Thursday, June 28, 2012

New Endeavors

With fundraising, motherhood, moving, preparing to start school and marriage, you would think that my life was pretty busy. But I (Tasha) was recently asked by my good friend to be a contributing writer for her website! I was so excited and honored!  After much prayer and consideration, Kevin and I decided that this was a great opportunity for me and we felt this was a blessing!

Leigh Ann and her husband Mark are personal friends of ours! In fact, the Dutton's are baby girl's god parents! Her website Intentional By Grace originally started as a personal blog and with God's help, it has become a successful website! The website is appealing to all people and is currently expanding! There are posts regarding health, recipes, motherhood, single life, marriage, and so much more. Kevin and I both subscribe to her site and enjoy reading everything she posts! Our "famous" granola recipe came from her site!

That being said, I will attempt to write a post once a month, Lord willing.  So, with each post I will place a link on our blog for your reading pleasure! I hope you enjoy her blog enough to subscribe as well and enjoy all the site has to offer.

Here is a link to my first post on her site: Why am I Afraid to Become a Mother?

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Ode to Motherhood

Here is a poem I wrote (while thinking of the book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie).
If you finish nursing your baby, you’re going to want to re-fasten your nursing top.
If you re-fasten your nursing top, you’re going to want to set the baby down on her nursing boppy.
If set the baby down on her nursing boppy, she’s going to spit up.
If the baby spits up on the nursing boppy, you’re going to want to clean her up.
If you clean the baby up, you’re going to want to set her on down on the bed on a clean burp cloth.
If you set the baby down on the bed, you’re going to want to clean her nursing boppy.
If you clean the baby’s nursing boppy, she’s going to spit up on the bed bypassing her burp cloth.
If the baby spits up on the bed, you’re going to want to clean her up.
If you clean the baby up, you’re going to want to set her up against a pillow on a clean burp cloth.
If you set the baby up against a pillow, you’re going to want to clean your bed.
If you clean up your bed, the baby’s going to spit up on the pillow bypassing her burp cloth.
If the baby spits up on the pillow, you’re going to want to clean her up.
If you clean the baby up, you’re going to want to set her on down on the blanket on a clean burp cloth.
If you set the baby down on a blanket, you’re going to want to clean up the pillow.
If you clean up your pillow, the baby’s going to spit up on the blanket bypassing her burp cloth.
If the baby spits up on your blanket, you’re going to want to clean her up.
If you clean the baby up, you’re going to want to sigh loudly to wake the husband.
If you sigh loudly to wake the husband, he will ignore you.
If the husband ignores your sighs, you’re going to want to poke him.
If you poke the husband, he’s going to wake up.
If the husband wakes up, you’re going to want to hand him the burp cloth and baby.
If you hand the husband the burp cloth and the baby, he’s going to want to burp the baby.
If the husband burps the baby, the baby is going to want to spit up.
If the baby spits up, you’re going to need more burp cloths as the baby cries in hunger.
If the baby cries in hunger, the husband is going to hand the baby back to nurse.
If the husband hands the baby back to nurse, you’re going to want to set up in bed.
If you set up in bed, you’re going to realize your bed, blanket, and pillow are wet.
If you realize your bed, blanket, and pillow are wet, you’re going to want to complain.
If you complain it will be at the sleeping husband while your baby finishes nursing.
If you finish nursing your baby, you’re going to want to re-fasten your nursing top.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Back to Work...

