Top 10 of 2010
At this time last year we had high expectations for 2010. There was a lot to look forward to, namely frogs, snails, and puppy dog tails. But as it turned out, the year had a few surprises for us in the form of sugar, spice, and everything nice. So, without further delay, here's a recap of our Top 10 of 2010, in chronological order.
Kissing the O'Neill Blarney Stone (January)
2010 got off to quite a start, though it wasn't exactly the start we had in mind (or had planned and prepared for during the final months of 2009). On January 14 we packed up the car and drove to Nebraska thinking that our lives were about to change. The result of that weekend in O'Neill, NE was life-altering, but in more of a 'refiner's fire' sort of way. Nonetheless, the experiences we had in O'Neill (both good and bad) will always be sacred to our family. Patience is a virtue, but it's not an easy one to come by sometimes.
Baseball Trip to Phoenix (March)
At the end of March, we flew to Phoenix and met up with the entire Reynolds family to see my baby brother Marc play in a baseball tournament. My parents, Weston, Missy, and Ellie; Cameron and his then-fiancee Leila; and Grandma Reynolds all met us at the airport. It was a great trip. The tournament could have gone better, but the weather was amazing, and we even got to spend a few extra days in Arizona visiting the Baumans in Thatcher over Easter weekend. We had so much fun that I think we should make it a sort of family reunion. Soon there won't be any more high school baseball tournaments to go see (which is hard to believe, since my parents are entering their 12th season over the past 17 years), but there's always baseball in Arizona in the Spring. I'm thinking we need to do this again every other year and go to a few Spring Training games as a family. Any takers?
Another June Bride (June)
Oh, they say when you marry in June
You're a bride all your life.
And the bridegroom who marries in June
Gets a sweetheart for a wife.
The Reynolds family tradition continued with another June marriage. This time it was Cameron and his sweetheart Leila on the 19th. We were lucky enough to fly in to Salt Lake City for the occasion. It's always wonderful to attend a live temple sealing. I am always happy for the couple and to be reminded of our own marriage ceremony. With the addition of Leila to the family, the number of girls equaled the number of boys in the Reynolds clan (the balance of which was later swung to the female side, but we'll get to that in a second).
Stake Pioneer Trek (June)
Our summer was pretty busy. The weekend after Cameron and Leila's wedding, we celebrated our own anniversary...on the plains of Nebraska, dressed in pioneer clothes. Brooke and I were asked to be a Ma and Pa for our Stake's Pioneer Trek for Youth Conference. It wasn't exactly how I wanted to spend our anniversary, fighting off mosquitoes and 'sleeping' in a tent, but when the Lord calls, we answer.
Trek was a great experience for us. As far as the physicality of our Trek, it was a pretty tame journey. But as we finished up and were greeted by Brother Brigham in the Salt Lake Valley, I couldn't help but think of our own spiritual trek, wondering where we were along the trail. It can be difficult not knowing how much further we have to go, but the important thing is to have faith and keep pushing forward. The end will come, and the destination is always worth the price of the journey.
Driving Home from Salt Lake City (July)
As it turned out, the end of a personal trek was just around the corner. It wasn't long after Trek that I had the impression to again ask for your fasting and prayers on our behalf so that we might be blessed with a child.
Less than two weeks later, we were in Salt Lake City for a conference at work. I was eating breakfast in the ballroom of the downtown Sheraton, when my phone rang. It was Sam, our adoption agent. He called to tell us we had been chosen and our baby was being born that afternoon—in Overland Park, KS, only 20 minutes from our house, but about 1,100 miles from where we were at that moment. We said goodbye to my co-workers, and my family, and started for Kansas City. We were somewhere in Wyoming when we learned our baby girl had been born. Around 4:00am the next day (about 15 hours later), we pulled into the driveway, threw our stuff on the floor, and collapsed in our bed.
Savannah Natalie Reynolds (July)
Of course the biggest event of the past year was our precious daughter Savannah. We slept for a few hours after our drive back to Kansas City, and when we woke up we drove to the hospital to meet her and her angel birthmother Imma. Savannah was born on a Thursday, and Saturday afternoon she and Imma were discharged from the hospital. Watching Imma lovingly place her in our arms outside the main entrance of the hospital was one of the most selfless acts I've ever witnessed. As we drove away with our daughter in the back seat, we were overcome with emotion. We had to stay at a friend's house in Kansas until we were cleared to return to Missouri, and when we got there we laid our miracle Savannah on the bed, dropped to our knees and thanked our Father in Heaven that our prayers had been answered.
