Kentucky, I love you.

Let’s be real. It was scary living in Kentucky for two months. When we made the call for me to deliver Vera in Kentucky because we were too nervous to be in Louisiana with Vera and Lydia’s due dates being so close, we had peace—because a decision was finally made! From the beginning, Josh wanted me to deliver in Kentucky. He knew we would be worried about Lydia and missing her birth, so he just said, “Let’s do it.” Me, not so much. I am a processer, and it typically takes me a while to make a decision.
I kept trying to think of ways it could work for me to deliver in Louisiana. I wanted to have Vera delivered by my doctor—to have our family and friends there for the delivery—to celebrate with people we love so much, so when we made the call to go to Kentucky, we were relieved, but I was scared. That was not how I envisioned this to go, and by nature, I can have certain expectations, and literally God is curing that of every area in my life. I thought I would be able to have a baby in Louisiana where many of our family and friends could be there with us, and here we were going away again. I had to keep reminding myself this wasn’t about that—it was about following God’s direction and bringing home our babies- it didn’t matter where they were born! But that was definitely a struggle.

We looked around to a few hospitals and OBs around the Louisville area, and after lots and lots of prayers, we made the call to head to Kentucky on July 10th. We ended up coming home on September 7th, so we were almost there a full 2 months!

We got to Kentucky on a Monday afternoon, and my first doctor’s appointment was that Wednesday. We didn’t waste anytime. We met one of the midwives that first day, and everyone in the doctor’s office was amazing. We felt so much peace, but it was still scary. Josh and I were alone in Kentucky, with our first born baby meeting the people who were going to deliver our second- it was crazy. In the moment we were on adrenaline and just doing what we needed to do, but looking back—it was crazy.

We lived in a KOA park for 3 weeks. As you know, we were blessed with a Motorhome from our friends, Jeremy and Lindsey—seriously some of the most generous and kind people we know.

As we walked in for our doctor’s appointment and they asked where we were staying, we told them “Shepherdsville, KY.” They looked at us like we were staying in the worst area ever! They asked us why we were there. We explained that we were staying in a KOA park with a friends’ Motorhome. You can imagine their thoughts when we answered this! I’m sure they were thinking “Country come to town!” Then, that proceeded to lead to conversation about asking us if we liked to go camping. Isn’t that what people who stay at KOAs like to do???? The answer to that for me is “Heck to the no!” Josh might like it if he really tried it, but neither of us do it regularly, and the idea of camping to me is definitely the motor home version! I prefer glamping over camping:)  What we were doing was not camping!!! We loved that motorhome!

Needless to say, it was interesting to live in a KOA park. This KOA park had a little playground with a jumping pad, swimming pool, nice walking areas, etc…The KOA itself was nice, but we were learning that the actual town we were staying in was not known for its niceness:)

We jumped on the jumping pad, took Genevieve to swim, made friends in the KOA park, and embraced the glamping life:) But the truth is, it was crazy! We literally were holed up in the RV watching cooking shows all day. We just used the microwave because we didn’t want to mess up the Smith’s cooking stuff, so microwave meals it was! I’m sure we looked like the crew—9 months pregnant with our motor home and hopping in the KOA pool with all the out-of-towner campers. I got LOTS of looks. I know I looked like I was ready to pop- I was!

The motorhome was much smaller than our house, but it was way nicer!!! Josh, Genevieve and I made so many sweet memories in that motor home! Then my mom and Josh’s mom made it in, and we all have sweet memories of that place. I kept it FREEZING cold. And I mean FREEZING. To me, it was perfect (hello hot pregnant woman in July/August weather), but our moms were freezing. Genevieve slept in the bathroom and she would go to bed at 7 and sleep until almost 10! She typically wakes up around 7:30, so that was WAYYY later. I guess because it was cold, and she was cuddled up and in a dark room. It was so tiny in there, she would try and open the shower door and all of the drawers in her pack in play. She was in heaven!!! Funny memories of all the banging in that little bathroom. One time she got a hold of the toilet paper—it looked like it had snowed in there:) She was so proud of herself!

