Journey To Journey

Ambree

2011-07-03T13:26:00.000-07:00

Professional Newborn Pictures

7 weeks old here

Reese turned 2

2011-07-03T12:45:00.000-07:00

1 Month old

2011-05-28T15:48:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's been one month since I had Ambree. She is doing really good, we are getting adjusted to life with a toddler and a newborn. Reese will be turning 2 next month which I can't believe either. I love my little girls!!!

My Sweet Girls!

2011-05-13T13:23:00.000-07:00

Ambree Jadyn Albert

2011-04-29T14:03:00.000-07:00

She is here! I went in the hospital on Easter Sunday. I didn't know if some of my water had broken or not, so I went in to have them check me out and sure enough it had. So they induced me and by 7:06pm she was born.

7lbs 9oz 20"long

Everything went good, it was an amazing experience...what I have been praying for for so long. And Ambree is healthy and feeding really good. This has been one of the best weeks of my life. I sit in my living room with Cody and my two girls and I am overwhelmed with happiness and joy.

Psalm 118

The Lord's right hand has done many things! The Lord's right hand is lifted high; the Lord's right hand has done many things! I will not die but live; and proclaim what the Lord has done.

You are my God and I praise you; you are my God and I will exalt your name. Give thanks to the Lord for He is good; His love endures forever.

Maternity Pics

2011-04-22T13:05:00.000-07:00

My good friend Marissa took these maternity pictures. I was about 31 weeks when they were taken. It was special for me to have these done since I am so excited to finally be pregnant and may never get to experience this again. She did a great job. Thanks Marissa!!

Marissamillerphotography.com

Still no Ambree as of today. But I will be induced Monday. Yaa!

39 1/2 Weeks

2011-04-15T15:37:00.000-07:00

Ambree must not be ready to come into the world yet. Mommy is though, but that's okay. I know she will come on the day God has planned for her. I can't believe it's been 9 months. This past year I had prayed and asked God if I could experience at least one pregnancy in my lifetime. We would adopt all of our kids, but my hearts desire was to go through this experience from start to finish and deliver a healthy baby one time in my life, even if I was 40 and it happened, that would be ok. And God surprised and blessed us now. And that still amazes me. I have enjoyed this whole process, the good and the uncomfortable. And I want to go into labor on my own, I'm tempted to be induced but I can't stop now. God is been in control and blessed us this whole time and I know He will finish this through in His timing. Psalm 5:3 "In the morning Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly."

Easter Egg Hunt and Shower

2011-04-10T13:26:00.000-07:00

We had an early Easter egg hunt with Reese at my parents house, since I will probably be having the baby sometime around Easter. She had so much fun and wanted to carry around her basket with her all day long. She's so precious!

My sweet friends threw me a surprise shower/lunch. I had no idea and it was so special of them to do that. Thanks girls! Love yall!

38 Weeks

2011-04-05T11:28:00.000-07:00

I'm now 3 cm and 80%. Ya!

Week 37

2011-03-29T14:37:00.000-07:00

Cody's parents had their 50th wedding anniversary party the other night, Congratulations Mimi and Papaw! Cody's giving his speech.

I get together with a couple of friends and their little girls about once a month. And here are the girls, Reese, Grace and Caroline. Reese has so much fun with them. Caroline is 6 weeks older and Grace and Reese are two days apart, so they are very close. The three of us friends went through infertility together for years and God blessed us all at the same time which makes for special friendships. Love you girls!

37 weeks down, and 3 weeks to go! I think I had my first contraction the other night, it went away obviously, but we are on the home stretch. And I am already dilated some. We are ready to meet Ambree soon! Ya!

5 1/2 more weeks

2011-03-11T16:11:00.000-08:00

Once I started embroidering these onsies and burp clothes, I guess I made it official. No turning back now, this baby will be Ambree Jadyn. And we put her name in our Will that we just finished. I've been painting Reese's new room and the bathroom that they will share these past few weeks. I don't know why I waited this long to paint. I have to take lots of breaks. Anyway, so the towels I embroidered are for their bathroom. Once it's all finished I'll have to show some pictures.

34 1/2 weeks

Rodeo Time

2011-03-11T15:53:00.000-08:00

I love the rodeo time. Reese got to see animals three times this week. They brought animals to pet at church this past week and then I meet a friend at the rodeo on Tuesday and they had ponies at her mother's day out. I can't believe she is almost 2 in just a few months. She says so many words and does the cutest things. We started her with swimming lessons this spring. She is just so much fun has a looootttt of energy!

