Coming Out With It

So over the past several months (or year...whoops) you've probably noticed that I am not blogging very much. A lot of it has to do with family changes and just being plain busy. But I have to be honest, the main reason has been because I haven't felt the freedom to share about the biggest thing going on in our family really since last December! So...today I'm finally able to come out with it! WE ARE GOING TO AUSTRIA! It's official folks, we are Austria bound in a very big way. We have a web site- chadwicksinaustria.org which outlines a lot of information about why Austria and why us and what we'll doing there. We are also in the midst of finishing up with the sending of our support letters (but the huge bulk of them are already out) which is why I feel like the timing is good to blog about our happenings. I don't really have much more to say than that right now, but just wanted to announce in another big way that it's really happening and we're excited about the journey back to that side of the sea. Still have lots to figure out in terms of blogging over there versus here or linking them up and all that jazz but for now I just wanted to share our news.

Family Update

It's been a while. I mean Asher is almost 4 months old. I can't belive how fast the time flies by. Not really sure where to begin, so I'll just give a quick rundown of what we're all up to and follow that up with some pics.

Ellison- Ellison started Kindergarten! She is going to Fideles for 2 full days a week and the other 3 we get to teach her from home. The first 2 weeks were a little tough but this week has really turned around and I'm so glad we made the decision to do this. She is very creative and this allows her plenty of time to do Piano (with Ian's mom) and DRAW which the girl loves! Also the structure that the school helps provide has made it fun to learn and we're constantly doing things to help drive home what she's learning in books..even at Target. So this has been a huge win for our family. She also learned to swim this year and we are really proud of our girl.
Jude- Just turned 3 last week. It's like a little switch went off overnight with him. He is talking a lot more and definitely holding his own. One of the coolest things we've seen in him is that he seems to really be connecting some dots about God. What a cool thing it's been to see. He memorized his verse for this month in record time and from his little preschool reports he is doing a good job praying in class too. He is a very determined little guy and we are still working on reigning him in but we are also just enjoying the fun that he brings to our home!
Asher- A little social guy. Man he really loves people. He enjoys looking at everything and gets a little upset when someone is not paying full attention to him. It's not enough to have you near, you've got to be looking in his face. He's doing a good job eating and sleeping and really loves to pull at toys hanging above him. We are all enjoying him and have decided he is for sure a keeper :-).
Me- Staying super busy! We just came off of a crazy time at work where we promote all of our kids up to the next grade. Tons of changes and things to keep track of but I'm glad I survived. I am really enjoying school time with Ellison and feel like I'm finally getting into somewhat of a rythym with mommying 3. I'm really wanting to start sewing and running again so I'm hoping that I can figure out where to fit those in.
Ian- Ian has been taking a German class every Monday night. He is really enjoying it and is constantly playing a German CD in his car. The kids love to ride with him now! He's still working for ista and really likes the team of people that's he with. He had a company soccer trip to Germany back in June and is always organizing a sporting event of some type for work.


Here are some pics of our crew :-).




Ellison's first day of school.



Silly Jude celebrating his b-day in class.



Happy Asher.

1 Month Old

Asher turned 1 month old yesterday! It's crazy how quickly the time flies by. With a few minutes to spare I wanted to write about our transition.

Overall he is a really sweet baby. We love to hold him and may have created a bit of a monster already because it seems that he really loves to be held as well. Ellison and Jude both jump at the chance to do anything to help with him. They are doing GREAT at being older siblings.

Asher is waking up about every 3 hours to eat during the day and in the nights he does a couple of 4 hour stretches. I'm finding that I'm very anxious for him to drop that 2/3 AM feeding but I keep reminding myself that he's only 4 weeks old :-). He had some promising long stretches in the beginning, but I think he's settled in on a late night feeding, mid of the night and early morning. He is not very interested in his baby toys like a swing or bouncy but I've found that the miracle blanket comes in handy during the day. When he is swaddled he will tolerate the bouncy for 10-15 minutes. That makes it tough to get things done honestly. Thankfully we've had a lot of help with meals and some play dates for Ellison and Jude as well. For the month of June we are all at home all day together. I'm looking forward to it, but I know it's not going to be easy to juggle everything.

This month has been filled with lots of emotion for me. I really soak up the moments that we get to nurse in the quiet. I look at Asher and realize what an absolute blessing it is to have him here and healthy. It still amazes me that he grew inside of my womb. What a miracle!! There have been moments where I've had to laugh as all 3 of them are needing something and there's only 1 me. I've counted down the minutes on the clock till Ian gets home on many a days and have been more worn out physically and emotionally than I've ever been in my life. There are times when I feel like I can't give another thing. Period.

With all of these emotions, however, I'm thankful for the little reminders of what a small window I have with Asher...for that matter with all of our kids. With Jude's time in the NICU and in light of those around us who have faced tragic losses of little ones, it makes me so grateful for the opportunity to do this again. To have a healthy little baby. It does indeed make the nights more bearable as well as the showerless days and the moments when nothing but my arms will quiet his cry.

So to be honest, it has not been easy but there have been moments of joy in the midst of it all. Just this morning in church I was holding Asher as the worship leader sang "He love us, oh how he loves us." The tears were streaming as I was holding a little tangible reminder of what it means to be held in the arms of God, and to be loved by Him more than we can comprehend.

There you have it, one month under my belt as a mama of 3 :-).