So many memories in that RV- timing contractions, cuddling Genevieve in the middle of the night, Genevieve becoming so much more confident in her walking, our moms cuddled in heaps of blankets, and there may have been a little fender bender that was all my fault—lots of memories:)

We kept thinking Vera would be early. At all of my check ups, we were told I was progressing really well. I was at 4 cm for a while, and at 5 cm for a week. Our midwives were so good at telling us that doesn’t necessarily mean anything, but it is hard to not think that something was about to happen. We found out that we had to be out of the motor home park the first week of August. They did not have room for us any longer—we had no place to go. People were kind offering places to us, but we were scared to say yes to anyone—do they really know what they’re offering??? A place for 3 people, soon to be 5, 2 of those are newborns—who really wants to offer that?! And we had SOOOO much stuff!!!!! Packing for babies for 2 months—oh the STUFF!!! And we knew our parents were coming in- we wanted to help find them a place to stay, and we weren’t sure who else of our family and friends might come to visit—so we were hesitant as to what to say yes to. We really wanted to find a place to house all of us, even though we knew that was close to impossible.

We looked into apartments, hotels, other motorhome parks, friends of friends—it was SO overwhelming. Afterall, this was where we were going to be bringing my babies home to for a while, and that was overwhelming. We know many people all over the country, but we just didn’t have many connections in Kentucky. People were so, so generous to us—we just wanted to pick the right place for our family and we wanted to all be together, if possible. We knew that was asking A LOT! And we weren’t tied to that idea if it wasn’t an option, but that is what we were thinking about and praying for.

Thankfully, we had so many people reach out to us. Some of those people were the Isaacs, who we miss terribly! Andrea Isaacs (a literal angel) and her best friend, Kristen came to the KOA park for a play date (can you imagine—the best people ever!) Through that, Kristen ended up offering her basement to us—it was at least a place we could stay where we looked for a more permanent place that could fit all of our family and friends that might come in to see the girls. Their basement was amazing! My mom had super sweet friends who found her a connection of a place to stay, to which she made wonderful friends for those first few weeks.

Josh’s mom stayed with Kristen and her family until we were kicked out of the RV park, and then we joined their family—oh we miss them so much—I’ve talked about them in another post—they truly became family to us! We didn’t want to leave. If only their basement was bigger! We stayed with them for several days until we found a house on Airbnb for all of us to stay in—my mom had a sweet friend connect her with this house on Airbnb, and it was perfect!

So, we moved from the motor home (Josh had to drive it to our new friends driveway)—yes, these friends let us park a huge RV in their driveway—can you say SAINTS!!!!—and then we moved all of our stuff into their house, THEN several days later we moved into the Airbnb. We moved into the airbnb house just says before my due date—there was so much uncertainty of where we would even be when I had Vera or when Lydia was born—can you say craziness??? Looking back, I wonder how I didn’t just lose it. I did a couple of times, but the Lord was just so good to me, and I could see His hand in it all. It truly is amazing when you can look back at your circumstance and see that your emotions were totally not tied to a circumstance, but to the unchanging One- thank you LORD!

So, we moved into the Airbnb house, and the space was PERFECT!!! Everyone had their own little area, and we had extra areas as other people came in to visit- my mom was so incredible with this—being persistent and helping us. The first night we walked into the place, the bedroom Josh and I were staying in was SO hot. And I am not just speaking “pregnancy hot”. Like everyone said it was SO hot. It was almost 90 degrees in that bedroom. So, that night, Josh and I slept downstairs on an air mattress while our sweet Grammy Tammy slept on the couch—we were wondering if this Airbnb was such a good idea—I know our parents were fretting for us—we knew there was a good chance we might have to pack up yet again because the heat was too much to bear. The next day, Josh’s dad bought window air units, bought blackout curtains, several fans, and just cooled down everything! We made it bearable, and at times even cold—thank you LORD!

Then, my sister came and surprised us, and apparently that was what Vera was waiting on, because she decided to start making her entrance the next day after Jessica got there. Thank you Aunt Jessica for coming—why didn’t you just come sooner?! 🙂  We had a wonderful walk that morning with my mom and sister (we got lost, which turned into a 2 hour walk!) I think that was their secret plan to walk Vera out—it worked:)

As you know, my labor and delivery wasn’t boring, but it was equally as wonderful as it was interesting. As much as I thought I would selfishly miss family and friends coming to visit in the hospital, it was just a really sweet time with my Vera, Josh and our families. Such sweet sweet memories—nurses and doctors who really cared and had no connection with me or a reason to care outside of just being amazing human beings. So thankful.

