One Week

It's amazing what a difference one week, one day, or even one second can make. Adam and I have definitely found that to be true this past week. Exactly a week ago, we were checking into the hospital after being in labor since 3:30 that morning. Though we were pregnant and knew our little guy was on our way here, we were still essentially a family of two. Our lives, schedules, and sleep patterns were our own. But, at 7:10 PM, all of that changed when this little guy emerged.

Everett Mann Buhler is named after two of his great-grandfathers and already we can sense what an amazing spirit is inside this little body. Adam and I both felt such an overwhelming feeling of love, joy, awe, and desire to protect our son from the moment we heard, saw, and held him. Adam, who had never held a baby before and was self-admittedly scared to death of infants, instantly became a father as he held his son in his arms. Over the past week he has been my constant support as we have all transitioned home from the hospital and into our new life together. I fall in love with both of them each time I come into the room and see Everett sleeping on Adam's chest or hear Adam soothing Everett in the middle of the night. I am so grateful to know that my little family will be together for all eternity....I can't picture my life any other way!

Labor and delivery was such a special and unique experience. For the first six hours of it, I wasn't sure if it was actually happening, so I kept telling myself it wasn't, so I wouldn't get my hopes up. We went about our day as normal, including a morning ultrasound and doctor's visit. I think they were a little surprised when I told them I was having contractions every 5-7 minutes. Knowing that we wanted to labor as naturally as possible, our doctor had us go home for a few more hours. We finally went to the hospital when contractions were about 2 1/2 minutes apart, though I was feeling much better than I had expected. Adam and I stayed in our own little world and groove throughout labor and when it got really intense, I just zoned everyone else out. It really was more of a mental struggle for me than a physical and I definitely learned a lot about myself through that experience! After three hours of transition, I finally got to push (I kept telling the nurse I REALLY wanted to push!) and after an hour, our little man was born! Despite the eight nurses and doctors running around the room, Adam and I were in our own little world with our new family and we enjoyed the next hour or so we had together before our immediate family came to see our new addition.

Coming home, our lives have definitely changed. Our priorities have already changed, as well as how we use our time. So much of our day (and night) is spent in caring for this little person that so many other ways to use our time seem pointless now. We are SO grateful for our family and friends who have already done so much for us. Both of our parents have brought by dinners and leftovers and Adam's mom has done countless loads of laundry for us. It's been great to see friends and family and appreciate the meals that have already been brought by. It truly is a lifesaver!

So, for now, we are enjoying being home all day as a family (minus the three hours Adam is at class) and waking up together at night. This is perfection.

Summer!

We're so glad it's finally here! Even though Adam started his summer class this week, we still were able to pack plenty of fun and hope to continue doing so for the next couple months before we have to go back to school and now a grown-up job.

Highlights of our summer so far:

Adam and I were able to travel up to Omaha to witness our friends, Rachel and Dustin, get married! It was well worth the drive and we enjoyed the company at a lunch afterwards. We immediately headed back to Kansas and made it back with 10 minutes to spare for my sister Rachel's graduation. We are so excited that she'll be at KU in the fall...it'll give us even more time to hang out with her! I'm also super excited that she got into Sellards Scholarship Hall, where I lived as an undergrad. We can't wait for her to move here!

(Adam was here as well, but he took this picture for my mom...and the picture that has him in it is on his computer...so just pretend that my cute husband is standing next to me.)

Adam and I have been enjoying the beautiful weather and going on lots of walks in our neighborhood. There are so many cute, old homes and it's fun to brainstorm and plan our future home. We've tried to spend as much time outdoors as we can, but it's getting slightly more difficult since my physical activity is becoming limited. So we walk. On Memorial Day, we tried to recreate our amazing time in Europe last summer by picking up fresh fruit and bread and just sitting at a park. I had brought a book to read and Adam brought his camera, but unfortunately, he forgot a memory card so he couldn't take pictures and we hadn't factored in the blood-thirsty mosquitoes, so our picnic was short-lived. Sad.

(Enjoying our favorite place in Paris last summer - the Luxembourg Gardens...everyone just came and laid on the grass, reading, eating, and taking naps...we fit right in! And the food there wasn't too shabby either!)

Realizing that we hadn't really taken pictures of anything since our trip to Haiti, we decided we had better get a few photos to document my very pregnant state. Neither of us are big fans of the typical maternity pictures, so we decided that Adam would just take typical portraits of me that just happened to show that I was pregnant. We headed to the alleys of downtown Lawrence and had a lot of fun! We kept joking that if anyone asked us, we would tell them I was getting my senior pictures taken. It kind of felt like that! It definitely comes in handy having a talented photographer as a husband...this little kiddo will be well documented!

