Awhile ago, I wrote about how we were in limbo. Our application with FamilyLife had expired and we were in the process of going through a loan re-modification process with our mortgage company.
Well, today we got the bad news. Our mortgage company is not willing to work with us and do a re-modification for us. They would rather us quit making payments on our home and attempt a short-sale or just loose our home. Does this make any sense at all? Of course, at this point we have not made the decision to quit making our payments. We just don't know what to do.
So, now...do I start applying for full-time jobs and put Ethan in daycare or try to find another part-time job to add to the bakery job and try to juggle both around Ethan's Preschool schedule? We are at a complete loss and don't have a clue what to do.
Of course, this all comes just 4 days before I leave for Arizona. (Just clarifying that I'm going to Arizona on all airmiles. We are only having to pay $5 in airport taxes for me to fly!) I think getting away right now will be good but at the same time, I feel like I need to be home figuring out what our next step is.
Bottom line of all this...I'm just asking you to pray for us right now as we try to figure out what it is that God is wanting us to do. Currently...everything is "clear as mud".
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Saved by a surprise visit!
Today was a full day of extra kids! Here's what the morning looked like...
6:45...I'm up and getting ready
7:00...Kids all up and getting ready
7:25...VanWerven children (2) arrive
7:45...Breakfast for all of those needing fed
8:00...Collin arrives
8:30...Make sure all kiddos leaving for school have hair done, teeth brushed and shoes going on their feet
8:35...Get Collin his breakfast
8:45...Girls and VanWerven kids out the door for the school bus
8:47...Wayne, Weston and Wyatt arrive
That's just the start of the day. From there...I was asked at least 20 times (and I'm not exaggerating) when the boys were getting snacks and when I was going to make lunch. I finally set the timer and told the boys that when they heard the beep I would make lunch. PHEW! Solved that problem!
The rest of the morning consisted of getting babies down for naps and keeping the bigger boys playing quietly and nicely. They did great considering they are 2 and 4.
All 5 boys were fed by 12:30 and babies were back down for afternoon naps by 1:00. By 1:30 the girls were home and noise level increased. (It was early release today.) Just when I was beginning to wonder if I was going to survive this crazy day...SURPRISE! Two lovely ladies arrived at my front door with the most precious little girl!
Thank you Katie, Molly and Macy for the wonderful little visit! It wasn't a long visit but it was perfect! Adult contact was just what I was needing. (I'm so glad they were understanding of the mess they walked into...it's a little hard to keep the house clean and dishes caught up when balancing all these kiddos.)
Now...I have the kids outside and the babies are still down for naps. The sand toys are out and they have all had otter pops. Thank you Jesus for the beautiful sunshine today!!
In about 1-1/2 hours mommies will be arriving for their precious children. It's been a crazy day and, for the most part, they have all been pretty good. But, I am hoping for a quiet evening tonight!
6:45...I'm up and getting ready
7:00...Kids all up and getting ready
7:25...VanWerven children (2) arrive
7:45...Breakfast for all of those needing fed
8:00...Collin arrives
8:30...Make sure all kiddos leaving for school have hair done, teeth brushed and shoes going on their feet
8:35...Get Collin his breakfast
8:45...Girls and VanWerven kids out the door for the school bus
8:47...Wayne, Weston and Wyatt arrive
That's just the start of the day. From there...I was asked at least 20 times (and I'm not exaggerating) when the boys were getting snacks and when I was going to make lunch. I finally set the timer and told the boys that when they heard the beep I would make lunch. PHEW! Solved that problem!
The rest of the morning consisted of getting babies down for naps and keeping the bigger boys playing quietly and nicely. They did great considering they are 2 and 4.
All 5 boys were fed by 12:30 and babies were back down for afternoon naps by 1:00. By 1:30 the girls were home and noise level increased. (It was early release today.) Just when I was beginning to wonder if I was going to survive this crazy day...SURPRISE! Two lovely ladies arrived at my front door with the most precious little girl!
Thank you Katie, Molly and Macy for the wonderful little visit! It wasn't a long visit but it was perfect! Adult contact was just what I was needing. (I'm so glad they were understanding of the mess they walked into...it's a little hard to keep the house clean and dishes caught up when balancing all these kiddos.)