Bringing Vera to our Kentucky home is such a blur. Our moms literally rotated keeping her for us at night—what a blessing. I was going through so many emotional things. I knew I needed rest. I was still in a lot of pain from labor and birth, and I knew that we could be having another baby in days and I needed to rest for that, but I was missing my baby—then having feelings of missing Genevieve when I was at the hospital—oh the hormones!!!

Our moms were absolute angels! Tammy kept Genevieve for me the night we went into labor. That was one of my fears—where she would go when I went into labor? If we were home, I had so many people I could just drop her off with, but in Kentucky, I was nervous. We had friends we made in Kentucky offer to keep her, but what if they were out of town? Or they didn’t hear the phone ring at night? I had visions of Genevieve in that birthing room with us, which wouldn’t have been the end of the world, but I knew it would be a huge adjustment for her and I would be worrying if she was with us, so to have Tammy be there was absolute perfection. I trust her 100%, and it was incredible how God’s timing worked.

I remember sitting on the floor in our Kentucky bedroom after Vera was born. Our moms were helping so much, which was the biggest blessing. I was exhausted. I felt guilt for everything I did. I was so ready to be home. We had gone a few days not hearing from our birth mom. I was still in pain. I just wanted to hold Genevieve. I just wanted to hold Vera. I just wanted to sleep. I just wanted life to calm down, and it wasn’t calming!!!

Jesus take the wheel!!! And He so did. He always does. I have had to apologize to our moms for my emotions during all of that—they were so gracious and understanding. I just never imagined I would be in a state away from everything we knew with my oldest baby with a new sister, me trying to bond with that new sister, while waiting on another sister and all of the crazy emotions that went into that!

And then we got the call about Lydia—we got to witness her incredible birth, which you guys have read all about—absolutely incredible—and then all of the heartbreak started— I have a post coming all about healing emotionally from everything that happened- for her birth mother and us.

But that took us to one of our lowest lows. When I look at Lydia now, I sometimes just sob. Oh I am just so thankful she is ours. I can’t imagine our life without her in it. That’s all I can say about that now without losing it.

When we finally got to surprise our family with Lydia, it was the highest of highs. Typically after a high, there comes a low, and we had many of those. We were so blessed, but we were all so tired. Thank GOD for our incredible moms. We took shifts of who watched who—who got up with Genevieve—who kept Vera, who kept Lydia, who would get a morning nap (based upon who had the roughest night)— we literally would have gone crazy without them! I was so ready to get into my routine and way of doing things, but I knew I had to take the help when I had it!

What special memories all together in that Kentucky home. The sacrifices our parents made for us—we can never repay. But I cannot wait to tell our girls about how we had them. How we all loved and cared for them in those first few days. Vera was a crier—that’s so funny now, because she is the HAPPIEST baby, but she definitely liked to cry those first few weeks:)

I was telling my sister in law the other day— all of our girls were born in different states—Genevieve was born in Florida. Vera was born in Indiana (right over the bridge by Louisville). Lydia was born in Kentucky. None of our girls in Louisiana—all in different states. Wow, let’s just say this was never how I envisioned brining my girls in the world. God’s plan is ALWAYS, always better than our own.

In Kentucky, we connected to an amazing church, made forever friends, trusted God like never before. We were away from so many people, which made us draw near to God and each other like never before, we made amazing memories, we were in such an awesome town, we got to experience different cultures, and have an incredible adventure.

A few years ago, I got a Josh a little plaque that said, “ I want to have adventures with you.” Oh, the adventures we have been on…May the adventure never end.

This was what Kentucky was really like:

Scary

Unfamiliar

Adventurous

Incredible

Amazing

A time of growth—-in our family number and in us as people.

Embrace the scary.

Embrace the unfamiliar.

Embrace the adventures.

Embrace the incredible.

Embrace the amazing.

Embrace the time of growth.

It creates your own kind of Kentucky—and now on this side of it, I am so thankful for it.

What’s your Kentucky?

Kentucky, I love you. I love you for so many reasons,

Aly