Catchin' up with the Blacks: December & January

It's been awhile, but we are still here I promise! I can't believe that January is already over, and considering today is the last day of the month and so much has happened I thought I better record it!

If we travel back in time about six weeks, you would have found me extremely excited to be turning in my first graduate school paper. It turned out to be 35 pages of my heart and soul. Right after that Daren and I wrapped up finals, I had my Christmas Classroom festivities and then we packed up and headed for sunny California.

We had an adventurous ride down. Idaho had some pretty intense snowfall the day we left and we got run off the road. It was a good thing we took the truck. Daren's super human driving capabilities helped him drive side-ways for about 100 yards in the ditch and then helped pull us out and keep on truckin'. If we would have been in the car we would have been out of luck for hours.

After hours and hours and hours of driving in snow we finally got to Mom and Dad Black's house. We had a really nice time. It was a little different because we were such a small group this Christmas, but we had a really good time. It was just Mom, Dad, Quinn, Lance, Boyd, Sarise, Jacob, and us.

Sarise and I got lots of time with Mom. We cooked a lot and had a really nice time visiting. Daren's dad shared lots of insight on the economy with us and gave us a link to this really interesting economist : http://www.chrismartenson.com/crashcourse We watched Christ Martenson's Crash Course on the economy and were floored by how little we actually knew but were amazed how much we agree with. Our country is in for an wild ride.

I got in lots of baby time with my new nephew Jacob and I totally relished holding Sarise's baby the whole week. He is just about the cutest little guy ever. Definitely right up there with my other 40-some other nieces and nephews.


It is so nice to have my BFF as a sister in law... I can not thank Boyd enough for having the sense to go after this one. We had a blast kicking back together and playing. I got to take Sarise to one of my old California teen-age stomping grounds-- Ontario Mills. It is a gigantic mall and a very fun place to find treasures of all kinds. Our most Ironic purchase? Two pairs of snow boots. I think is so funny that we had such a difficult time finding what we want in snow country (Idaho & Utah) and when we drive to CA we find exactly what we want. Supply and demand I guess.

Another things Sarise and I did was crochet. I have always wanted to learn how to make those cute little bibs, burp cloths, and blankies. Well I learned and I like it. I still can't do anything really fancy, but the ones I made are kind of cute. Sarise made a really cute froggy bib for little Frogger. Again. Cutest little guy ever.


Daren had a really good time with his brothers. They were able to tear up the countryside paint balling. Daren LOVED it! He came home totally bruised, but can't wait to do it again.


This was a really good chance for Daren to get to hang out with his brothers like this. Boyd is going to head off to grad school in the fall and we aren't sure just how much more time they will get like this for a few years.

It was also fun to get to hang out with Quinn and Lance. Quinn is thinking about coming up to BYU-I. We hope he does so we will get to see lots more of him!



When we got home from California, we picked our dog Chooch up from his buddy's house. Our neighbors have a big lab named Rusty and they so kindly watch him and checked on our cats while we were gone. Chooch was so sad and lonely after we brought him home. Chooch loves playing and wrestling with other dogs. We definitely had started thinking about getting another dog for Chooch to play with this summer.


WELL... after a trip to Broulims, the next summer thing was not going to work anymore. They had 11 puppies in front of the grocery store and Daren (of course) got pick of the litter. She is a super cute lab-akita-mut mix. Her brothers and sisters looked a lot different, but she was a super cutie and therefore became ours.

So just to clear up speculation on our zoo, we now have 5 pets: 3 cats and 2 dogs. Crazy, we know, but we wouldn't get rid of any of them. Our babies are Sal, Tibbs, Oscar, Chooch and our newest edition: Chicka.



This month we finished up our fertility testing. It sucked. But it was eye-opening. It is kind of funny when I think about all of the furballs we have adopted, but maybe in all actuality it was to prepare us for a reality I never really expected for us. It turns out that we will most likely never be able to conceive a child of our own. It was really, really, really, hard to acccept that for a few days. But the peace that the Lord sends you when you are on the right track is wonderful. It is so nice not to be stressing about when and how anymore. It is like I have let go of the million pound weights I have been holding on to for the past 3 1/2 years. And to be truly honest, I am very excited now.

We have options. We know our possibilities. One of the Doctors we were seeing told us that there was nothing we could do to reverse the condition and that was it. We have done some research on the internet and found that it is possible, if the conditions are right to get pregnant through a procedure called ICSI paired with IVF, but the success rates are about 20-30% per attempt. And basically this is out of our affordability, fertility procedures are astronomically pricey. We aren't saying we are never going to try it. We just aren't going to throw our finances out the window for something that "could happen". If we are financially able to later on I think we will try this, but for now I think what we are going to focus on is miracles.

I think if the Lord wants us to be parents, it will happen. There is a miracle in store for us whether it is a biological baby of our own, or a birth mother who loves their child so much that she would give her baby up to parents who would care for and adore her forever. Daren and I want to be parents, so we are doing our part to study everything out and figure out our options.
This is the exciting part-- We are going to start looking into adoption!!! I am ecstatic. I am smiling so much my cheeks hurt. We are going to an orientation on February 12 to learn more with LDS family services. We aren't exactly sure when we will embark on the whole adoption journey, but we are starting to get ready for the trip!

Life is good. We are happy. We have all the blessings we need right now to enjoy and blessings to look forward to.