New Jobs (July and August)
When Savannah joined our family, Brooke quit her job as the principal's secretary at Blue Valley Middle School and took on her new responsibilities as a mother. We had always planned that when we had kids, she would stay home with them. We knew it would stretch us financially, going from two mouths to feed on two incomes to three mouths on one income, but we determined that it wasn't our brilliant idea, it was the Lord's. We trusted that we would find a way to get by. Brooke called her employer Monday morning (remember that we had found out we would be parents on Thursday while on vacation) and told them that we got a baby and Tuesday would be her last day. Less than 24 hours later, I received an email from a friend telling me to get a portfolio ready because he knew of a job opening for a designer on his team at work. I finished it in a day, and sent him the link. A week later I had a phone interview. The following week I interviewed with a pair of superiors, and a week after that, I had a job offer (a low-ball offer, but an offer all the same). After thinking it over that weekend, I countered their offer on Monday. They came back with a final offer that afternoon, and suddenly we found ourselves in a much better financial situation.
Both of our new jobs have been challenging, but Brookie's more so than mine. I have had to go to work after having had the blessing of working from home for four years for WGU, but Brookie has had the more difficult transition. She does an amazing job raising Savannah, and I'm grateful for everything she does for our family. She has also begun to realize the tremendous talent she has for being a home economist.
Court Date (September)
Although we wouldn't mind if our next child is born in Hawaii or Arizona, thus forcing us to spend a few weeks in those states waiting for paperwork to clear, we also wouldn't mind if all of our children are born in the great state of Kansas. Not long after Savannah was born, our adoption agent phoned to tell us some good news: Kansas adoptions are finalized between 30 and 60 days after placement. We had been told that it would be six months before we could go to court, as per the policy in Missouri. We were thrilled to learn that Savannah would be legally ours much sooner than that. Our Court Date with Savannah was Monday, September 13, 2010–a day we plan to annually recognize by having lunch at the Olive Garden, as we did that day after the judge declared that Savannah Natalie Reynolds to legally be our daughter.
Temple Sealing Weekend (September)
Having our adoption finalized in court earlier than expected was a wonderful blessing, but an even bigger blessing was finding out that we had been granted permission to take Savannah to the temple to be sealed to us once she was legally ours. To help put this in perspective, had we needed to wait six months like we presumed, we would now be anticipating her six-month birthday three weeks from now. It was a wonderful blessing to be able to seal Savannah to our family. We were very fortunate to have been surrounded by so many loved ones on that special day. We had friends and family there from Utah, Arizona, Missouri, Indiana, and Illinois. We love eternal families. We felt like Savannah's adoption wasn't fully "finalized" until she was sealed to us for time and all eternity. When that day finally came, we felt a great burden lifted off our shoulders. It was the culmination of the entire two-year experience of our first adoption. Our day in the temple in St. Louis was a day we will never forget. Our prayers (and yours) had been answered, and we had a family.
Utah in December
Having had our Temple sealing performed in the St. Louis temple, there were still many members of our family that had not met our daughter Savannah. We were able to introduce her to almost all of her aunts, uncles, cousins, second-cousins, and great grandparents when we went to Utah for a week at the beginning of December. It seemed like nearly every second of our trip was scheduled as we tried to spend time with both sides of our families living in the Beehive State. We also celebrated Christmas early with the Reynolds family at my parents house. We were barely able to fit everything in our suitcases when we came home. It's always a good time when we're able to see our families.
There you have it…
After a bit of a shaky start, 2010 turned out to be just as exciting as we thought it was going to be. 2011 is shaping up to be a year of firsts for us–first words, first steps, first birthdays and more.
We are so grateful for all of our friends and family. We are getting to be quite spread out, literally from coast to coast, from South Carolina to California, Utah to Indiana, Arizona to Pennsylvania. We feel so blessed to have so many people in our lives that we can call our friends. Here's hoping 2011 brings more opportunities for us to cross paths.
Go to the board!
