Catching Up

I have been putting off updating here because I've been hoping I'd have some good news to report. But so far none...our house still sits. The house that we want to buy still sits, as well, so at least we're not sitting here without hope. But it is a very frustrating situation and we have to continually remind ourselves that God is in control. As things in our current house seem to keep breaking, requiring us to put more time and money into a home we are finished with, it just gets more disheartening.

We've been very busy this fall. Probably more so than we were all summer. Eric has been traveling pretty consistently, which is a hardship for us all. We've been trying to focus on the fact that he has a job, which is a blessing, but it is hard when we miss him and my sanity is slowly slipping away...

But God has been faithful! It is hard sometimes to be content with our situation, but God reveals himself in the little things. Both Marcy and Callie have run away in the last two weeks. Both returned after my turmoil and prayer, much to the joy of our little girls. I often think life would be simpler in the country! If they ran off we wouldn't have to worry quite so much. Here we rely on our neighbors to return our pets, or at the very least to not interfere with their returning on their own.

We have had some fun this fall. We got the chance to go camping for the first time with Elaina. Not an experience we shall soon be repeating. Eric ended up spending the night in the van with her because she wouldn't stop crying and we didn't want to keep everybody up! we went with our friends Brandon and Carrie and had a really good time. The girls liked it, too. I think they were especially tickled that Brandon and Carrie actually played with them. So many of our friends tend to ignore them, which is fine, but the girls love getting attention (who doesn't?!).

Posing by Lake Michigan. They really do love each other most of the time :-)

Our very sleepy (and dirty) girls. Eric joined Grace a few moments later.

Our little family

We also took a trip to South Haven, MI last weekend to meet with Eric's parents and sisters along with their fiance and boyfriend. Unfortunately it felt like we spent most of the weekend in the car since getting through Chicago was a pain both ways! But we had a good time and hopefully we'll do that again. It was a nice in-between place so that no one had to drive quite so far.

Dave, Grace, Connie, Hannah, Me & Elaina, Eric, Bree, her boyfriend Shawn, Kala & her fiance John

On the frigid beach! I'm not sure why we don't look more happy. I think we were blinded by the sun and FREEZING!

Hopefully I can come back very soon with some happy news!! Your prayers are coveted!!

Preschool Adventure Begins

We've been trying to decide what to do with Hannah for schooling for awhile now. Our school district doesn't offer any 4-K program. Even if it did I'm not thrilled with sending Hannah to school already. I feel like you get precious few years with them at home, why hurry them out the door? We checked into a few local preschools but they operated more like a daycare and even if they didn't, they cost more money than we had or were willing to put into preschool.

So...that left trying to teach her something at home. I didn't know where to begin, though. I needed some guidelines but everyone I'd asked for tips had not really given me anything more than a grab bag of suggestions. What I really needed was a structure to follow. And so I started searching for something. It had to be something easy for me to do, after all I still have a 2 year old and 6 month old at home, too. And it had to be something that Hannah could do and be encouraged about school, not frustrating and dreading it.

I fell upon a site that had a pre-formed curriculum called "Letter of the Week". After looking it over I realized that it was pretty good, and that I thought Hannah really could probably do most of it. Probably more importantly, I felt pretty confident that I could teach it to her and do a good job.

We started Monday and so far it is going fairly well. I think we'll do better as the weeks progress. For instance, I had glanced over the science and social studies topics but hadn't put any thought into how I was going to teach it. A couple days before I realized that I had no idea. So that consisted of a mad scramble for some library books about alligators and astronauts! I'm hoping that future weeks will have less "scrambling" and more "pre-planning". In fact, I already have all the books I need for the letter "B".

This weeks' art activity was to make "Animal" puppets. Hannah made a cat and Grace a cow. Here is the puppet show they put on for us for your viewing pleasure:

Nine Days

Today, while I was whining to the Lord about how much I want to sell our house and feeling positively frustrated that it has taken so long, a sudden thought popped into my head.

God is faithful even with the silly things.

A few months ago, while I was approaching my due date, I was very upset by the thought of our baby being born on Grace's birthday. I was fervently hoping for a bit of space, both for finances and for the sake of specialness. So each girl could have "their day". After agonizing over it and realizing that I couldn't do a single thing to control that situation, I came to the realization that God loved Grace far more than I ever could, and me worrying about how two close birthdays would affect Grace wasn't getting me anywhere! So I gave it to the Lord (still with difficulty, I'm sassy like that!) and hoped that He'd have mercy on me! But that was after many attempts to bargain with God or otherwise "control" the situation.

While at small group one day toward the end of my pregnancy, I shared my frustration with my small group. One of the women mentioned to me that her children were only eight days apart. I laughed and said that I would gladly take eight days! I was concerned that there would be zero days, so eight sounded great to me! I began to pray that specific prayer, "Please, Lord, let the baby be born at least eight days before Grace's birthday."

Now, I know this is silly. But it was important to me. And when I went into the doctor on February 26 and I was still not in labor, my blood pressure was still looking decent (so less chance of being induced early) and my next appointment wasn't until March 6, I was a bit disappointed and was mentally preparing myself for having two birthdays side by side.

But God answered that silly prayer. Elaina was born February 27. God said "Here you go, My silly girl, I'll give you one better than eight. How about nine?"

I won't say that I'm not still struggling with wanting to worry and stress over whether or not our house sells in time for us to get the other house. But it did make me pause. It was such a silly little prayer, really. It wouldn't have scarred either Grace or Elaina to have close birthdays. Lots of siblings do! But He answered my prayer anyway. Even if the house doesn't sell in time, I need to better trust that the Lord knows best. And he's so faithful, even with the silly things!

