Family Farewells

The last of my help left this morning. I walked in the door after dropping my Mom at the airport and burst into tears. Steven sat me in his lap and reminded me that with each new child we just need a little more family organization. It's not that I'm not ready to juggle things on my own, I mean, we've done it for the last seven years and everything falls back into place and works well. It's that feeling you get though after returning from a relaxing vacation or starting back into your "normal" routine after Christmas break. You're excited to jump back into the swing of things but there's a sadness somehow about the previous experience being over.

The fact that my mother was an absolute angel, with her help being above and beyond anything we could have imagined (thanks Mom for coming) increased that sadness a bit beyond what my emotions were able to handle at the moment. After taking a few deep breaths however, I hopped up, fed Haley, got the kids situated next to me playing in the toy room and jumped on my Elliptical for a two mile run. Nothing like sweat and some good old fashion endorphins to put the world back in perspective again!

After playing with the kids, feeding them and tidying up a bit, I am now able to enjoy their quiet time with a short nap and a quick blog on our past few weeks. Hey, maybe I can do this!

We have had a wonderful time enjoying Haley J here in our home. We already can't imagine our family without her and continue to enjoy her little spirit each day. Ryley, Kadyn, and Thatch continue to love on her and watch over her. With Mom here we took the opportunity daily to enjoy the beautiful weather at our favorite parks and spent some quality time going to places that I'm not entirely sure I will be able to attempt in the next few months with all four kiddos. We were also lucky enough to have Mom and Dad Ballard come through to visit. We had a great time with them and were able to bless little Haley during that time. We feel grateful, even with our many distant moves, that Dad Ballard has been able to be in the blessing circle with Steven for three of our children (thanks Mom and Dad for coming). It was a special weekend and a wonderful way to complete these past few memorable weeks for our family.