Best Thing In the World!

Last Sunday started out as pretty much a regular day. Most of us were still sick so staying home and resting was the plan. We enjoyed family devotions and worship time together that morning (although singing was hilarious with our hoarse, croaky voices. haha) and then just took it easy the rest of the day.

Between the time change and being sick the kids have had even more trouble getting to sleep than usual so bedtime was a little late. I was sitting in the living room when Dathan walked back in saying he had been laying in bed thinking about getting saved but he wasn't sure if he was really ready or it was definitely God speaking to his heart. He had asked alot of questions recently and been pretty bothered about the idea of being lost but once we would talk some and pray he would say he just didn't feel like it was time.

But this time was definitely different! As we started to talk some he suddenly held up his hand to stop me and said, "momma, I just need to pray." He was so broken and prayed so sincerely and then seemed to have such a change come over him. We talked some more and he said that he wasn't sure what being saved should feel like and that he just wanted to be sure it was real. We told him that was where believing and trusting came in and that there wouldn't always be a feeling. He said that his heart had been so scared and heavy before he prayed and then afterward there was just peace there. We told him that sounded like exactly how we would describe what the Lord does for you! :-)

It was an amazing time of seeing him so happy to be born again. And such a blessing to rejoice and praise God together! I definitely think there isn't anything better in this world than to see one of your children come to know the Saviour. We are so thankful for God's grace and goodness on our family. It's been great to see little differences in him throughout the week as well.....and to hear him say today was his one week "birth day". I hope he doesn't lose that excitement over what God has done for him. And that it causes us as parents to even more dilegently seek to be the Christians we need to be for our children!

Hanging in There! {I think}

It has definitely been some more week around here! Allergies galore and what must have turned into something viral maybe for at least a couple of the kiddos. Poor Darcey had a high fever for a couple days and has just felt rotten. Everyone else has the coughing, congestion, and runny nose as well. We all still sound horrible today but the kids at least seem to have more energy and are feeling better. I'm sure it will take awhile for all the yucky stuff to totally clear up. 

I can't believe how early it's gotten so warm here and caused all the spring allergies to kick in this year. They are already way worse than normal! But seriously, 80 degree weather at this point in March is just slightly unusual....even for the south. I'm definitely hoping they don't last the entire season since we've already been dealing with them for a few weeks now. Talk about a miserable few months! I may be tempted to escape to the ocean somewhere for awhile since I always clear up there. :)

Between sickness, pregnancy, and lack of sleep, things have been just a little helter-skelter. To say the least. Crazy days, long nights, and a messy house have kinda gotten on everyone's nerves. It's no wonder we named this blog what we did! :) But in the middle of all the craziness have been the good moments too. Sweet snuggling with our baby girl, drawing pictures with our awesome artist son, and a lovely back-rub from our middle girl after she heard me mention it was hurting. And best of all, answered prayers and the grace of God....that we are so undeserving of! 

So yeah I think the title of this post was right. Rough as it's been, we're definitely still hanging in there! :)

Things I Love {Thursday}

I almost didn't take the time to do a post today, but here I sit waiting for the kiddos to fall asleep so I figured....why not?! Before I get started with some of the lovely things around here I do want to be honest and say that there's been some not so lovely moments lately too. One reason for this post is not just to talk about how good things are but also to remind me to focus on those good things more and not just the bad. I won't get into all that since that's not the point of what I'm writing here but I just wanted to be real with ya'll first. Okay, now that's out of the way so let me share some of this stuff I'm loving. :-)

~ Warm, sunny days that we can still enjoy playing outside on even though it's getting closer to winter. (in which we may or may not have gone barefoot. ahem.)

~ Kids camping out in the living room just because and me realizing all over again that it's the little things that make them happiest.

~ One night of good sleep in the middle of numerous sleepless ones. (which by the way is something I would seriously appreciate prayers about for all of us....Blake and I are exhausted and these kiddos need better rest for their growing bodies!)

~ Little baby arms wrapped around my neck and hands that pat my back. Just when I need it the most.

~ Talks and prayers with the kiddos when we know we've all blown it with our attitudes that day. And being able to tell a difference afterward.

~ A God who doesn't fail me, even when I do Him. Over and over. So thankful that when He sees me, He sees the blood of Jesus instead of my sins.

~ Reading books with the kids before bed....and hearing them ask for just one more chapter.

~ Baby jabbers that are quickly turning into more words and even sentences!

~ A warm house, food, clothes, and so many other things we don't really even need but are blessed with anyway.

~ And a fun time with Grandma tonight at the Christmas celebration at Bridge Street! :-)

That's just a few of the things I love today. What about you?

A God Who Answers...

