Our Story: Hardest Year and a Half EVER

So, I should have known when we were about half way to our new home and we had a blowout that it was going to be a rough few years. Rough is actually putting it pretty nicely. It was HELL ON EARTH.

Our last picture in front of our first real home. Look at my Lulu! So sweet!!

Manly at his graduation(with highest honors I should add) with Lulu. Love this picture.

Our little family(I was pregnant with KK.).

Silly Lulu thinking that panties looked better on her head. Hahahaha!

 

We decided just to let her train herself.

My lulu learning that she LOVED farm corn! One of my all-time favorite pictures of her.

One of the last pictures of us as a family of three. This was just a few weeks before KK was born.

A little blanket swimming. Ha!

 

We moved up there on a Saturday evening, and Monday morning Manly started his job. The first few months weren't bad being a new stay-at-home-mom because I was so sick being pregnant that if I had a job I would have had to quit. I would just keep a small box of toys in the living room, and when I'd start needing to be sick I'd just bring them with me and poor Livi would play in the bathroom floor while I would LAY in the bathroom floor.
When August rolled around and Manly started school a whole new layer of trials began to come. Grad school is intense, but being in grad school and working full-time, and being a dad and husband is REALLY intense. Manly would leave at around 6:30 every morning, and not be back home until after 10pm most days. He was exhausted all the time!

Late night study. I love this picture of my man.

 

My handsome man with his caddy. Too bad it died a quick death after we bought it. BOOO!

 

 

Because he'd been at home the last few years it was a huge adjustment for him AND me. I had gotten used to him being the one to cook and clean, so when he wasn't home I had to teach myself how to cook for the first time! Bless his heart, Manly ate a LOT of chicken for a while, but I finally learned. Now I'm a better cook than he is! Just ask the kids! Ha!

 

One of the most precious moments of our time there was when Manly took Lulu to the father daughter dance. Such a SWEET moment!!

 

Manly also taught Lulu to ride a bike!

 



We also found out that Olivia was having food allergy problems in this time. She was allergic to milk, wheat, soy, eggs, and a slew of other things. That meant our diet really had to change. It was REALLY hard for a while, but it paid off. A year and a half later she outgrew it and was able to go back to eating whatever she wanted.

Snow White with her poison apple.

 

At around 14 weeks I started having contractions. At first I just thought that they were from me being sick all the time, and I guess they could have been, but they stayed with me the rest of my pregnancy. At my 36 week check-up(when I was actually 35w 6d) I told my doctor that I really felt like something wasn't quite right, and that I felt like I was probably going to have the baby soon. She checked me and I was dilated to 4. She acted like it wasn't that big of a deal and sent me home. That night, after cleaning the carpets, I laid down still feeling like something wasn't quite right. I was up about an hour later with hard contractions 2 minutes apart.

Me after my last doctor appointment the day before KK was born. Yes, I was HUGE!!

 

We loaded up and went to the hospital where KK was born about 5 hours later. I'm not going to retell her entire birth story now, but you can go here to read it. If you've never read the story I'd love for you to hop over and read that story first...The long and the short of it is that KK was born with severe RDS. Her lungs were matured to that of a 34 week baby. She had to be moved from the hospital where I delivered her to an NICU at a nearby hospital. She stayed two weeks in the hospital. It was the most traumatic time of our marriage, but it was in those moments of not knowing if our baby was going to live that God brought us closer together than we ever had been before. God used that tragedy of KK's scary birth to teach us to trust in Him and in each other.

My first moment with my KK. This was before they realized she wasn't breathing correctly.

Bringing Olivia in to see her sister. She said, "Oh momma! I LOVE your baby!"

KK on her worst day. She started retaining fluids and swelled up really badly.

The day we brought our girl home. EVERYONE was happy!

 

The next few months are a blur. We were told by all of KK's doctors that she would need to be kept at home for several months, so that's just what we did. We wanted to give her the best start at life. She remained healthy, and still to this day is the healthiest of all my kids.

My babies.

 

Manly and KK.

 

Momma and KK.

 

KK has always had eyes filled with wonder.

 



KK loves music. Even from a REALLY early age she would figure out how to make music.

 

She quickly showed us that she was going to be NOTHING like Olivia. This baby cried all. day. long. She was unhappy 24-7 for her first 4 months. FINALLY at her 4 month WCC I looked at her ped with blood-shot eyes and said, "Is there ANYTHING else I can do for her to get her to stop crying?!!" He told me to try giving her formula. He said maybe it was a discontentment with my milk. When I tried what he said it made an overnight difference, but she was still a very difficult baby.
In this time, we really struggled with finding a home church. We went to several of the HUNDREDS of churches in NWA, but never really found a place where we felt at home. Finally, Manly decided that we should do home church. Looking back, I know that he was following the Lord's calling, but it was SO tough for me because I felt cut off from the human world. The only time we got out was to go walk the halls of the mall, or to go to the library. We struggled with doing home church for almost a year.