Monday was our first official day back to work. Kevin and I enjoyed our two weeks “off” getting to know our baby girl. I know many of you are shocked to see that we only had two weeks off after giving birth, but you have to realize, we don’t go into an office and carry normal banker hours of Monday thru Friday, 9 – 5. We do a lot of work from home making calls, we do a lot of work driving around to visit churches and make presentations, and we do a lot of relationship building by going to meet with other people.
All in all, I have to be honest…I can’t concentrate!!! It is so hard to focus on work when I have a sweet little baby who wants (NEEDS) my attention! Besides, who could resist this cute little baby?
I don’t know how single parents do this! I give kudos to my own widowed mother who raised three kids! I struggle with Kevin helping! I also don’t know how you moms can go back to work with a “normal” job and stay away from your precious angel that long. I want to tip my hat to all you single parents who take care of your child(ren) and to you parents who go back to work at a job that keeps you separated from your child(ren).
With that off my chest, I want to wish everyone a happy week and throw in a plug: As I write this, we only need 10 more partners at $25 per month and we will be fully funded!!!  If you are intereested in being a part of our support network and in integral part of this exciting ministry, please visit www.maf.org/spann for more information.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

May - June Update

Boy, May went out with a bang! Throughout the whole month we worked hard to try and get ahead: we visited as many churches as we could fit in, we met with as many people as possible, we tried to write as many blog posts for the future as we could, we read as many books as possible, and averaged 4 doctors appointments per week...whew! I am exhausted thinking about all the stuff we did, all while 9 months pregnant! Luckily, the Lord was with us and we accomplished much, including cleaning the house from top to bottom at least twice!
Now we are in June, for the most part, the doctors visits are over, we have an almost 2 week old, a dirty house, many unfinished books, a whole bunch of meetings with people and churches to set up, a bunch of blogs to write. Maybe it would just be easier to sell  the house and move to Canada.....

Speaking of Canada, we are making progress with our preparations for leaving. Our acceptance letter for the language school is on its way back to us, our visa paperwork is on the way, and the only thing holding us back is Adah's passport. According to the state of Tennessee, she doesn't exist yet, and won't for another week and a half. Then we have to wait another 3 to 4 weeks for her birth certificate to come in so we can finally send of her passport paperwork (which we will have to wait another 4 to 6 weeks to get-no pressure right?).  We did get the paperwork filled out and her picture taken. I am assuming everyone reading this has heard the phrase "let sleeping dogs lie". The same holds true for babies. It took us a while to wake her up, but once she did she let us know what she thought about it. Not to impressed.

The French Language school Fall semester begins September 6th, and the plan is to arrive in Sherbrooke Canada around the middle of August. The on campus housing has already filled up so we will be looking for an off campus apartment. From what we hear, the apartments that are fully furnished are few and far between, so we are exploring several options for furniture.

Praise God, Tasha's gestational diabetes was left in the delivery room, and her heart rate has been near perfect, even during labor! Adah's jaundice has steadily improved, so no more heel sticks or blood tests.

That's all my sleep deprived mind can remember now. Stay tuned for more!!

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Baby Update

One week ago, nearly to the hour, our little girl came into the world. Has it been a week already? We were able to return home from the hospital on Tuesday evening and have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know her. It has been fun trying to figure out where she got her ears, nose, and eyes from. It has been not as much fun, but every bit as rewarding, trying to figure out how to soothe her and make her want to sleep when we want her to.

Shortly after we arrived at the hospital early Sunday morning, my (Kevin) parents picked up our dog Cessna. She stayed there most of the week running around at the farm and getting to act like a dog. Yesterday we went to the farm so see my (Kevin) parents, get a little bit of sun (no more than 5 minutes or so) to help with a mild case of newborn jaundice (very common), and to introduce Cessna to the newest addition to our family.
Originally, taking Cessna back home wasn't going to happen for several more days, but as we were preparing to head home from the farm, she jumped in the front seat and would not get out. We figured we have gotten into enough of a groove as brand new parents, so we could try having a dog and a baby at the same time. Tasha sat in the back with the baby and Cessna rode in the front seat with me. Unfortunately for the dog, she weighs just enough to set the passenger seat belt warning off. In keeping with the Tennessee Department of Transporation regulations, and not wanting to disturb the babys' nap on the way home, we had to buckle her in. As you can see, she wasn't too thrilled. Safety first.
We hope you have a great week and look forward to updating you with more info!