Kissing the O'Neill Blarney Stone (January)
2010 got off to quite a start, though it wasn't exactly the start we had in mind (or had planned and prepared for during the final months of 2009). On January 14 we packed up the car and drove to Nebraska thinking that our lives were about to change. The result of that weekend in O'Neill, NE was life-altering, but in more of a 'refiner's fire' sort of way. Nonetheless, the experiences we had in O'Neill (both good and bad) will always be sacred to our family. Patience is a virtue, but it's not an easy one to come by sometimes.
Baseball Trip to Phoenix (March)
At the end of March, we flew to Phoenix and met up with the entire Reynolds family to see my baby brother Marc play in a baseball tournament. My parents, Weston, Missy, and Ellie; Cameron and his then-fiancee Leila; and Grandma Reynolds all met us at the airport. It was a great trip. The tournament could have gone better, but the weather was amazing, and we even got to spend a few extra days in Arizona visiting the Baumans in Thatcher over Easter weekend. We had so much fun that I think we should make it a sort of family reunion. Soon there won't be any more high school baseball tournaments to go see (which is hard to believe, since my parents are entering their 12th season over the past 17 years), but there's always baseball in Arizona in the Spring. I'm thinking we need to do this again every other year and go to a few Spring Training games as a family. Any takers?
Another June Bride (June)
Oh, they say when you marry in June
You're a bride all your life.
And the bridegroom who marries in June
Gets a sweetheart for a wife.
The Reynolds family tradition continued with another June marriage. This time it was Cameron and his sweetheart Leila on the 19th. We were lucky enough to fly in to Salt Lake City for the occasion. It's always wonderful to attend a live temple sealing. I am always happy for the couple and to be reminded of our own marriage ceremony. With the addition of Leila to the family, the number of girls equaled the number of boys in the Reynolds clan (the balance of which was later swung to the female side, but we'll get to that in a second).
Stake Pioneer Trek (June)
Our summer was pretty busy. The weekend after Cameron and Leila's wedding, we celebrated our own anniversary...on the plains of Nebraska, dressed in pioneer clothes. Brooke and I were asked to be a Ma and Pa for our Stake's Pioneer Trek for Youth Conference. It wasn't exactly how I wanted to spend our anniversary, fighting off mosquitoes and 'sleeping' in a tent, but when the Lord calls, we answer.
Trek was a great experience for us. As far as the physicality of our Trek, it was a pretty tame journey. But as we finished up and were greeted by Brother Brigham in the Salt Lake Valley, I couldn't help but think of our own spiritual trek, wondering where we were along the trail. It can be difficult not knowing how much further we have to go, but the important thing is to have faith and keep pushing forward. The end will come, and the destination is always worth the price of the journey.
Driving Home from Salt Lake City (July)
As it turned out, the end of a personal trek was just around the corner. It wasn't long after Trek that I had the impression to again ask for your fasting and prayers on our behalf so that we might be blessed with a child.
Less than two weeks later, we were in Salt Lake City for a conference at work. I was eating breakfast in the ballroom of the downtown Sheraton, when my phone rang. It was Sam, our adoption agent. He called to tell us we had been chosen and our baby was being born that afternoon—in Overland Park, KS, only 20 minutes from our house, but about 1,100 miles from where we were at that moment. We said goodbye to my co-workers, and my family, and started for Kansas City. We were somewhere in Wyoming when we learned our baby girl had been born. Around 4:00am the next day (about 15 hours later), we pulled into the driveway, threw our stuff on the floor, and collapsed in our bed.
Savannah Natalie Reynolds (July)
Of course the biggest event of the past year was our precious daughter Savannah. We slept for a few hours after our drive back to Kansas City, and when we woke up we drove to the hospital to meet her and her angel birthmother Imma. Savannah was born on a Thursday, and Saturday afternoon she and Imma were discharged from the hospital. Watching Imma lovingly place her in our arms outside the main entrance of the hospital was one of the most selfless acts I've ever witnessed. As we drove away with our daughter in the back seat, we were overcome with emotion. We had to stay at a friend's house in Kansas until we were cleared to return to Missouri, and when we got there we laid our miracle Savannah on the bed, dropped to our knees and thanked our Father in Heaven that our prayers had been answered.
