Disappointment . . . and the Blog Posts that Never Were

*Disclaimer*  This post is depressing.  Do not continue if you don’t want to be bummed out.

Do you ever find yourself anticipating some event or experience, and as part of that anticipation, picture yourself sitting down to your computer to post about it on your blog?  You know, thinking about what you might write, imagining the photos you might get to choose from?  

Well, for about a year now, I have been anticipating one certain event that I was going to be so excited to post about . . . I was going to participate in my first ever triathlon.  Last May, my mom and younger sister participated in the Woman of Steel Tri in American Fork, Utah, and when they were done, they invited me and all my sisters/sisters in law to join them for the race this year.  I got excited.  I started to train.  I learned how to swim.  I did my best to be ready. . . 

. . . and then, something else came up.  Many of you know that we have been hoping for years to adopt another baby, and, though we have had several opportunities pop up, they have all fallen through.  Well, in about February, our profile was selected by a young couple expecting a baby girl.  They were considering adoption as a possibility.  We met with them, and felt really positive about the whole thing.  Hooray, another exciting event to anticipate posting about.  The only drawback was her due date . . . the same week as the triathlon.

Of course, having a new child in our family is more important than running a triathlon, but we prayed that the timing would work out that we could experience both . . . it didn’t.

We found out that the mother was going to be induced the very day I was scheduled to fly to Utah for the race, so I cancelled my flight.  The baby was born that day (Thursday) and then we had two excruciating days of waiting to find out if she was going to go through with her plan to place her for adoption. . . she didn’t.

Right as I was going to pick up the phone to call my mom and ask how the race went, we got the call that we hoped would inform us to get in the car and drive to the hospital. Instead, our social worker informed us that the mother had decided to take the baby home with her, and we were left with nothing.  No race . . . no baby . . . just a heap of disappointment, and a lot of tears.  We will get through, like we always do, but it sure sucks in the meantime.

What I've been doing in my spare time . . .

. . . and of course, by 'spare time' I mean the time I have spent neglecting my wifely and motherly duties ;).

So, about 10 years ago, Tim acquired this lovely old rocking chair with the intention of fixing it up.  He did make a new seat for it, but then ten years and two moves later, it still looked like this . . . 

. . . then, when I realized that I was spending quite a bit of time moving the chair around the house so that no one would sit in it and possibly have it fall apart on them, I decided that I needed to either get rid of it, or spend a little time and elbow grease fixing it up.  The easier choice would have been to just get rid of it, but I like a good challenge.  So, this is what happened next . . . 

. . . then, finally after about four weeks, today I finally finished replacing the seat, and this is the finished product . . . 

I love my 'new' rocking chair . . . why don't you come and sit in it sometime?

Spring has (finally) Sprung . . .

. . . and it is a lovely thing, indeed.

I was out in our backyard the other afternoon when I encountered this charming little woodland fairy napping on our 'porch swing' . . .

. . . isn't she sweet?

We took advantage of the warm, sunny days to move our garden to a sunnier location . . . it was a lot of hard work, but we are looking forward to harvesting many delicious vegetables in the months to come.