The Brower Bunch

I just wanted to thank you for the overwhelming response of love and support from my last post. It took me a while to hit the "publish post" button, not knowing what would happen as a result. I kept feeling very strongly that I needed to post it. Thank you for your comments. I hope that it has been able to help someone out there. I wanted to give you my email address if there was anyone who had questions or comments that they didn't want posted publicly. Please feel free to email me...I would love to hear from you. heidi.brower@comcast.net I also wanted to post a link about adoption and birth mother support. http://www.providentliving.org/familyservices/strength/0,12264,2873-1,00.html My counselor, Monica Blume, also wrote an amazing book about all the different aspects of adoption and those involved. The second half of the book is all REAL life experiences from people. The letters that we wrote to Alex are actually in that book. I feel very honored that Moni...

I am behind on some blogging, but I realized that I won't be able to get all of that done right now before I post this. And, I really want to post this today. Some people get the opportunity to have something so significant in their life happen that changes them forever. I am one of those people. Today is a very special day for me. One of a few very special and significant days for me. I have only been celebrating this day for the past 7 years, but I will celebrate it for the rest of my life. Today is Birthmothers Day. Yes, I am a birthmother. I know that most of you do know this about me, but there are some of you who don't know and this will come as a shock to you. I wanted to take this opportunity to write down my feelings and hopefully I can share some sort of insight to this topic. For those of you who don't know...a birthmother is someone who has placed a baby for adoption. When I was 18 I discovered that I was pregnant and was scared beyond imagination. F...

First of all, I have to give credit to the name of my blog to the Ellen Degeneres show. It is a game that they play to win a trip to Orlando, FL. Well, I liked the name, so I am using it. Thanks Ellen! Second, most of you already know that we have temporarily relocated for the summer to Orlando, Florida! We made some pretty big decisions on what to do and where to go this summer for Jerrod's sales job. And, after much thought and prayer, we decided that going to Orlando was the best all-around decision for our family. Jerrod was able to get a leave-of-absence from Boeing, so that has been a huge blessing. He is working for Pinnacle as an alarm consultant. We left our friends and family back in Washington, but only with promises that we will return! We arrived to Orlando on April 7th, 2009. We flew and shipped our car out with all of our stuff in it. We moved into a small one bedroom apartment. This summer we are learning to live minimal. The apartment is furnished an...

This last winter I volunteered to coach a kindergarten basketball team at the YMCA. I have always had a desire to coach, and they were in desperate need of volunteers, so I did it. I was so excited to get started with my team. I bought new basketballs, cones, and jersey's and Jerrod gave me a whistle and a basketball court white board. I even went all prepared to my first practice with a minute by minute outline of how the practice was going to play out. Now, remember I said that these were kindergarteners...meaning 5 and 6 year olds. After the first 3 minutes I quickly discovered that this wasn't going to go exactly as planned. I threw out my piece of paper and just did what I could with 9 little 5 year olds who had a hard enough time just holding onto the ball!! After that practice I was wondering what the heck I got myself into! The next week's practice went a lot better! Mostly because I went with no expectations. Our first game was so much fun. By the end of...

For the past few months, Kennedi has been going to a dance class at the YMCA once a week. She absolutely has loved it. It is amazing to me to see how much she has grown in just three class sessions. Each class session goes for 6 weeks. The class is only for two year olds and they just mainly focus on the kids becoming aware of their bodies and having fun. It is parent participation, so that has been fun for me as well. For a full 30 min I am only focused on Kennedi and her dancing. We love that time together. My favorite thing is when she is off doing something by herself or with the rest of the group that she looks for me with a big smile on her face as if she is looking for approval. I just smile back and tell her what a good job she is doing. She has learned fun songs and dances. Since we moved to Orlando for the summer, she obviously hasn't been able to attend, but it is something that we are definitely looking forward to in the fall. This is another Heidi in the ma...

Our Valentines Day this year was one like I have never had before. Jerrod wouldn’t tell me at all what we were doing, so I had no idea what to expect. I really have the best husband in the world. He is constantly surprising me and making me feel special. Some people don’t like surprises, but I really do. And I really married the right man for that. Before we left, we exchanged cards with the kids. Then, Jerrod, Kennedi and Kaden gave me cards and a gift. The card from the kids was so cute because it included a big heart sticker that said, “Very Loved Mommy” Kennedi put it on me and I wore it proudly for the rest of the night. Jerrod had two books made of all of my past blogs. I love it so much. I love having all of my blogs put together in one book by year. That is why it is so important for me to include all of these past things. Because I don’t want to miss out on anything when the year 2009 gets put in a book! This is such a fun way to journal…now if I could only be be...