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Monday, April 22, 2013

It's That Time Again - NIAW!

April 21-27 is National Infertility Awareness Week. It's a week when tons and tons of women (and men!) band together and express unity in heartache. Switching over to adoption really allowed me to grieve the loss of a biological child. I am happy to be pursuing a child through the gift of adoption, and I truly don't care that the one we eventually get matched with won't look like me. But my arms are still empty. And though I may not write about every single hard day, I still have them. 

Today I am proud to be a part of the infertile community. An online forum that I was a part of early on, showed me that I wasn't alone. There are lots of women going through the same thing, and that knowledge gave me the courage to go through it out loud. I hope that publicly chronicling my experience with various treatments, a short pregnancy, miscarriage, adoption, a failed adoption match, and lots of hoping along the way, gives someone else the strength they need to be open about their infertility struggles. We all need support, and our friends and family are willing to give it! We just have to open up. :]

This year's NAIW them is "Join the Movement". You don't have to be infertile to be a part of it. :) In accordance with the theme, I wanted to make a way for loved ones to be involved and show their support. So I created a super simple Facebook cover photo that you can post to your profile or newsfeed this week.  No pressure, I won't be hurt if you don't post it. haha. Just wanted to make it available. :) You can find it by clicking here!


Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Interior Construction Complete! :)

Well folks I made it through two weeks of construction and a third week of hard core decorating. We are in love with how our house looks. :) It feels bigger, brighter, up to date, and very "Ryan and Denay". When we first moved in, the paint that I bought for the main part of the house was way darker than I planned. I was going for a light-medium beige, and ended up with a deep tan color. We had a whole crew of help ready to paint, so I just went with it anyway. I've never really been a fan of brown, but  the wall color forced me to go with a brown toned color palette. When we decided to get our damaged countertops and flooring replaced, we went ahead and changed the paint color as well to finally make it what we wanted it to be. I went with clean gray tones and teals, with a pop of red here and there. :)

I gotta be honest, I didn't do as good of a job with the Before pictures as I thought I did. :( Sorry about that. I'll just have to use an older picture of the living room with our old couches, which were replaced over a year ago. You'll still get the idea. :)

This is the view from the front door before-
And after! 
Is that the same house??? lol. Light gray paint, gray wood laminate flooring, and new lighting. Amazing what an impact paint makes. It's such an inexpensive way to change the feel of a room. Couldn't be happier with how the floor came out. It's a very unique color, and I'm glad I went with my gut on it. The picture doesn't capture how pretty it is. :)

Next is the couch / window corner, viewed from the hallway-
And after! 
Love love love our rug! We went with a smaller one this time, so that and removing the coffee table really made it look more spacious. The valances over the windows are much better suited for this space. Since this is the only real wall in the living area, I wanted to replace my previous decor with large family photos. I'm very happy with how they look. :)

Here is the new dining area. I didn't get a good before shot of this either. The new dining set fits the space perfectly. I found these awesome chevron sheer-ish curtains from Urban Outfitters of all places. It makes the window area so cheery. 
This is the kitchen before-
And this is the kitchen after-
We went with charcoal colored Formica for our countertops. The large, single basin sink and tall faucet are so nice! And we added a glass tile backsplash, which came out beautifully. Cabinets got a fresh coat of bright white paint and new hardware as well.

I just want to give a quick shout out to our two main contractors for this house upgrade. Hit them up for a quote if you're local and looking to do work on your house in the future! :) Wes Stevens and his crew from Quandary Construction did the work in the kitchen. They're all great guys who go to my church as well. It was so nice to have people we trust working in our house and making it look beautiful. Charlie from Expert Hardwood Flooring was also great to work with. They gave us a very reasonable price, showed up when they said they would, and did a beautiful job on the floor and baseboards. :)

Friday, April 5, 2013

Checkin In

It's been pretty quiet on the adoption front these days. I was able to have a good talk with our social worker this morning, which is always nice. I love that we are working with someone who knows us well, genuinely cares about us, and is spiritually encouraging as well. She didn't really give much new information, aside from confirming that Q had the baby on the 23rd. There are not really any birthmom's currently in the mix at the agency right now. But as we saw in March, situations can come up pretty suddenly. So even though there aren't any right now, there could be three new ones next week. Ya never know! Just have to keep praying that God brings one to us soon.

In other news, I've been living in my bedroom this week because there is always a crew of guys working in the house and it's been utter chaos. But everything is coming together sooooo nicely! Every day there is a new element added/changed and Ryan and I spazz about how good it looks. lol. :) The flooring guys are installing the baseboards right now, which will complete the work in the main part of the house. All that's left is to get our cabinet doors back on (they're getting refinished). Can't wait to get our furniture back in and the new decorations hung! :)