Now...I have the kids outside and the babies are still down for naps. The sand toys are out and they have all had otter pops. Thank you Jesus for the beautiful sunshine today!!
In about 1-1/2 hours mommies will be arriving for their precious children. It's been a crazy day and, for the most part, they have all been pretty good. But, I am hoping for a quiet evening tonight!
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Turning bad into good...
It's been a couple of week since I have posted...sorry about that. To say that we have been busy is a complete understatement.
The last two posts were regarding friends of ours that had been in accidents. The first was our friend Darin, from California. As of today, he is off the ventilator and they had him sitting in a chair. He has a couple of skin grafting surgeries coming up and will be in the hospital for awhile yet. Please continue praying for him.
The second was our friend Nathan. Nathan was in a very bad motorcycle accident two weeks ago, yesterday. God spared Nathan's life. He has Nathan here for a purpose and I can't wait to see what that purpose is! This guy has been through many surgeries in the past two weeks and has more hardware than anyone I know holding him together right now. He was telling us about his hardware and I was having a hard time envisioning a chain link going through his pelvis to hold it together. A chain link?! It's amazing!! He is tough though and will have to work hard with physical therapy but he is going to be okay.
Guess who came home though yesterday? That's right...Nathan. He's not doing any moving on his own but he's home! The kids were so excited when I pulled them from school a little early to go visit Nathan. They have been wanting to see their Nay-Nay for two weeks and it has been so hard explaining to them why they can't be at the hospital. I think Ethan was the most excited...although he didn't show it once we arrived at Randy and Janice's. He was a little nervous, not sure what to expect, and Nathan's friend was there. Ethan gets very quiet around people he doesn't know. It was great though to finally be able to take the kids to see their Nathan and to let them see for themselves that Nathan is going to be okay. Please pray for continued pain management and healing for Nathan! His road to recovery is still long.
We have been praising God for the healing that has been happening with both of these guys and the progress that they have made. It's been awesome to see everyone rallying around these families, lifting them up in prayer.
We've had a few other sad situations happen within our church family. We had two very special people go home to be with Jesus...one older gentleman and the other was just 19 years old. We celebrated one life on Monday and the second on Thursday. We were blessed to be able to help with both of these services. And again, our church family rallied around these two families lifting them up in prayer. The pain doesn't stop though with a loss like these. We look forward to having the opportunity to love on these families and to continue praying for them.
God has used each of these situations to really grow our church family. I have never seen so many people just come together and pray for one another. To see people give of their time to help others is awesome.
I've had several people ask over the past couple of weeks how our church family is holding up during this time of what seems to be an attack from the devil. My response was..."God is using these situations to grow us closer and to bring us together to just pray and care for one another. In no way do we feel attacked by the devil." This response shocked a few people but in no way do I feel like these situations are an attack. I love my church family and these past few weeks have made that love grow deeper.
Last Sunday was a hard service because that is when we learned of the passing of the 19-year old but it was so amazing to listening to everyone just worshiping our Lord and Savior in the midst of tears. I think it was probably one of the loudest worship services we've had in awhile. Just lifting our voices up to our Lord and trusting in Him during these times.
I'm really looking forward to tomorrow morning. Not because it is Mother's Day but because we get to go and worship our Lord with our amazing church family at Christ Fellowship! Would love to see you there!
The last two posts were regarding friends of ours that had been in accidents. The first was our friend Darin, from California. As of today, he is off the ventilator and they had him sitting in a chair. He has a couple of skin grafting surgeries coming up and will be in the hospital for awhile yet. Please continue praying for him.
The second was our friend Nathan. Nathan was in a very bad motorcycle accident two weeks ago, yesterday. God spared Nathan's life. He has Nathan here for a purpose and I can't wait to see what that purpose is! This guy has been through many surgeries in the past two weeks and has more hardware than anyone I know holding him together right now. He was telling us about his hardware and I was having a hard time envisioning a chain link going through his pelvis to hold it together. A chain link?! It's amazing!! He is tough though and will have to work hard with physical therapy but he is going to be okay.
