A dream come true

It's been one year since I started this blog. I can't believe a year has already passed. I remember starting this blog as a way to get all of my feelings out during our waiting phase of our adoption journey. We had already been through so much. We were in for the long haul, or so we thought. We had been told that we could expect to wait 2-3 years before having a placement. We knew God had the perfect baby planned for us and we knew the timing was in His hands. I know a lot of people say when that baby is placed in your arms it erases all of the wait and pain. And while I agree with that to a certain extent, I don't agree fully with it. That pain is still there; the pain of the infertility, the pain of the IVF and the huge emotional roller coaster we were on, the pain of the miscarriage-we still think about those babies, and then the pain of waiting and not knowing when--not to mention the first 3 years of "just trying". Thankfully through our faith and the support of family and friends, we made it through. I think it has molded us into the people we are today and brought us closer together and made our marriage stronger.

As most know, we live at the beach. We love it here. We love being close to our parents and being able to drive to the ocean any day we want. There's a certain ambience here that's different, in my opinion, than any other place. We lived in a big metropolitan city and ran the "rat race" with everyone else. It seemed like everyone was out for themselves, trying to get ahead and hardly anyone ever slowed down enough to stop and smell the roses. We were different. We were beach kids and this way of life was different for us. We learned early not to take things for granted because of Tommy's heart issues; we knew each day given to us was a true blessing from God.

Back to the beach-it has always been a dream of mine to take our kids to the beach. To hope that they love the water as much as we do. A place where we could walk along the shore together and watch the waves come crashing in. Where we could teach them how to swim and how to fish and bury Dad in the sand. Summer after summer, I remember looking at families down on the ocean and wishing that someday that would be us. That someday we would be there with our kids. Many times, I would walk back to the beach house wondering if that would ever be us.

Fast forward one year and here we are, staying at the beach house with our precious gift, Garrett. The house is on the sound side, the ocean is across the street. We've had a blast, playing in the water, taking boat rides, and fishing. And to delight our hearts even more, Garrett loves the water! Late yesterday afternoon, Tommy and I decided to take a stroll down the beach to the pier and back (2 miles each way). We put Garrett in the Baby Bjorn (one of my favorite things) and began walking. We saw many families playing in the ocean and in the sand but this time it was different. They were looking at us, many commenting on what a cute boy we have. I had to almost stop and take in the moment, thinking back to all of those times wondering if we'd ever be here. And then, there we were. Walking down the beach with the most precious baby boy God could have ever given us. To say we feel blessed is a huge understatement. We are so thankful and honestly couldn't have asked for a better fit for our family.