These last few months have been absolutely crazy. I finally was reunited with my husband after 3 months, and he drove me back to Arizona, to our new home. This place is perfect for our family. My pregnancy continued to become less high risk, and I was able to get off bed rest. We were able to celebrate Christmas with Skyler and Mikaela, with an actual tree this time. Granted, it kinda looked like a Charlie Brown tree, but at least it was a tree. Justin's hours got cut drastically shortly after the New Year, which is really hurting us financially.
Our biggest blessing this year is that of our beautiful little daughter, who was born on February 1st, 2013 at 8:13pm. She was 6lbs 2oz and 18 1/2 inches long. We named her Aria Hope Mattix. Originally, she was supposed to be born on February 8th at 4:00pm, but at my last doctor appointment, my doctor told me I most likely wouldn't make it to the 8th, and actually suggested naturally inducing labor. Justin took the next day off to try and help me, and by 4:15 that day, we were on our to the hospital. At first, it didn't look like they were going to admit me, but after about 25 minutes, the triage nurse came in and told us that coming in wasn't a wasted trip because we would be having a baby that night. After an hour and a half of sitting in the Labor and Delivery triage hooked to an IV, they wheeled me back to the operating room and after 45 minutes (20 of which was spent trying to get the anesthetic to work), Aria Hope was born. Her daddy is definitely a doting father, and her older siblings, Skyler, Mikaela and Carsten all adore her. The hospital even contracts with a professional photographer, and we had pictures done at the hospital. Anne Gettys eat your heart out. We brought Aria home on Monday the 4th, and it has been awesome so far. She gets more beautiful every day. Carsten is absolutely enamored by his little sister. He's always trying to hold her or give her kisses or even share his blanket with her. He's always telling me, "Mommy, I love her." Or "Mommy, she likes me. She needs me. She's my baby Aria Sister." Its absolutely adorable.
I'm finally starting to be able to walk without needing the pain killers as much. I will often go 12+ hours without any medication. I'm hoping by Monday, I won't need them.
Justin loves being a daddy, and he's so cute with Aria. He holds her whenever he can. It warms my heart to finally have a man that treats our kids like princes and princesses.
Speaking of him being an incredible daddy, we have finally begun the adoption process for Justin to become Carsten's legal father. We thought for a while that Carsten's bio-dad would actually sign the papers, but shortly after I sent them to him, he informed me that he was advised not to sign any papers because it would make him financially responsible for Carsten. What he doesn't get is that he already IS financially responsible, and will continue to be so until such a time as the adoption goes through. So, because he refused to sign, I had to fill out a severance packet, requesting a hearing. So instead of this being a 3 month process, it is now a 6 month process, which means he will accrue 3 extra months of child support owed PLUS the back child support. There was also an Income Withholding Order issued on January 23rd, which means he's finally being forced to be responsible, which neither he nor his girlfriend like. And his mother even went so far as to threaten to sue me for custody of Carsten... yeah. Good luck with that one, considering the boy is almost 3 and they have made no effort to even contact him. So, anyways, the hearing is set for April 18th at 9:30am. If he doesn't show, and doesn't have good cause, his rights will automatically be terminated and we can proceed with the adoption.
Things are looking up. Miracles do happen among the crap. :)
