Birthday Party Traditions

Blue Rock just turned 3!  These past three years have been truly life-changing and amazing.  I love being a mom and I love my son!  Now that we're back in the States and he's getting a little older, I wanted to start having birthday traditions that will make his birthday really stand out from the other days of the year.  Here is what we did.

I stole this first one from a friend.  The night before I cut out number 3s from construction paper in various "boy" colors.  My husband and I hung them from the ceiling while he was asleep.  When he woke up he saw all these 3s hanging from the ceiling and loved it.

Mom, look at all the 3s!

 

I also blew up a bunch of balloons and put them all over his floor.  He loves balloons and thought this was really cool.

Lots of balloons!  I love them!

Husband and I hung streamers from his bedroom door while he was sleeping.  Blue Rock loved running through the streamers in the morning.  Next year we'll probably make it where he has to tear through them.  I just wasn't sure if he'd like them or not and I didn't want him waking up and possibly being scared or thinking he was trapped in his room.

Tons of fun! He ran through the streamers a bunch before starting to tear them down.

I bought a helium machine ($20 at Walmart).  In the morning I blew up a few dozen balloons and let them fly to the ceiling throughout our house, including his room. We took a lot of them to his party.

Will I fly away?

More balloons

We also hung a Happy Birthday banner, I made pancakes for breakfast, and we threw him a nice party at Chuck E. Cheese's.  Overall he had a wonderful birthday and enjoyed all the extra special touches we did.

A special treat, breakfast with Daddy

Happy birthday to my amazing, handsome, and smart son!  I thank God everyday for you.  Dad and I are truly blessed to have you in our family.  We love you!

Birthday party

Appointment with the Perinatologist

Several days after I found out I had two genetic disorders, I found out I have switched chromosomes. Chromosomes 6 and 10 are switched. My doctor's nurse told me this can cause miscarriages. I have been too depressed to write about this and so have avoiding blogging and trying not to think about it. However, I think it's important to share this information. When I was researching some of my issues, I didn't find many answers.

I went to see a perinatologist last week and she said people with switched chromosomes like mine have a 50% chance of losing every pregnancy. She said I could go on and have 7 healthy babies or I could end up having 7 more miscarriages. This was difficult to hear. I always wanted to have 3-4 kids and now I may not be able to have anymore. Blue Rock is truly a gift from God and I am so thankful for him. The question Collin and I have discussed is how many miscarriages can we handle? How many more times do we try to hopefully have another healthy child? And if we continue trying and continue to have more miscarriages what effect is that going to have on us emotionally? Or do we count our blessings to God for our son and be grateful for having one? For now I can tell you, we are extremely grateful for Blue Rock and I feel so blessed to have had him without any major problems.

This is how my doctor is treating me for my other issues. Besides the switched chromosomes, I have Hashimotos Disease (thyroid disorder).  Like the internal medicine doctor in Germany said, she said I need to see an endocrinologist every 6 months to a year.  If I do get pregnant again they will need to closely monitor my thyroid levels.

Regarding the genetic disorders.  I have MTHFR which for the most part means I cannot absorb folic acid as well as others.  About 1 in 10 people from European descent have this. She prescribed me a prescription prenatal vitamin with higher levels of folic acid and folic acid supplements to take everyday. 

I have Prothrombin Gene Mutation which is a blood clotting disorder.  For the rest of my life I need to take a Baby Aspirin once a day. If pregnant we will discuss different injections such as Lovenox.  The thought of giving myself a shot everyday is not appealing, yikes!

My progesterone levels are low.  I have a prescription for progesterone pills.  If I get pregnant again, I will need to start taking one of those after getting a positive pregnancy test.

Treating each of these other issues will help me carry a healthy baby if my chromosome doesn't interfere.  If I can make it past week 9 with a healthy heart beat, my doctor said there is a great chance that I will have a healthy baby and carry to term.  My disorders cause early miscarriages. It's never easy no matter when you have a miscarriage but at least there's some hope if I get further in a pregnancy that the baby will make it.

