Baby Hogan - Weeks 24-28

As the last day of 2015 draws to an end I am a little emotional as I think about everything this past year held and everything 2016 promises. (Or maybe its just hormones...!) 2015 has been a crazy and wild year filled with so many exciting memories that we will always cherish, but we cannot wait for all that the next year will hold. We can't wait to meet our sweet girl, learn to be parents, and capture all the milestones that we will experience with Stevie! God has been and continues to be so good to us. Let's do this 2016!

I can't believe the THIRD and FINAL trimester is here! :O Where has the time gone!

Feeling: Generally pretty good. Back pain, heartburn, general exhaustion, and trouble sleeping at night. Oh also - hello hormones. The things I get teary over... oh my.

Craving: Homemade salsa, coke floats, sauteed green beans, cookie dough (don't worry I didn't give in...but making Christmas cookies this year was a major test of will power!) Most random craving was definitely for strawberry sheet cake. It. Was. Amazing. Still loving my smoothies just about every day!

Milestones: Our annual trip to Louisiana with a bump during which I, by some kind of Christmas miracle, did not get the stomach virus the rest of the family did. Getting to see so many friends and family in Louisiana. We celebrated our last Christmas without our sweet girl and tonight we will ring in the new year - a year where we will meet sweet Stevie! 

Anticipating: Organizing the house and nursery, touring the hospital, taking a birth class, but mostly just the arrival of our sweet girl!!

24 weeks - In Lee's Summitt, MO

 25 weeks - Home in Asheville, NC

No pictures from weeks 26 & 27, we were in Louisiana and everyone who could take the picture was sick... and when they finally felt better we were too busy catching up to remember to take a picture!

 28 weeks - Back home until Stevie's arrival!

Baby Hogan - Weeks 20-24

I've been on the road on a grand adventure seeing so many friends and family these past weeks! 

Feeling: Overall pretty great. Definitely some aches and pains that are always present and I'm so tired, but still pretty great.

Craving: Because I've been on the road I've gotten to eat so many of my favorites from all over! Blue Bell ice cream has returned to Texas so I ate that every. single. day. that I was there! I've had Taco Bueno's mexi-dips and chips four times! LOTS of delicious Mexican food, fabulous Thanksgiving spread, and my many requests for my mom and dad's home-cooking! Still rocking my smoothies every day.

Milestones: Traveling with a baby bump! Seeing so many friends and family and lots of them getting to feel Stevie's sweet kicks. She's kicking strong enough now that they are visible movements in my belly - if you happen to be staring at it when she does! Family and friends showering Stevie with all sorts of fun goodies! Taking some fun pictures with Tay and Molly and snapping a few maternity pictures as well!

Anticipating: The infamous glucose test is coming up. I'm not really anticipating it, but it should be something to remember based on everyone's faces whose ever had to do it! Starting the decorating and nesting in the nursery! We have one more cross-country road trip to make in December as we go see Aubrey's family for Christmas!

20 weeks

 21 weeks - spent in Ardmore, OK, Watauga, TX and Witchita Falls, TX

Photo by Alexis Hines Photography

No pictures from weeks 22&23 - Spent in Watauga, TX and Lee's Summit, MO

24 weeks - Spent in Lee's Summit, MO

Baby Hogan - Weeks 16-20

Half way there!

Feeling: Pretty great. I will now join the chorus of other pregnant women who say the second trimester is awesome. I will take the new symptoms like heartburn over nausea any day.

Craving: A lot of the same. I really haven't had many huge out of the blue weird cravings... I eat a lot of Chick-fil-a and I have a smoothie every. single. morning.

Milestones: First little flutters and kicks! Amazing. Telling family and friends that we are having a little girl and that her name is Stevie! Got to see our sweet Stevie at the 18 week ultrasound! She was so busy in there waving, kicking, and sucking her thumb.  We took the guest bed out of the second room in our apartment to make the transition from "Guest Room" to "Nursery" official!

