Arrivederci To Our Sweet Elena

 

As I sit here with a box of tissues, it is an understatement when I say, " I am not ready to write this blog." 

How have 913 days passed since our sweet, vivacious Elena came crashing into our lives? I remember picking her up from the airport like it was (legit) yesterday. I was late (of course) and she was patiently waiting for me in the baggage claim area at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport. She smiled warmly at me as I walked up to her and she gave me the biggest hug, melting away both of our fears. Neither of us knew exactly what we were getting ourselves into. I was inviting a complete stranger into my home to live with my family and she was leaving behind everything she called "home". 

However, in the most unlikely of ways, we fit each other's puzzle perfectly. She quickly merged into our family seamlessly, like she was always here, and now I can't imagine our life without her. She is the most AMAZING person and caretaker for Cashton and Jaxson and she has truly become my best friend. 

Many have asked, "will we get another Cultural Aupair?" The answer is yes, but Elena will forever have a place in our hearts as our "first". She taught me exactly what this program is all about. When I signed up to host an Aupair I thought it would be a "cool" cultural exchange for us and the kids, while solving our childcare needs. Little did I know my party of four was about to become Strager -Party of Five with Elena at the helm! 

Sure, I didn't learn one lick of Italian while she was here (which was one of my goals... I even took an Italian language class that I failed out of) but I learned a new love that my heart didn't know before and for that I am eternally grateful. 

Elena has touched so many people during her time in the USA, that includes not only our immediate family but our extended family as well. You know a person really has a special soul when family members from all over the US from Montana to Florida go out of their way to spend time with her. It's easy to see how Elena has made so many friends along the way and has even won the hearts of our Kiss 95.1 listener family too. 

Elena has been there for me in ways that not many others have. She knows a side of me that few will ever see. She can sense when I am stressed or something is weighing on me and she knows just how to brighten my day. We instinctively know what each other is thinking before either one of us ever opens our mouths and her love is felt by just a look. In short, she has become the sister I never had and I truly know she will ALWAYS be family now.  

She has been so instrumental in Cash's development, Jaxson's joy, my laughter, Dallas's sanity, and for truly making our house feel like a home. She completes our family in a way that is hard to understand from the outside looking in, but to us, she will ALWAYS be a Strager. 

She is a woman of strength and many talents and I can't wait to see what the future has in store for her. As we say our "see you laters" I say countless prayers that Cashton continues to thrive and that Jaxson remembers her. I pray that she will visit often and that we can take the children to visit their "extended family" in Italy one day. And I pray that we have made a profound, lifelong impact on each other's life and path in this world. 

Thank you Elena, for 2.5 of the best years I could have asked for (even with covid). I love you so much and I hope you truly know how much you mean to me and our family.  

Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened. 

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Baby Strager Is Coming June 2020!

Talk about a tough secret to keep! I feel like I have been sneaking around long enough. I have lied to everyone close to me, dodging get-togethers and holiday parties to conceal the fact that we are expecting another little bundle of joy this coming June! 

There are multiple reasons a woman keeps this secret. Early pregnancy is a sensitive subject, and as an expecting mom, you want to make sure that everything is okay with the baby before shouting your announcement from the rooftops. This was an especially surprising time for Dallas and I because we were just "pre-family planning" at this point. It took us over a year to get pregnant with Cashton and we were trying so hard then. So, imagine our astonishment after realizing that after only 3 months of being off of birth control that I hadn't had a normal "cycle" in over 40 days. 

Shock, amazement, and excitement flushed over mine and Dallas's faces when I immerged from the bathroom holding a positive drug store pregnancy test. We just kinda stood there staring at each other for a few seconds before the news finally sank in. 

I wasn't sure how we were going to be able to contain this news with so many events on the horizon. After all, October to December is our busiest time of the year for social events. Gravediggers Ball, Friendsgivings, holiday parties, and social get-togethers flood our calendars for the last portion of the year. I knew I would get busted the second I showed up to my first gathering and declined a cocktail. EVERYONE would be onto me! So Dallas and I developed a plan to attend every single bash together until we made our announcement. We would BOTH order drinks and he would drink both of our cocktails on the sly. We would just continuously switch glasses until both drinks were gone. It was a match made in heaven. I had a designated drinker and he had a designated driver!   

We also decided that we wanted to tell our family during our Thanksgiving gathering. We had already planned to host the holiday at our new home this year and since this would be the first time since our wedding (10 years ago) both sides of our family would be together I wanted to tack on a holiday family photoshoot for our Christmas Cards. It all seemed to be coming together. If I could dodge the champagne and smoked Manhattans all weekend we could tell them at the end of the photoshoot and catch their priceless reactions on film. 

   

Somehow by the grace of God, we were able to pull it off. No one knew except Dallas and I. Not Cash. Not Elena. Not even our parents. I kept this secret so tight to the vest that our photographer didn't even know until she showed up. 

I had the whole thing planned to a tee! We would finish our shoot and I would announce that I forgot to include a "Merry Christmas" sign I had made for the photos. I would ask everyone to get together one last time and present my "The More the Merrier. Baby Strager, June 2020" sign instead. Here are some of the amazing photos of everyone's reactions.

Of course, the fun didn't stop there. Genetic testing is something we decided to do at the recommendation of our doctor. Apparently having a baby at 35 years old makes you a "high-risk pregnancy", which is laughable but true. The upside to having this test is that they can tell you the sex of your baby as early as 10 weeks! So we were able to share our gender reveal with our family the same day we told them we were expecting.

However, word to the wise. If YOU do not want to know the sex of your baby have someone else check your test outcome because "Boy" or "Girl" is printed right there on the Myriad results. We wanted to know so we check the test ourselves. This way I could order gender reveal poppers on Amazon and have them ready to go for our fam. 

So, we were excited to announce that we are having a ...

BOY!

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