I've had a few struggles with all of this.  I've questioned God and why he allows certain people to have a lot of babies so easily, especially people who don't want a child or were not planning on having one.  But then those of us who would love a baby struggle.  I don't know why it's like this except that God has a plan and it's better than mine.  To help this process I've been looking at all the positives of having only one child.  There are many, just like there are many positives to having more than one.  We've also talked about adopting and/or fostering.  I don't want to bring a foster child into my home until Blue Rock is a little older.  We've had so many huge changes this year and we're still adjusting to things.  But those are possibilities.  And even if we only have one child, we are truly blessed.  I believe God allows us to go through things to build us and mold us and make us stronger. Even though somethings I would rather not go through, I know he's watching over me and is there.

I am so glad to be back in America. It is so quick to get a doctor's appointment and see someone. Also seeing doctors who speak English has been awesome! The doctors in Germany mostly spoke English but a lot of times their staff did not. Also, some things were harder for them to explain. My OB doctor, for example, would never give me results over the phone. She said it was easier in person because of the language barrier. My parents have been a great help. They have been able to watch Blue Rock while I go to my appointments. In Germany, Blue Rock always went with me, which if you have small children, you know how difficult it can be to take your child with you to the doctor. Overall it's just good to be home.

New SUV!

My husband and I tend to both research things to death, especially when a lot of money is involved. We have worked very hard to be basically debt free except for our houses and we love to eat out and take vacations. However, when we moved back to the States we needed another vehicle. My husband 's parents have graciously let us borrow one of their cars until we bought a house and bought a car. Thank you Mom and Dad! But the time has come to make a decision and return theirs.

Here's how the process went:

We considered a larger SUV or minivan or getting a super gas efficient car mainly for my husband. However, after having my third miscarriage, I don't have as much hope for having the large family I always thought I would. So given that, I didn't want to drive a huge gas guzzler around with only having one child. Although having a third row would be nice it was not necessary. A must was rear air conditioning and we decided that with hot Texas summers, getting the vehicle with rear a/c was a good move. We looked at the Acura MDX's. We loved them! Sadly, new they cost 50K. Yeah, that was way out of our budget! We looked at about 6 used ones, all ran good but had a lot of miles on them. We drive about 10K miles per year per vehicle. So buying a six year old car with over 100K miles wasn't appealing. We wanted to pay cash for something but around the 8K mark our choices were limited. As we moved up in price the vehicle choices increased. However, we just couldn't justify paying 16K for a vehicle with 120K miles on it (a fully loaded 2006 MDX). So we decided to buy new since we haven't had a car payment in two years (when we bought our new Subaru we paid it off in 2 years) and we paid cash for my husband 's car in Germany and sold it for $300 less than we paid for it 3 years before.

I contacted probably 20 car dealers comparing deals. Finally, Sunday night, I saw an internet special ad for a new 2012 Ford Edge and 2013 Explorer. I emailed Sunday night and followed up Monday morning. The Explorer had been sold but the Edge was still there. He said but they only had one at that price. I played tough girl and told them I was driving across town and if it sold to call me asap because I didn't want to waste my time driving there if that vehicle for that price was not available. Dealers have played that game with me too many times and I've walked away angry. Needless to say, he put the keys on his desk and when I got there only one other family had driven it that morning. I drove it and then bought it. The dealer said we got such a good deal on it and our credit is so good they could have written us a check. We got over $5500 off MSRP and $2299 below Consumer Reports bottom line. It would have been $750 more off but I didn't have a trade-in. I knew it was an awesome deal when I saw the ad.  The internet sales guy said they have specials about once a month where they lose money to draw people in. He said his dealership literally lost money on this deal.  However, only people with really good credit get the truly good deal because dealers will make it up with long drawn on, high interest payments. We loath car payments but decided at this time it's worth doing considering the poor used car market and having excellent credit we got the best interest rate possible. It was strange buying a car alone but I like playing hard ball. The dealers even let me drive it off the lot before my husband could get off work to sign off on his part of the deal.

Here's our new beauty! It's dark blue with tan interior. I love the peppiness of the Edge over larger SUVs such as the Explorer. Although the Explorers are very nice too!  I also love the entertainment system and being able to drive hands-free.  Thank you, husband, for my new ride!!

