Lots of News!

This has been a long time coming, so settle in for a long read. J  

April has been absolutely crazy.  Everyday God is showing me that He is sovereign and in complete control.  We started the month with my grandmother spending some time in the hospital unexpectedly for some major heart problems.  She is home now and getting stronger everyday.  I spent 5 days with her (and my family) while she was in the hospital and getting settled back home.  I was humbled and challenged by the determination, love and passion demonstrated by both of my grandparents.  Then I was amazed at the out pouring of love their small town gave them and continues to give them.  Friends and church members brought food, their time, and have offered anything else that could be of service.  The insurance/law office next to my grandfather’s barber shop (where he has been barbering for 60 years) brought food and fellowship.  A local bbq restaurant told them that when everyone stopped bringing food that they were going to bring a meal.  The pharmacist has helped them get the right form of medication, supplies, and even delivered medicine to their house himself.  Now, I realize that you get to know a lot of people when you live in the same town for almost your entire life, but as I answered the phone calls that would not stop coming I heard the same statements over and over again: They have always helped us so much.  Your grandmother has brought me food when I needed it.  She has always been there for me.  They are such special people.  What amazing examples of living Christ’s love that have been placed in my life in the form of my precious grandparents!

“Where were your children all this time?” you may ask.  MrA. mustered all of his Super Dad strength and lived as a single parent for all 5 days.  He had lots of offers of help (thank you so much!) and did take up a couple of the offers, but overall was pretty set that he could do it.  And he did!  The house was not destroyed, and the children had a blast with their daddy.  Even PrincessD had bonded in a special way none of our other babies have bonded at this early of an age with him.  I could not ask for a more supportive and loving life partner.

So, missing 2.5 days of work wasn’t quite enough for me.  The next week all of the children decided to get sick at various points in the week.  Thing2 and PrincessA started the week off with fever filled viruses.  PrincessD came up in the middle of the week with pink eye.  Then Thing1 decided to end the week with a cold (but thankfully no fever).  Phew- are you tired yet? I AM!  I think that everyone is on the mend this week.

The best news came Thursday in the midst of all the germs and exhaustion.  PrincessA’s CPS caseworker came for a visit and to schedule a day for us to review the princess’s file we have waited months to receive.  HUGE step!  So, Monday, MrA. and I settled into a room at CPS where we were handed a 4 inch stack of paper.  The worker reminded us that there was a lot of redundancy in the file and to take as much time as we needed.  Even with all of the redundancy we were on major information overload after over an hour.  But, we made it through the entire history of this sweet baby’s case.  Mostly we learned details of the big picture drama we already knew.  Our hearts broke for her and her family.  It also renewed my commitment that PrincessA is where this vicious cycle of poor choices stops for that family.  We now have adoptive placement scheduled for next week!  Praise the Lord!  This placement next week is our agency and CPS meeting at our home to have us sign a bunch of paperwork to begin the process of changing PrincessA’s name, making her placement officially adoptive instead of foster, and is the last major step before consummating the adoption at court.

How you can support our family in prayer:

  Pray for our sanity as we anxiously await for our court date.

·         For my grandparents as my grandmother continues to get stronger and my grandfather takes care of her.

·         For our children’s health.

·         For PrincessD’s case…there is nothing really to report, but I know that her family needs to make healthy choices for her and themselves.  But she did roll over last week and is cooing and laughing all day long!

·         Pray that MrA and I would remember to stop each day and just enjoy the chaos that is our family.