Lauren Singing in Church

Growing up and Running Away

We were walking off of the beach today and this cute teenager (probably 14 or so) says to Madison (who is tall for her age)"Hey, what's up" Madison sheepishly smiled, said "nothing" then literally ran until she got to her daddy - lol!!! I laughed for 30 minutes.
Now... had her 7 year old sister been with us; I would have had to keep her from going over there to talk to him - don't know what we will do with that one when the time comes that boys start noticing her.
But for now, I am OK with the fact that Madi wants to run away ;)

I know I am WAY behind on blogging; sorry. I do have some stuff to write about; some pictures to share, etc. It will probably be a few weeks before I am back to a more normal routine though. We have a new foster daughter. I have known her for 3 years, but she is new to our house. Still have the baby; so we are back to 5 kids in the house - that is taking a little adjustment. But we are enjoying the end of our summer!! Our church family has been SOOOO wonderful to us lately (as they always are).

Stories for the near future:
our boating experience where I fell in Malachi's lap and scared him to death
my update on insomnia, depression, and life
kids growing up and all they are doing
lauren singing in church for the first time
first fishing adventure with pics
A book I am reading and some thoughts I have
Need help with organizing my house
What to do with our 10 month old "puppy?????"
New Homeschool year and lots of changes
and some other stuff

Nature Preserve

We went to a nature preserve on Memorial Day. It was hot, and I can't say it was the kids "favorite" thing to do; but... I do think they had a good time.









Lauren looking through "her" camera lens just like her daddy :)

Happy Birthday Tyler and Lauren

I will post pictures soon (hopefully). They had a good day :) I can NOT believe they are already 7!!

Will write more later and post pictures - going to bed now. But today was awesome, celebrating their birthday, and just seeing the joy and happiness they have, as well as their ever growing faith and love.... makes a momma's heart smile :)

See the Beauty

Ever since my hysterectomy about 3 years ago; I have stuggled with depression. It has been mild at times, and pretty severe at times. I don't think there is one cause or one cure... it isn't something that "positive thinking" can bring you out of it. But I am learning that although there are some things that are out of my control; there are also some things that ARE in my control. I can choose to take my medicine, and choose a doctor that is willing to help me the most. And although this is NOT an answer or cure all for depression; I am learning that how I choose to view things affects me greatly. I can choose to see the beauty in a situation, or in what God is working in my life; or I can let myself focus on the bad, and end up feeling hopeless and yucky.

Not a great example of "life" situations, but I think this is a good illustration of my point. This picture was taken on a road out in the country about 20 minutes from our house. I LOVE when there are roads that are covered with oak trees! To me, it is BEAUTIFUL!!!



With all the beauty that I see in these big oak trees, there is also a very ugly side to them... the pollen that was very bad this year. We had to drain our pool and refill it - I literally worked on it almost every day for about 2 1/2 m0nths. we had the water clear until it got about 3/4 full again - it wasn't dirty water, or imballanced chemicals; it was POLLEN. We have had to change the filter out EVERY day and clean it to get all the pollen off. It is just now finally getting better.
Below is a picture of the filter after I cleaned off the top part; so you can see just how much pollen there was. This was after 24 hours.




I want to see the beauty in the oak trees; not the work it may cause me for a short time. I want to see the beauty in life; not the work it may cause me for a short time.

Are You Blue??

Matt has been sick this week and was put on the antibiotic Cipro on Thursday. Last night he started complaining of the bottom of his feet hurting, and by the time bedtime came around, he couldn't even walk without being in excruciating pain on the bottom of his feet. We looked it up online, and evidentally if you are allergic to Cipro, it is not good at all! So he quit taking it; and we called the doctor today. They flagged his chart that he is allergic to it, and called him in a new antibiotic.

Before he took the first pill of the new antibiotic, he wanted (rightfully so)to look up the adverse reactions of THIS medicine... one of which was "blue coloration of lips and nailbeds" When our night nurse came for the baby he was telling her about it, and said "yeah, a side effect of this medicine is that my skin could turn blue". I started laughing and said, if I had the energy, I would go buy some blue paint and paint your face blue while you were sleeping tonight - ROFL!!!! It took the nurse and I a few minutes to quit laughing, Matt laughed, but not as much ;)

Can you imagine him preaching with a blue face, not able to stand up, etc - lol!!!

So we hope he is NOT blue tomorrow - lol ;)

The Boat

I figured since my last post was about walking on water, and stepping out of the boat; this one could be about "the boat". I am sure you have heard the story about the man who found himself in a flood and someone came by in a boat to offer him help. He replied that he was going to trust God. Again and again the man was offered help, and he kept saying he was going to trust God... when he drowned and got to Heaven he said to God "I trusted you to save me, why didn't you... and God replied - I sent a boat, a helicopter, etc and every time I sent help, you refused it".

I have gone back and forth in my mind all day today regarding our situation with foster care. I worked all day on getting the things together that I needed, and talked with the director of MFC - who helped me get things together and encouraged me...although I still have many more things to do.

Then, talking with Matt tonight, I think I saw "the boat". Basically, Matt said "what if the question is not whether we trust God enough to stop foster care; but rather, do we trust God enough to take us through this difficult time with foster care; for the sake of our foster son whom we love. Then he said, it isn't for "nothing" that we would go through this - it is for this sweet little baby, and he is worth it.

I do think this will be our last foster child. Unless God tells me differently. But, like a friend told me today... I have sought an answer to this for a long time; I have truly tried to find God's will in this situation. All I know is this: All day today I have not been at peace, I have struggled with all the "what if's" and after Matt and I talked tonight, I finally feel at peace.

I think, actually I know I needed Matt to give me direct input in this; and I FINALLY feel like I have an answer from God; and tonight I am going to get INTO the boat that God has provided for us at this point in our lives.

This may not make much sense to most of you. But I needed to write it down.