Our trip to the zoo

The playgroud is massive. The kids loved it.

Baylee loved feeding the birds.

We caught the elephants at bath time.

We got to watch the baby alligators being feed. YIKES!

More of the playground. And yes, there is even more I didn't get pics of. Like I said, massive!
We will be back many times before summer is over.

yuck

Feeling blahhhhhh today. Brennan is not feeling well, Baylee is bored, Neal is gone to spend some time with family, and Brad is at work. Brad and Neal went fishing overnight with Brad's cousin, Jeremy at KY Lake on Friday, then Brad took him to my Dad's house to spend some time with family this week. Its killing me honestly. I miss Neal like crazy and worry about him even more. Its hard letting go. Neal will be ten next year and I know its time (past time) that he make some of his own decisions and stand on his own two feet a bit, but its still hard to let go. So when he wanted to go visit some family this week I said, "sure". Now I'm fighting the urge to call and check on him every hour. Baylee and I have done every "girl time" thing under the sun. We've painted nails, fixed each others hair, "camped out" in my bedroom, had a tea party (yes a real one, well as real as you can get without getting out the china and dressing up LOL), planned a picnic, went swimming. I'm in for a very long week!!!!! and oh....Brennan has a small case of chicken pox. Its a sad rant, I know.........."be prayerful in all things"..........I pray that the kids would take a nap and I could go back to sleep. Maybe there is hope for the day yet!!!!

Happy Birthday Ms. Jobi, Happy Birthday to you!

top row: Kelly, Jobi, Carli (Kelly's daughter) Janet. bottom: me & Baylee, MaryKate, MaryKate's grandmother, Louise I think is her name (sorry if I get it wrong)!

We surprised Jobi with a birthday lunch today. Its her 21st! Jobi is just an amazing young lady. She has such a heart for people, and it shows in her kindness and thoughtfulness towards others. More than that she has a heart for the Lord and for people to come to know him. I consider myself blessed to call her, friend! Our lives are richer for knowing her.

Thanks, Katilyn & Brandie for babysitting children today! It was a huge help.

Kid Swap

So last week, I drove to Lagrange, KY to swap kids with my friend, Erin. Neal stayed at her house and had some time with his friend, John. Elijah came this way with us. We traded back yesterday. Baylee and Eli had a great time, though there were the occasional battle of the wills. Who could break Mom first seemed to be the theme of the day on Friday. Saturday I had won. Although it wasn't without some weeping and gnashing of teeth, done mostly by me. We went to our church's VBS event on Saturday morning. The above pic is craft time. They made turtles.
Baylee and her own personal "American Idol", Miss Katlyn. She is Baylee's hero. Although Miss Jobi comes in a close 2nd. Some days its a tie.
Before swimming in our "big" pool. Elijah was excited about it until he realized it was deep water and he couldn't touch. Then he proceeded to give me claw marks unless I held him extra close. After a few fun games of shark attack, he decided he could have much more freedom if I backed off a little. Then, I just let go (mind you, he had a float on the whole time) and he was so proud of himself to be swimming all alone in deep water. He immediately called home to Erin and Gary and told them of his big accomplishment.
His victory was short lived. After about 10 min. of playing in deep water he began to get nervous again. The fun slowed down and it was as if he remembered he couldn't touch all over again. So not wanting to get clawed another time, we opted for the little pool.
This is Brennan at the VBS event Saturday morning. He had a good time too. He was all smiles and laughs. For some strange reason, he seemed to think Shelby (our youth pastor at church) was cool (just kidding Shelby) and hung out with him for a long time. Fine by me, by the way. Anytime spent with another person means my back gets a break from our boy, who is on his way to outgrowing me.

It was a good time had by all. We might not get to see our best friends for a while. Gas prices are killing all of us. We enjoyed the visit while it lasted. It always ends to soon. For the most part it was Erin and I taking care of six kids alone. Brad and Gary had to work, ya know. We decided that next time it needs to be an adult only trip. Ok.....just us girls next time. Girls retreat to the beach sounds great to me. Hey, a girl has to have dreams.

