Our Story - Part 5

Our Story Part 5 starts with celebrating our 2nd wedding anniversary! We ran off to Disneyland for a short marathon trip. We got to experience an earthquake Disney style on our 2nd Anniversary!

We had a great time as we reflected on our second year together! We had been so fortunate and were looking forward to everything the coming year would bring!

2 Year Anniversary Picture in the Engagement Spot!

Soon after returning from our anniversary trip, Peter was asked to start his new job a little bit early. It was a little bit of a whirlwind and after a couple hour orientation process they whisked him off to work in Seattle for a week. Not long after that, he was sent off to Chicago for some training! It didn't take long for us to realize just what corporate America looked like.

As fall approached, we started to contemplate adding a member to our family. Everything seemed to be going so perfectly that we (or I) just knew that by our 3rd anniversary we would have a little baby to share our lives with!

Around that time our condo also sold. It took forever and a day for the thing to close, but right after Christmas we said goodbye to our condo.....

and hello to our first real home!

The only problem was our new home was a fixer upper in every way! Fortunately we had a contractor to take care of most of the work - a plethora of plumbing problems, a whole side of the house that the siding was installed wrong so there was lots of water damage, the whole house needed new siding We tackled all of the smaller problems to save money. We spent our holiday season VERY busy and exhausted. Seriously, not even exaggerating when I say that the toilets and tubs were bright orange from filth and yuck yuck yuck! The counter tops had to be replaced and I guess they were REALLY nasty based on what the contractor said. They also just taped the fridge up and hauled it right out. Not to mention mice and spider's EVERYWHERE (my worst fear, coming true). I have never seen a house so infested with spiders. We would pull off baseboards and they would just scatter everywhere. I seriously can't believe we even bought this house looking back, but apparently we saw its potential! Nothing a few (7!) bug bombs couldn't handle :) The house was pretty much brand new by the time we were done with it. Fresh coats of paint and new floorings through out and it was perfect.

If things weren't crazy enough, we also added a 2nd little puppy to our family before Christmas! My little Indy! (Peter's 3rd and FINAL attempt to keep me content for awhile!)

Before long it was spring and things were still good, but hard. Things weren't going quite as planned in the baby department and I was starting to get concerned. Everything in our lives had gone according to a perfect plan and this was one thing we didn't have any control over and well, losing control was no fun at all.

Before long, we really learned what losing all control looked like. I got a text from Peter the day before my birthday stating that he had been laid off from his perfect job in the big accounting firm. Things all of a sudden felt very out of control. This was not supposed to happen. And as everyone can remember the economy was worthless around this time so the job prospects were pretty much zilch. Peter was adamant that he did not want to change fields in the accounting world - he loved tax and wanted to build his career around that. So he started applying for jobs all over the place, even in Canada. The job prospects around here (in tax) were pretty slim.

With a husband unemployed and not even being sure we would be able to pay our mortgage, we also had to give up on plans to have a baby until Peter got back to working. This was incredibly heartbreaking for me. I really liked my income taking a back seat to Peter's and now for the first time, I was the sole income earner for our family. We were both so angry, but we really grew up through this too. This is when we really learned that we needed to rely on God. Our prayer life really took off as we were, for the very first time in a place of desperation!

Shortly after that, my parents were able to get us in to one of their timeshares for a short trip away. We really needed that time to get away from the stress piling up in our lives!

We were so fortunate that this was a very short blip in the grand scheme of things. I know so many people who have been unemployed for so long and we were incredibly blessed that in just 6 weeks Peter had found an amazing job, we didn't have to move (or live apart for awhile), and he got to remain in tax!

Things were back on track and we could breathe a little easier. As spring turned in to summer, we were back to thinking about a baby. I had started seeking out some medical help and it wasn't long before there were talks of starting rounds of medication. I couldn't believe we had arrived at this place.....

And then we were at the 4th of July. I was still at a very low place. There was nothing I wanted more in this world than to become a mother. I couldn't believe it wasn't happening easily for us. I felt like a total failure in the one thing I wanted most in life. We were set to proceed with the beginnings of medical intervention in the coming months, and I was still very hopeful that things would work out with a little bit of help.

But I still felt very unsettled about the whole thing. Don't get me wrong, I have no problems with fertility treatments at all, but for us it just didn't feel right. I had always had a heart and a passion for the orphans in this world and I knew that we would adopt somewhere down the line. It was definitely part of "our plan". Peter and I had started discussing adoption and had decided that if I was not pregnant by January, we would pursue adoption.

But that still didn't feel right. In the past 3 months, we had decided to give up control and let God lead every aspect of our lives. But as I started looking in to adoption more and more, it just didn't seem like anyone would be willing to work with us at our age. It just didn't seem like the door to adoption was open for us, but it also didn't feel like the path to pregnancy was (or would be) open to us either. Again, I felt completely lost!

On July 12th everything changed. Through a series of events God made it perfectly clear to me that we were to adopt and almost magically Peter agreed (he was set on January up to this point!). That day we researched adoptions and God led us to one agency who was willing to work with us at 23 years of age! It was perfect and before the night was out, we had sent off a preliminary application. Later on in the week, we drove up and met with the staff at this agency, and turned in our official application! And on Peter's 23rd Birthday we got word we were officially accepted and were on our way down the path of adoption. We never looked back after July 12th!

This year of marriage was particularly difficult. But God really worked on us through the hard days. We had reached a place where we had no choice but to give up full control of our lives to Him. We tried to do things our way and even were getting sidetracked into believing that happiness was in having nice things and "looking good" to those around us. I am so grateful that he just had to gently nudge us back to the right thinking!

As we celebrated our 3rd anniversary, we celebrated surviving a particularly difficult year and looked very forward to what God had in store for us in the coming year. It wouldn't necessarily be an easy year, but wow would God blow our socks off!!!