Stress

Today has been one of those kind of days that only can happen when the stress of this world becomes a little more than I can bear. Someone reminded me today that moving is one of the highest stresses. I wanted to laugh and share about all the others - ya know, the fact that my grandfather isn't doing well and I likely won't see him again on this side of glory, our house is showing almost daily so I'm having to keep it clean to invite strangers into my home, my mom just had surgery to get rid of cancer, I home school 2 wild and crazy children, and my 3 year old didn't sleep last night. I could continue the list, and while that list sounds daunting, it's really the little things that are stressing me out.

I ultimately know that it will all turn out fine in the end. I know God provides for me, and I know that I have a wonderful husband to help me get through the rough stuff. I just thought I'd be real and share all the lovely exciting things going on in our very real and normal life.

We are very excited about our new adventure, and we are thankful for these last few weeks to share with our sweet friends in Florida. We are also very excited to see what God has in store for our family as we start our new life in Connecticut. It's been awesome to see Him handle the details, and while I'm so stressed out right now, I know He will continue to work out all the arrangements until we are again settled in our new home.

And in the meantime, we carry on living out our very normal lives.

My Little Theologian

Mat and I have been serving in Awana at our church, Harvest Bible Chapel. We help with the first grade class by leading them from worship time to group time, to the classroom where we listen to them recite scripture they have memorized, and finally lead them to game time. It's really quite simple, and oh, so rewarding! Often, it's loud and noise, the kids can get out of control, and we wonder what the kids are really getting out of this. We're tired by the end of a long Wednesday too so they loud resonates in my fatigued mind.

Andrew has really gone all out with the memory work. He's flew through 2 books and now he is going through them again as "review" to see what he's retained. Much to my surprise, he has retained all (I don't know 30?) verses he's learned, and he can say the scripture and reference without refreshing his mind by looking back at the verse. The books also come with a CD which includes Bible stories along with the verses they are to memorize in Awana.

Just one week ago, Andrew asked if he could take the school CD player into his room so he could listen to CD's in his room. He's taken to listening to the Awana CD each night before he goes to sleep.

Last night, we went to eat dinner with our friends, and on the way there Mat asked Andrew if he knew who Saul was. Andrew replied that he had his name changed to Paul etc. Mat told him that was one Paul, but the other Saul was the king when David fought Goliath. Andrew said he didn't remember the story of that Saul, but he did know how David became king. Andrew continued to recount the entire story of David becoming king with all the details in the Bible. About a minute into the story Andrew was giving us about King David, Mat and I both realized that he was reciting pages and pages of his Awana book as he had memorized it from listening to it on his Awana CD. We were speechless and allowed Andrew to continue for about 10 minutes (all of which he had memorized in less than 1 week all on his own).

Andrew has a passion for learning God's word like I've never seen in a young child before. He has been taking the King James Version of the Bible in the car for a few days, and he's been looking up all the scripture he learned in Awana (in the NIV) so he can see how it differs. We finished our Bible curriculum on Friday, and today, we dove into 1 Samuel so we could learn all about the life of David from beginning to end, and my little Theologian is soaking it all in and asking questions that I'm going to need to contact a Bible scholar to answer!

I am very proud of him, and I'm am ever so grateful for his hunger of God's word! The video I've posted is Andrew with some other Awana students reciting scripture they memorized in front of our church. Aren't these children adorable, and doesn't this encourage you to hide God's word in your heard?!

Breast Cancer...

I'll keep this short and sweet, but I need my prayer support team to pray again...

My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer AGAIN. She had breast cancer nearly 20 years ago, and at that time, she had a mastectomy to completely remove all cancer. She has been in remission. She's done all the legwork, checkups, etc to make sure the cancer hasn't returned, and now it has.

Surgery is scheduled for Wednesday (yep, this week - no joking around), but there are more obstacles this go round. They have found some iffy spots on her bones. She has a PET scan tomorrow morning. By tomorrow afternoon, she will get the results, and at that time, her surgeon will let her know if surgery is even a possibility.

Pray that they find nothing in the PET scan and that the surgery can proceed on Wednesday as planned.

We are Moving...again!

This announcement has been a long time in coming...nearly 7 years. Mat was recently hired at ESPN so in just a few short weeks we are moving to Connecticut. Many of you know that this has been Mat's dream. We are all so excited to start this new adventure.

Here's what Mat says: I will be working in Systems Engineering with the guys that design all of the TV systems. We will be moving just outside Hartford, CT which should be a very interesting change. I am looking forward to the adventure. 4 seasons, snow, and the opportunity to work with one of the most respected companies in the broadcast industry.

The kids are very excited about the change.. They don't even mind not living outside of Disney as we promised them that we'd come back for visits. They are going to miss their sweet friends, but they are still young enough to handle the move well. They have already been practicing making snow angels. I honestly think that moving is natural for them. This will be Andrew's 8th move in his 7 years of life with all the travel we've done with Mat's jobs. This will be Elizabeth's 4th move, and she is only 3.

This move is bittersweet for me. We have gone through some of the biggest challenges here, but we've also had the time of our lives and met the sweetest people here in Florida. I'm going to miss my friends, but I know that we'll meet new people to love in Connecticut. I am NOT sad to miss the HOT summers, but I'm a little nervous about the cold and all the snow. I'm excited to have a change in terrain, and I'm so excited to get to explore New England.

At this point, we still plan on homeschool Andrew and start schooling Elizabeth. We have so many details to arrange, but it will all come in time. Mat's official start date is April 9. We plan to make a trip up there before that to look for a place to live, and Mat has to be at Rookie Camp on his start date. Then we'll be in Florida packing up with the movers. We'll head north at the end of April...just in time for our lease to be up on our rental house in Florida.

I'm amazed at how God has orchestrated every detail of this move...especially the timing of this move. We are very excited for this next (and hopefully final) adventure!

Nani Boy

Written by Andrew for his class presentation with my help

This past week we went to Atlanta, Georgia to see my great grandfather, Nani Boy. He is very sick in the hospital with heart failure, and we rushed to Atlanta to see him before he goes to Heaven. When I think of Nani, I think of Jesus because he loves Jesus. I think of how he called me "Old Man" and whenever he would call me old I would call him Old Man too. I also think of Nana, my great grandmother, Ruth, who Nani was married to.

I used to love to visit my great grandparents at their house in Lilburn. They would give me too many cookies and juice, tickle me, and give me lots of x's and o's. Nana would always tell funny jokes, and Nani would always bring out all the toys for me and my sister to play with. My favorite toy was this cool basketball hoop, but I also loved Grumpy the Gorilla who when you sqeezed him would say, "Hi, I'm Grumpy the Gorilla. Don't squeeze me unless you love me."

My great grandmother passed away 2 years ago, but I still have so much fun with my great grandpa. We always wrestle, and joke around.

One really cool story about my grandpa goes like this: He was in the Navy during World War 2, and he didn't know Jesus. However, he would carry a little steel covered new testament Bible in his shirt pocket. Four different times, he was shot in the chest, but the bullet would always hit the steel covered Bible. That Bible saved his life, but it was not until after the war that he came to Christ. A friend shared God's love with him. After that, my Nani became a Gideon and handed out Bibles to everyone he came in contact with. I remember that he would give Bibles to the waitresses at Johnboy's when we ate lunch together. He would always point to the plan of salvation in the back cover and share Christ's love with them.

I'm gonna miss that Old Man when he dies, but I know we will be with him soon in Heaven.