- March is busy. I do four special events in three weeks at work and go to Blissdom. Markus is studying 20-25 hours a week for the PE exam on top of a full work week. It's humming but it's steady.
- April 12: Markus takes the PE exam. We are so glad things can go back to normal.
- April 17: The fertilizer plant in West explodes and I am working late hours and going back and forth from the Waco area. It is one of the most challenging and emotionally difficult things I've ever done.
- May 15: Markus returns from a work trip to Arkansas around 7:00 p.m. We are excited to get to relax. We are close to the 30 days post West and things are calming down. By 9:30 p.m., we are in the bathroom with bike helmets on while I bang out emergency emails. We have multiple tornadoes touching down in DFW. I will spend the next 10 consecutive days working in Fort Worth and/or Granbury in the debris fields.
- May 25: I am wrapping my personal work on the tornado outbreak and walking out the door to head back to Dallas. Markus texts me. He passed the PE!
- May 26: Markus gets an offer to work in Little Rock, Arkansas. We are moving! I am excited for us, but also sad about leaving Dallas. Markus buys me this art piece as a thank you for going along and to celebrate.
- June 4: The offer details don't work for us as much as we anticipated, and we're staying in Dallas. I make no mention of returning the art.
- June 12: I am asked by a company I really love to come interview for a marketing position with them.
- June 25: I have an offer for a new company! Yay! But saying goodbye to my former job becomes harder every time I think about it.
- July 18: My first job makes me a very generous counter offer to stay. Cue gut wrenching decision time.
- July 26: After a lot of thought and thinking what is best for everyone, I have my last day with my former employer and am looking towards the future.
Sounds a little busy and uncertain looking back! But there is one more thread I forgot to add. Three, 3-6 hour long interviews with a social worker, new cabinet safety locks all over our house with matching fire extinguishers and the largest stack of paperwork I've seen since our home closing. Everything wraps up on a home study during the last week of June. We leave for our family vacation in Belize knowing that we will be adopting a baby this year!
WE ARE HAVING A BABY!
So there is everything in the past that I wanted to say but logistically wasn't quite able or ready to. Every small detail felt like the bottom of a house of cards, where there was no way to fully share the impact of one story line without explaining how much it affected everything else going on. Thank you for letting me keep it light while I worked out what life looked like next.
We've been all over the map for the past few months, and it is interesting to me to see how every single experience I listed above needed to happen for me to know a good thing when I see it, like staying in Dallas (duh! best city ever!) for Markus' career, starting a new chapter with my own work and getting ready for everything that comes with being first time parents.
After lots of confusing and, at many times, difficult decisions, Markus and I are really happy with where we are right now in our lives. We are thrilled to know that we will get a call one day to meet our birth mother and bring home a precious baby.
Some final details:
We do not know specifically when we will be placed with our baby, but most signs point to within a year. This is definitely going to be a roller coaster of information and emotions. For many times I thought it would be easier to post an announcement with a baby at home, dramatics and confusion behind us. But I by nature am a transparent person, and I'm hoping by being open with where we are in the process and the ups and downs along the way, I can process things in real time with you and perhaps even be a support to someone in a similar position as me. I doubt it will be a perfect story, but it will be ours and I find value in sharing it as it unfolds and is appropriate.
My new job with that company I love? It is doing the regional marketing strategy for that happy place of mine - Flywheel Sports! To say I am excited is an understatement.
The mention of the mini break. For the first time in my professional life, I have all of this week free in between my former and new job! Funemployment with the Type A who is already in baby nesting mode should make for some interesting projects.
So now you know everything I know! I am thankful for the past chapter and so happy to see how the next ones go. Life is about who you share it with. I could not be happier or more fortunate to share the next chapter with a loving spouse, supportive family and friends and everyone I have been lucky to meet from my little corner of the internet. More to come!
