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Do you remember the last time you wrote a love note?  My husband and I used to scribble our affectionate words to each other on post it notes almost daily.  Sadly I can’t think of the last time I found one of those little yellow letters.  These days we occasionally text each other “I love you,” or something similar.  Lets be honest its not the same.  Its not that our love has left, its just that our time has.

There has been even less time lately.  It’s been a busy end of summer and fall in our home.  For starters we left one to go to another.

Our new, old house is a very, very old farm-house.  Built in 1800, it has charm oozing from its wood floors and doll-house rooms, but it needed a little “new.” So when we moved in we immediately remodeled a bathroom and two bedrooms. 

Before

After

We took our little 2 bedroom, 1.5 bath and turned it into a 4 bedroom, 2 bath in about 30 days.  It was a disaster of a time. 

Living in about 600 feet of the house at a time with two crazy kiddos was hard.  We were blessed with a gift from the in-laws that saved our sanity.  A huge swing set, unlike anything I’d ever seen. 

My girls adore it and it got them outside non-stop during those first few hectic weeks.  The house will have little projects for years to come but at least now I feel like it is ours.

The reason for the rush was my cousin came from the west coast to take a job at QVC, about 40 days after our move.  We insisted she stay with us while she got acclimated to the east coast.  So, we needed to have a room and bathroom for her. 

We are so excited to have her for a while.  Finally family on the east coast! The girls love her and so do we. 

She is a huge help with my overnight schedule and my husbands travel.  And now we are 3 adults, 2 kids and 2 dogs living in about 1400 square feet.  It’s snug but homey, and for the first time we have “land.”  A huge front and back yard with trees and room for our family to run!  Despite the outdoor space, the home is small.  Some questioned how we could fit in such a little place, but it was the right move for us.  I felt the Lord was telling us to sacrifice a bit.  We needed to save some money, and finally recover from 2009; the loss of employment and homes and the expense of adoption.  Were still crawling out of that disaster like so many Americans.

Just weeks after my cousin moved in my parents took us to Mexico for my 36^th birthday. I was so busy with work and the move and construction and learning how to live in the country (not easy for a city girl,) that I didn’t actually have a chance to get excited until I got on the plane.  The eight days was perfect.   

The home they rented was insane gorgeous and we spent warm days and nights in the pool and marveling at the beauty of the island. 

Not to mention non-stop food and drink.  The girls were in heaven.  They still ask to go back to the house in Mexico that we lived in before we moved to QVC, and I felt so at peace and calm for that week, doing nothing more than being mom and being me. 

I spent lazy mornings swinging in a hammock, looking at the ocean with a sleeping 3 yr old on my chest.  I actually had thoughts again that didn’t include the logistics of being a full time working mom and wife and attempting to do both jobs perfectly.

The break from life gave me a chance to start writing again.  I finished writing a book a couple months ago so I began writing a proposal to get it published, an idea that scares me and excites me at the same time.  I also started writing love notes again.  One to my husband, that I am not going to share with you, but also one to my girls that will go in their baby books.    

10.29.13

They are 3 & 4 and full of everything sweet and rotten and pure and loving.  At pre-school someone called her name -  Georgia - and my breath caught; tears in my eyes. That name, I still can’t believe she is mine. We always planed on a Grace, never thought we would be blessed with a second name to discover. The little sisters hug each other fiercely one small and brilliant one tall and creative.  It’s honestly easier to fall in love with Georgia; she is innocent and pure but loud and stubborn.  She is still baby like.  Grace was never baby like, always brilliant. She loves with every ounce of her feisty being but she challenges you to walk away from her, which no one ever could.  She is too adorable too witty, too perfectly beautiful.  A “no” is a challenge, she will always find a way that one.  And I know her way will always be back to me. We have arrived at a time when they are growing and becoming real people and my best friends.  I’ts not right.  I need to let them go little by little and be their mother not their friend, but I still crave every second of their time. We spend our mornings snuggling and we kiss 50 times a day.  Grace asks for besos, and hugs.  Her little heart beating so close to mine. We are a gorgeous little unit, the 3 of us.  I am so proud of us girls and so ridiculously in love.

We do try and get away as often as we can.  Its what we save for, we have 1 car, a small house and we don’t crave a lot of stuff.  We crave escape.  It saves our sanity.  We seem to work so much and so hard.  Its not just the sun and sand and adventure, it’s the chance to escape the rush of every day life.  To take the time to breathe and be together and write love notes again.   So when’s the last time you wrote a love note?  To your partner, your kids, your Lord?  If you’re like us and it’s been longer than you can remember maybe today is the day.

Have a blessed November and adoption awareness month!

See more pictures of the girls and the house and my crazy QVC mom life on Facebook.  www.facebook.com/kerstinlindquistqvc. Id love if you would give me some “like”

Kerstin