blogging | And 2 Makes Crazy

Over the last year, one of my favorite things about this blog was seeing all of the countries that were reading. There have been 97 countries. 97. It’s been a blast watching a new country pop up as a reader on varying days for varying posts. It was always interesting to see what posts drew which countries.

And, out of the countries, these are the Top 10 reading countries WordPress has recorded from this past year:

1. The United States
2. Poland
3. The United Kingdom
4. Canada
5. Italy
6. Australia
7. Germany
8. Norway
9. Taiwan
10. Sweden

Fun fact. Out of the Top 10 reading countries, I have actually been to 5 of them.

Now, these may not have been the most popular blog postings. In fact, I don’t even know how many views they have, but they are a few of my favorites.

I hope that if you haven’t had a chance to read them yet, you will get a chance today.

In no particular, my Top 10 (of some of my favorites):

1. Children notice skin color,but it’s what we teach that matters: http://wp.me/p3Bh9m-kp
2. Get Ready. Get Set. Get the Eggs: http://wp.me/p3Bh9m-1eT
3. Adelyne. That word says it all: http://wp.me/p3Bh9m-17g
4. Raising a Bilingual Child: http://wp.me/p3Bh9m-14x
5. A Copper Miner’s Wife: http://wp.me/p3Bh9m-fu
6. Babcia Conned…Ouch: http://wp.me/p3Bh9m-fY
7. I am a tiger that has earned her stripes. Roar: http://wp.me/p3Bh9m-8o
8. Why you, Mommy, should surrender to your pirates: http://wp.me/p3Bh9m-180
9. It takes a village. Now would someone please help me pick up the pee: http://wp.me/p3Bh9m-1dS
10. You may be the only Bible some will ever read: http://wp.me/p3Bh9m-ol

If I could add an 11th of 12th—I would add one of my “Confessional Sunday or Monday” postings. But you can search those in the top right corner of the blog. Those were always fun to write, too.

Anyhow, I hope that you enjoy some of my picks from this past year of blogging. I still can’t believe it has been a year. Happy Blog-o-versary continues for And 2 Makes Crazy. Yea!

xoxo from here to there,

I have a baby in my belly and a 1-year-old and 7-year-old at home. And I have a husband that I have rarely seen since June.

My daughter, well, right now while we’re in Arizona (United States), she’s the invisible girl—hardly seen! But that’s an awesome thing. Because it means that she is usually with friends or cousins playing her little heart out. You see, we technically live in Poland (since 2001…we started something called Fundacja Bread of Life). In fact, if this surprise belly didn’t pop up, we’d be back there right now.

Yep! We were scheduled to be back in Poland on May 10th. But around May 5th, I felt a little something…called pregnant. Sure enough, about 10 dollar store tests later, we both finally believed it. Good thing our mud run was the day before, eh?

And so, my hubby and I decided that there is very little in life (outside of Jesus) that is more important to us than our children.

You see, we went through 5 years of very hollow infertility before God gave us Adelyne Marguerite.

And then it was another 5 years before God gave us our heavenly baby Sam (here’s a honest look at loss and miscarriage: http://wp.me/p3Bh9m-6B).

And, well, I haven’t shared it all on this page, but then 2 years after Sam, we were given Maxwell Loren. But he was a gift that was almost returned to heaven. We nearly lost him…multiple times. He’s our spirited little fighter and an absolute joy in our life.

And that brings us to today…a year after Maxwell was born. Now I’m pregnant with, whom we call, Belly Josephine (here’s some photos here: http://wp.me/p3Bh9m-gp), inching my way to 40 years of age. Yes, getting fossilized here, folks!

13 years of marriage to a man that I nearly didn’t date…

13 years of marriage and 4 babies: 2 that we’ve been able to keep here on earth; one waiting for us in heaven; and one kickball champ in my belly.

And we’re suppose to be in Poland.

But since we value our babies more than life itself, my husband and I decided that I would not travel and would ride out this pregnancy here in the United States with my family just one minute away. Therefore, I’ve remained in our little rental farmhouse with egg-laying chickens…and he, well he’s been back and forth and around the world getting his “work on”.

He spent the majority of his summer in Poland and Moldova and Zambia. He’s spending the majority of this fall in Africa and Europe…and I told him that if he’s not back in time for the baby, Adelyne’s my partner in the delivery room. She was thrilled with that and told me she would sit around and eat popsicles. Sounds like she’d be great support, eh?!

His work is awesome…but he’s also missed a ton: Maxwell’s first steps and most of his first words. Maxwell’s new affinity to climb all objects and to feed himself with a spoon. Josephine’s major belly kicks and several doctor’s visits to date. Most of Adelyne’s swim meets, and so much more.

In fact, he’s been gone so much that my son walks past the computer and says, “Hi, Dadda!”