Anticipating: The upcoming holidays and my big trip where I will get to see so many friends and family! My first shower for sweet Stevie later this month! Flying with a belly...praying all goes smoothly.

16 weeks

18 weeks

19 weeks

20 weeks

Stevie at 18 weeks sucking her thumb!

It's a ...

Aubrey and I are super excited to announce that Baby Hogan is a....

We had our ultrasound this past week and got to see our sweet baby girl! Besides getting to find out that we will be joined by a beautiful little lady in March we got to see that she is developing beautifully and that she looked healthy and happy!

Aubrey and I actually decided and agreed on a girl name long before we were pregnant. It was of course brought up again when we found out we were pregnant and we both still agreed! It was just clear to both of us that this name was waiting for the little girl we might have one day.

We also decided on a boy name we loved so we went into the ultrasound excited to find out which name we would get to share with the world.

So, without further ado...

Stevie Tay Hogan, we love you so much and we can't wait to officially "meet" you in March! You are loved by so many already!

Baby Hogan - Weeks 12-16

Can't believe a month has already gone by since we announced our exciting news!

Weeks 12-16

Feeling: With the transition into the second trimester my nausea decreased and eventually has disappeared! (and by that I mean I still get car sick easier than normal and sometimes the thought of a certain food makes me want hurl...but I'll take it!) Still pretty tired, but much more energy than last month! Feeling lots of stretching in my stomach... not the most fun, but definite signs that baby is growing!

Craving: Very specific cravings have begun. A specific pasta dish from TGIFridays, Pigs in a blanket, and Dean's French onion dip. But with the nausea gone I can now eat a much wider variety of items without ending up sick!

Milestones: Cleaned out my closet and put away all summer and spring clothes, along with any fall/winter clothes that wont fit, then went out and bought clothes so that I will have something to wear...!

Anticipating: Our Dr. appointment at 18 weeks where we will find out the gender!!! Watching my belly continue to grow!

12 Weeks

13 Weeks (forgot to take a picture at 14 weeks!)

 15 Weeks

 16 Weeks (and Fitz)

Baby Hogan - Weeks 4-12

For the remainder of the pregnancy I will try to do a monthly post on how things are going! So for now I'll catch you up on what has been happening with Baby Hogan!

Weeks 4-7

Feeling: So tired, but overall felt great until week 7 when I got an upper respiratory infection...it all went downhill from there

Craving: Salmon, veggies, baked potato (thinking to myself, "Good for me! I'm craving foods that are so good for me and the baby!" ...hahaha that was short-lived), personal pan pizzas from Pizza Hut

Milestones: Found out I was pregnant!! Stopped being able to button my jeans at 6 weeks, Belly band to the rescue! First bit of nausea. Telling family and close friends!

Anticipating: First Dr. Appointment and ultrasound in week 8!

                        4 weeks (there are no belly pictures of weeks 5-7 because I felt horrible)



Weeks 8-12

Feeling: Sick, sick, sick. Upper respiratory infection on top of morning sickness, on top of extreme fatigue left me at home and in bed until week 11

Craving: Bagel Bites, pop tarts, taquitos, Kraft macaroni and cheese (Aka all the foods I ate in middle school...)

Milestones: Little baby bump appeared, bought my first maternity shirts and jeans, baby sighting at our 8 week ultrasound, listening to baby's heartbeat at our 12 week appointment, Going "public" with our exciting news!

Anticipating: Morning sickness going away and the magical second trimester everyone kept telling me about. Our 18 week ultrasound where we will find out the gender!!!

                                                 9 Weeks - still feeling (and looking) rough

                                                                          11 Weeks

                                                                         12 weeks

What about Adoption?

So as promised here is the update on where we are with adoption now that we are expecting a new arrival in March!

