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miracle // a surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of a divine agency

… not to put too dramatic a spin on it, but welcoming this sweet pup into our family is something of a miracle. if i was going to hashtag the whole thing it would be something to the effect of #strangerthingshavehappened or #hellmusthavefrozenover.

i’m a third-generation (at least) pet-averse human. not proud of it, but there you have it. i didn’t grow up with my own pets (with the exception of an adorable kitty in my very young years) and therefore am not entirely comfortable around the 4-legged variety. i’ve always made it very clear that pets of any kind were off the table. no, not for me, thank you. wen sort of accepted this as a flaw in my character that he could live with – but i’m certain he did his fair share of praying that one day this cold heart would be changed.

and apparently prayer does work, miracles do happen, and hearts do soften, because a few months ago i started feeling this little twinkle of interest. could we? should we? a lot of it was driven by piper’s overwhelming love for animals. she has always been drawn towards furry friends, and i didn’t want to be the one standing between her and such joy. and, as she’s now getting old enough to participate and support the process, i thought maybe, just maybe. 

all of which led to the weaving together of some random details, and suddenly we found ourselves in the car, on the way to frankfurt, to meet her.

frankie. 

she’s perfect. truly the sweetest little thing. i feel like spouting off a number of ridiculous and cheesy statements – love at first sight! the moment i saw her! oh, i just love her so much already.

that said, she’s a freaking lot of work. i think wen and i both underestimated how much energy this little pup would consume. it’s been 48 hours and we’re exhausted. this is like having a newborn all over again, except our newborns rarely sh** on the floor. on saturday night (our first night with her) we were up in the middle of the night arguing about how to get her to sleep – it truly brought back so many memories of our first nights with piper. we have no idea what we’re doing!!! look it up online!! is this normal?!

i’m also totally loving the irony of us diving headfirst into this new responsibility, right as we finally got both girls in school. as much as he would never admit it, i think husband was suffering from a bit of empty nest syndrome with the girls gone all day. i can’t imagine what he’ll / we’ll do when they leave for college one day. good lord.

and the chicklets. oh, they are in love as well. well, at least piper is. her heart is literally exploding over sweet frankie. last night she cried her eyeballs out as she got in bed. i miss fraaaaaankie. i want to hooooold her. stella is taking a bit longer to warm up. she’s a bit more apprehensive, and a bit more unsettled about the whole thing. i think we’re experiencing a taste of what life would be like if we had had another baby. our baby is a having a bit of a hard time adjusting to this new little member. but she’s coming around.

so here we are. our little family of 5. piper put it so perfectly … mommy, it’s like our family was missing a puzzle piece, but now we’re all complete. indeed.

meet frankie maxey.

xo from a very tired, very happy mommy of 3.

 

blur // something you can not see clearly, something that is difficult to remember 

… this picture so perfectly depicts both last year and my hope for the one which has just begun. in 2013 i was part of that blur. it went by so quickly, and as much as i tried to hold and pause and be still, each day just slipped and spun. wen and i have this tradition of naming each year, and last year we had dubbed “the year of go.” i came up with that one, and actually meant it to be a catalyst for travel and seeing / experiencing new things. ironically, we traveled less last year than the year prior, and i think somehow my subconscious or the universe incorrectly interpreted the year of go to mean, just stay really, really, really busy. 

not to say we didn’t have adventures – we did, certainly. in a lot of respects it was an incredible year, with beautiful milestones, significant moments and a few amazing new beginnings. but if i’m really honest, last year felt like i was a passenger on a high speed train, and it’s all a bit blurry.

so my hope, prayer, wish for this year is that i will not simply be caught up in the busyness / blurriness, but rather very intentional. clear. focused.

this year has become “the year of do.” wen came up with it, and it’s meant to inspire action. not busyness, but more an intentional decision to really do the things that we constantly talk about, daydream about, but then brush to the side with excuses of can’t or no time or not now. this is the year of making things happen.

a few months ago i read sheryl sandberg’s book lean in, and the one thing that stuck out to me the most was a brief mention of a poster that hung in her office (or someone’s office, honestly can’t remember). it simply stated, done is better than perfect. i carried this statement around with me for a few months, and recently thought back to it as we embarked upon the year of do. it’s super fitting for me and any others who struggle with a degree of perfectionism (ick). take this blog, for example. i have a million (ok, maybe 10) posts that i want / need to write – trips we took, first day of school, etc. these lingered over my head for weeks and then into months … and suddenly christmas arrived and i wanted to write about chopping down trees and opening gifts and celebrating with the chicklets. but i wouldn’t let myself write those things until i had done the events which happened previously … so in the end, none of it happened. except … swirling brain, busyness, blurryness.

so in the spirit of the year of do, i’m going to write those posts. they may not be in order, but again, done is better than perfect. and i actually think writing about a trip to barcelona which took place in august might be kind of awesome in the middle of january. who doesn’t want to think about sun and beach when the weather outside is so frightful? (it might even lead to booking a flight somewhere warm, in the spirit of “the year of do” – i DO want to be in barcelona right now!).

cheers to the year of do. to a year of focus and intention. of less blurry.  more centered. less perfection. more done. less no, more yes. you get the point.

xo from a chilly nuremberg.