Feel'n Good

2011-02-07T18:28:00.000-08:00

I will actually hit the 30 week mark tomorrow. I can't believe I only have 10 weeks left. I'm trying to soak up everything and enjoy these last few months. Although I know it will go so fast. As she kicks and moves around, which she does a ton, it makes me get excited to finally meet her. We've picked a name finally. It's going to be Ambree Jadyn Albert. Cody wanted an unusaul name and I found this one in a baby book. Ambree means "Jewel" and Jadyn means "God has heard". One of my baby name books has verses that go with the names and while Ambree was not in that specific book, Jadyn was and the verse for it is
Psalms 5:3 "In the morning, LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly."
So appropriate, that is why I picked Jadyn as the middle name. God has heard our prayer of five years. And she will be here before we know it. Can't wait!!!

28 weeks

Belly Pics

2011-01-14T18:51:00.000-08:00

Corby, me and Samantha

23 Weeks

24 Weeks

26 Weeks

Christmas

2011-01-14T18:42:00.000-08:00

I'm a little late getting Christmas pictures up. But we had a great Christmas although Reese had a very bad cold/infection. Her worst days were Christmas eve day through the day after Christmas. It was sad to see her look and feel so horrible while she continued to open gifts. But it was still a sweet time for the three of us!

I love this picture of Cody and Reese, she had so much fun at Mimi and Papaw's farm.

Pics with Santa Day

2010-11-30T18:36:00.000-08:00

20 Weeks

Priceless

Thankgiving

2010-11-28T17:43:00.000-08:00

We had a great Thanksgiving at my parents house. Reese had so much fun with all the kids.
I always love getting together with everyone. And then on Sunday we surprisingly spoke in front of our whole church. Every Sunday after Thanksgiving the church has members share what they are thankful for and this year they asked us to share. This has always been my favorite Sunday of the whole year, people share their stories and it always makes me cry. And so crazy that we shared this time, I never thought that would happen or that I would agree to such a thing. I don't even like giving announcements to 50 Junior High kids on Sunday morning, I always make sure Cody or one of the other leaders do it. But when we were asked to do this, I couldn't help but get excited. Only because God has given us such a cool story. One of the first things I thought after I found out I was pregnant, (after the shock settled in) was that I want to tell the whole world what God just did. Anyway, I thought I would include our talk on here. We were so so so nervous, but God got us through it.

Shana
After Cody and I had been married for one year, we were ready to start a family. But that didn’t quite happen like we thought. For the past 5 ½ years we have been trying to get pregnant. We’ve had doctor visits too many to count, we have had gone through months and months of being on fertility medication and we have had five fertility procedures. I had two pregnancies in 2006 while on medication but sadly they both ended in early miscarriages. All of this of course came with many prayers and many tears. But God gave us hope and a new direction because He led us to the world of adoption. And last summer we adopted our beautiful daughter Reese. Holding her for the first time as our daughter was a moment I’ll never forget. Adopting Reese is a whole other story in itself. No doubt God has been there with us throughout this journey so far and being blessed with Reese has been the most incredible experience.
Cody
But it has still been our hearts desire to have a child of our own. So after praying for direction and having a peace from God, in January we did an Invitro fertilization (ivf). Not only did that fail but we were also told that our best chances to ever achieve a healthy pregnancy would be to use an egg donor. We were devastated and what was already a five year long challenge now seemed impossible based on what doctors were telling us. We would love to adopt again but we also had a huge longing to experience pregnancy and have a biological child. But we wondered if that would ever happen.
This past summer we decided to go to another doctor and do another IVF. We were also told by our adoption agency that we could begin the adoption process again for a second child. This was exciting and since paper work does take a while with adoption we went ahead and filled out an application knowing we had time to also do an ivf procedure. We started praying about it and I wanted both of us to get the same direction from God. What I wanted was to move forward with IVF. After praying for about two months, we believe God was saying “this is what you want, but it is not mine will”. And even though it was hard and we didn’t know or understand why, we had to obey God. So Shana stopped all medications that she was on and called the doctor to say we were not going to go through with the IVF. Shana started training for a sprint triathlon but days before the event she found out….she was pregnant. My first words were “how accurate are those pregnancy tests”. She said for her, very accurate. So she did not participate in the triathlon. WOW, no doctors, no medication, no procedure. We were amazed and in awe of what was happening. This isn’t supposed to happen according to doctors. We needed an egg donor remember. But God didn’t need our help.
I stand here before you thanking God and our Lord Jesus that Shana is pregnant, but much more than this, God still speaks to us today as we read in the bible.
Luke 1:37 says “For nothing will be impossible with God.”
Shana
We didn’t get pregnant because we adopted and we didn’t get pregnant because we were relaxed, we are pregnant because God opened my womb and performed a miracle despite what doctors believed to be impossible. Even in those days when I would cry myself to sleep and I didn’t understand why God was putting us through this, He had a perfect plan and a perfect timing. It definitely wasn’t fun going through the tough times. In fact there were times when I was miserable. Times when I was extremely sad and extremely depressed and heartbroken. But because of these times God has strengthened our marriage and He has strengthened our relationship with Him and our faith in Him. He obviously knew that we needed it. And we can say now that we wouldn’t trade these past 5 ½ years for anything, they have made us who we are today.
As we think about what we are thankful for this holiday season, we are thankful for these two children and how God brought them into our lives in a very special way. We are also thankful for God’s faithfulness in His Word, we are thankful for His comfort during the hard times, we are thankful for His direction when we didn’t know what to do, we are thankful that God is God.
Ephesians 3:20-21 “Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to His power that is at work within us.”