No Further Interest

That's something I'm very tired of hearing. That's realtor lingo for "they didn't want your house". We've had a fairly steady stream of people coming through our home, but so far we've had mostly "nos" with a few "maybes" sprinkled in there. The "maybe" people want to keep looking and if they don't see anything else they like better, then they'll consider our house. Which means a long wait.

We knew that putting our house up for sale in this market was a long shot, and we also knew it would take awhile. I don't think either of us expected there to be so much interest, so we were very hopeful that it would lead to something. But so far nothing...we have a major flaw in the fact that we have only a "partial" basement, and it too big to be considered a crawlspace, but really too small to be a basement. That is the one consistent thing we've heard complaints about and there is nothing we can do to remedy that.

Please continue to keep us in prayer as we sell our house! Things are moving along on the home we've offered for and it would help us immensely to have a (good) offer on our house so we can get on with things!

On a brighter note, Hannah got to go to VBC this week for the first time. She's loving it, as we knew she would. She's such a social little girl, things like that thrill her. It has been hard for Grace to have Hannah leave her behind everyday, though. I've been trying to use the time to get Grace and Elaina closer, but lets face it, Elaina is just not a whole lot of fun yet!

But...in our opinion she is very cute (as are her sisters!)!

Here We Go Again

We had decided last fall to call off the house search. We knew we were expecting Elaina and knew that looking for a house/trying to sell our house would be too much to deal with while I was pregnant. Not to mention we were hoping to use the chance to pay off some debt and fix up our house a bit. The goal was to start looking for a house a year from now before we try for our fourth (and last!) baby. At that point we will have outgrown this house twice over and will really be out of nooks and crannies in which to squeeze our children.

Just becuase our plan was to look a year from now doesn't mean that we didn't keep checking the MLS once in awhile to see what was new in the neighborhood, keep up with current prices, etc. A few days before Elaina was born I discovered a house that intrigued me, the first one in our price range with nearly everything we wanted. But seeing as how I was going to deliver at any moment, I passed it by wishing it had shown up the previous fall when we were looking. Once Elaina was born, looking at houses was the furthest thing from our mind. Until this week...

I came across this same house again. And as I tripped over the same toy for the tenth time in one hour I came to the conclusion that I didn't want to wait another year to look for a new house. I wanted to look now. This house was in our price range, why were we waiting?

We decided to launch the home search yet again. And this time we are bound and determined to actually get a new house. Please, Lord, please, let this be the time...

We loved the house. There was so much potential. It was big enough for our family to grow into (yes, actually room to grow) and really didn't need much work. Just a lot of updating. There were some terrible paint jobs. The entire house is hardwood, so worst case scenario it would need a bit of refinishing. It had so much character. Unfortunately (there is always something for us) it is in short sale. Which adds complications. And this is an awful market. Awful. But we're going with faith and we're going to list our house for sale anyway and hope that someone wants to buy it fast enough that we can get this house before it goes into foreclosure, or someone else buys it out from underneath us. We're trying very hard not to get too attached to the idea of this house because we have bad luck with houses. But maybe this time, this will be the one...

Please keep us in prayer as we begin this process (again!). We are frantically finishing up a few projects that we have left and are starting to pack up toys and junk that can be stored in the anticipation of upcoming showings. We're praying that if we're not in the Lord's will that He will make that clear. He has a good track record where we're concerned. Everytime we venture toward a house, the Lord slams the door. And each time that has happened we are eventually glad that it did and we anticipate what the Lord has for us. But we really, really hope that this is what the Lord has for us.

I'm tired of kids in my closet!

What Do You Think?

Here are three pictures of our girls all around 2 months old. We've compared different pictures where they look more alike than others. However, these three were all similar poses and facial expressions.

What do you think? Do they look like each other?

Hannah

Grace

Elaina

I think it is neat to see/compare all three of them at different ages (but when they are all the same age). See their differences and similarities. It is amazing to me that all three of them could come from Eric and I. Children are truly one of God's greatest miracles.

The First Six Weeks

I'm the type that needs goals. I like to plan. I like to know how things are going to end up. I have to force myself to not read the end of a book. I will quite frequently read the entire plot outline of a movie before I watch so that I know what is going to happen. Although this is not always the case (there are definitely movies and books where I want to enjoy the surprise), I enjoy the story more for knowing what is going to happen.

Newborns drive me crazy. Crazy! From the moment of birth (even before that if you count the uncertainty of when you'll go into labor) they are unpredictable. Why are they crying? It is a toss up! How can I get them to sleep? Trial and error. Just not my cup of tea!! Although I love all my daughters dearly, I do not enjoy the infant stage.

So from the very beginning I tell myself that the worst of it will be over after the first six weeks. Realistically I know that at six weeks babies are still newborns. They still cannot express themselves. They still cry all the time! But the big difference? Every once in awhile, when you are very lucky, they will lock eyes with you and give you a smile. And that makes the sleep deprivation melt away. For a few minutes anyway :-)

So Elaina is now six weeks old. And ultimately nothing has changed. Elaina still doesn't nap well during the day (unless she is being held, of course), she still wakes up every 3-4 hours at night (unless she only does 2!) She has had her first smile, but most of the time she's too darn cranky to bother with that! But the end is in sight, because things really do start to get better from here on out. Even though I'm still up half the night, I know that any day now it can turn around and get better. And hope is a good thing.

Here are a few pictures to commemorate 6 weeks!

This is a common scene in our house. The girls love to talk to Elaina! I can't wait until she responds to them more.

If Eric and I look tired it is because we are! We barely slept the night before!
Our Little Easter Bunny!!

We're looking forward to the next 6 weeks! We get to know Elaina more everyday. Please keep us in prayer. We could all use a little extra strength...and maybe a bit of mercy, too!