Adam enjoyed his first "real" concert a few weeks ago. We had seen Flight of the Conchords last winter, but we don't think it really counted. We went with our friends Ellyn and Justin to go see Kansas, Styx, and Foreigner play at the Starlight Theater and had quite the adventure! It's always smart to have cash when you go to a concert so you can actually pay for parking...something we discovered after being stuck in event traffic and realizing that no one had cash. We eventually were able to park, found a nice spot on the grass and enjoyed an evening of good music, people watching, and trying to get comfortable (not always easy for a super tall guy and a very pregnant girl).

Last Saturday, we had a lot of fun helping a couple of our friends move. At the first house, I was packing up the kitchen while Adam mowed the huge backyard. We had had a week of major rain a while back and Adam definitely felt the brunt of that...it took almost 3 hours to mow what should've taken 30 minutes! Still, it was fun to help, so we were excited when we heard some other friends needed help moving as well. Unfortunately, Adam's phone and wallet were stolen out of our car as he was helping, but we were able to cancel everything really quickly before any damage was done (and we obviously weren't carrying cash with us either!). We've been able to work everything out and Adam has a loaner phone until he can upgrade at the end of the summer.

All of this happened about 10 minutes before I needed to head off for my baby shower, so it was an eventful afternoon! The shower was at a park in downtown Lawrence and it was so fun to see so many friends and family there. Everyone brought their favorite children's book for Baby Boy Buhler and it's been fun to read them and the notes that were written to our little guy. Plus, we were able to just enjoy each other's company and good food, without any baby shower games...I was happy! Thank you Ashley, Ali, and Katie for all your hard work! It was perfect!

For now, we are back to the daily grind. Adam has class everyday in the afternoon and homework and reading in the morning/evening. I've been working full-time and will continue until the baby comes...it gives me something to focus on besides waiting and the paycheck won't hurt either! As busy as we've been so far, I have a feeling we will have a lot more adventures with the rest of the summer!

God is Good!

Wow. So, three days after receiving this job offer and two days after posting this blog, we have already had more questions answered! Adam enrolled in classes for the summer and fall today...and his schedule gives him Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons free to stay at home with our son! With how crazy his schedule has been this past year, we really weren't counting on his staying home as an option. However, all of the classes he needed were only offered on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so the answer came pretty clearly! Figuring out two days of childcare is a lot more manageable than figuring out an entire week. I know that things aren't always figured out this quickly on the Lord's timetable, but I am so grateful for His love and desire to help us feel such peace and assurance as we face the unknown - parenthood.

Real World, Here We Come!

Last year, I graduated with a degree that I couldn't use. No, it wasn't in anthropology (no offense, Bequis...) or underwater basket weaving. Unified Early Childhood Education. At most universities, when you graduate with a teaching degree, you tend to have a teaching license as well. Not at KU. Instead, they make you enroll as a graduate student to do your student teaching, which means an additional year of schooling before you can work and an increased tuition rate. Not cool. However, it has been nice not to worry about the job market this year as I've been student teaching and paying to be an intern. But, that time is slowly ending! Searching for a job is never fun, but add the budget cuts at all the area school districts and the fact that we are having a baby this summer and it can get pretty stressful pretty quickly! Luckily, our time in Haiti helped us relearn to rely on the Lord, move forward, and trust that everything will work out in His time. So, that's been our perspective during the past few months! Already, so many questions have been answered. We found a bigger apartment with enough room for the baby this summer, this morning we signed a lease with the apartment complex we really wanted to move into more permanently, and we've already heard good news in the job department! I had heard of a half-time teaching position from one of my classes and randomly decided to apply for it. I had a screening interview a week later and a follow-up interview two weeks after that. Since then, it's been a month of waiting, knowing that they have contacted my references, and more waiting. Well, last night at 6:45 the assistant superintendent called me to offer me the job (I didn't realize they could call that late...I had already resigned myself to another week of waiting)! Adam and I had previously talked a lot about the position, so I was able to accept it on the spot and will be signing the contract on Monday. Wahoo!

