Farewells

I don't write a lot about us being an Army family here. It's part of who we are, and I'm so exceptionally proud of my husbands service as well as our family as a whole, but yet I rarely find myself writing about it. One of the hardest things of this life is saying goodbye to friends. My kids have had to say goodbye so much over their young lives, and they're once again about to say goodbye to friends. Two brothers will be moving. When we moved from the stairwell to our house last year, these boys were the first kids they met in the new neighborhood and it didn't matter that their dad is an officer and ours is enlisted.....to me that's a sign of great parenting in the military (when the kids simply don't care....trust me they've had "friends" who have tried to pull the rank junk, so this momma has had to lay down the law quickly that kids don't have rank). It's hard on this momma's heart to see my kids hurting as they have to say goodbye. It doesn't feel fair and honestly it just stinks, especially when those friends are leaving a year earlier than expected. They're entering a season where goodbyes will be plentiful though. They have many friends who'll remain, but there are so many who will be leaving. So although for many military the busy moving time is coming to a close, our post seems to be still in high gear. Please keep my military kids in your prayers as well as all the others, whether they're the ones being left behind or the ones moving (having to meet new friends at a new place, etc). I try to protect my children from as much as I can, but I can't protect them from sad hearts from saying goodbye to friends. It is part of life, most definitely part of the military life, but it doesn't make it easier.

I know it's been a month since I last blogged, but life just keeps going! We finished up VBS, during VBS a friend who's a missionary flew in for 12 days so we did a lot of local sight seeing and went down to Garmisch, then she headed to Switzerland for the majority of the month and will return next Friday for the weekend, before she heads back to Africa.

Although it's summer, someone forgot to tell German weather that! This has been the coolest summer yet! I really hope it warms up so we can go swimming a few times at least.

I started watching a friends baby last week. She's almost 7 weeks old, so it's definitely an adjustment for me as I juggle a newborn and a at time very jealous 14 month old little guy, along with the older 3 kids! We're also working on school, yes even through the summer. One subject a day. We've had many sleepovers, lots of park time (when it's not raining), and over all a great deal of family time!

I thought our life was going to slow down, but the reality is, I don't think we're going to have a true slow period again for a very long time and you know I'm good with that. We're not over busy, we have lots of down time still and we have a sit down around the table, home made dinner every night (unless we splurge and go out, but that's a rare treat). Jackson just started Tae Kwon Do, twice a week and so while he's in class I'm working out.
(I published this before I was finished...oops!)

So my one comment so far mentioned the heat wave in the US....trust me we've heard all about it! We're definitely on the opposite end of the spectrum here, it's not warm enough to run around in shorts most days, but instead jeans or athletic pants, etc...many days a sweatshirt is called for. It stinks when you're more than half way through July and you're dressing like it's October! LOL But God's giving us this season for a reason and well I could be sweating day in and day out so I'm going to be grateful for what the Lord has given us! Plus although we have portable A/C's they are not the same as central air that's for sure!

Well, I should take advantage of nap time while I can and fold some laundry...that unending horrible chore that I dislike more than anything! Oh and I forgot to share...Chad will not be joining his unit in Afganistan! His unit is actually overmanned and has already begun sending soldiers home (1 and 2 at a time) so we actually missed out on a deployment which just seems amazing after 3 in a row of every other year and the last one being 14 months. We're very thankful! He'll be scheduling surgery very soon to have the rods removed from his shoulder and back, then restarting physical therapy. We are so blessed!

VBS week

Our lives have slowed down a bit. Not sure if I shared that or not yet, but I'm so thankful. Now don't think we're not doing anything, oh to the contraire...we just started VBS this week! I initially volunteered to head up the snack room, and because the volunteer who was supposed to lead and end the day and do music has not made it back from the states, I some how got voluntold (yes that's a word...no seriously it's a military term, ask any Soldier or other military member). I love the kids, love singing so it all works out.

Besides VBS we also will be welcoming a friend on Wednesday. My friend "K" will be flying in, in the morning (I'll be missing VBS that day). I have to admit I'm starting to dread Wednesday morning though. A friend found out I was going to the airport and asked if I'd take a friend of hers and her daughter to the airport. Well this lady's daughters flight leaves at 9:30 am, which is right around the time my friend will be arriving, not a problem, oh except that the daughter has to be at the airport 2 hours ahead of time since it's an international flight....yikes, that means she needs to be there by or around 7:30, oh and did I mention we're 2 solid hours from the airport? No, yes we are. So do your math...guess what the LATEST is that I can leave our house...yeah about 5:20 because I will need to pick up the lady and her daughter, get her luggage loaded up and head down the road. The only good thing is, that I should not hit much morning traffic on our way there and I'll hopefully have someone to talk to on the way up there besides Noah who normally falls asleep fairly quickly in the van as it is! :) So guess who's going to be taking a little sleep aid tomorrow night at 8 PM so I can get some sleep and hopefully be exhausted and not able to keep my eyes open by 9 PM! That's the goal! If so I should get about 7 1/2 hours of sleep.