Guess who came home though yesterday? That's right...Nathan. He's not doing any moving on his own but he's home! The kids were so excited when I pulled them from school a little early to go visit Nathan. They have been wanting to see their Nay-Nay for two weeks and it has been so hard explaining to them why they can't be at the hospital. I think Ethan was the most excited...although he didn't show it once we arrived at Randy and Janice's. He was a little nervous, not sure what to expect, and Nathan's friend was there. Ethan gets very quiet around people he doesn't know. It was great though to finally be able to take the kids to see their Nathan and to let them see for themselves that Nathan is going to be okay. Please pray for continued pain management and healing for Nathan! His road to recovery is still long.
We have been praising God for the healing that has been happening with both of these guys and the progress that they have made. It's been awesome to see everyone rallying around these families, lifting them up in prayer.
We've had a few other sad situations happen within our church family. We had two very special people go home to be with Jesus...one older gentleman and the other was just 19 years old. We celebrated one life on Monday and the second on Thursday. We were blessed to be able to help with both of these services. And again, our church family rallied around these two families lifting them up in prayer. The pain doesn't stop though with a loss like these. We look forward to having the opportunity to love on these families and to continue praying for them.
God has used each of these situations to really grow our church family. I have never seen so many people just come together and pray for one another. To see people give of their time to help others is awesome.
I've had several people ask over the past couple of weeks how our church family is holding up during this time of what seems to be an attack from the devil. My response was..."God is using these situations to grow us closer and to bring us together to just pray and care for one another. In no way do we feel attacked by the devil." This response shocked a few people but in no way do I feel like these situations are an attack. I love my church family and these past few weeks have made that love grow deeper.
Last Sunday was a hard service because that is when we learned of the passing of the 19-year old but it was so amazing to listening to everyone just worshiping our Lord and Savior in the midst of tears. I think it was probably one of the loudest worship services we've had in awhile. Just lifting our voices up to our Lord and trusting in Him during these times.
I'm really looking forward to tomorrow morning. Not because it is Mother's Day but because we get to go and worship our Lord with our amazing church family at Christ Fellowship! Would love to see you there!
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Pray for Nathan...
We are asking our friends and family, and any other readers out there, to pray for Nathan.
Nathan was in a very serious motorcycle accident on Friday afternoon and was flown to Harborview in Seattle from St. Joseph's in Bellingham after initial assessment of injuries.
We are praising God that Nathan's spine, neck, face and head were unharmed. Nathan has many other severe injuries though. Instead of listing them here, I'm going to include the link to his mom's blog. Janice is going to keep the blog updated with Nathan's status.
Please...pray, pray, pray! Nathan has a long road of healing ahead of him. We are praying for a full recovery. Our God is and AWESOME God and our Great Physician!
Nathan is a very special guy to our family! I, Tanya, use to watch Nathan when he was just a little guy. (He's not so little any more.)
Nathan was in a very serious motorcycle accident on Friday afternoon and was flown to Harborview in Seattle from St. Joseph's in Bellingham after initial assessment of injuries.
We are praising God that Nathan's spine, neck, face and head were unharmed. Nathan has many other severe injuries though. Instead of listing them here, I'm going to include the link to his mom's blog. Janice is going to keep the blog updated with Nathan's status.
Please...pray, pray, pray! Nathan has a long road of healing ahead of him. We are praying for a full recovery. Our God is and AWESOME God and our Great Physician!
Pray for Darin...
This past Tuesday, we received a call that our friend Darin Thompson, who lives in California, had been hit by a car while working and was seriously injured and being taken into emergency surgery.
I had this instant pit in my stomach. I was instantly praying for Darin and his family and feeling completely at a loss. You see in situations like this I jump into my immediate "what do I need to do, what can I do" mode. I love to take care of people during the tough times! On Tuesday, there was nothing I could do other than just pray. It's times like these that I am thankful for the ever-addicting Facebook. Through facebook, I have been able to stay updated with Darin's condition through his daughter's postings.
As of today, Darin has already had a couple of surgeries but has a pretty intense surgery coming up this next week. Several of his ribs are broke and his lungs were punctured. The docs are waiting for the lungs to heal a little more before they go in to repair the ribs. This is going to be a very tedious surgery since our lungs are so delicate. Pray for the doctors to have steady hands this week. There will be other surgeries to come as well.
Pray for traveling safety for Darin's parents and sister and brother-in-law. They have all traveled to California from Prescott Valley, AZ and will be heading back to Arizona tomorrow and Monday. It will be hard for them to leave Darin simply because he is still in the Trauma Care unit but he is at a great medical facility and Darin's wife and kids are there with him.
