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)

Halloween

Just wanted to share some pictures from Halloween. The kids had a great time. This year I ventured out and made Ellison's costume. It was so much fun for me and the fact that she loved it made it that much better. I used the pottery barn costume here as my inspiration.

Hope you had a good Halloween too!

Saying Good-bye

Just as quickly as he came Malik left our home today. We had a feeling that it could happen this week but after a mix up of court dates, and a positive meeting with his advocate, we weren't sure that he would leave. In some ways we were thinking the courts would change the course of action and somehow choose to keep him with us. DFACS called me at around 11AM this morning and said that the judge had granted guardianship to Ms. Jackson (a friend of Malik's family). I was told to have all of his things packed by 1:30. That was it.

My immediate reaction was one of deep sadness. On a number of levels really. Although it's been a difficult 3 months saying good-bye to Malik closed a chapter, (at least for now), in our lives. I feel sad because our hearts had hoped that he would become our son. He had already begun to bond with our kids and with us. He learned how to eat, crawl, cruise and stand while he lived in our home. He started talking and using da-da and ma-ma when we were around. Although we would pass on his scream :-) his squeels of delight were a joy to us all. I will really miss seeing him and having him as a part of the Chadwicks.

As I type my eyes and heart are so very full right now. Maybe I'm hoping that this will help to heal this sore spot that his absence has left. We prayed for Malik as a family before he left. We prayed that God would not forget him and that some day he would be a son of God. Honestly we have no regrets. We had a dream and went for it. It didn't work out the way we planned but we have to trust that we obeyed God and we pray that He was honored by the past 3 months of our lives.

Please pray for our family and mostly for Malik. His mother is currently not complying with her requirements to obtain custody of him. As always kids are resilliant, but Ian and I are sad. I know the sadness will go away and time will ease the ache, but today we just miss him and we are putting to rest the idea that he would be a part of us forever. At some point in our lives we do hope to be on this journey again, but for now it seems wisest for us all to wait.