Our Sweet Reese

2010-11-18T11:35:00.000-08:00

She's growing up so fast. She so precious and so much fun!

And we found out this week that she will be a big sister to a baby GIRL!! YAA!! We are very excited!

Our 18 Week Ultrasound

My little bump!

2010-11-01T18:03:00.000-07:00

10 Week ultrasound

12 Week Pic

16 Week Pic

I can't believe I actually have a pregnancy pooch! It's so much fun. I have been feeling good, my nausea has pretty much gone away except for every now and then I may feel it for a short time. I go in a couple of weeks to find out the sex of the baby, so we are excited about that. YAAA!

Journey #2

2010-10-18T11:06:00.000-07:00

From one journey to the next journey...from one trail to the next trail...from one blessing to the next blessing. That pretty much sums up our road to parenthood. I've shared in my previous blog what we went through for many years to become parents the first time ending with the amazing adoption of our daughter Reese. Well now as we have desired a second child, God has taken us through a similar struggle through infertility yet this time much shorter and has ended with a miracle pregnancy. Let me start at the beginning...

This past January we felt led to begin with a new doctor and go straight for an InVitro Fertilization. But quickly that ended in disappointment when it didn't work. My doctor suggested that our best chances to get pregnant would be by using an egg donor because I have poor egg quality. So now, not only do I have PCOS (polycystic ovaries) and Endometriosis but I also have poor eggs. Great, just what I needed to hear. Considering using an egg donor was the scariest decision we ever had to face and we were not sure what God thinks about it either. As we looked into it and prayed about it we were not comfortable with doing that, but instead we looked into using an embryo donor or embryo adoption. But still on the edge about this whole thing, we were not even ready to make this decision yet; we didn't want to give up just yet. So around May we went to another doctor, now my third Reproductive Endocrinologist, to see what she had to say. She was confident that we didn't need any donors and that we could try an InVitro with her. But we still needed to pray and make sure we had a clear direction from God to move forward. We prayed about it for about a month or two. At the same time as all of this I was contacted by our adoption agency that we used with Reese and was told that because Reese was now one year old we could start the adoption process again. This was exciting news so we begin praying about this as well. We figured since it takes a while before we would have a home study we had time to do an InVitro too. So we updated the adoption paper work, filled out the application and turned it in.

Cody and I were both reading a book called Discerning the Voice of God by Priscilla Shirer which was perfect for us at this time. We really wanted to hear God tell us to yes, do this IVF or no, do not. We have always prayed about each of these big decisions and always felt at peace about them. While we waited to hear from Him we still continued seeing the doctor and getting ready with prenatal vitamins and a couple other medications. Cody went off as a counselor to J-high camp and the day he came back we talked about it again. Up until this point we still didn't know what God wanted us to do and it was frustrating because we truly desired to follow His will. But on that day we realized He was not giving us the green light. We both felt like we wanted to do this because WE wanted to and not because it was God's will for us to. We both did not have a peace about it. Within minutes of talking about this we agreed that we should put this IVF on hold. We didn't understand why but we had more of a peace because we knew it was from the Lord. We thought maybe God would direct us to do an IVF later this year or we were just supposed to adopt our second child. So as soon as we called the doctor and told her we were putting this IVF on hold, I begin training for my first mini triathlon. I had always wanted to do one and there was one coming up in six weeks so I stopped talking all my medication and I got ready training for this event.

Five days before the triathlon in August...I find out...I'M PREGNANT! It was the biggest shock. Never in 5 1/2 years have I gotten pregnant on my own. I had two pregnancies in 2006 but I was on fertility medication and they both ended in an early miscarriage. This doesn't happen to me. I'm infertile, I have bad eggs, bad everything. TO GOD BE THE GLORY! Luke 1:34 " For nothing is impossible with God." I've had so many people tell me stories about how they know someone who this happened to and I believe with all my heart God still does miracles. But I wasn't going to hold out for the rest of my life that God was going to allow this to happen to me. He could have chosen not to allow this. But for some perfect reason He did.

