New Blog... Hope This is Easier

Hello All!
Seems as though our last "blog" site was a little hard to maneuver through. Hopefully this is easier for everyone!

I will recap on the past year or so to catch everyone up to speed...
At the beginning of 2009 we were living in Big Rapids, MI. Seth was finishing up his Bachelor's degree at Ferris State. We loved our last year in Big Rapids. Seth's school schedule was very flexible and Big L wouldn't let him work over part time. We knew full well that in May we would have to join the real world of a full time job for Seth (at least that's what our prayer was!). So we soaked up our family time.

In February, we found out we were expecting baby #2 in October. Since I was a little girl I always wanted an October baby and I wanted two children close together. Thank you Lord for both!

The rest of the spring flew by. Not knowing where we were going once school was done in May, we spent A LOT of time praying about God's direction for our little family. Seth had interviews in Kansas City, Indiana, and Grandville. Many companies were on hiring freezes around that time due to the economy. On his birthday, March 9th, he had an interview in Troy, MI for position with Chrysler in Denver, CO. We weren't getting our hopes up because Chrysler wasn't looking to hot at the time. So we kept praying... about two weeks later, Seth received an official offer from Chrysler as a Teleservice District Sales Manager. He was thrilled to have his five years of college payoff!

Seth graduated on May 9th from Ferris and we headed out May 10th for Colorado with his dad and brother. There is definitely some fear & excitement in taking that leap of faith and heading out into the unknown. We had our housing all set up ahead of time and when we arrived at the apartments my heart sank. The apartments were nothing like their website said they were. Since it was so late in the evening we couldn't talk to management or anything. We were extremely frustrated...we had been up for 48 hours, we were hungry, and didn't have a place yet to stay for the night. Everyone crashed at a hotel that evening and the next morning Seth and I headed over to the apartments. The lady admitted that their website was a bit deceiving as those pictures were of the "premium" apartments and they only had a couple of those. The lady told us if we walked out and broke the lease we would be paying a hefty penalty! I was visibly upset and told her I didn't appreciate her dishonesty (I had talked to her on the phone several times about the shape of the housing). God was watching over us, because she referred us to a "sister complex" several miles away. As we pulled in, I knew this was home! We were shown our apartment and it was beautiful, new, and had a gorgeous view of the mountains. The manager said they were having a really hard time renting this specific unit; Seth and I looked at each other and we both knew God had kept it open for us! God was taking care of us from the start!

The first month or so was a huge adjustment! I wasn't used to apartment living and not knowing a soul. I was terrified of driving around because the traffic was so fast paced (no more two lane roads like in MI)! Seth had to travel all of July so that was also a trying time. I DO Not like being home alone for a week at a time.

We had several visitors throughout the summer: Bo, Seth's mom, my mom, and Leah. We were able to do a lot of fun things while they were here and tried to give them a taste of Colorado. We were even able to make it back to Michigan twice. I flew back once when Sarah was expecting Megan and Chrysler let us use a company van to drive back when Seth had training in Auburn Hills.

October was quickly upon us... I had so many issues this pregnancy. I went into pre-term labor twice in August. Thankfully they were able to stop it both times. Then at about 38 weeks I began showing signs of pre-eclampsia (toxemia). The doctors were pretty insistent on doing a
C-Section at that time. I was able to talk them into letting me wait until I was 40 weeks if we monitored my blood pressure closely. Two days after my due date I woke up at 1 in the morning with contractions. They weren't super hard so I just slept and walked a lot. The contractions stayed consistently 5-6 min. apart all day! Finally at 7 p.m. they got harder. Mom was pretty insistent on us getting to the hospital, but I wanted to labor at home as long as possible. Finally at 9:30 we headed in. Needless to say after another 12 hours of labor, Miss Melanie was born at 9:20 via c-section. This little girl had kept us on our toes for several months and I was sooo thankful to finally have her in my arms. God is so good.

Shwewww... I know this was long, but a year is a lot to update in one sitting! We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!