Let's Start at the Very Beginning.....

Well, I have seen a lot of neat blogging going on. So I thought I would give it a try as well. It seems to be a good way of getting to know people that you don't know very well or keeping up with those that you care about the most.
I am married to Alex Hill. We have been married almost 4 years (on Wednesday 10/15 to be exact). We grew up together in Newhope and were in the same graduating class at Dierks. We were married in 2004 and lived in Arkadelphia. We both went to college at Henderson and I graduated in December of 2005 with a Human Services degree. I took a job working for Pediatric Specialty Care in Arkadelphia as a Mental Health Specialist.
Alex graduated in May of 2006 with a Physics degree. He then accepted a job working at the Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health in Little Rock (at the time).
So, in July of 2006 we moved to Bryant. We got an apartment at Hurricane Creek and lived there until January of 2007. We bought our home in Bauxite in January and have been here ever since.
We have always wanted a family and we began to research the possibilities of making that happen. We have also always known that we wanted to adopt children some day. We began to take the neccessary requirements to be foster/adoptive parents through DHS.
I found out in April of 2007 that I have Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) and that it will take some extra work on our part in order to get pregnant. We underwent fertility treatments until December of 2007 and then decided to give it a rest.


In October of 2007, our world changed drastically. I had began to work with a family at the clinic that needed a lot of assistance. There were three little girls being raised by their grandparents. The grandmother was the main caregiver and was in bad health. She had to be admitted to the hospital after falling and breaking her shoulder. The girls needed immediate placement due to none of their other family members being acceptable as caregivers. So, we opened our home and hearts to these children.
Alex was out of town for the first three weeks that we had the girls. Abigail Diann was 5, Makayla Rose was 4, and Olivia Grace was 8 months old when they came to us. It was a wild ride to say the least! The girls still had weekly visits with their biolgical parents up until April of 2008. It was every Thursday from 9:00-10:00 at the DHS office. The girls called us "Alex" and "Bethany" for a long time. We had initially taken the girls in 1. because they needed us and 2. because I had a friend that wanted to possibly adopt them. So, we went into the situation with "temporary" on our minds.
As time went on, we fell totally in love with our girls. We didn't try to get them to call us anything but Alex and Bethany due to conflicts that would arise at their weekly visits. Once the visits were over, we gradually transitioned to being called "Mama B" and "Daddio". We explained to the girls that they had two Mommas and two Daddy's. So, we had a different version of a parent name to establish the difference. And slowly, the title of "B" and "O" fell off. Now, we are Momma and Daddy.
So, now, here it is, a year later. KayKay received Occupational, Speech, Physical,and Mental Health Therapies when she first came to stay with us. And now, all she gets is Mental Health due to her hyperactivity. They are awesome kids! And we went from a family of 2, to a family of 5 instantly.
We are so proud of our family. I quit my job at the end of May to stay at home with Olivia and be more available for the constant activities that Abi and KayKay have going on.