It feels funny to tell “my story” because I feel like it’s just beginning. But really, I’m a few chapters in and, while I’ve walked through many seasons of highs and lows, the ways the Lord has blessed me and my family is beyond any words I could write. But I’ll try! I started dating my now husband, Justin, when I was 17 and I married him a year later. He graduated a few years before me so I took him to my senior prom in June 2015 and we were saying vows that same December. He’s been my best friend since the moment we met. We moved around our first few years of marriage with our two pups, he settled into his career and I jumped jobs as we jumped houses. I started a degree in accounting and I still work in accounting but never finished the degree. Just the two of us, life was pretty good. We bought a house in 2017 and renovated it top to bottom, painted the extra bedrooms, and bought the cars with 4 doors. Now me, I’ve dreamed of motherhood since I can remember. It’s all I’ve ever wanted. I’ve asked for a baby every day of our marriage. It’s who I am and I don’t plan on changing any time soon. By the time we bought our first house, we felt ready to start our family and we stopped trying not to, if you catch my drift. Nothing changed that year and so by the beginning of 2018, instead of just not trying not to get pregnant, we started actually trying to get pregnant. And we did. I carried our first baby for 8 weeks. At our first appointment, there was no heartbeat and we said goodbye to that first baby. Later that week, a tree fell on our house and put a really nice hole in it. God worked that together to get us a new roof and all was well. We got pregnant again and I carried that baby for 8 weeks before we said goodbye once again. I felt pretty broken at that point but was determined to stay hopeful. We kept trying and months and months went by with a lot of negative tests and a lot of tears. I had heard of people struggling to get pregnant but I didn’t know anyone personally who had ever been through it and no one close to me had ever had a miscarriage. So I felt very alone. I woke up every morning that year to Justin taking my temperature as we tried to pinpoint ovulation and watched my doctor type “frequent miscarriages” into my chart and the life I had envisioned for my family felt shattered. But, just before the end of 2018, I got a positive pregnancy test. The timing of this was a story all on its’ own so I’ll save that for its’ own post but we were pregnant! The third little life to form in me and within a week, it had taken over. It was a miserable pregnancy but it brought us our first baby girl, Madeleine, we call her Lena, in July 2019. She was born by emergency c-section after an induction gone wrong and, trust me, I’ll dig into that too. While we enjoyed the bliss of her first months after a couple of REALLY hard years waiting for her, I guess we thought it’d always be that hard because, SURPRISE! 4 months later I was pregnant again. After a much easier pregnancy and leaving the medical maternal care system, I had my second baby girl, my frank breech VBAC babe, Wynnie Clair, at a birth center in September 2020, less than 14 months after my first was born! Her story is a good one, our absolute little miracle. You can find it from beginning to end in other posts. She started her own way and she hasn’t changed! So, two under two, that’s a good time. Honestly, I loved it. It was a hard year. I’ve never been so exhausted. I nursed Lena through my pregnancy with Wynnie and tandem nursed once Wynnie arrived and until #3 was on the way. I wouldn’t change a thing about it but I’m also very glad to be past that transition. At the peak of exhaustion with the tandem nursing journey, Wynnie was 8 months old, and my MIL told us she thought I was pregnant again. We thought no way, we’ve been careful. But not careful enough because that week we saw a second line! After letting that settle in for about a week, we decided we needed a bigger house and we needed to sell while the market was at its’ high. So my oldest turned 2, the next day our little home went up for sale, we actually found an absolute GEM in the market, our offer was accepted, our house sold, and a couple weeks later, we packed up our first home, and moved to where we are now, our “little bit of everything” place, and started preparing for 3 under 3! Annistyn Cole was born in our bedroom in March 2022 and was the perfect addition to our fast growing family. We’ve spent that last year really getting settled here, with a few big renovations and a lot of family time. We’ve added chickens, and ducks, and turkeys, and a cat, we’re planning a garden for this Spring, and we’re embracing everything we’re learning. It’s been a crazy few years. A hard start but so many beautiful blessings in so little time. We have kind of stopped “planning” our family at this point. we don’t know exactly how many children we want, we’ve always wanted a big family, and I think when we’re done, we’ll know and not until then. We had our 3rd miscarriage this last Fall and that was really hard after having healthy children. There are so many feelings and it was a rollercoaster. We have lost as many as we’ve held. I feel privileged to hold life in the way only a mother can. I got to carry our angel babies every moment of their earthly lives. I’ll know them someday, and until then I’ll love on the growing family climbing on me like a jungle gym right here. It’s just begun. It’s been a crazy ride so far, there’s so much more I don’t know yet. But I’ll keep writing it as it’s written for me. Look around, because there’s so much in between the lines right here. We are blessed beyond measure. Full hands, as anyone in public will eagerly point out, but they don’t know how much fuller our hearts.