Blog

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

It's a Girl!

So I just got back from the doctors! I guessed it right, it's a girl! She's perfectly healthy in every way, according to the doctor.

It was so cool for me. I remember, with Angie (our surrogate for Chloe), we would go into the ultrasound room and I would ask her. How does it feel? Can you feel the baby kick you yet? I was so happy to share the experience with her but I never got to be the one lying in the chair. Other people had my stepdaughters and adopted daughters and my surrogate born daughter. I got to raise them and I'm so happy for the experiences I've had but I can definitely say that this is a dream come true. I just still can't beleive it's happening. I'd accepted years ago that it just wasn't meant to be that I carry a child. I thought it was God's plan to let me be the role model in Billiards and to raise awareness about adoption and so many other things I got to experience because I hadn't carried. And here I am.....Thanks to God for His love.....

Friday, April 16, 2010

A baby on the way

Wow. So much has happened this last year. I started playing so much more and felt my game coming back strongly. I've been really enjoying the game and having the time of my life. This is all while my daughter Chloe was born on October 1 of last year (2009). Now, here we are in April, and Chloe is already 6 months old. She is just beautiful, is a twin of her father, with lovely green eyes and a great smile. It was an incredible experience and a different one from my experience with Cheyenne. Cheyenne is now 5 and we adopted her at birth. But we got two days notice before we got her. It was a whirlwind and while she was the perfect baby, we certainly weren't prepared for her. There was so much learning but every experience was a memorable one. She had my heart from the first day I saw her. With Chloe, she was planned. We had an incredible woman named Angie that gave 9 months of her life to fill a dream of ours. She did it in the best way possible. She not only invited me to every doctors appt, ultrasound, gave me all the sonogram photos, clipped coupons, forwarded baby info emails to me, gave me some baby stuff she had from her children, taught me about breastfeeding and all kinds of things that I never got to do with Cheyenne. The best part was that I got to see the inside of a maternity ward. I got to look in the room where they keep the babies. These are things I dreamed of since I was 5 or 6 years old. Well, to go even farther, Angie was so kind to pump breastmilk for me so Chloe could build a stronger immune system....C'mon! Who does that? She is my SuperWoman! My hero!

Well, Chloe was about two or three months old, when I was traveling through Europe and the Middle East on a Military Tour with my best friend Marlene. Every year or two, I travel to entertain our Armed Forces to show them our appreciation and to remind them of America by sharing one of our favorite pasttimes, POOL, with a good ol buttwhippin from the Black Widow.

Toward the end of our two week tour, I started feeling really nauseous and tired. I was convinced I was coming down with a stomach virus or something. It continued to get worse till I started throwing up and needing daytime naps. The schedule of the tour is rough, a lot of traveling, and I was not doing well. My friend Marlene and I started thinking I had food poisoning because of the puking. But then, I mentioned to her that HMMMMM.....my boobs are really tender...isnt' that weird? What could that be?....Marlene said, "OH MY GOODNESS! YOU'RE PREGNANT!!!!" I dismissed it completely, That's impossible! I can't get pregnant! You know that!
I was really on a search for what else it could be. Well, it'll go away and if it doesn't, I'll go to the doctor. Well, it didnt' go away. I got worse and worse.

Then I had to go to the Derby City Classic, a big tournament in Indiana. I went and I smiled and I played pool every night, only to run upstairs and get sick, and take Tums and throw up everything I ate for every meal I ate. I did bleed during this time so I was even more sure that I wasn't pregnant but because I was still so sick, I made an appt with my doctor. When the tournament was over, I went in....and guess what....

YUP! I was prego! After 15 years of marriage and month after month of disappointment and heartache, injections, pills, invitro, acupuncture, praying, crying, it was just crazy. The idea of this....Crazy!

So here I am with 5 kids and now, one more on the way. I have two beautiful stepdaughters Morgan and Olivia. Morgan just got married to my wonderful son-in-law Jason and Olivia is still in college and working two jobs. We have had Cheyenne since birth and the experience was so great it left me wanting more. We then were blessed to be asked to accept John into our family when he was 14 and he just turned 18 and has been accepted to almost all the Universities that he applied for. And with a beautiful gestational surrogate (meaning with my egg, not hers), we just had our first fully biological child, Chloe. We're done. Well, we thought we were done. I just wanted to be able to raise one more infant....its so wonderful.....If the surrogate didn't work, we were going to adopt once more....

Isn't God funny? Such a sense of humor....But I am so thankful and blessed. I have a husband and children that I love with every thing I have. I love all of them and I feel lucky to have them in my life. I have the greatest friends in the world. I have a job that I love. And I am comfortable with who I am.

I'm not saying I'm perfect. I'm far from it. But I'm comfortable with where I am and that I know how to get my goals achieved, I know my weaknesses and that it takes work every day to improve myself. That's more than many have. That comfort in knowing, "I CAN!"

The doctors are a bit wary of the condition of my back right now. The pregnancy has already taken a toll on what I can do physically, but I'm a healthy woman, even at my YOUNG age....hehe....so we think everything should go well. I'm using this time to get caught up on things and to spend more time with my husband, my children, and perhaps get more caught up on working on my website, my store, my Facebook, my Twitter, my FANS!!! I'm tired a lot, and I am just finally getting over the morning sickness. We all have our own plan and God has His. I just want to enjoy figuring out what He has in store for me.

I'm so grateful to you guys. I don't always have my stuff together, I take each day as it comes, but I do love you and hope you stick it out with me on this journey of life. I'm 5 months pregnant. Will find out if it's a boy or a girl next week and I'll make sure you're the first to know...We haven't picked out a name yet but we're working on it.....I love you. Jeanette