The Next Chapter

February 25, 2023 The Ameri Brit Mom1 Comment

It’s been a while.

And today I feel ready to explain where I’ve been since taking a few steps back from The Ameri Brit Mom in January. First of all, it had been my intention to spend the beginning of 2023 focusing on myself and family. However, my two weeks off turned to twelve when I received some surprising news just before the turn of the New Year.

I am expecting my third baby in August of 2023!

I laid low during the first trimester for several reasons:

-Those first weeks of pregnancy kicked my butt. I was exhausted at all times and so I listened to my body and slept as often as I could.

-I was afraid if I kept going with posts that somehow I would let slip about my news, and I really wanted to wait until the second trimester to confirm any suspicions.

-I had some complications with my last pregnancy in 2018 and I am considered high risk. There are a lot of appointments, medications, and fears already surrounding this pregnancy and I just wasn’t ready to share that journey yet.

Now that I am safely nestled into the second trimester I am feeling good. My energy levels are higher and I’m handling appointments, medications, and fears a lot better than before.

I am excited to share with you that this baby is a BOY! He is already so loved and has two amazing big sisters who will spoil him once he joins our family.

2023 didn’t start the way I envisioned it, but I must say that now that I’ve had time to process and adjust that I am excited for the trajectory the year is sending me on. A few of the BIG projects I had planned for the year may get pushed back a bit, but I still have exciting things to bring to the site and business in the coming months.

Thanks for continuing to support The Ameri Brit Mom, and I cannot wait to share this new chapter with you!

The Ameri Brit Mom

Just: Five Minute Friday

February 23, 2019February 23, 2019 The Ameri Brit Mom3 Comments

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Dear Daughter,

It feels like just yesterday I was cradling you in my arms for the first time. All those years of waiting were finally over. You were perfect in every way. The moment I heard your voice and saw your wrinkled nose I knew that you had filled a hole that we didn’t know existed. I felt peace and knew that God had just given us the missing piece. Our family was whole.

It’s been a year of being blessed by your presence.

Your smile is contagious. Your words are brilliant. Your personality is the perfect mix of Daddy and I.

It was a year of firsts for you. How exciting it was to watch you knock over those milestones like you owned this world. You’re growing so quickly and while I celebrate every first for you I also remember that this is the last time I will see my own child complete these tasks.

God has been so good to us.

He has faithfully delivered our family from illness and death. This year he has restored and fulfilled promises. And you, my big one-year-old, were our gift. God knew when he made you that we would need that infectious smile to get us through some of the scariest times we faced. He knew that your strong hugs would chase away fears and quiet anxiety.

You are truly a blessing and I can’t imagine our family without you.

Happy First Birthday!

The Ameri Brit Mom

**This post was written in response to the Five Minute Friday prompt of the week. Be sure to check out the link in order to see other encouraging writers and their posts about the prompt.

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Family · Uncategorized

Family Photo Session

January 14, 2019January 13, 2019 The Ameri Brit MomLeave a comment

Thanks to a friend from The Mund Life Photography our family was able to get some awesome pictures over the holidays. It was time to update our family shots since our oldest was a bald baby approaching her first birthday in the most recent photos. I wanted a canvas this year of all FOUR of us.

Josh did a great job capturing the love of our family.

The picture above is the one that we had made into a large canvas as part of my Christmas gift. It was hard to choose just one picture though. In the hour we spent at the studio we collected so many amazing snapshots into our life.

There were so many perfect shots:

But my favorite photographs were the unstaged, unedited ones. I love how he captured our REAL personalities with these fun, candid shots:

To wrap up this post I wanted to share my meme-able photo. Below, share a meme that would be perfect for this picture. I can’t help but laugh every time I see this. Who else thinks a falling baby is hilarious!?!

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The Ameri Brit Mom

Family

Catching You Up to Speed: Part 1

July 2, 2018July 1, 2018 The Ameri Brit Mom2 Comments

I’ve been absent for a year for many reasons. To start with…our family has grown by one, beautiful baby girl. Pregnancy made me sick and exhausted and to be honest I just didn’t have the energy to keep up with the blog. I still wrote on a somewhat consistent basis, but blogging was less of a priority while I grew a little human. So I want to catch you up on all of the big moments from the past year…

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The Ameri Brit Mom

Family · Uncategorized

Five Minute Friday: Middle

January 13, 2017January 13, 2017 The Ameri Brit Mom2 Comments

This week the topic for the Five Minute Friday link-up post is Middle. What is a link-up? Essentially a link-up is when you join other bloggers and write on a similar topic. You share your blog posts with one another and begin conversations via a host site. You can head over to Kate Motaung’s page to check out other entries from inspired bloggers. Here’s my five minutes of uninterrupted, unedited writing on this week’s topic:

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In the middle of each phase we don’t appreciate it.

We don’t pause and recognize that this is a place we will never be again. When our babies leave us exhausted and sleepless we slip into survival mode and just try to get by. Anything that keeps one foot in front of the other will do. We let life pass us by without committing each moment to memory.

One day we take a look at our lives and things have calmed down. Sure, there are still storms, but while we are nursing broken hearts and injured limbs we remember those days of living feeding to feeding. Those times seem so simple now. Whatever happened to those days?

We long to go back to the time when our babies were so little- before they didn’t wander far from our reach. We dream of moments when they were content to rest in our laps and we try hard to picture their tiny hands wrapped around our fingers.

In the middle of those phases it seems like they will be tiny creatures forever.

We cry. We break down. We trade our designer clothes for bath robes and messy buns.

Then one day when we reunite with our sanity, sit down (finally able to re-introduce white to our wardrobes) and we start to miss those spit up stains and the days without showers.

The Ameri Brit Mom

Family · Uncategorized

Five Minute Friday: Surprise

March 18, 2016March 18, 2016 The Ameri Brit Mom4 Comments

This week the topic for the Five Minute Friday link-up post is Surprise. What is a link-up? Essentially a link-up is when you join other bloggers and write on a similar topic. You share your blog posts with one another and begin conversations via a host site. You can head over to Kate Motaung’s page to check out other entries from inspired bloggers. Here’s my five minutes of uninterrupted, unedited writing on this week’s topic:

My greatest surprise came on January 13, 2012. It was a chilly winter day. I was just settling back into my work routine which explained my high levels of exhaustion. The weekend had finally come and I found myself ready to sleep it away. I couldn’t explain the way I was feeling. In fact, I had never quite felt that way before. I was sick, but I wasn’t sick. I was tired, but I was energized. My life had become an oxymoron.

I was sitting around the long table in the staff lounge that Friday afternoon. After discussing our weekend plans I told a colleague I was looking forward to just sleeping the weekend away. I was a first year teacher and it wasn’t too off base to think that I was running on empty. However, the other teacher mentioned that she felt the same way I described when she was pregnant. And so it began…

Unable to get the thought out of my mind I stopped at a drug store on the way home. I rushed into my house careful not to show my husband what I had just purchased. I took a test and in less than two minutes the course of my life would change. I went from a newlywed new teacher to an expectant mother.

My daughter was a huge surprise. Originally we planned to wait a few years before becoming parents, but God’s plan was greater than my own.

Nine months later I would meet that beautiful surprise. She instantly became my purpose. I held her and none of my previous plans made sense anymore. I will be forever grateful that God gave me such a delightful surprise and I wouldn’t change His timing for anything.