It’s official!!!! Arie and Adele are finally legally ours!!! In the state of Michigan, even though they are biologically ours, they still see the birth mother as the legal guardian so they were born into this world as Tebos’ and we have had to adopt them. The official papers stating them as Terpstra’s now came in the mail yesterday and we are so happy to finally be able to officially and legally called them ours!

What a journey this has been! And we are so truly thankful to Whitney and Jordan! I still can’t believe it! Some days I still just look at them and say…..”You are mine”!!! God is so good and once again I have to say it….MY SISTER IS THE MOST SELFLESS, LOVING, CARING AND GIVING individual I know!!!!

So its hard to believe they are 14 weeks old already! It is going way to fast…..so fast that I haven’t been posting as many pictures as I’d like! Completely forgot to take pictures at 1 month and 3 months came around before I could upload and post their 2 month pictures! So its been a little busy to say the least but we are LOVING every minute of it!

STILL hard to believe this is all still not some big dream!!! So happy and so blessed:)

A lot of people have been asking and I haven’t been posting much, so here’s a recap of the last 3 months!

And I am still SO thankful and in awe of THIS GIRL right here! She is one amazing person and is right back to work and life and all that other fun stuff:)

Arie had surgery in mid July! For about 3-4 weeks he kept spitting up everything all the time and thought it was just really bad acid reflux, come to find out he had something called pyloric stenosis! His food wasn’t passing from the stomach to intestines, and he pretty much stopped gaining weight. So he had a minor surgery and then spent about 2 weeks playing catch up and eating around the clock and now he is finally gaining weight in other places besides his cheeks:)

And since this seems to be about the only family picture we have so far, here is one after their baptism from the end of July!

And thats the story for now! I don’t mean to bore anyone and I feel kinda dumb blogging about our life, but I have so many wonderful friends who really care and ask me all the time how everyone is doing so here ya go friends:)

So Arie Mark and Adele Whitney have already been here for 3 weeks and I thought I better share some newborn photos before they are actually a month old already!!! More to come….but I am so incredibly thankful that we serve such an amazing God and that I have such a loving, caring, selfless and awesome sister (and brother in law to put up with all this for 9 long months!)  Love them to pieces!

So they have arrive!!! This still seems like a dream to me I just still can’t believe it! Whitney is doing good and the babes are completely healthy and a pretty good size for twins! Arie is 6 lbs 6 oz and 18″ long and Adele is 6 lbs 14oz and 19″ long! My sister was induced yesterday around 5:30 after a non stress test and her blood pressure was a little high, so they finally arrived at 11:11 and 11:33. I am so forever thankful to GOD and my sister and Jordan for giving us this wonderful most precious gift! Aaron, Sadie and I are completely in love!!!!!

I am a little sad and extremely overjoyed at the same time…sad because I have to take a little break from photography to spend time with my family and the new babies that are due to arrive any day now! But beyond happy just thinking of the wonderful life change that is going to happen! I am sorry that I had to turn so many of you away this spring! With my sister being on bed rest and the babies almost making an early entrance 2 weeks ago, I had to get my priorities in line! My last week of shooting was actually the first week of April and I am STILL trying to finish up those edits and get them back to people….SORRY if you are one of them! But I’m getting very close to being completely wrapped up!

I have no idea what kind of work an 8 year old and two newborns are going to be yet, but I’m sure it will be challenging at times….but I say BRING IT!!! I’ve been waiting for this for so long I don’t even care! But with that being said, its hard to predict exactly when I will start photography back up again, but as of now, I’m am thinking August. And I will probably start slow….maybe booking mini sessions one night every other week to start. So keep your eyes open I will hopefully be putting a schedule up on Facebook in a couple months or so and with limited availability they might book up fast!

God has put SO many amazing and thoughtful people in our lives! People have reached out and helped us or showed their care and love in so many different ways! It brings me to tears to think that almost everything we will need for these two has either been given or lent to us!

So I just wanted to say THANK YOU!!!! God provides! I look back on how God provided Aaron and I with the work we needed to be able to do this and he provided my sister and her willingness and selflessness and now he has provided the love prayers and support from so many of you so Thank You!

Somehow on a daily basis, I kept reminding myself of the good that was coming from our trials. And through that it has made us stronger in ourselves and in God, brought us closer to God and opened our eyes to appreciate even the smallest things in life. For the last 7 years, God had kept us holding onto the hope and faith in Him that we needed to get through it.

Our lives would be very different if we hadn’t had this hardship…for one, we’d probably have 8 kids:) But God knew what was best and knew the order and time that things were supposed to happen in our lives!

I am so appreciative of every one of YOU in our lives that God has blessed us with!

On a side note…my sister will be 32 weeks next week and at our last ultrasound, at 29 weeks, the babies were measuring approx 3.5 lbs and 3.75 lbs!!! So things are going well and it is getting CLOSER:)!!!!

I’m not a good writer like Tracy, so bare with me, this will probably be the only time I will write something…

I cant remember the day we started to “joke” about me carrying your baby, but that “joke” stopped being so funny when it stared to turn into reality. 