So I'm learning

It all started when MaryKate (we miss you guys) suggested in our small group that we share our testimonies with each other. In an effort to be real and transparent and draw close to each other, our small group leader thought it was a great idea. We did to. Brad and I have longed for a church that was real. Not a perfect church, a real church. So.....as the story goes....I start off thinking it was great until I realized it was our turn to share, then I thought, "crap", now I have to be the one to share. I have to practice what I preach so to speak. LOL And we did. We shared our testimony with our group. All the ugly parts and all the grace filled moments God has lavished on us. Our small group was so encouraging to us. I mean you never know with Christian "folk" how your story will be received and I have to admit I was a bit nervous. Our story is not the typical, "I grew up in church and God is good", its more like, "life has been hard, we've stood at the gates of hell, God is great". All of the members of our group were bold and courageous in sharing their own stories and struggles, and I am blessed to call them friends. I wrote a song out of all that and Tom, our music minister is going to help me put it to music later this summer. The title is "I'm not who I once was" something Chris said after we all shared our stuff together. He said in a prayer, "thank you, Lord that we are not who we once were, but we are not yet what we were meant to be".......ah.....that was beautiful to me and a song came out of it. So I say all that to say this.......its not so much that I struggle with my own story anymore. I have made peace with my past and I don't ask God those "why" questions anymore. I stand in freedom and its a great place to be. The question I find myself asking God is, "why all the human suffering" I mean its awful. Starvation, rape, war, mothers and children being killed and kidnapped, children as young as three being sold into sex slavery. ugh.....its just overwhelming the condition of our world. So on my quest to answer these questions, I began reading. And reading a lot. I read C.S. Lewis, "The problem of pain", read some Mother Teresa stuff, read every systematic theology book I could get my hands on, lots and lots of reading. It wasn't until I read "The True Condition of Man" by Paul Washer (or its titled "the doctrine of man") that the light bulb went on for me. I was asking the wrong question. Instead of asking why all the bad stuff happens and why there is so much suffering, the question should be asked, why does anything good ever happen. Seriously, we are a cursed race, a cursed planet. (Gen 2 & 3). We are enemies of God from birth by the mere fact that we are human. Yes, we are created in his image and I believe all that, but scripture is clear about the fact that until we come to know Christ, we are God's enemies and under his wrath and judgement. When the angels sinned and rebelled in heaven, God did not (as far as we know) make a way for them to be redeemed. However, for us, pitiful as we are, Jesus bleed and died on a cross to save my sorry butt. A cursed human on her way to hell. I stand amazed. God didn't have to do that, he could have sent us all to hell and we would have deserved it, we do deserve it. I do not understand and never will that kind of love and mercy. So suffering will come, its to be expected, Satan hates us and he is prince of this world. But Christ has overcome sin and death, and offers freedom and hope. As Christians we have to find our part in the story, and ask God where he wants us to spread the freedom and hope in our own lives. I thank God that he showed me this. So now when I see something good happen in the world, I know God has a hand in it and when I see human suffering it makes me hate our enemy even more. An enemy that seeks to destroy us, in lots of different ways. Anything that takes the creation of God and turns it into a display of evil he delights in. I am reminded of a song:

oh, praise the one who paid my debt
and raised this life up from the dead.
(repeat)
Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe
sin have left a crimson stain
he washed it white as snow

That is all for now. Its 2am and I have a house full of kids to care for in the morning. Hopefully, I'll be able to spread some hope around this place in a few hours. It needs a fresh dosage of hope these days. Brad's class has one more week. I do thank God for his provision, but I'm also honest with God (cause he can take it), I'm glad the path to getting that provision is almost over.
Goodnight all!

Bren's New World

After 16 (16!!!!!!!!!!!) long months of waiting and watching, our Brennan Bear, has taken off. He is walking all over the place now. It started last week with a few steps here and there. This week he has taken the plunge into new and exciting territory. The world awaits you little man!

This morning!

Neal woke me up this morning with a great surprise.

Neal: "Hey Mom" (whispering)

Me: "huh" (still asleep in the bed)

Neal: "Look over to the other side of the bed, there is a surprise for you"

My first thought was oh no, what animal has he found and brought inside. Much to my delight, he had made me breakfast in bed! Maple and Brown sugar frosted mini wheats on a Strawberry Shortcake tray.

Cereal never tasted so good! A great way to wake up!

I'm learning

Forget all the deep, thought-provoking posts of the past. I am learning that God created "spellcheck" for a reason. The reason being that some of us (me) can't spell worth diddly (is that even a word, is it spelled right???). So I will become more familiar with "spellcheck" in future posts.

I have also learned that my husband has planned a weekend getaway (okay just one night and day, but when your with kids all day that's like a week). I have no idea where we are going. I have been assured the kids will be well cared for and that I can relax and just enjoy some time with my husband. I'm looking forward to it for sure, as I can promise you Brad is as well. I can't wait to sleep in on Saturday morning! Oh....the joys!

Until next time........(spellcheck approved)

New adventures

We have mastered bike riding! For those of you who know us best, this was a very big deal in our family! It has been a huge father and son bonding experience.
Zoom!
Of course, Baylee was showing off her skills as well. This is her new Princess bike. She has decided to take the training wheels off next week! What else is a little sister to do when big brother can out ride you now!

Brennan, Baylee & superdog

Not sure why the tongue to out, but it made for a very cure pic.
weeeeeeeeeee..............and there is Neal again with the peace sign!
Not sure if he was yelling or laughing here. I'm sure he was having fun either way!
will not sleep...........will not sleep...........will not s...l....e...e....p..........zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz No, she wasn't tired at all!
Its a bird! Its a plane!.....................oh wait, its just a lazy dog! Who doesn't really look all that happy to be photographed!