Buying / Trying / Reading / Watching with Erika from Something Beautiful

Is it Friday yet?!? No?  Well, in the meantime, enjoy I’m excited to introduce Erika from Something Beautiful for another fun Buying / Trying / Reading / Watching post.

Forgive me, but I have to share a little about my blog friend before we get started with her list… Erika and I “met” via the blog world way back around 2009 when I was first getting this gig started and immediately bonded over our shared wedding anniversary (it’s the little things, right?).  Since then, I’ve read almost every post she’s ever published and – quite literally – been brought to tears (from laughter, sadness, and joy) more times than I can count. To summarize her story very quickly – For five and a half years, Erika and her husband tried, unsuccessfully, to get pregnant and dealt with a handful of failed infertility treatments and surgeries.  (She wrote a guest post about infertility for a “Letter to New Moms” series I ran on my old blog in 2012 that was one of the most important and well-read things I ever published.  Thankfully, since that blog is gone now, she reposted it here.  I STRONGLY recommend you read it. With tissues.) After much prayer and consideration, Erika and Matt changed their focus to adoption in 2013 and were quickly chosen by a birth mother; but, in November of that year, after spending three days in the hospital with their new baby girl, the birth mother changed her mind and the adoption failed.  It was, understandably, devastating. Despite that pain, they decided to try again, and were chosen by another birth mom, J, the next spring.  In August of 2014, their beautiful daughter Camilla (pictured above) was born and joined their family.  The adoption was finalized on September 15, 2014 and, in Erika’s own words, she’s “just nauseatingly happy all the time now.”

I was going to try to link to some of her best posts, but there are, truly, just too many to pick from. Instead, if you are on the infertility and/or adoption road right now – or just want to understand it a little bit more, please go visit her blog and look around.  Her story hurts (a lot) at times, but it is, more than anything else, about answered prayers, redemption, healing, and hope.

Ok.  And now I will awkwardly transition to a list of four meaningless things in Erika’s life currently.  (She’s kind-of all about awkward transitions and meaningless paired with significant, so it’s cool.)

Buying – I finally decided that this would be the year I would gracefully transition to a one-piece bathing suit. And you can thank my daughter for leading me to this excellent decision- I probably would have held out another year or six, but she is pretty zealous about tugging on the top half of my clothes, and I’ve had enough close calls with regular old t-shirts to know that we would not fare well in a bikini top. Anyway, this insanely adorable and flattering one-piece from Modcloth made the transition much more painless. I wore it for the first time last weekend and received many compliments, plus I felt super chic and not even remotely lame. Not that one-pieces are lame, just…you know.

(E here – Um… Insanely adorable is right! I’m going to look into buying this RIGHT NOW.  I don’t shop at ModCloth nearly enough.)

Trying – On a maybe-not-unrelated-to-the-bathing-suit-change note, I am finishing up my first Whole30. I keep trying to convince myself it’s not a diet- it’s a much-needed nutritional reset– but dang if it doesn’t feel like a diet. And a MEAN one. It actually went pretty great for the first 23 or so days…and now I’m just OVER IT. On the plus side, my clothes are fitting much better and I really do feel great. On the negative side, I spent $100 on groceries Sunday night and then came home and cried because I didn’t want to eat a single one of them and I am sooooo tired of cooking from scratch every single morsel of food that passes my lips that I want to scream. And order a pizza. So anyway, I’m too close to the end to quit, but…yeah. Looking forward to May 31.

Reading – I’m about halfway through this month’s book club pick, The Invention of Wings. So far I’m really enjoying it, which is convenient, since I’m the host and discussion-leader this month! I’ve always been an avid reader, but historical fiction isn’t always my favorite genre. I’ve had a string of good luck with historical fiction lately, though- a few weeks ago I read The Other Boleyn Girl and loved it – so maybe I’m growing an appreciation for yesteryear in my old age? Or something. At any rate, even though it’s still fiction (a.k.a. basically the only thing I’m remotely interested in), reading historical fiction just makes me feel smart. Unlike the series I devoured (so to speak) last month…

Watching – I’m kind of in between shows on Netflix right now. I just finished watching all of the Twilight movies (to go with the books that I just read…I’m nothing if not eight years behind on trends!!) and before that I’d done a serious Parenthood marathon (my first time watching it-loved it!!). I watch an episode or two of Hart of Dixie every week, but that show is seriously so ridiculous and cheesy and exaggerated-Southern (trust me, I live in Georgia, I’m qualified to judge these things)…I just can’t handle it. So mostly I spend my spare time reading these days, but I’ve been known to watch a few episodes of House Hunters International when I need a break from books. I’m really glad they’re putting more HGTV shows on Netflix now- it makes not having cable/satellite much more bearable!!

And there you have it.  Thanks Erika!

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