Ballet Recital

Last night wrapped up Ellison's first year of Ballet. This was the moment she had been waiting on.... to be on the big stage and to get roses afterwards! Two years ago we went to her cousin's recital and ever since then she's been wanting to do this. We were prohibited from taking pictures during the performance but I just have to say that those little ones stole the show! They were all so cute and excited to be out there. We got some pictures from afterwards and of her getting on her make up before the show. It was a special night and my parents got to be there too because they'd come to town to meet Asher which made it even more special for her.

Welcome Asher

We are so thankful to welcome our son Asher Nelson Chadwick. We were all convinced that it was a girl this time around. Even the nurse in our pre-op room kept saying it's a girl because of the baby's heart rate. So...when they announced it was a boy we were all in shock. So much so that we took a second and rethought his name. The boy name was a tough decision for us from the on set this time. It's funny because the first two names we liked were Piper and Asher and in the end we landed on Asher again. Most recently we thought if we had a boy he'd be a Luke, but once we saw our little guy we weren't sure it fit. Asher means happy and blessed and we feel that my pregnancy and his birth have been such a blessing to our family. Here are a few pictures from the day of his birth.

Neutral Nursery

So for the first time since having children I have a designated nursery before the baby arrives. With Ellison we lived with family and then Jude came 5 weeks early and we barely had his crib up in Ellison's room. I guess 3rd times a charm :-). I've had a lot of fun putting stuff together. One of the questions that i've gotten is how do you do a nursery when you don't know the gender. Well in the pictures you'll see our attempt at that.

The best part is that God has totally provided everything here through borrowing or hand me downs or gifts. We have had very little out of pocket cost and I've still been able to make a little nest for this sweet gift!

9 days left.....

Nearing the End

Not sure if I have any readers left but....here goes nothing :-).

I am nearing the end of this pregnancy journey so I wanted to post some thoughts. I am so excited to meet this baby and we will have our first introduction in 18 short days. Here are a few random thoughts on how things have gone....

1. This has been a harder pregnancy physically than the others. I think the primary reason is because I have been taking care of Ellison and Jude. Ellison has really enjoyed her afternoon tv time while mom catches a nap, however.

2. This little one is incredibly active. I mean crazy movement!! This is for sure more than I remember with the other 2. I love it though because it's a reminder of what's going on.

3. Boy or Girl?? Ha I have no clue. I love hearing all the guesses of those around me. The overwhelming majority of people are saying boy, but I keep thinking girl for some reason. I've been wrong on my guess both other times so....

4. We have a nursery ready! This is the first time we've ever been able to do this and I've had a lot of fun. We were living with Ian's parents when Ellison came and little Jude decided to come 5 weeks early. I went into labor the night that we put his crib together. So I have really enjoyed getting things ready ahead of time.

5. I'm really looking forward to maternity leave. It gives me permission to completely stop...everything and I'm really excited about having some down time with all 3 children and watching this new little one become a part of our family.

6. I'm praying Big for a healthy baby that will come home when I get released from the hospital. That is truly a gift and I didn't fully realize that until I had to walk away from the hospital without our baby boy. So I'm really praying that we will be the norm this time.

That's really all that I can think of right now. Just really excited to meet this baby and to see how our kids react to another sibling.

Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Hello Friends!

It's been far too long since my last post but a bit of normalcy has returned so here we go. There is so much that I can update about since it's been ages since my last post but here are a few new happenings in the lives of the Chadwicks.

1. We moved! That's right... the weekend before Thanksgiving we changed residence. It was not really by choice, but as always God provided and we are settling in nicely. There are so many stories of his provision and faithfulness all wrapped up in this one story, but I just want to say...YAY God. We decided to put the kids in their own rooms because the sleeping together was getting out of hand at our last place and led to much earlier wake ups than we wanted. So far things are working out nicely and everyone is happy in their rooms.

2. December was such a great month! We started a some new traditions this year and got to spend so much more time just hanging out as a family. One of the highlights of the month was taking Ellison to see The Princess and the Frog. Man she lit up! She loved every minute of it and I had more fun watching her giggle and smile than seeing the movie itself. She has been asking for us to go on a date and this proved to be such a special time for the both of us. Christmas Eve and morning were very memorable too. The funniest story is that Ellison has been asking for a double stroller since October. So we took her to see Santa and that was all she asked for once again. So we knew that it had to be downstairs when she woke up. About 10PM on Christmas Eve we go to open the box to the stroller and there are 2 wheels missing!!! This led to me running up the stairs in tears and Ian and Marcel headed out the door to find some sort of makeshift replacement. The boys came through and Ellison did not know the difference on Christmas morning.

3. The Beard. Because my friend Allison asked me to please document this I did. I will attempt to post some pictures below but unfortunately I still am not the best at getting the pictures in the right order with captions. This is now a December tradition (according to Ian) but he goes from a full beard to clean shaven in 4 days. The final day is hilarious.

4. Baby #3. We are all very excited about the baby coming in May. Although my due date says the 12th of May, I'm measuring for the 5th at this point. They will determine my c-section date in March. I'm feeling movement and we even got to see my belly move for the first time 2 nights ago!! The verdict is still out on names and we actually haven't really had any major discussion about it yet. Hopefully we'll land on a good one.

For the sake of this post not being too long, I'll end it there. I hope you enjoyed your holidays as well. I look forward to sharing more timely updates now that life is settling in again.

Day 1-Full Beard (sorry hard to see)

Day 2 (This is my favorite of the days)

Day 3 (hmmmm)

Day 4 (This is just funny)