I am 14 weeks along right now. I have to admit I have been scared; scared that I'd loose this baby too and scared of the loss; the heartbreak. But I've had to just trust the Lord each day. I want to enjoy this pregnancy, it may be the only one I have. We are so so so excited and still in awe of this that the Lord is doing. Mark 12:11 "This came about from the Lord and it is marvelous in our eyes." As I start showing I will post some belly pics...wow I can't believe I get to do that!!!!

1 Year Old!

2010-07-24T18:10:00.000-07:00

11 Months Old and we can't believe it!!

2010-06-01T18:46:00.000-07:00

10 Months Old!

2010-04-22T14:59:00.000-07:00

9 Months Old!

2010-03-13T12:51:00.000-08:00

8 Months Old!

2010-02-14T15:07:00.000-08:00

7 Months Old!

2010-02-14T15:03:00.000-08:00

Gotcha Day!

2010-01-08T12:12:00.000-08:00

Not only did Reese turn 6 months old this past month but we also had her finalization day/Gotta Day on Friday. The adoption is final and she is really ours. It was a very special morning; we had a great judge and lawyer that are adoption friendly and the judge gives out teddy bears to the adoptive children. All of our immediate family was there to celebrate with us which was really cool. It is a great feeling knowing that Reese is officially our little girl now. She is just so precious to us and boy are we blessed!

GOTCHA DAY!

One Very Special Christmas!

2009-12-12T17:15:00.000-08:00

Last year at this time including the past 4 years at this time I only longed for that special Christmas that I could share with a new baby. And oh my goodness, I just still can't believe that this Christmas is different and full of baby sounds, baby clothes, and a baby-girl stocking hanging on the mantel. This month Reese is 6 months old and I'm still in awe of the miracle she is in our lives. We are so so blessed. She is so perfect for us as of course only God intended her to be. We get comments all the time that she looks like us and how cute she is. We prayed for God's plan for us, for a healthy amazing baby and He not only delivered but He wowed us with a little girl that is more than we ever dreamed of. We get to meet up with Reese's birth mom this week which we are excited about. She hasn't seen her since the day she said good-bye in the hospital. I'll never forget the moment she placed Reese in my arms at placement day. We had spent about 30 or 45 minutes saying our good-bye's to her and her family. We all stood up, they walked out the door, and she handed Reese to me. I've said, read, and heard the phrase "empty arms" numerous times during my infertility journey and at that moment my past 4 1/2 years flashed before me, the heartache, the doctors, the miscarriages, the long road of empty arms. And there I was standing with one arm around the birth mother and the other arm holding Reese and I broke down in tears. For a while there I wouldn't let go of hugging the birth mom. I can't even describe the feelings I was having toward her as she was giving me the most precious and selfless gift in the world. And my arms weren't empty any longer....this baby girl was really mine. These 6 months have been absolutely amazing and Cody and I soak up every bit of it. We praise you Jesus!

5 months old!

2009-11-14T11:13:00.000-08:00

Our Sweet Angel!

2009-10-27T20:46:00.000-07:00

Reese and giggles!

2009-10-19T12:42:00.000-07:00

4 months old!

2009-10-14T13:02:00.000-07:00

Reese now weighs 13 lbs 13 oz and 24 1/4" long. She is just growing so big so fast. She, Cody and I are doing great and loving all her little and big milestones!

3 Months Old!

2009-09-17T20:10:00.000-07:00

She smiles at us, giggles at us, eats good, sleeps good and through the night, she's found her thumb, she babbles at her toys, grabs her toys, holds her head up, and well...just about the most perfect little girl. Blessed!!

2 months old

2009-08-13T15:04:00.000-07:00

As you can see SMILING is the new thing now. And it's so much fun. Being a new mom EVERYTHING is such a BIG deal...all the little new developments and milestones. And we're loving every bit of it.

Reese is 7 weeks old!

2009-08-02T20:15:00.000-07:00

Reese is growing and changing right before my eyes. She's doing so good, getting some cute fat rolls and starting to hold her head up some, looking around, and sorta starting to smile. We're having so much fun with her and getting her on a nice schedule. She's still such a good, laid-back baby. I've had some great showers from friends and family...so thank you all for putting on such great parties and spoiling Reese. And my two best friends flew down to love on Reese and hang out. The three of us had not been all together in 5 years, so it was awesome spending the weekend with them. Yall made it a very very special occasion! Thanks Lindsay and Carrie....love you!

Reese Pictures! Turn on the volume and Enjoy!

2009-07-07T20:40:00.000-07:00

First Post

2009-07-05T19:48:00.000-07:00

It was definitely time for a new fresh look, new name, and now a new chapter in our life...Reese. So here's the new blog. And soon, I'll post more pictures of her. I'm still keeping the old one, A Journey's Best Friend, because it has many memories and new friendships that started there.
I appreciate everyone that has followed our journey and prayed for us on our road to motherhood! I'm still in awe of this little girl!