entire adoption triad.  Leann Hart also has a beautiful voice, which makes it that much more emotional.  Tears were streaming down my face.  I thank the Lord every day for Gracie and her wonderful birth mom.


Post by LeAnn Hart.

Thankful to Be a Mom

I am incredibly thankful to be a Mom.  Ever since my nephew, Noah, was born, I couldn't wait to become a Mom myself and to have a child to love forever.  Little did I know at the time that it would be such a challenge with years of procedures, paperwork, blood, sweat, tears, and adding a whole new wonderful family to get where I am today.  God knew back then what I needed to go through to fully appreciate every moment of motherhood.  And I mean every moment. Even those trying times when I just want to rip my hair out in frustration.  Even then, I still am thankful because I know "this too shall pass" and in the blink of an eye, my girls will be all grown up. *tears*

 I am grateful for the process it took for me to become a Mom to both of my beautiful girls.  Though I endured several losses,  I feel blessed that I was able to experience a healthy pregnancy in its entirety.  I feel blessed that I was able to give birth, albeit it was via C-section after 22 hours without A/C in July, I still feel blessed that I experienced it.  I feel blessed that I was able to try to nurse Gabby during those first few weeks.  Although I was not producing enough milk for my baby to thrive, I still feel blessed that I was able to try and to experience it.

I feel blessed that we got to experience the incredible adoption process.  Even though we had tons of paperwork and hundreds of hoops to jump through, I feel blessed that we went through it.  I feel blessed that Gracie's birthmom and birth grandmom love her so much that they were willing to sacrifice and go through such heartache to be assured that Gracie would be raised by a loving family.  I feel so blessed that they entrusted her life to us forever.  I also feel so blessed that we gained having them as family as well.  That they want to be in contact because they love Gracie and want her to know it.

I am thankful that God had me encounter all of the challenges in becoming a Mom because if he hadn't, I wouldn't have experienced both pregnancy and adoption, and I wouldn't have my beautiful little girls.  Isn't God awesome?!!

Mother's Day is always bitter-sweet for me.  It's bitter because I know what it's like to struggle for something you want so badly. My heart aches for those wonderful women out there who are struggling to become a Mom, through pregnancy and through adoption, and my heart aches for those who have lost their own Moms.

Mother's Day is sweet to me because I've cleared the hurdles and won my beautiful prizes at the end.  Also because I have the best Mom in the world.  I hope that I can be half the Mom to my girls that she is to me.

My beautiful Mom and my beautiful girls on Mother's Day

Easter preciousness

Contribute to a Charity...for FREE!

Have you heard of Amazon Smile?  It's basically a charity that you can contribute to through Amazon.  You make your normal Amazon purchases, but instead of just typing in www.amazon.com, you can type in http://smile.amazon.com, select the charity you would like to contribute to, and without paying any extra yourself, Amazon will donate 0.5% of your purchased amount to your charity!  See more info here: http://smile.amazon.com/about.
I have set up our Amazon account to contribute to Adoptions from the Heart. The thing is, you have to remember to keep typing in "smile" before amazon because if you don't, the 0.5% won't automatically go to your charity.  If you can't decide which charity to send the charitable donation, through Amazon, I highly recommend AFTH.  Even though it's "only" 0.5%, that's more than the charity had originally without the donation and more they could use to do something good.  Please consider it.

Time to Resurrect the Blog

It has been way too long since I last posted.  Life has gotten in the way.  It's not a bad thing, it's a great thing.  It's just the way I pictured when I started this journey.  Two full-of-life, stop-for-nothing girls who just want to have fun.  It makes the days long, yet fulfilling and extremely rewarding.

I created a Wordle word cloud of words I've used in the blog (seen in the picture below).  I guess I just wanted to see the words I was using a lot.  I'm glad blessing was a big one because that certainly is true  This road has been nothing but a blessing straight from God.  Thank is also a big word and another big truth.  I am so thankful for my family.  Though my life is far from f (whose life is?), it's as close as it can get and I am extremely thankful that the Lord has blessed our family so richly with each other.

If you follow this blog or read it from time to time, thank you.  I know I haven't posted often, but I am in high hopes that that will change....because I have much more to share about adoption, family, and loving life right where it's at.