This Too Shall Pass

My mom often tells me that, "This Too Shall Pass". Usually it's when I am tired and overwhelmed with 4 kids and feel like I just can't go on. She reminds me that they won't be young forever and that this time will pass too quickly.

So yesterday when she called, obviously upset, I had to remind her that, This Too Shall Pass. Mom's hair has been falling out and yesterday it was in big clumps and she called her beautician to say, if you can't get me in today, then I won't need my appointment by Saturday.
Ginger squeezed her in and fitted her wig for her.

I could hear all the emotion in mom's voice and wished I could have been there to support her. We have to keep remembering this is only a season. A season of life that Jesus has allow mom to walk through, but not a season that will control her or the rest of her life.

"Jesus, Help Momma today. Help her to focus on those things that really matter and know that this season of life will quickly be in the past."

We would all appreciate your prayers today and the next few!

Spring Fever

The first few days this week were a welcome break in the cold, dreary days of winter. The boys wanted to go out as soon as they got home from school and enjoy the warmth and sunshine. It's been so long since we've see sunshine!

They were so excited they were running from one thing to the next. They couldn't decide what would be best to do.

Ronnie decided on Golf

Nathaniel tried his little bike that honestly he had outgrown last year.

Eli just kept running around trying to figure out what to do. I couldn't get a still picture.

Daddy was pretty happy, because in the end (under Ronnie's strong suggestion) they decided to make a golf course. So they began cleaning up all the sticks in the yard and making it nice.

A Wonderful Time

This past weekend we had a wonderful time of Retreat. It was perhaps not as restful as any of us had hoped. Think about it...4 adults and 2 kids in 1 hotel room for 2 days. Not to mention all with different schedules and routines. Not restful, but good.

Me, Tonya, Maddie, Lucy, Mom, Jo

The theme for the retreat was, "For Such a Time as This". What a fitting theme. It was amazing to me how the Lord used 3 or 4 different people from different areas who had never met and yet their messages were so similar. I'm a little biased, but I think my little sis shared it best. When she talked about Shadrach, Meshack and Abednego and the fires that we all must face as Christians. The theme hit home with several things going on in my life right now and just reminded me that Jesus allows us to experience things in order to grow us and draw us closer to Him. And if we will go through the fires, He will go with us and with His help we can even come out of them without even a hint of the smell of smoke.

Jo and Lucy

Jesus also allowed us to have a very special prayer time on Saturday evening (almost making us late for evening service). I love these girls I call my sisters and I love my mom. I'm so thankful to have such Godly women in my life. I wish that we could be closer in life to each other, but I'm thankful for the weekend we had together.

My brothers wife, Tonya (or Aunt Tonya), was pretty excited to spend some time with her nieces and brought each of them a fun spring dress to wear on Saturday. Maddie loves her Aunt Tonya.

So of course we let the girls be twins, again. I don't think they minded!

I think it was a really good time for mom too. She had her 2nd round of chemo yesterday and so when the process of scheduling all the treatments was going on, she really wanted to make it to retreat. Thank you Jesus for making that possible. She enjoyed the time with 2 of her Grand-daughters.

Here they are sharing a funny story together.

Praise Jesus for Family Time. I am truly blessed beyond measure.

Thanks to Christine

Thanks to Christine I can now put some pictures up. I was able to download my pictures onto her computer and she emailed them to me. Not exactly a quick process, but she did it. The only stipulation was that I had to bring Maddie with me when I went to her house - not a hard request since we are pretty much inseparable.

Thank you Chris for your help!

Answered Prayer

Thank you so much for your prayers for the weekend. There were no major issues with all the guys and kids and they did well. There was some missing Mommies, but we are all reunited now. We had a great time at Retreat and I personally know that Jesus spoke to me and gave me a new perspective on things and challenged me on others. I will give more details later.

For now I wanted to ask for your prayers for mom again. My sister, Jo, took her to chemo this morning at 8am. I'm hoping that the lack of a good restful weekend will not hinder her ability to push through this cycle like she did the last one.

Thank you again for your prayers. Jesus answered in even bigger ways than what I imagined!