Update

It's been a while since I've written.  We have been extremely busy since moving back to the States.  We bought a house and I'm still unpacking boxes.  Which by the way, I LOVE our house!  It was not one of the original choices.  It's a new construction that is closer to my husband's work.  We had my side of the family over for Easter and that was a lot of fun.  I signed Blue Rock up for gymnastics, have joined a MOMS Group, hung out with friends from church, and met up with new friends.  We also go to the zoo about once a week.

Last week I found out I was pregnant.  We were super excited and I immediately called a doctor to get an appointment.  When I went in two days later my hGC levels were very low, 19, and my progesterone levels were extremely low as well, 1.2.  This was not a good sign.  Sadly, we ended up losing this baby too but I was a little more prepared, since I knew what my levels were.  My German doctors never told me the numbers so I had nothing to compare too.  Even though I was more prepared mentally, it has still been extremely hard.  I have so many mixed emotions and feelings. I went back and actually met the doctor on Wednesday and I really like her (I met with a nurse practitioner last week).  The doctor is going to run 18 tests on me.  I go in and have 17 tests done next week.  She has a lot of high risk pregnant patients and works closely with specialists.  Since this was my third miscarriage, I told her I just want to know if I can have anymore children.  If I cannot have anymore children, then I don't want to continue trying because emotionally I am not able to continue this.  She is pretty positive that I will be able to have more.  Since we know I have a thyroid disorder and a blood clotting disorder, we're going to try and balance all of that out.  Also, I have very low progesterone levels, so there's a good chance I'm going to have to have injections in a future pregnancy.  Once I have the blood tests done, she wants me to take one baby Aspirin a day with food and later start progesterone supplements.  A lot was said and I'll know more once I have the blood tests and we get the results back.

I hope you all are doing well.  I will update more as I know more.  Eventually I will post some fun and interesting posts of things we're doing.  Because overall, we really are enjoying being back home.  It's nice having some grandparents around.  Blue Rock loves his extended family and we are enjoying all of the American amenities.  We feel so spoiled after living in Germany to be back here and Germany is a very nice country to live in.

We bought a house!

We closed on our house last week.  Friday, the movers came with our household goods from Germany and we got to spend our first night here. Blue Rock woke up happy for about the first time since arriving in Texas. He woke up in his new room with some of his toys and did not want to leave!! We will not have a refrigerator until tomorrow, so we have been going out for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We had a difficult time getting him out the door to eat breakfast, which is one of his favorite meals of the day! Needless to say, we all love our new house! Our furniture and everything fits beautifully. Once we get internet set up and finish organizing and unpacking, I'll post pictures.  Until then, I'll leave you with the first picture of me cooking in our new house.  Since we're lacking a fridge, I just cooked up some pasta for dinner.  We are so tired of eating out.  I love my kitchen and look forward to making lots of yummy food here and doing lots of fun projects with Blue Rock.

We are back in the States!

These past four weeks have been exhausting (actually 6, if you include the two weeks we were in a hotel in Germany).  We have had LONG days and LONG evenings.  Poor Blue Rock is just ready to be settled back into a regular routine, as are we.  Thankfully during the days while my husband is at work, Blue Rock and I have been able to meet up with various friends and visit the zoo, museum, and play at the park.  Also he has enjoyed seeing my parents and siblings as well as some of my husband's family.

Our household goods arrived much earlier than we expected.  They arrived last Thursday and our vehicle arrived last Tuesday.  So we decided we needed to make a decision last weekend on an area to live and hopefully a house. We have gone back and forth on living in the country where there are excellent schools and having more land, to living closer to friends, or family, or work.  This is difficult as we are both extremely picky and there are things we like about each option.  Finally we narrowed our decision down to two great options.  Here are the two options we've considered.

House #1: Perfect, beautiful, new, but top of our budget. Cons: far from family and hubby's job - it's on the other side of town so we'd deal with bad traffic. Pros: good schools and close to friends and church.

House #2: Pros: Great price and closer to hubby's job and my family. Neat neighborhood with water park and bike trails, etc. It has a strong HOA and many kids in the neighborhood go to private school. Cons: 8 years old, not as good of schools, at least ratings wise. On the other hand, we could afford private school if we go with this option and there are several really good private schools nearby. There's also the possibility of homeschooling, which I am really considering trying no matter where we live.  At least for a year or two to test it out.