This job feels right for a number of reasons. The biggest one is that it is half-time. I've never been excited about working when I have a family, but our circumstances for the time being pretty much require it. But, with this job, I can work half the hours and we'll still have our needs met. That means I can be home most of the day with our little guy! Second of all, it's in a field that I love. While I am certified to teach age 0-8, I'm not a huge fan of elementary gen. ed. classrooms. This classroom is an early childhood special education classroom! I'll have 12 four-year olds, six with identified needs and six who will be peer models. Plus, I'll have two paras working with me, so the adult-child ratio is awesome! My first experience with special education was in a similar classroom, so I'm getting excited. My class will be from 12:30-3:30, Monday to Thursday, and Friday is reserved for planning, training, and meetings. Awesome. The school district sounds amazing and they have a bunch of supports set in place for new teachers. There are a couple downsides - it's in Gardner (which will add almost two hours to the time I have to be away from home). And....okay, the only other one I could think of is the fact that I have to be away from home at all (but that's not this job's fault!). So, all in all, we are very grateful and blessed to already know in April our financial and employment situation for next year.

Now, the last question we need to figure out is childcare for the time I'm away during the afternoons. Any other moms planning on working part-time and want to figure out a swap? I'm trying to keep my mind open for all sorts of possibilities and solutions, since I know the Lord is wanting us to do as much as we can to figure it out! But, I definitely know that He will help us figure out the best solution! Now it's just remembering patience as we wait to know what that solution is!

Spring Fever

After the longest winter ever, we are so glad to finally have some gorgeous weather here! We have both noticed that we tend to be more productive on the days that are sunny (rather than the rainy, dreary ones we had all last week). This semester has been incredibly busy for us - we are often away from our apartment from 8 AM to 9 PM. Over spring break we packed up our one-bedroom, 350 sq. ft. apartment on campus and moved five minutes away into a two-story, two bedroom, two bath apartment, complete with a dishwasher (and kitchen that doesn't double as a hallway!). Thanks to Adam, his parents, the Elders, and some guys from our ward, we made the move in less than two and a half hours. And, after two days, thanks in part to my love for organizing and heightened nesting instinct, we were completely unpacked with pictures on the wall! We have already enjoyed having friends and family over to enjoy the larger living space. Part of the excitement of our new place is the second bedroom that is now complete with a crib! I bribed Adam to wake up early one spring break morning by making German pancakes with fresh strawberries....once he was awake, I made him help me set up the crib! He feels a little tricked because he just realized that the baby probably won't even sleep in the crib until he's six weeks old (and by that time, we'll be moved into a different apartment). Oh well! You can't NOT set up the crib! Especially when it has such cute bedding!

We have had quite the baby boom in our ward the past couple months. We decided to document a piece of that:

All four of us are expecting boys, about a month apart from each other (the first two have already had their babies and Baby Wood could make his appearance at any time now!). Sadly, Katie was out of town when we took the picture - she's expecting a girl a couple weeks after our baby arrives. Still, it's been fun to attend and plan baby showers and even more exciting to meet the newest (and cutest) members of our ward as they arrive. Hard to believe that Baby Buhler will be here in 10-12 weeks!

And, in other news...the fundraising efforts for PAZAPA have been successful! SRO raised over $3500 from donations and ticket sales and Jardine Middle School raised $1300 selling puppy chow (that's right....they sold 2600 bags of puppy chow for 50 cents each...you gotta love middle schoolers!). Obviously, the PAZAPA needs a lot more, but I am so impressed by the efforts of these students who have little or no connection to Haiti. How awesome. (PAZAPA updated their website - check it out!)

One last Haiti note. For those of you interested in hearing more about our experiences in Haiti before/during/after the earthquake, we will be speaking on Sunday, April 11th in Lawrence. We are planning on sharing pictures of our adventures and sharing more about our eventful two weeks. Please come! It will be at the LDS chapel (3655 W 10th St....right off of Kasold Dr.) at 7 PM. It's hard to believe that it has almost been three months since our trip. Really...we would love to have you come.

Looking for something to do this weekend?

Look no further! I highly recommend going to Topeka High's SRO (student run organization...their annual talent show). It's always pretty amazing, but this year they are donating part of the proceeds to rebuilding PAZAPA! My sister Rachel is the co-director of the show and put it all together...take a look at the news article about it here.

It's been a while...

It's a bit daunting to write a blog post now - how will we ever compare with our previous entries?! Fortunately for us, life has just continued as busy as ever and we are just trying to keep up. I'll be making three presentations this week in Topeka about our experiences and PAZAPA and gearing up for Topeka High's fundraising efforts through SRO, the student-run talent show. We'll post more details as it gets closer.

In the meantime, I ran across an article about Marika, the director of PAZAPA. I think it gives a really good idea of what they are dealing with in Jacmel right now. Click here for the link.

And in non-Haiti news, we found out last week that Baby Buhler is a boy! And no, Angus is not really in the running for names.