Hi Friends! I keep hearing about people finding this blog when doing adoption blog searches and I have felt so bad that I never did any updates. So I'm going to do one quick! It's been 2 years since...

Hi Friends! I keep hearing about people finding this blog when doing adoption blog searches and I have felt so bad that I never did any updates. So I'm going to do one quick! It's been 2 years since Charlie joined our family and so much has happened since then. He is the most adorable, active, outgoing boy I've ever met and we just love him so much it hurts.

Here's a rundown of the last two years.

When Charlie was two months old I had an excision surgery with a NaPro doctor who specialized in endometriosis. It had only been about 16 months since my first surgery, which was an ablation where they burn the endometriosis and "kill it" but at the time I had no idea that this procedure is pretty outdated and ineffective, but is still the most common form of treatment for endometriosis unfortunately. Charlie was home with us and I was experiencing more and more pain from the endometriosis growing back even worse than it was before. I decided I didn't want to enter into motherhood feeling so awful so I decided I needed to seek a specialist. I decided to work with a NaPro doctor because they are so highly trained in endometriosis (and other infertility causes) and they are very skilled surgeons. Excision surgery is the only effective treatment for endometriosis. It's where they actually cut deep into the tissue to remove every last bit of endo. Much better than just burning the surface of it. My surgery was a success and I felt IMMEDIATE relief from pain. I'm talking, on a pain scale I went from an 8 to a 1-2. I was taking about 40 ibuprofen every single period, to now I take about 3, sometimes 6. WOW!

Three months later we started our cross country move for Wes' residency! Charlie was 4.5 months old, and we had just bought our first house in South Carolina! I was feeling crampy and weird. Pregnancy had not even crossed my mind because we just didn't think it was possible, and we were so busy and stressed with the move and house buying. But by the grace of God I was pregnant and we could not believe it!

So here we are two years later. Charlie turned 2 in January, and our daughter Linnea turned 1 in February. It's been the craziest two years of our lives! The best words to describe Charlie are ACTIVE and outgoing. He is SO SO active. Nonstop all day. He LOVES to be around people and he especially loves to play with older kids. He is very interactive and he just explodes with happiness and joy when someone will run and play with him! He loves all things boy. Trucks, garbage trucks, trains, cars, mud, puddles...all of it! Linnea is the exact opposite. She is very VERY calm, content, and still. The best word to describe her is sweet. She is just pure sweetness. She loves stuffed animals and dolls and she hugs and kisses them. She loves to watch Charlie but is not rushing to join him in running around yet. She prefers to scoot on her bum and play intently with things. She has excellent fine motor skills. Charlie has excellent gross motor skills. Watching them grow and seeing their strengths and differences has been so much fun!

It's wild to be on this side of it all now. Infertility and all those emotions that come with it seem so long ago. Now I'm chasing a craaaazy toddler around with a baby on my hip and half the time I feel like I can't get my head above water.  Life is good right now. We are really in the thick of parenthood and we know these are the good years! Now instead of crying over wanting to be a mom so badly I'm crying over how I can get my two year old to stop hitting me and just let me change his diaper. It's so funny how fast things can change!

We have a really awesome open adoption with Charlie's birth family. We have been able to see his birth mom and his older sister twice so far and it's been amazing. Charlie is still too young to get it, but theres something really really special about seeing them together. She is the beautiful woman that brought him into this world, and it's impossible to imagine this world without him in it! We are still so grateful that she chose us to love and raise him, and we don't ever take it for granted.

For those of you who found this blog doing searches on adoption, my prayer is that this gives you so much hope! Life can change in a blink. No matter how hard things are right now, don't stop fighting for your family, it is so worth all of it.

If you want to connect more and stay updated then follow me on instagram! I'm @char.and.charlie

Now here are some cute pictures for you all to enjoy:)

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