If we bought House #2 we would consider later renting it out and expanding our housing portfolio. Basically, we'd buy it and "rent" to ourselves until we decide to move. If we buy House #1 we plan on living in it for a long time, at least 10+ years.

Today we made an offer.  We decided to make an offer on House #2. This would give us the most flexibility later on and it's well within our means and is plenty big for us.  We're hoping and praying they accept!  We have met the neighbors on both sides of the house and both families seem to be very nice.  My husband tested the commute this morning and found it to be very good.  We would really love to get this house and the only major changes we'd do is update the kitchen, which we would do before moving in. 

Overall, we are just glad to be back in the States.  Honestly, we have not really had any major reverse-culture shock.  I don't know if it's because we lived in this area before we moved to Germany and have family and friends in the area, or what.  The only thing we've really missed are our friends in Germany.  Blue Rock speaks of his friends in Germany quite often.  Today at Wal-Mart he saw a girl who looked like his friend, Brennan.  He said, "there's Brennan!" and pointed to the little girl.  He had such a huge smile on his face.  He also talks about several of his other friends quite often.  

 

As far as the weather.  It's below freezing in Germany and it has been in the 70s here.  So weather wise, we're loving the States more than the cold.  This summer will be a different story.

Just a few more days in Germany

We have only two days left in Germany. My husband and I moved here almost exactly 3 and 1/2 years ago. It was kind of a fluke that we even moved here. A fluke or maybe part of God's plan for our lives. About 6 and 1/2 years ago my husband started working for the Corps of Engineers in Texas. Soon after he started he noticed the Corps had a department in Germany. We both joked about how cool it would be to live overseas, something we both wanted to do since we were in middle school.

One day my husband saw a job open up in Heidelberg, Germany with the Army. I said with excitement, "that's great! Apply!" time passed and the evening the job closed he said, "the job closes tonight, I need to apply for it." I told him it was really late and he could always apply for another one. He said it would only take 5 minutes. This is coming from a man who is very detailed and perfectionist. I told him to go ahead. He literally was done applying in about 5 minutes. I really couldn’t believe it. Granted he was very well qualified and most of his resume was already in the system. 2 months after he applied, we arrived in Germany, a country we had never been to before.

We have had a great experience in Germany but have also endured many challenges. Some of my friends have lived in Germany for 6 or more years, others have only been here a few months. Others have lived here their whole life. One verse that I really relate to is Jeremiah 29:11.

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

The background to this verse is that a number of Jews were uprooted from Jerusalem and exiled to Babylon. This had to be very disruptive to them. Many of my American friends in Germany can relate to the Jews Jeremiah is writing to in the sense that they didn't have a choice to move here. Others of us made the choice to move to Germany and encounter the challenges that come with living in a foreign land. And some of you have lived in Germany your whole life. Never the less, I think we can all relate to this.

God's message to these people was to go on with their lives. They would encounter hardships. But that didn't mean they should give up. They were to work hard, have children, live with the people and seek the welfare of the city where God sent them into exile and pray to the Lord on its behalf. For these specific people God had plans to return them to Jerusalem and to fulfill His promise to them. Many of us who live overseas will one day return to our home country, whether that is the U.S. or somewhere else. God didn't make a promise to us about where we would live. However, I believe God has plans for each of us. He has a purpose for us. But what does God say we need to do? We need to pray to him, we need to seek him. He says in verse 13: "you will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart." I want to encourage you to seek out God. To learn about Him, lean on Him during difficult times and lean on Him during joyous times. God wants a relationship with you. God loves you and sent His Son, Jesus, to earth to die for you. There will be times that you feel lonely or maybe afraid. Pray to God and ask Him to comfort you. Lean on each other.  Surround yourself with loving friends. There is no way I would have made it without my dear friends in Germany. When we arrived 3 and ½ years ago I only knew my husband. Now I am blessed to know people who have or will live all around the world. No matter where you live, you don't have to walk this life alone.

 

I don't know what God has in store for us in Texas.  But I trust Him.  We are praying that God uses us to bring glory to Him.  We are truly blessed to have been able to spend these last 3 and 1/2 years in Germany and are forever changed because of it.