New Jobs (July and August)
When Savannah joined our family, Brooke quit her job as the principal's secretary at Blue Valley Middle School and took on her new responsibilities as a mother. We had always planned that when we had kids, she would stay home with them. We knew it would stretch us financially, going from two mouths to feed on two incomes to three mouths on one income, but we determined that it wasn't our brilliant idea, it was the Lord's. We trusted that we would find a way to get by. Brooke called her employer Monday morning (remember that we had found out we would be parents on Thursday while on vacation) and told them that we got a baby and Tuesday would be her last day. Less than 24 hours later, I received an email from a friend telling me to get a portfolio ready because he knew of a job opening for a designer on his team at work. I finished it in a day, and sent him the link. A week later I had a phone interview. The following week I interviewed with a pair of superiors, and a week after that, I had a job offer (a low-ball offer, but an offer all the same). After thinking it over that weekend, I countered their offer on Monday. They came back with a final offer that afternoon, and suddenly we found ourselves in a much better financial situation.
Both of our new jobs have been challenging, but Brookie's more so than mine. I have had to go to work after having had the blessing of working from home for four years for WGU, but Brookie has had the more difficult transition. She does an amazing job raising Savannah, and I'm grateful for everything she does for our family. She has also begun to realize the tremendous talent she has for being a home economist.
Court Date (September)
Although we wouldn't mind if our next child is born in Hawaii or Arizona, thus forcing us to spend a few weeks in those states waiting for paperwork to clear, we also wouldn't mind if all of our children are born in the great state of Kansas. Not long after Savannah was born, our adoption agent phoned to tell us some good news: Kansas adoptions are finalized between 30 and 60 days after placement. We had been told that it would be six months before we could go to court, as per the policy in Missouri. We were thrilled to learn that Savannah would be legally ours much sooner than that. Our Court Date with Savannah was Monday, September 13, 2010–a day we plan to annually recognize by having lunch at the Olive Garden, as we did that day after the judge declared that Savannah Natalie Reynolds to legally be our daughter.
Temple Sealing Weekend (September)
Having our adoption finalized in court earlier than expected was a wonderful blessing, but an even bigger blessing was finding out that we had been granted permission to take Savannah to the temple to be sealed to us once she was legally ours. To help put this in perspective, had we needed to wait six months like we presumed, we would now be anticipating her six-month birthday three weeks from now. It was a wonderful blessing to be able to seal Savannah to our family. We were very fortunate to have been surrounded by so many loved ones on that special day. We had friends and family there from Utah, Arizona, Missouri, Indiana, and Illinois. We love eternal families. We felt like Savannah's adoption wasn't fully "finalized" until she was sealed to us for time and all eternity. When that day finally came, we felt a great burden lifted off our shoulders. It was the culmination of the entire two-year experience of our first adoption. Our day in the temple in St. Louis was a day we will never forget. Our prayers (and yours) had been answered, and we had a family.
Utah in December
Having had our Temple sealing performed in the St. Louis temple, there were still many members of our family that had not met our daughter Savannah. We were able to introduce her to almost all of her aunts, uncles, cousins, second-cousins, and great grandparents when we went to Utah for a week at the beginning of December. It seemed like nearly every second of our trip was scheduled as we tried to spend time with both sides of our families living in the Beehive State. We also celebrated Christmas early with the Reynolds family at my parents house. We were barely able to fit everything in our suitcases when we came home. It's always a good time when we're able to see our families.
There you have it…
After a bit of a shaky start, 2010 turned out to be just as exciting as we thought it was going to be. 2011 is shaping up to be a year of firsts for us–first words, first steps, first birthdays and more.
We are so grateful for all of our friends and family. We are getting to be quite spread out, literally from coast to coast, from South Carolina to California, Utah to Indiana, Arizona to Pennsylvania. We feel so blessed to have so many people in our lives that we can call our friends. Here's hoping 2011 brings more opportunities for us to cross paths.
Go to the board!
Hooray! What a year!
ReplyDeleteI loved this sweet post. We wish we lived closer to see you guys and Savannah more. Every time Bannock sees a picture of her (we have her birth announcement on our fridge and he likes to read blogs over my shoulder) he gets excited and says, "baby!" and tries to grab her. It's darling.
ReplyDeletegreat post. makes it even harder to be in california. next year we need a byu win over utah to make the list.
ReplyDelete