Showers of blessings

What an amazing day!  I had a second baby shower yesterday with all my friends from work. Over the years, relationships have grown so much and I got to make some amazing friends that I do miss a lot now. Some of them are just like family and I know we’ll cherish each other forever. Each of these ladies have taught me something along the years and I admire and appreciate every single one of them.

All the ladies

 

Getting to feel some kicks, but the babies were shy 🙂

Soon to be the Quadfather and I 🙂

Bennett waiting for us to arrive, by the gate. Love this munchkin so much!

One of my favorite things from this baby shower were the letters for the quads. I’ll explain. One of the girls (Aunt SuSu) had the best idea ever. Each letter looked something like this:

Dear Lupei Babies,

I hope you learn ……
I hope you love ……
I hope you are not afraid …..
I hope you never forget ……
etc.
So each person filled out a letter, sign it and all of them went into a special binder. I read them last night and the one that touched me the most and several people wrote it down was ” I hope you never forget how much Mommy and Daddy wanted you!” , so true! Of course that one made me cry! These are all wonderful women and I thank them all for celebrating the quads with me!

From there, we went to a restaurant to meet the Lupei family and celebrate my mother-in-law’s 60th birthday. She is such a role model and we all love her so much! Her prayers are the foundation of our family and she’s just like a rock. No matter what happens, she’s there for each and every one of us. A wonderful wife, mother and grandma. It was a fun, fun night. And I was so excited to be part of it, I said the only reason I would miss it would be if I am in the hospital. So now back to “my small world”, at home, in bed 🙂 But I am happy! SO happy!! Soon we will get to hold these precious miracles in our arms. Soon our lives will be totally different!

fun Bday dinner

picture time after dinner

I love this picture of Oly and his Mom!

60 beautiful roses

This is just the start of the birthdays in the Lupei family. Most of us were born in August or September. We’ll see when the quads will decide to show up 🙂

Lori.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy 4th of July Y’all! :)

What better time than 4th of July to pack the car and go camping? Forget about bed rest!

4th of July 2012

Just kidding! These are  from last year’s 4th of July. Ada decided to give it a try, came with us and she liked it. It was very hot, remember last year? Everyone thought we were crazy to go camping. We are a little crazy! Now it’s so hard for us to stay home. Every time we had the chance to go somewhere and have fun, we would not think twice. Camping is one of our favorite things to do. And now that the babies are on their way, all we talk is about how as soon as they are old enough, we’ll go camping!! This year, we’ll take it easy. The weather helps too, this rain doesn’t get you in the mood of going anywhere. But still… if I would not have to be on bed rest, we would probably be somewhere right now.

Today we had to go through a bunch of hand-me-down baby clothes that we got from some friends at church, to sort them and get them ready to be washed. It was funny in a way because we did that so many times but it was not about us, not about our kids. This time around we would look at cute outfits and cute hats thinking how our babies are going to look wearing those 🙂 Oly would ask my opinion on every single on of them, except the ones that said something like “I love daddy” or “Daddy’s helper”, he just piled them up right away without hesitation! We are getting closer and closer to becoming parents and it is so exciting! The babies are always on our minds and we talk about them, we talk to them, we imagine how they are going to be like, how they are going to look like, it is so much fun! Four precious babies at the time… wow! I am still amazed! Almost everyday we get to surprise somebody with our news about expecting Quads. It’s funny how people react! Some are so excited – I used to take the youngest of the Fogles – Bennett- to My Gym in Buckhead and his coach, a sweet lady, was so amazed when she found out I am expecting quads! She just wanted to hug me all the time. From that moment she considered me and the babies a true miracle from God and she kept telling me that there is a big plan for us and that God has something special for our family. I agree!! Other people get scared when we tell them about these four babies. I guess some of them think having one baby is hard and it changes your life and all that, they cannot imagine having four at once! Well, we cannot imagine our lives without them now, and they are not even here yet. It is probably the best feeling I ever felt, and I know my husband feels the same. Four innocent angels that need us so much! We are excited and so happy that this is happening to us!

Back to bed rest. Today, Dr.Jeffers ( my OBGYN ) told me how happy she is about how things a moving forward. My fluids look awesome and the babies are perfect, growing and developing normal, my cervix looks great (it has a huge role in getting me into labor) – honestly nothing to worry about. So I need to keep being good about everything, no camping trips what-so-ever 🙂 She even said that I will probably get to 32 weeks or more!!! That is the biggest deal to hear that from her, because in the beginning she told me that I should keep my fingers crossed to get to 28 weeks. It seems like quadruplets usually come in between 28 and 30 weeks. I was SO happy to hear that, especially coming from her. But we are still going to do everything we can to pass even 32 weeks, even 34 and get this pregnancy as far as we can. All that with God’s help of course. And because recently we’ve learned a new song from a person that prays for us a lot and encourages us every single step of the way, I will share a little bit with you:

“What God has for me, it is for me
I know without a doubt
That he will bring me out
What God has for me, it is for me”

Our plan didn’t work out, but we know that God has a plan that always works out, better than we can imagine! This is His plan for our family. And we love it 🙂

Have fun this 4th of July and be safe!

