8/1/12
This month, Emma will be 8 years old! I can’t believe the young lady that she has become. She is beautiful inside and out. So smart and so ready to learn. She is becoming more and more independent and asking TONS of questions. For her it’s a big deal to go to ask a stranger a question or answer a question, but I see her confidence growing. What seems like no big deal, I know for her are HUGE steps toward courage and away from shyness. We are working on being wise and having a heart that longs for instruction. Clare is 5 and last night she did all the dishes while humming little songs. At six flags, her toes got wet and stayed that way for hours in her wet shoes, so she said, “Mommy, my toes are pickled!!” She is so sweet and loving. She can’t stand for someone to be hurt or unhappy and she does everything in her power to make them better. But she can be a stinker too! She told Emma, “You are not a good memory girl!” She knows that Emma is great at remembering things and that was the one thing she could say that would get a reaction from Emma. Hopefully she will use this intuitive people reading skill for the good later. We are working on healthy ways to vent frustration. Mommy is working on this too. For both of them, I am hearing often, “mommy, I can do that on my own.” And they can. More and more, Doug and I are watching from the sidelines in wonder as they “do it on their own”. We are SO blessed to have these precious girls.
Nursing School
Is finally finished! The weight is slowly lifting off Doug’s shoulders and he is becoming the lighter hearted and riotously funny guy that I have missed these past few years. He, of course, passed the NCLEX, probably with 100% correct! Even though he doubted and worried, I knew that he could do it all along. He is already such a wonderful nurse. Blessing people not only with his compassion but with humor as well! And little did we know that by going to Dalton as opposed to Kennesaw for nursing school, that he would have a job right out of school. Several Kennesaw graduates have asked him for HR info for his hospital in Dalton, because they are having hard times finding beginning positions. God knew this plan for us all along and we thank HIM for his provision. We are painfully aware that we have nothing to do with it! It’s all HIM. God used many people behind the scenes too! All we can do is say THANK YOU, THANK YOU and may you be blessed!
Marriage Retreat
We got to go to a wonderful retreat, at Winshape. We asked ourselves, “Why have we not done this earlier??” I would sum it up by saying that it gave us the tools to EMPOWER each other, even in the middle of a conflict! Already seeing the beautiful results of this. It goes without saying that we have had LOTS of stress (not any more than most families have, just different). Lots of moving (8 times in 11 years and another move ahead of us), not knowing where we were going to live, job changes=not being able to pay bills, nursing school while supporting a family, sickness and allergies, not knowing how to say “NO!” So YES, there has been plenty of conflict. Our communication, at times. has broken down completely and train wrecked due to the sheer weight of it all. But all along there has been JOY. Through it all, frequent moves, career changes, dreams coming true and dreams taken away, God was and is present. Without his comfort, prodding, guidance I don’t think we would have made it. Even when it seemed He was not there, he was the whole time and is still today, carrying us!
I wish that everyone could to go to Courageous Hearts or something like it! And Prepare To Last would be an amazing wedding gift for an engaged couple! You can check it out here: http://www.winshaperetreat.org/marriage-retreats
50 feet off the ground in a TREE, we had to slide along these wires as they got further and further apart with nothing but each other for balance. The only way to not fall is to lean into each other more and more until you are practically facing the ground. So interesting how that parallel’s marriage and that in the toughest of times the only way to survive is to lean in harder on the Lord and on each other. Even when instinct says that if we do that we will fall, it’s the exact opposite. I hate heights, terrified of them, but Doug insisted that I do this (another thing that rings true in our marriage is stretching each other into areas we are NOT comfortable.) And as usually is the case, I am so glad that I did it!
Blinded trust walk…isn’t so much of marriage like this.