As we have mentioned before we are in Asheville for 2 years, well 1.5 years now. We knew that might be tricky with the adoption process and had talked in detail with each other about what that might mean for starting our family. We prayed and talked, and prayed and talked, and decided to stop over thinking things and just talk to a social worker when we got situated in Asheville.

About a month after moving [and don't be impressed we were in NO way shape, or form "situated" at that point - there were boxes in our apartment for FOREVER. We just got antsy and wanted to know what the situation looked like..!] I called a social worker. I laid out our unique situation and just asked her to be completely honest with me. While the answer she gave me was what I expected it was still really hard to hear, "I would not recommend starting the process. I just don't think, for a variety of reasons, that we could get a completed adoption in that time frame."

After I thanked her and hung up, I continued to wonder around Target and soak in what she had said. [Because of course I was in Target...odds are good that if you call me I will be...!] Again, it was what we expected to hear but as soon as she said the words the realization came that once again our expectations were being adjusted. While we took some time to grieve those changing expectations we both felt that this did not mean putting off starting our family for another 2 years.

Once again I found myself grateful for the year that 2014 was and wasn't. That year and all its shattered expectations and shifting plans taught us a valuable lesson. Hold on to your dreams/plans/expectations/hopes loosely because God is the one who actually holds them - and its better that way.

We still feel the call to adopt on our hearts and this doesn't change that at all. We are still excited to see God lay out the road for that journey whenever the time comes! Don't worry we will keep you informed all along the way!

What's New?

After a long and quiet 6 months on the blog front we are breaking out silence with a pretty big update.

Though we started this blog when we announced we had started the adoption process, I have always viewed this blog as our family blog. A place where we can document and share how our family is growing and what we are doing. A place where friends and family all across the country can stay updated on our lives.

With that being said I will just get to the point:

We are so beyond excited to share that our family will be growing by 1 in March!

As the picture at the top of the blog says, we were praying to find whichever one fit, and this beautiful baby will be the perfect first "fit" for our family!

Wait? What about adoption? Great question. I have a whole blog post dedicated to sharing how we arrived at this point coming soon!

But for now we are just thrilled to share with our family and friends our exciting news! We ask for your continued prayers for us as we start our family!

Eau Claire

And just like that the bittersweet day is here...its moving day.

Surrounded by boxes and hard goodbyes we are excited, nervous, sad, and overwhelmed at what lies ahead.

Our time in Eau Claire has been formative and sacred.

So many milestones and memories will forever be associated with this place.

We celebrated our first 5 wedding anniversaries here.
We bought our first house here.
We got our first pets here.
And we made lifelong friendships here.

Here's to the past five years, continuing friendships, and the journey that lies ahead.

Next stop, Asheville!

New Directions

Direction. It's something you don't really think about that often unless it is missing from your life. This past year we have felt that void. It became clear that God was heading us in a new direction, but it was not clear where, when, or what it would look like.

Aubrey started looking for jobs a little over a year ago and as we prayed and explored what our future might hold the idea of church planting was planted and grew in our hearts.  This past week our direction was made clear.

Aubrey and I are thrilled, nervous, overwhelmed, sad, and excited to announce that we will be moving to Asheville, North Carolina to take part in a Church Planting Residency through North Asheville Baptist Church.We'd love for you to read all about it and how you can partner with us at tablecommunitychurch.com/blog

So, What does this mean for the adoption process? In short, we don't know right now. We hope to have a conversation with a social worker once we are in Asheville to discuss what that would look like. The complexity of our situation is that we know we will be moving again in two years as we launch the Church. Our plan is to follow God's leading one step at a time and for now that means focusing on getting packed up and moved to Asheville!

Thank you cannot begin to describe our feelings for those who have been praying with us through the twisting and turning of this job search. We are grateful for your partnership up to this point and hope you will continue to partner with us along this new adventure.

We will of course continue to keep this blog updated with news about the journey of our family and we would love for you to stay tuned through the church blog for updates about that process.

Thank you for your continued prayers as we step forward in this new direction!