This is life right now

Five children are at school right now.  One child is sleeping.  One husband is at work.  

And I breathe.  

I cook, I clean, I sit, I read, I drink coffee and I prepare myself for the the return of these seven precious people.  

This is life right now.

Rather than telling you what has been going on I've been busy taking pictures:)

Back to school lunch at Denny's

Elayna -2nd grade
Roanoke Valley Christian

Aubrey- Kindergarten
Roanoke Valley Christian

T- 1st grade
Bonsack Elementary

C- 3rd grade
Bonsack Elementary

K- 4K
Bonsack Elementary

Amaria- my little helper at home:)

C, T, and K getting on bus the first day

Our new ride that fits everyone...Kyle doesn't have to sit on the floor now

The home that we close on on October 23rd

The books I've been reading for my classes

Elayna's project from school
It says, "I have 2 brothers and 3 sisters"
Sweet

There is no way out BUT God

Reading in my devotional today I was struck by an excerpt that hit home.  It talked of trials, confusion, and hard times in our lives and what the most important thing to do in those.  Here is some of it:

Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak.  Genesis 32:24

In this passage, God is wrestling with Jacob more than Jacob is wrestling with God.  It was GOd in human form, pressing down on Jacob to press his old life from him.  And by daybreak God prevailed, for Jacob's "hip was wrenched."  As Jacob 'fell' from his old life, he fell into the arms of God, clinging to Him but also wrestling until his blessing came.  His blessing was that of a new life, so he rose from the earthly to the heavenly, the human to the divine, and the natural to the supernatural.  From that morning forward, he was a weak and broken man from a human perspective, but God was there.  And the Lord's heavenly voice proclaimed, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but 

Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome."

Beloved, this should be a typical scene in the life of everyone who has been transformed.  If God has called us to His highest and best, each of us will have a time of crisis, when all our resources will fail and when we face either ruin or something better than we have ever dreamed.  But before we can receive the blessing, we must rely on God's infinite help.  We must be willing to let go, surrendering completely to Him, and cease from our own wisdom, strength, and righteousness.  We must be 'crucified with Christ' and yet alive in Him.  God knows how to lead us to the point of crisis, and He knows how to lead us through it.

Is God leading you in this way?  Is this the meaning of your mysterious trial, your difficult circumstances, you impossible situation, or that trying place you cannot seem to move past without Him?  But do you have enough of Him to win the victory?

Then turn to Jacob's God!  Throw yourself helplessly at His feet.  Die in His loving arms to your own strength and wisdom, and rise like Jacob into His strength and sufficiency.  There is no way out of your difficult and narrow situation except at the top.  You must win deliverance by rising higher, coming into a new experience with God. And may it bring you into all that is meant by the revelation of 'the Mighty One of Jacob!'  There is no way out but God

At Your feet I fall,

Yield You up to ALL,

To SUFFER, LIVE, OR DIE

For my Lord crucified.

-from Streams in the Desert,  L.B.Cowman

I pray that this will encourage you as it did me.

Please pray

I have some specific requests that we would really appreciate your prayers.

*Pray that the relationships between the kids would grown.
*Pray (specifically for Elayna) that the kids will get along and that there will be less tattling and bickering.
*Pray that Elayna will adjust to the changes in our family.  She has been struggling and her struggle looks like misbehaving.
*Pray for our new kids as they do not yet know that they are not going home.  Their social worker is working with their therapists to make a team that will sit down with the kids and explain this hard hard thing.  They are going to be heart broken.
*Pray that Kyle and I will be able to support and love on everyone in our family as we all deal with these changes.

I will refer to the kids by initials...we aren't supposed to give specifics.

K, T, Aubrey, Elayna, Amaria, and C

K

Elayna and T

Elayna, Amaria, C, and Aubrey

T, Elayna, C, Amaria, Aubrey, and K

Elayna, C, and Aubrey

You asked for pictures

Here they are....pretty cute if you ask me:)

New Beginnings

My last post was at the beginning of summer and now my girls head back to school in one week.  I had great plans this summer of relaxing, going to the pool everyday, and just really enjoying time with my kids.  It has been a great summer...but I wouldn't say it was relaxing:)  

We started the summer off with Kyle heading to General Assembly.  First time as a head pastor, he did miss many of the WI friends that were there last year.  As soon as he got home our church hosted a VBS for special needs adults and then I headed out to MN and SD for a friends wedding.  It was a great get-away and always a special time with friends.

The girls enjoyed going to 2 different VBS's this year.  I'm that mom, the VBS hopper:)  The first one Elayna and Aubrey went to was huge.  There were over 500 kids attending.  The girls had a blast.  Mari was old enough to go to the second one.  We are still singing VBS songs:)

We had a special visit from Kyle's grandparents for a long weekend.  His grandfather spoke at the senior luncheon at church and then again at the men's breakfast.  It was great to spend time with them and have them get to know our girls better.  

One thing that we wanted to do before the summer was over was go to a beach.  We squeezed it in:)  We headed to Myrtle Beach after church on a Sunday and came back home late Tuesday night.  We had a great time as a family and enjoyed mini golf, swimming, and the beach.

Trip to Sweet Frog

Putt Putt...the girls loved it

Sisters

Myrtle Beach

More Sweet Frog:)

As soon as we got home from the beach Kyle's parents came for a visit.  His dad was able to go to work with him two days and they enjoyed a game of golf.  The ladies spent time together watching old home videos, swimming, and spending time downtown.

One thing that did happen ALOT this summer is torrential rain showers.  I have never seen rain like we got here in the early summer.  After many days of rain we got a really hard rain (3 inches in an hour) there was flooding everywhere and the ground between our church and the road broke open.  It started out as a 12 foot sink hole...it has grown to about 50 feet.  Bids are still coming in to get everything fixed and most are around 100,000 dollars.  It is a mess but we are now known as the church with the sink hole:) Free advertising, okay not free. 100,000 dollar advertising!

The sink hole

We have done our school shopping and are ready to start school real soon.  Aubrey will be in kindergarten and Elayna will be in 2nd.  They are excited to be in school together.  After lots of thought and prayer I have decided to go back to school also.  I will be going for my RN degree.  This semester I was able to get into all online courses...hopefully that will be a good transition into school.  I hope to have all of my schooling done by the time all of the girls are in school.

We have started our search for a home as our lease will be up in January.  This past Friday we went with a Realtor to look at several homes.  We found one that we really like and it is within 5 minutes of the girls school and less than 10 minutes to church.  Kyle has spoken with a mortgage company and we are discussing an offer.  We are so excited to be closer to things.

Our biggest news happened just hours after we finished looking at homes.  We were downtown planning to get supper when I got a phone call.  Department of Social Services had an emergency removal of a sibling group (girl 8, boy 7, boy 4) and wanted to know if we would take the children into our home .  We were shaking with excitement and fear and we said yes.  Within 2 1/2 hours three little kids were standing at our door.  So we had six kids in our house over the weekend.  This morning the kids social worker called and told me that the children will not be going back home and wondered if we would consider taking them long term.  I knew that this question was coming and it still took me off guard.  Well as of 4:30 this afternoon we are a family of EIGHT.  We don't know what this is going to look like but we know that we can love these special little kids.  We ask that you will pray for us.  Pray for me and Kyle as we learn how to parent new children through hard feelings.  Pray for these three kids as they are dealing with really hard issues. And pray for our girls as they adjust to these changes. 

So that is it.  God is good and is stretching us and teaching us to rely on Him.  I told Elayna tonight that change can make new emotions come up and that can be scary.  But we know that God is still in control and we need to go to Him for comfort.  That is what I will cling to.