Lori.

20 weeks, 2 days

World’s greatest Baby Shower!

Flowers, diaper cakes & diaper crib!! lots of hugs and smiles 🙂

Whoever doesn’t believe in fairy tales, better give me a call! Last night was more than a dream come true! I never imagined that my baby shower will be so special. Our family went over the top getting everything ready, every single detail was just perfect. When Oly walked me in… I was speechless! There was a slideshow of pictures with me and the quadlings running on the 2 screens! Diaper cakes (lots of thanks to Andreea and the most beautiful twin girls Kiki&Adi for working so hard on those), even a crib with 4 babies inside, made all out of diapers! I have never seen anything like that before! Our friend Tannya and her Mom did an amazing job with that crib. All the decorations were so cute, I loved the baby clothes that were hanging on the wall -Thank you Lois& Ada, Andreea&Andreea!! We are truly blessed to have such an amazing family, every single one of them worked so hard to make this baby shower perfect for us! Again, thank you guys!! Also, the food and the deserts….Mmmm mmm mmmm! Thank you, to every single one of you that helped out and made all this so special for us!

Baby Shower Fun!

Some people are missing in this picture, so there were more! I still cannot believe what an amazing night we had!

The family’s love is forever!

By the end of the baby shower I was so tired. We decided we’ll open the presents at home, so I can lay down and put my feet up. The most excited person was my hubby, because he got to open every single on of them:) And there were sooo many presents! Everyone was so generous, we are truly blessed with wonderful family and friends! God showed us last night that we really don’t have to worry about anything, He has everything under control and these babies will have everything they need and more!

Narcis’s van was packed with presents!

Thank you again to every single one of you that participated and were part of the World Greatest Baby Shower 🙂

Oly & Lori

This is us. We recently celebrated 5 years of marriage. We met here in Georgia, but we are both originally from Romania. Oly and his family moved to US 11 years ago, leaving behind his older brother, Claudiu, who was over 21 of age at that time and so legally couldn’t join them. But hopefully very soon this beautiful family of 9 siblings will reunite! Over the last few years, my in-laws have been blessed with 3 beautiful grandchildren, but by the end of this year that number will more than double! We are expecting quads, and two of my sisters-in-law are also expecting one baby each. Imagine our next family reunion 🙂 I always prayed to be part of a big family, well here I am! Couldn’t ask for better parents-in-law, they embraced me just as their own daughter. My husband was the first one of the 9 siblings to get married and it’s so fun to see how each and every one of them takes their own path and follow their own dream. Right after our wedding, 2 months later, Claudiu and Miha got married back in Romania. They have 2 wonderful kids and a baby due in December. Later that year, Damaris got married and soon after that the newly wedded couple moved to Arizona. Then there is Manu, married to Adina, they also have a handsome little boy, Mattias and a baby on the way. They live in California. Narcis traveled all the way back home to find his other half, Andreea, and after the wedding brought her here. They got married last September and that was our most recent trip to our home country. Now, there is another Andreea in the family. She was the first girl to be born after the first 3 boys. She is a wonderful young lady that puts her whole heart into everything that she does. Ada is one of a kind. Very smart and fun, always ready to take on life’s challenges. Then comes Lois, sweet Lois. She’s the most friendly person I have ever met, absolutely loooooves babies and she is so excited about the quads! We’re proud of all the sacrifices she makes for school and how hard she works for it. And last, but absolutely not least, Naty:) The baby of the family that will be 20 years old in a couple of months. An amazing young man after God’s own heart. He is a great leader and singer in our church. Whoever ends up marring this guy…will be a lucky gal 🙂
I came here as an au pair (similar to a live-in nanny), only planning to stay for a year or so. I was blessed with wonderful people around me and God showed me that this is the place where He wants me to plant my roots, next to my wonderful man, that I am so thankful for! My small family is back home but distance sometimes brings hearts closer. My older brother, Dani, and his wife have a beautiful daughter and a baby boy on the way. My baby sister, Ema, is planning her wedding for September, and my grandma…well we talk on the phone almost every day, so she feels like I am just 10 miles away from home:) She’s turning 80 at the end of this year! I lost my Mom to cancer 11 years ago, and my Dad unexpectedly passed away 3 years ago, while I was here in US. Although I had some rough times in my life, looking back makes me realize that everything happens for a reason and I am absolutely sure that God had a plan from the beginning. We’ve been so blessed with a healthy, happy marriage and after a pretty long wait and so much desire of having kids, He is giving us a true miracle! Quadruplets!! This is the beginning of a new journey. We don’t know exactly what stands before us but we are so ready for anything!
Lori.