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We've been happily married since 2001, and recently relocated to Jacksonvile, Florida. We are both avid animal-lovers, so it's only natural for us to have 3 truly amazing dogs, and 3 crazy-insane cats. More about them here.
Hobbies/Interests:
I love television. I believe that I was deprived as a child and am trying to make up for lost time as an adult. ;o) Besides TV, I enjoy scrapbooking, photography, cooking, music, animals, nature, and movies. These days it seems like most of my life is spent on the computer, whether it be on Facebook, here on the blog, or in the online community forums of Hannah's Prayer Ministries (my online home ♥).
I've been a "fat girl" for as long as I can remember - even back in grade school. Diets didn't work for me, so I just gave up and resigned to the fact that I would always be fat. Consequently, I began to really pack on the pounds. In April of 2009 I realized that I couldn't keep living this way, and a conversation with my primary care physician inspired me to try counting calories. That was the beginning of my weight-loss journey, and I have lost more weight than I thought humanly possible. In 2010 I was down to a smaller than I was when I graduated high school, but stress and health issues over the past few years have caused me to gain some weight back. I know this will be a constant battle for the rest of my life, but I am determined not to ever go back to where I was at my heaviest, and I will always strive to be healthier.Infertility:
Because I have always dreamed of being a stay-at-home mom, we chose not to have kids until we were financially stable. In 2005 we stopped believing in that fairy tale ;) and decided not to delay any longer. Unfortunately, that was about the time we discovered my body was not going to make things easy. Long story short, I've had 5 surgeries to remove uterine fibroids and/or ovarian cysts (3 where they cut me wide open), and was diagnosed with severe (stage IV) endometriosis. In 2009 we felt God leading us to try our first and only IVF cycle. This treatment did not work for us, but God gave us 2 embryos that had continued to grow and were successfully frozen. Since it was determined that I physically could not carry our children myself, the only remaining option was to pursue surrogacy in order to give those two precious lives a chance. A little over 2 years later we found out we were expecting a baby through an amazing gift of love... called surrogacy. ♥