My sister (in my eyes) always had her life figured out. She got good grades, went to college, wanted to get married and have lots of babies! Me on the other hand, got ok grades, never wanted to go to college, wanted to get married, but was ok if it didn’t happen right away, and babies….scare me to death! And here I am with a 3 year old and almost 2 year old, something that came so easy to us, but is a struggle for so many of couples out there, including my sister.

I remember the first time Tracy and Aaron said they were expecting! I was young and so excited for them! But our excitement was soon crushed when they couldn’t find the heartbeat  at their doctors appointment. That was the beginning of the fears that a big family might not be in their future.  But then came sweet Sadie Mae! We were so happy for a healthy pregnancy, delivery and baby!  And she has been such a blessing to our whole family! But there was still that longing for a playmate and another sweet baby.

Fast forward 7 and half years, and after all the fertility struggles, their hopes of a huge family were starting to become another reality for them. After the second failed attempt of IVF, which none of us even knew they had done, was once again negative, Tracy called me and asked if I really was serous about carrying her baby, my answer “Of Course! Lets do this.” She wanted to still think about it and make sure this was the right thing to do. They had 2 little embryos left after 2 failed attempts on their own and with no answers from doctors, we all went to God once again with our prayers. The doctor told Tracy we both had the same % that they would take, so it was up to her.  After many “God Moments” from both of us, we couldn’t see it any clearer then for me to go through with this. So I started IVF and we had an end day in sight, and here I am, 17 weeks pregnant with 2 babies! What an amazing God we have!

So the question I get a lot is a simple “why?” After seeing the hurt and longing my sister and Aaron had for another child, and something that has been, in my mind, so simple and easy, why wouldn’t I? What an amazing opportunity to give my niece or nephew life! People also always ask, “how can I give up the babies?” That one is also simple to me, babies scare me LOL and I went into this knowing this is my niece  or nephews, not mine. And TWINS… Oh man! Tracy can take them even if they have red hair

But in all seriousness, I would do it again in a heartbeat.  I appreciate all the kind words and thankfulness! But to me, this was all God, not me. He answered a prayer in an unexpected way, i don’t think i had a choice, He choose this for us. THANK YOU Tracy for being a great big sister and amazing mom, THANK YOU Aaron for trusting me with your babies, THANK YOU Sadie Mae for showing us love, and how great you will be as a big sister, and THANK YOU God who made ALL this happen.

Okay, so the secret is finally out (well a lot of you probably know already:)) But we are having twins!!! My sister is not only carrying one of our babies, but two!!! So she has also been extra sick and extra hungry, and toward the end, might need extra help:) She has been so easy going and helpful with my roller coaster of emotions through this whole thing, that I absolutely could not ask for a better sister or carrier for our two little babies!!!

It was hard keeping this secret for so long but I just needed one more ultrasound to make me feel okay about telling everyone and we just had her 15 week appointment a week ago and everything looked good! I still feel like I am in a big dream…but this is FOR REAL!!!!

I will admit….this excitement almost makes me feel a little guilty, because we are finally going to be adding to our family and giving Sadie two new little siblings, and there are still other couples who have waited just as long or even longer whose hearts still ache to have even just one child. And although, I will never know that feeling, I know how much it burns and stings inside just for the struggle of having a second. So if anyone who is reading this knows someone struggling with infertility, maybe just say a little prayer for them.

The best thing I can bring from our struggles is that it has brought me closer to God and more accepting of HIS WILL (even before I knew there was going to be good news for us at the end), and I wouldn’t take that back for anything!

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”      Philipians 4:6-7

This is a story i can still barely believe that my family and i are going through. but about 6 months ago, after many long nights talking about it and praying about it and going back and forth and asking god to help us and show is that this is what we were supposed to do, we took my sister up on an offer, unlike any other, to carry our baby. i always knew god gave me a special person in my life….my sister; but who would’ve ever guessed my younger sister would ever be this close and this much a part of our lives. after a month of the doctors helping her prepare her body for this, the day had finally arrived for the procedure to take place. everything went well; and now for the waiting period….10 long days we had to wait to find out the results. and 2 days after labor day we found out that it worked!…..it actually worked!!!!!

after almost 7 long years, with many attempts of clomid, then letrozole, laparoscopic surgery to try to help my endometriosis, one round of iui, and 2 rounds of ivf, this came as a complete shock to me that this time it actually worked! that little peanut held on tight and god’s loving hand guided the doctors hands and placed that little baby right where it had to be.

sadie is so excited to be a sister and i am so excited for her to finally have someone to grow up with!!!! i can’t even explain my joy! god is good! he has a plan for everyone and everything. and sometimes it seems he’s not listening or answering your prayers, but i have learned that sometimes you need to wait for his perfect plan, and why should we want it any other way! god knows what is best and i learned that i had to trust in his plan for our lives.

without the love of my sister and the love and support of jordan, her husband, and their two little boys and the grace and love of god, this would not have been possible and some day when that baby is here we can tell it how blessed it is to have such a loving auntie and gracious god.