We’re baaaaaaaack!
Well hello there to everyone joining in! It’s been a long break from our blogging adventure but I’ve decided that the time is ripe to begin this project again. We’ve missed documenting and sharing the journey we are undertaking in fixing up our Charlottesville farmhouse… so long story short, hello again!
Let’s see what I need to catch y’all up on during the last however long it’s been. (The pandemic sure has caused a time warp, hasn’t it?) At our last post, we had taken in two sweet foster children (siblings) and to respect their privacy, I’ll say nothing more other than it was both the most challenging and most rewarding experience I could imagine. I’m grateful we got to be a foster home for them and while they no longer live with us, they touched our hearts forever. For anyone reading this who has ever considered fostering: do it. Everyone (including myself) seems afraid of how hard it is to say goodbye to a child/ children you grow to love, but I promise you it’s worth that price to be able to grow that love to begin with. Feel free to message me if you’ve ever considered fostering and have questions. <3
I returned to work full-time just as Eve started kindergarten and Wilson started preschool… only to have the pandemic begin a few months later. And what’s better than having two kids home from school while both parents are working full-time from home? A positive pregnancy test! Yup, I found out I was pregnant in February 2020. And then I found out in March 2020 that there was not just one, but TWO babies!!! God is so good.
Sooooo if you’re thinking “wow, what a crazy time it must have been to be pregnant with twins, quarantining at home, working full time, your husband working full time, and have a kindergartener and a preschooler at home doing virtual school,” then yes, you’re right, it was crazy. But it gets better. Starting around the beginning of April I developed hyperemesis gravidarum (what Kate Middleton had, aka when you’re too nauseated by pregnancy hormones to keep anything down, even water) and due to the rising Covid cases in Charlottesville, I was urged not to go to an emergency room, so instead my sweet nurse friend Steph came to our front yard numerous times to administer IV fluids. I had to go on a leave of absence from work due to the truly crippling nausea, David had to go on a leave of absence to take care of me (and the kids who were of course not in school), and that happy pandemic life continued on for a few fabulous freaking months.
Eventually my symptoms improved and we felt comfortable hiring a nanny for the kids, and everything felt SOOOOO worth it in October when we welcomed two perfectly healthy fraternal twin boys, Charles Pickren (“Chip”) and Bennett Karig (“Briggs”) to this crazy world.
Fast forward to where we are now: David’s working from home, Eve is in first grade (in person!), Wilson is in pre-k (in person!), and I’m home with Chip and Briggs. We’re down one dog (we sadly had to put our elderly sweet white Great Pyrenees, Riesling, down due to cancer) but we still have the perpetual puppy Kaiser, our two pigs Mr. Smee and Tinkerbell, a cat (we got a tuxedo kitten for Christmas 2018, Mistletoe, and our sweet cat Meriwether got injured then ran away and never came back shortly thereafter), and of course the flock of entertaining backyard chickens. One thing I’ve learned in this chaotic-yet-beautiful pandemic/ adjusting to a family of six season is that I needed to stop focusing on stressed I was and remember how blessed I am. Every day we get to spend together, every day we get to live in our cool farmhouse, every day we’re healthy… it’s all such a gift. And it’s beautiful.
I’ll share all of the changes and improvements we’ve made to our farmhouse as we go along, but for now, thank you for reading and coming back to our blog! I’m glad you’re here.