Thanksgiving & Other Goings On

-Jen

Well, Thanksgiving was a wonderful day. We ate dinner with another family and watched movies until 7 when we went home. The food was wonderful...I was pretty good and ate very small portions of everything. I am hoping that I have gained very little weight at my next doctor's appointment on Wednesday. We'll see. All the kids were amazing and very well behaved. It was a wonderful day topped off with a wind storm that night (25-30 mph winds). It was the perfect way to fall asleep. We did wake up to a tree that had fallen down behind our house. When we did arrive home, most of the items that were on our porch had been spread across our lawn and ready for pick up by the kids the next morning. Unfortunately it was still pretty windy the next morning. While it was a beautiful day, the kids spent most of it inside. It has been a five day weekend for the kids and they have done pretty well at getting along and staying busy. It seems to cut down on the fighting and bickering.

12/16 Update:
Well, it's been a couple of weeks since Thanksgiving and everything is going pretty well, although EXTREMELY hectic. We have our annual Christmas program and dinner on Saturday and rehearsals seem to be constant. I am so tired and having difficulty handling 20 questions every hour from our younger kids. Christmas is such a crazy time, I miss the simplicity of living life with my husband alone. I love our kids but life is so crazy trying to get all the visits set up especially when they get extended due to the holiday season. Trying to coordinate 4-6 visits a week is not easy!! We recently returned home from our visit in Portland. It was a quick visit but wonderful. We loved being able to see friends and family and just relax. I returned home with a cold though. I was unable to truly get a break while sick and that made it more difficult. I still feel like I am recovering from a lack of sleep. However, Michael is now sick. This is the 3rd or 4th time in the last 6 months. Please pray that he will get over this cold quickly. He has been giving me breaks when possible and that has been a huge help. Tonight he took the kids to a movie at the gym on campus so I am getting a little break. It feels good. Last night we all went to watch a basketball game and prior to leaving the house, I coughed and something in my rib cage popped. It did not feel good. It became difficult to exhale and turn certain ways. Fortunately, I felt better this morning and after applying a little heat, I was feeling much better. My doctor stated that I probably just stretched a muscle and will be fine in a few days. Praise the Lord!! This is kind of a random posting but it gives an idea of what we've been up to recently. Not much of anything new, a lot of the same old stuff.

*Samuel is doing well...growing and moving like crazy. I only have about a month and a half to go and I can't wait to see him. Please pray that all goes well with labor and delivery. I am concerned after having two friends get induced and then end up getting a c-section (they were both about 2 weeks late). My goal (not that I'm apposed to medication) is to have a natural water birth, which can't happen if I get induced. Please pray that the Lord will give me peace and that Sam will come on time. Thank you.

God is Faithful!!

I recently had to break some bad news to one of my foster kids. I had been praying about it all day while the child was at school and dreading having to break it to her knowing that it would break her heart. My fear was that she would act out in anger and use some very choice words. I had been praying all day that God would prepare her heart and give us (my case manager and me) the wisdom to know how to tell her. The time came to finally break the news. Michael took all the other kids out of the house for an hour so that we could have some privacy. The child surprised me. Instead of getting angry, she became very sad and began to cry. For this child, this is a huge step. She allowed us to comfort and cry with her. To see her heart break, broke mine as well. I truly love this child (and all my kids) and she has a special place in my heart. It killed me to have to watch her in so much pain, but I felt so blessed to be able to love her through it. I continue to encourage her and try to talk with her about how she is doing. My fear is that she will now begin to withdraw herself from others. My prayer for her is that this set back makes her stronger and trust those around her to support her. I hope that she realizes that she can reach out to those around her who love her and share exactly where she is at and know that she can trust us. I love you to death and want so much for her. She has so much potential and I have seen so much growth in her in such a short period of time. Please keep her in your prayers as well. While yesterday went very well, she needs to continue to process through this and that will take a while. Thank you.

I thought we moved away from Portland??

It has been raining non-stop for the last few days (I honestly don't remember when it started). Life has been good. Calmer now that we only have one teenage girl (still have a house full of girls but only one teenager). It has been such a blessing to have a more relaxed house. I am hoping we will have this group of kids for a while. The younger girls are loud and crazy (and EXTREMELY giggly) but I don't get as much attitude which is a HUGE blessing. When we started this job, my thought was that I could deal better with the teens because I had worked with the youth group for so long...I was way off!! I love all of our kids but the younger ones are a little more obedient and don't fight as much. Michael and I are constantly reminded of how thankful we are to have this experience before having our own kids. Not that we are experts by any stretch of the imagination but we have a better idea of how we want to raise our own and different tools we can use (or throw out). Lately the little one has been moving all over the place!! He is SO active and now that he is getting bigger, so are his movements. I read that around 28 weeks the baby begins sleeping only about 20-30 minutes at a time. I can definitely tell that he is awake more often or at least more frequently. It has been amazing to watch him move across my belly. Michael has been enjoying it, A LOT! We can't wait to see him. I keep thinking of all the things we still have to do (especially cleaning out all of the boxes from the nursery). We are making small progress at a time (at least all of the dirty laundry from that room is done...actually almost done). Michael has been moving out some of the boxes. The difficulty will be looking through all of the boxes still in there and sorting and reorganizing them. I can picture what I want that room to look like but at the moment this is what it looks like:






To be honest, it doesn't look NEARLY this bad now. We have made a lot of progress but I haven't taken any pictures for the last month or two. When we moved here it seemed like there was a lot more room than I thought it was. I feel like I am babbling at this point and don't have much to say. Life is good, the kids are good, the baby is great, Michael is active, and I'm in my last trimester. Praise the Lord for all He is doing in our lives. I know we would not have made it this long without Him.