I had this instant pit in my stomach. I was instantly praying for Darin and his family and feeling completely at a loss. You see in situations like this I jump into my immediate "what do I need to do, what can I do" mode. I love to take care of people during the tough times! On Tuesday, there was nothing I could do other than just pray. It's times like these that I am thankful for the ever-addicting Facebook. Through facebook, I have been able to stay updated with Darin's condition through his daughter's postings.
As of today, Darin has already had a couple of surgeries but has a pretty intense surgery coming up this next week. Several of his ribs are broke and his lungs were punctured. The docs are waiting for the lungs to heal a little more before they go in to repair the ribs. This is going to be a very tedious surgery since our lungs are so delicate. Pray for the doctors to have steady hands this week. There will be other surgeries to come as well.
Pray for traveling safety for Darin's parents and sister and brother-in-law. They have all traveled to California from Prescott Valley, AZ and will be heading back to Arizona tomorrow and Monday. It will be hard for them to leave Darin simply because he is still in the Trauma Care unit but he is at a great medical facility and Darin's wife and kids are there with him.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Allergic to haircuts?
So, Ethan and I just had this conversation...
Me: "Ethan, I think it's time to give you a haircut."
Ethan: "No...I don't need one."
Me: "Well, actually you do because your hair is coming down over your ear. We should quick do it before school."
Ethan: "Mom, you can't give me a haircut."
Me: "Why? I do it all the time."
Ethan: "Mom, remember I'm allergic to haircuts."
What? Since when is this boy allergic to haircuts? The things he's been coming up with lately. I think we will wait until Daddy gets home to do this haircut.
Me: "Ethan, I think it's time to give you a haircut."
Ethan: "No...I don't need one."
Me: "Well, actually you do because your hair is coming down over your ear. We should quick do it before school."
Ethan: "Mom, you can't give me a haircut."
Me: "Why? I do it all the time."
Ethan: "Mom, remember I'm allergic to haircuts."
What? Since when is this boy allergic to haircuts? The things he's been coming up with lately. I think we will wait until Daddy gets home to do this haircut.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Just not going to make it
I had set a goal to be caught up with my Bible reading by April 15th. I'm here to be honest and to say that I'm not going to make that goal. I had every intention of being caught up but the reality is, it just isn't going to happen. We've had Brenna's birthday weekend along with Easter and we had my 1-year old niece all last week.
I knew that Brenna's birthday weekend and Easter would probably lead to no reading just with the busyness of getting ready for all of the festivities. I had hoped to at least get a little reading in each day but knew that I wouldn't be able to meet my daily goal.
Having a 1-year old in the house was fun but tiring. I don't want to use that as an excuse but Miss Paige zapped Auntie's energy. I did have a few days of getting some reading in but not as much as I had set for each day and reading didn't happen every day. There were a few nights when I would start to read and would just fall asleep. That was my hint that I just needed to go to bed so I would be re-energized for the next day. I love that my sister and brother-in-law entrusted us with the care of their daughter while they were gone and I wouldn't have traded it for anything. I'm glad that we were able to have her and the kids loved having a little one around.
So, my focus this week is to get back on track and get reading in every day. I realize that it will be tough because I'm having to work a little more this week and we have things on the calendar for the evenings but I'm going to find time every day to read! I look forward to being able to report back to all of you readers that I am caught up!
I knew that Brenna's birthday weekend and Easter would probably lead to no reading just with the busyness of getting ready for all of the festivities. I had hoped to at least get a little reading in each day but knew that I wouldn't be able to meet my daily goal.
Having a 1-year old in the house was fun but tiring. I don't want to use that as an excuse but Miss Paige zapped Auntie's energy. I did have a few days of getting some reading in but not as much as I had set for each day and reading didn't happen every day. There were a few nights when I would start to read and would just fall asleep. That was my hint that I just needed to go to bed so I would be re-energized for the next day. I love that my sister and brother-in-law entrusted us with the care of their daughter while they were gone and I wouldn't have traded it for anything. I'm glad that we were able to have her and the kids loved having a little one around.
So, my focus this week is to get back on track and get reading in every day. I realize that it will be tough because I'm having to work a little more this week and we have things on the calendar for the evenings but I'm going to find time every day to read! I look forward to being able to report back to all of you readers that I am caught up!
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