We did a study on the armor of God with Lulu.

We had a special service for Manly when he was ordained as a minister.

 



I was lonely and sad and missing my mom and friends. It was the HARDEST time in our marriage. I missed my husband who was working so hard to provide and to finish school. My kids missed their daddy. Poor KK started calling the phone "dada" because she really thought that Manly was only in the phone! It was just a TOUGH time all around.

After KK was born I chopped ALL of my hair off. I needed something REALLY easy.

 

A shopping and fun girl day visit from my mom, granny, and sister.

 

Visits from Nana and Pop must include a makeover for Pop! Ha! These visits helped us make it through that time a little easier.

 

Nana and Pop with their babies. Lulu is sporting a classic Mia face!

 

Popsicle break. 

 

We also made lots of trips to visit my parents. In one of our visits we wanted to prove to my parents that their doggie door was big enough for a man to crawl through. Manly proved our theory to be correct. Then we all did it! Ha!

 

Visiting with Gigi!

 

The view isn't bad driving back and forth from NWA.

 

We also struggled with the fact that we had now bore two children born with breathing issues. After talking to one of the NICU doctors we felt like it was a bad idea to ever have any more kids as he said it was hard to tell, but that it seemed like it was something that wasn't going to get better-but worse. We simply COULD NOT imagine having another baby and it being worse than it was with KK, so we decided(when she was about 6 months old) that we were probably not going to have any other children. It was heartbreaking! I remember feeling like was making the decision out of fear, but not knowing what else we could do.
But OH how I loved having two girls! It was the sunshine in my rainy season! As they grew so did my love for them. We spent days playing outside, dressing up, listening to music, laughing, and learning. It was just the three of us most of the time, so we were really close. I look back on those times longingly sometimes because it was just so simple. If we wanted to spend the morning playing in the bathtub we would.

Lulu and momma with bunny glasses.

 

Me and my girls.

 

Blue Bathing Beauties. This picture makes me think of Mia and Eli!!

 

The girls! I think this was Mother's Day 2007.

 

Piano playing girls.

 

KK started playing as soon as she could reach her little hand up to play it!

Fourth of July sweeties.

 

This clown wig was around FOREVER! I got it half price at the dollar store after Halloween one year. HA!

 

Momma with her girls at the grape festival. It has to be said that NWA does have some of the best FREE activities of any place in the state. 

 

The girls loving on each other and watching a movie on our tiny tv.

 

Sweet tea party.

 

That smile! Those cheeks! ADORABLE!

I also had a hard time living in the country. City life truly is the life for me! I killed so many snakes while we lived there it isn't even funny! I even remember CATCHING a mouse in our house in a wipe container and throwing it out into the yard! We would also have horses and cows get lose in our yard from time to time. For normal people this is no big deal, but for this country-hating -girl it was the end of the world! Ha! I'd just slam the door and keep everyone inside until Manly and the rest of his family could get them back in their fences. Oh boy! I hated everything about being in the country...Ehhh....

One of the bigger snakes that I slayed(sorry for posting this picture, but I was a little PROUD of my kill! Ha!). This is without the head section...

 

Feeding our leftover veggie scraps to the horses. Lulu LOVED these horses.

 

Lulu also loved outdoor picnics with WATERMELON!

 

Our pumpkins. Manly is so creative and smart. Love that man.

 

Our FAVORITE family memory from living in NWA is the "doughnut barn." We went to this place EVERY single Saturday. The owners knew us by name. My hips are still trying to recover from that time in my life. HAHA! 

This is a bridge that Manly built when he was a kid with his boy scout troop. One of the cool things about living up there was that he was able to show the girls some things from his childhood.

 

The other great thing about living in the country was the amazing backdrop! This was our backyard!

 

Such sweet memories of my big girls!

Another of my most favorite Lulu pictures!

Have I mentioned I love this man! Such an amazing dad even when he was about to fall over from lack of sleep!

My beautiful KK in a rare moment of NOT crying. You can tell she's recovering though. Ha!

 

It should be mentioned that I was so thankful for the time that God had us in NWA. Manly got an amazing education, we met some great friends, and reconnected with old ones, and we were close to his family. The Lord used this time in our life to put us right at the edge of our limit so that we would trust him with our family. He grew my relationship with Manly so much. I needed to leave and cleave. Something that may be hard for every young woman who gets married and moves straight out of their parents home and into her husbands arms. It was a tough transition for me, but the move up there was worth the boost in trust I got in my marriage relationship.
As the year passed and the next year was rocking along I got a feeling deep inside that wouldn't go away. I kept hearing the Lord saying, "Have FAITH in me! Trust me!" About what, Lord? By this time, KK was almost a year old, and we had gotten rid of almost all the baby stuff. Having another baby was NOT on my radar, but all the sudden there I was, wanting a baby...