Thank you Jesus for hearing the Prayers of your people!

Retreat

For nearly a year now I have been planning to attend the East Central Conference of the Evangelical Churches Women's Retreat this weekend in Dayton. I'm so excited it is finally here. My sister and I have been communicating about this for quite some time. We knew she would be home from Africa and we were excited to go together. My mom and I have gone together before so she was going to and for the first time my sister-in-law, Tonya would be joining us too.

A lot has happened in the last few months with mom and we were not sure if we would all make it to the retreat or not, but...we are ALL going, including Lucy and Maddie.

I would ask for your prayers. Prayer for a good family time, for a good spiritual retreat, for mom to be able to get some rest that she will need, for sleep for all 6 of us in one hotel room, for just a fun time with the girls! You might also pray for my dad who is home alone (and will preach Sunday), Jay (my brother) who is home with his 2 (and will preach Sunday), Billy and Elsie who are traveling to Tennessee to share about their ministry and Ron who is home with our 3 boys (and will preach Sunday)!

I hope to report good news on Monday. Additionally mom will have her second round of chemo on Monday morning. She did pretty well with this first round. Very tired for days 3-5, but she managed and she feels up to the retreat - Praise the Lord!

Have a great weekend!

Be Careful What You Pray For

Maddie is just over 10 months now (I wish I could post a picture, but I'm still having those computer issues). She is very active. We're assuming that she will have a very similar personality to big brother, Eli. Which in and of itself is a funny story.

See when we first found out we were pregnant. Ron and I didn't speak for a couple of days, but after the shock wore off and the first round of morning (or all day) sickness subsided. I embraced the fact that once again I would hold a newborn in my hands and love and care for him or her. I secretly prayed 2 things. 1 - Jesus, could I please have a baby girl. I really felt pretty confident about this because from the very beginning this pregnancy was different from any of the boys. 2 - I prayed that he or she would please not be as energetic as Eli. He is simply a handful, especially compared to Ronnie and Nathaniel. So the funny thing is that Jesus answered both prayers. We got our beautiful baby girl and she doesn't have Eli's energy - she seems to have more. Be careful what you pray for!!!

So our beautiful baby girl who is non-stop is now getting the personality to match that non-stop movement. She is very...High Maintenance. Very...opinionated, already. And Very...stubborn. I'm not sure where she gets all of that, but she is her own little lady.

So our little girl has been displaying her stubborn personality at meal time. She is, already at 10 months, wanting nothing but table food. She thinks that she is big and wants only to eat what we are eating. All that to say that last night she ate more dinner that any of her 3 brothers. They weren't big on our dinner choices, but she just kept shoveling it in. She is for sure a chunk!

I really can't complain. I prayed for a little girl and Jesus provided a beautiful, happy, bouncy, non-stop movement bundle of joy - who at the moment is emptying the bookshelf. Gotta go!

Because I hate the idea of not posting a picture about her when I blog about her - I'm posting one of the last pictures I got off my camera. It's a few weeks old, but she's still a cutie! Enjoy!

Singing

From conception I have had music playing for the kids. I remember when Ronnie was still in my belly and I drove to and from work every day I would play "kids music" for him in the car as I traveled. I play music for all of them before I even got to meet them. So naturally they all love music. Notice I didn't say they are all musically talented, but the do all enjoy music.

So this morning at 6am Eli was singing at the top of his lungs. He was singing to the disciples. I'm not sure what the song was, but he was very into it. Some how the older 2 stayed asleep, but Maddie woke and was "singing" to herself in her crib. As I carried her down the stairs and she got closer to Eli's voice she got louder in her own singing. If you had heard it you might not be convinced, as I was, that they were praising the Lord - however, I'm confident that Jesus enjoys my 3 year old and 10 month old as they make a joyful noise!

The picture below is Eli with Ms. Peg (our friend and pianist at Farmer). She is singing to him. Sorry the quality is not the greatest!

Road Trip to Louisville

Last Thursday and Friday Ron, Maddie and I went on a road trip. Let me back up a few months to explain why this trip was made.

