Karwoski Life

Yesterday - September 14th - marked the 9th anniversary of Matt's stroke. It's really hard to fathom...nine years. Of course the years fade some of the memories and it does seem like forever ago (a lifetime, really) and yet... Can it really be nine YEARS!?! It's so incredible to me that time is marching on and we find ourselves nearing the golden years of our 30's.   It's really crazy to me...and yet... I feel like our 30's have been amazing - our best years. While they have brought us unimaginable changes and challenges - they have also brought us indescribable blessings. I look back over these past 9 years and I’m amazed at how wonderful they have been – despite all we’ve endured. We have traveled to many fantastic places; we have spent countless evenings laughing through tears with loving friends; we have shared meals and holidays surrounded by the loving warmth of our families; we have exchanged heartfelt hugs with our church family; we’ve seen the birth o...

A friend of mine who has gone through infertility and adoption told me about a series of articles being published in the Des Moines Register this week – chronicling the story of a couple on their own infertility journey. I tend to avoid reading these sorts of stories, and brushed it aside for a few days. But last night, as I was waiting for Matt to finish getting ready for bed, I sat down with the iPad to check it out. Of course it brought back a great big wave of emotions, and as I grappled with them, I couldn't help but wish I hadn't read the story. Like most couples struggling with infertility their story was wrought with ups and downs, miscarriages, disappointment, heartache, self-doubt, resilience, love, fear…rinse and repeat. And, like many stories you hear about, theirs is ultimately winding up with a crazy happy ending. This is where I struggle. Where the deep recesses of my heart cry out…why.not.us? Reading the story, seeing the pictures and names of the nurses an...

Today we officially sold the wagon and it made its journey safe and sound to its new home in Missouri. We’ve been talking about selling the wagon for a few months now…sort of half-heartedly. In the beginning we had a little interest in it, but figured maybe it’d be ok not to sell it before the Good Guys car show, July 4 th weekend, so we could enjoy it one last time. Matt has been going to the Good Guys for years – long before he had a car old enough to be IN the show. And we’ve been every summer in the wagon, since we got it. It was definitely a high point for us each summer. We both just love everything about it – the old cars cruising through the old fair grounds…the smells of exhaust mixed with fried fair food…the families and folks of all ages out enjoying the cars always touched our hearts. We would spend all day and all night there soaking it all in, even in crazy hot weather! This year my family came with us to enjoy our last Good Guys in the wagon, and we had such a great ...

So I've been waiting FOREVER  patiently for our web profile to be loaded onto the Bethany website. It is the last piece of our profile to be completed and it's been driving me nuts waiting for it to be live...and I'm SO happy to finally have this completed. Now I can relax, right? http://waitingfamilies.bethany.org/home/iowa/matt-and-emily And wait, wait, wait for that one amazing phone call.

If you live in Central Iowa you are familiar with the ‘Iowa Distance Classic’ Dam to Dam 20K road race. If you’re not from around here – let’s just say it’s a big race with somewhat of a cult following here in the Des Moines metro. The race starts up on the Saylorville dam and makes its way through the IA countryside, eventually winding up downtown Des Moines. In my early years of learning to run, I had grand ideas of someday running it. In 2010 I ran the 5K and hoped that the next year I’d be back to run the full 20K. For one reason or another each year I found myself unable to train for or run the big race…until 2014. Coincidentally, this year was the first time in the race’s 35 year history that it was expanded to be a full half marathon…I saw it as a sign – this would finally be my year. It had been a few years since my last half marathon and I was excited to start training for another long distance run. However training in late winter/early spring was MUCH different than trainin...

Where is the time going? How can it be that I haven’t posted since February!? Well, let me tell you – it’s been nutty around here…just.plain.nutty. There has been tons going on at work, with the adoption, family events, and oh yeah, I decided to train for another ½ marathon.   But let’s talk about what’s really on everyone’s mind…the adoption. Ready to get fingerprinted at the Ankeny Police Station As I sit here typing this, our social worker is finishing up our home study report. We met with her a total of 4 times; each visit lasting an hour to an hour and a ½. We met in the office once, and the rest of the visits were here at home. During our second visit she split us up and talked with us individually. The last visit she actually toured the house – the basement, the garage, the shed, and all the closets. Thankfully nothing scary to see there – other than some cat hair tumbleweeds in the basement. Ooops. We traveled to Cedar Rapids for a training class for all prospective ...

Obviously we knew heading into this adoption that the paperwork would be extensive (and rightly so) but phew, it’s been a busy couple of weeks making our way through the mountain of questions, forms, and applications. It’s been ‘fun’ looking up financial information and discussing our childhoods, parents, and personalities. One thing we’ve taken away so far…how blessed we are with our loving and supportive families.   We giggled when going through the personality traits of our parents, and how we grew up. Trying to imagine our parents being violent or abusive…but in reality, we know there are so many who have had to cope with these types of unstable and scary home life situations. It didn’t take long for us to realize how good we’ve had it.   Of course we’ve always known how lucky we were to have such supportive families – but to see their traits checked off on form really brought it home. Words like loving, kind, gentle, fun, compassionate (well, if you were bleeding ...