A year ago today our family of four went to the homeschool picnic for the group we were in....and left our brand new baby girl behind with my parents. As most of you know she struggled with so many issues in the first few weeks and months after being born that we could hardly take her out anywhere. Days and nights were spent just trying to keep her crying less (and rarely ever fully succeeding) and going out only made that worse. My heart broke as I left that day and while we had a good time it was still so hard seeing all the other babies with their momma's and not being able to have mine there.
This year the same Thanksgiving picnic rolled around and I was so excited at the thought of the whole family getting to go since Darcey is doing so much better now. But in the past couple of weeks she had picked up something viral and just couldn't seem to shake it. We would think she's getting better and then her symptoms would flare up worse all over again. Once more I was so dissapointed at having to possibly consider leaving her behind if she didn't start feeling better by today.
Yesterday she seemed a little better but by evening wasn't that great again but I decided to give it til this morning and just see how things went. We of course had been praying for her ever since she's gotten sick and have already seen the Lord answer more than once in giving her relief or just helping her sleep some on the worst days, but last night I asked Him specifically to please touch her enough so that she would be able to go with us.
This morning she woke up early in a good mood and seemed to be feeling fine. And although she had some congestion and drainage while taking her bath after that I'm pretty sure I never had to so much as wipe her nose one time and her cough was almost totally gone! Needless to say, she went on the picnic.....and we thanked God for answering our prayers. It might sound insignificant or unimportant to some, but to us it was a little miracle. :-)

The Broken Arm Story

Although most you of you already know about Delancey's accident a few weeks ago, I thought I'd write a few more details about what happened just to have the whole story down.

I had an appointment to get my haircut one afternoon and since it was around the time Blake gets off work then it worked out good for him to come by and pick up the kids while I was there. They decided to go to a nearby chic-fil-a that had an indoor playground since it was so hot outside. I had just finished and was calling Blake to let him know and when he answered he said they had just left to drive that way because Delancey had fallen and broken her arm. Of course, my heart just about stopped and I immediately started questioning how bad it was and how it happened. And then waiting for them to get there to pick me up so we could go to the ER was torture! All I could to was just pray until they got there and I could see her for myself.

I have to admit that it was way worse than I had imagined. It was one of those things that kinda makes you sick to your stomach but you have to just ignore your own feelings and be tough for the kids' sake. Needless to say everyone was pretty hysterical by the time they got there, but managed to calm down on the way to the hospital. They got us in fairly quickly but Delancey was shaking from all the stress and pain. The nurse said she would bring her some meds but the x-ray person ended up coming first trying to get a picture of it. She could hardly stand for them to touch it though so I asked if we could wait for the pain meds and they brought some then.
Once they took effect and she got wrapped in a temporary cast it was much better and we could finally go home.

The next couple of days were kinda rough and the orthopedic doctor we had seen before wasn't available but we managed to get in with another one in the same practice. We weren't at all prepared for him to tell us she needed to have surgery the next morning to set it straight, but it was pretty obvious once he explained it that there was really no other choice. It's hard to think about your kids being put to sleep for any reason and we were more than little upset and worried but hoped for the best. The surgery experience ended up being very traumatic since they had told us she would be asleep before leaving us but then ended up taking her away before giving her any meds at all. But the doctor did an amazing job of fixing it so other than not liking how they treated her over being put to sleep we were very thankful for how good it looked afterwards.

It's taken her a few weeks to get over being upset and scared about being taken away from us and I'm sure it will be something she won't ever forget totally. (and neither will I!!) It's horrible knowing that your child feels betrayed by something that while neccasary in some ways didn't have to be as bad as it was. We've determined that if anything like that ever happens again that we'll definitely be more prepared to step in and stop it.

She first had a long cast all the way up the arm and had to wear a sling. Then she moved down to a shorter one which was much easier to manage. Now she's wearing a brace (or splint) which is removable for baths and at night so she's loving that! It's healing up well so far and hopefully will look completely together at her next check-up in a few weeks. It's been a little hard and stressful at times but we're thankful that it's getting better.....I know it could have been something so much worse!

Well, this has been a much longer post than I intended but there's the story about Delancey's 2nd broken arm in her short life. Here are a few pictures to look at as well....

And the next picture we post will be of her beautiful arm without anything on it! :)

How Could I Forget?!

In my rush to finish my former post and also due to mistakenly thinking there wasn't a whole to share from last week anyway, this one bit of news totally slipped my mind! So here I am again to share what actually was a pretty big deal. To us, that is. We bought a car! (yeah, I'm chalking this one up to a lack up sleep since I've gotten hardly any of that lately. not sure what else could explain me forgetting something like that. lol) But anyway here's the story for those of you who are interested....

As I may have already mentioned, Blake wrecked his truck on his way to work in the ice/snow storm that happened on my birthday in February. Thankfully he wasn't hurt and the truck was still driveable with most of the damage just being cosmetic. He had already been thinking about getting a smaller car to drive to work that would be better on gas since his truck was paid for as of December. (are we the only ones who have that kind of luck?!) Anyway, so after getting the insurance money he prayed about it and felt pretty good about just putting that towards getting something else and just keeping the truck as is to haul stuff or whatever. Then started the search for a car we could afford, which has been going on pretty much ever since. And although we found several things just never seemed to work out for any of them. He was telling me this past Monday that he was discouraged and kinda tired of looking for something. So the next morning I was thinking about him being so down and trying to pray. Then I thought I'd just look on craigslist and see if anything new showed up since I hadn't really helped with the actual searching much yet. To my surprise I found what sounded like a good deal and alot like what Blake was wanting. I quickly emailed and gave them his number then texted him about it. He was able to see it that day and although we almost expected it to turn out like some of the other 'too good to be true' deals we'd tried, it wasn't! (yeah, my believing and trusting after asking could use some work) He prayed about it while test driving it as well and felt like it was the one he should get. Yay!!
I'm so thankful that the Lord answered prayers and Blake is extremely relieved that he doesn't have to car shop anymore... at least for awhile hopefully!  And now we're looking forward to all that extra money we'll save on gas too. :)