In the fall, Ron was finishing his thesis and then began the process of applying for PhD work. His love is to teach and his desire is to earn his PhD in Church History. Specifically the area of Patristics. So he applied to Asbury Seminary, Southern Baptist Seminary and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. About a month or more back he heard from Southern when they said he had gotten past the first round of the application process and that they would like him to come to campus for Phase II. So that was Friday. He was to come and take an on site 3 hour exam with 3 questions, then in the afternoon he would be interviewed by several faculty in the area of his interest (church history). So, Maddie and I went along too.

Now let me back up a little bit again. When Ron started this application process, we prayed a lot. He went in the fall and visited all 3 schools. I couldn't go at that time, but I prayed not only for good visits, but for some kind of direction just from the visits. He reported back with what appeared to be the best experience from Southern Baptist. So that, in my mind, was an answer to prayer.

Then when he got the information and invitation to come down for Phase II, we again prayed that I could make the trip too. He wanted me to see the campus and be apart of this process. Up until the week before we were pretty certain that this was not going to work. We couldn't take the boys out of school for 2 days and one Grandma was working while the other was having her first chemo treatment. Even our fill in grandparents were planning to be gone for that weekend. So we decided that I would stay home with the kids and just wait for a report. Then Ron's dad called. He wanted to stay with them. Now I know some of you think my boys are good boys, and I guess they are. But believe me when I say they are a handful, especially in the privacy of our home. So Grandpa was taking on quite the task, but we thanked the Lord that again He had answered and provided a way for me to go. The Lord additionally provided a check from an anonymous person that would provide the means to make the trip. Praise the Lord!

So last Thursday, Maddie, Ron and I were off. I would love to say we had a fun night out in a hotel and enjoyed being away for a night, and perhaps I could if our night out was after the exam and interview, but in fact - Ron studied after dinner until bed and again in the morning before leaving to take the exam.

I would also love to show some pictures of him studying, Maddie relaxing, and of our friends (Kristen and Emily) who came to visit us while we waited on Ron, but I can't get them on here.

So I'll just tell you that it is a beautiful HUGE campus and we enjoyed our stay. Ron thought things went well, but we won't hear for sure for about 4 weeks.

So now we wait. There are many unknowns. There are many questions and I have lots of fears. Do we really need to move again? and now? What will a move look like? What will full time schooling look like again, only now with 4 kids? How will all of this work? and How will the kids react to whatever happens?

So many unanswered questions and even more that have yet to be asked. Ron has also been accepted to Asbury to their Masters Program - which they are saying he needs to begin there before applying to the PhD program. Given the fact that he has his MDiv and will graduate in May with his Masters of Sacred Theology, were both leaning away from yet a third Masters.

We are trusting that The Lord of the Universe knows today, tomorrow and our future and we are putting our Trust in Him. He knows how much I love living in Ney and He knows how much I hate the thought of a move, but He also knows the future and sees more than I can imagine. He will take care of all the details and has asked that we simply Trust HIM!

We ask for your prayers too as we Trust in the Lord and wait for His leading!

First Date

Last weekend, at our Ney church, Ron had the privilege of baptising Marissa. She is a 13 month old cutie. So on Saturday evening we were invited to her Baptism party. The boys were all excited because they were having pancakes and eggs. We arrived to find it was in their barn and so that relieved some stress of taking 4 kids to a new place too. It was a fun evening, but no one enjoyed it more than Eli!

Let me first explain that Eli loves Marissa. He likes to be whereever she is and likes to be in her space. He has been drawn to her for quite some time now. So as soon as he finished his pancakes he asked to go play with her.

Below are some of their adventures together. Thanks to Marissa's mom, Anne, I can actually post these pictures.

I told you she was a cutie!

So, Eli, being the gentleman that he is, decided he would take Marissa for a ride on the tractor.

They were so cute. She just sat their and grinned (and held on) and he peddled her all around the garage, stopping for pictures along the way! So I think he had a successful first date. Their daddies even talked about arranged marriages!

I think we'll stick to tractor drives in the garage for awhile!