Ok with that, it's 12:30 AM so I need to get my hiney to bed, so I can be up and ready to go and out of the house by 8:20 in the morning!

Nighty-nite! :)

Have a blessed week, oh and I highly recommend if you can, volunteer at your local VBS this summer, when ever it is! Be an example to the kids, show your love of Christ. Even if it's out of your comfort zone, or maybe that should be especially if it's outside of your comfort zone! Even if all you can do is help decorate and maybe tear down decorations, or just be there to welcome kids.

In the Arms of Jesus

Sweet Ayden went home to our Lord and Savior tonight. Please be in prayer for his parents, Erin and Daryl...his big brother Caleb and baby sister Kaelyn, grandparents, and all their family and friends. My heart is just absolutely broken for the whole Phillips family. Please join me in prayers for this precious and heartbroken family.

Immediate Prayers Please

(Ayden's the one on the right/the smaller sweetie)

Please pray for my friend Erin, whose little boy, Ayden (3 1/2) was found floating in a pool. I do not have a lot of details as in how long, etc....but his brain is swelling and the drs have said that the swelling will continue for the next 3 days and there's nothing more they can do right now but wait and see. They have 2 other children a son who's older than Ayden and a brand new baby girl. Erin's such a dedicated mother and I can only imagine she's beating herself up over this horrible ACCIDENT. We all know how in a blink our kids can be with us and bang they're off doing something else. Please just pray that the Lord will give them a miracle. We know God's still doing miracles.



Christy

Grateful

After my last post (thank you Betty for your loving words and wisdom!) I wanted to write about things I'm grateful for!

1. My Salvation.....so thankful that the Lord humbled himself into a man, was born in that stable, grew up as a carpenters "son", was sinless, and loved me so much that he died a horrifying death on the cross.

2. My husband....Chad is patient, forgiving, strong, faithful, trustworthy, dependable, funny, loving, caring, affectionate, devoted. He's a great husband and father and loves serving in the Army as well. A man in a uniform...what more can a girl ask for? Oh I know he LOVES Jesus!

3. My 5 children. We only had Jordyn in this world for 2 years and so thankful for each day we had with her. Jacob was an unexpected blessing. Jackson was a much planned blessing. Emma was a down on my knee's prayed for blessing, and Noah's an adored blessing. Somedays they make me want to pull my hair out, run screaming from the house, make me cry in my pillow....but honestly those moments are few and far between. The older two boys are well behaved, respectful to adults, helpful (to others) boys. Emma's a blue eyed charmer who pulls people in with her stunning eyes, sweet little voice, and cute face and then they fall in love with her heart. Noah's a beautiful baby boy, with stunning blue eyes himself, a smile that doesn't stop, who's loved by everyone who comes across him!

4. My friends. When you have those nearest and dearest friends are normally more like family of the heart. When you're a military family it's those friends who really are family. My two best friends are not even military, but I do have a best friend Army wife who almost 3 years ago moved back to the states, but is moving BACK to Germany (not here with me, but just 2 hours away!! HURRAY). I have been blessed with amazing friends over the years and am so thankful for each friend that God's brought into my life.

5. Extended Family: I have an amazing brother, sister in law, and nieces. I am so proud of my brother and his wife and just adore their girls. I love my parents, even though emotionally we're not close, they're my parents and there's a reason God gave them to me (it's a work in progress). I love my inlaws as well...my mother in law and I have had some bumps in the road, but the last few years I've let go of my own issue's and just accepted her and love her and am very thankful for her. Chad's step dad is a good man and loves us and we love him. Chad's sister well she's given us 2 nieces and a nephew that we love.

6. The Army...trust me pick the right day and I could easily not add the Army in as a blessing! LOL But honestly the Army has given Chad a good, solid career. We have a dependable paycheck every 2 weeks, medical care (again pick the day and this is not always a blessing, although we're very very thankful for Tricare when Jordyn was fighting cancer/fighting for her life).

7. My bible....I'm so grateful that I can read my bible where ever I choose. I'm thankful that the Lord gave men the words of his heart that he wanted us to have.

8. Our home....now I want to get specific here. I'm not talking the materialistic home itself (although I AM thankful for this house after 5 years in an apartment). I'm thankful that we have a safe place to come to, live in, raise our children in. I love that our home is a place of refuge, fun, joy, and peace for our children as well as their friends. Our home often has kids going in and out, our backyard is almost always full of neighborhood children.

9. Our church (and church family. I'm grateful I have a safe place to gather and trust in the Lord.

10. I'm grateful for the life God has given me. It's not perfect, it's not all sunshine and roses, there's not a lot of drama in it. I'm so thankful for my life..

Complicated endings

I don't know what to do. I don't know how to handle a person who's hurt me deeply. We've already talked about the hurts. I had unintentionally and unknowingly hurt her as well. We talked, face to face. We both cried, we both asked for forgiveness and gave it. We hugged, smiled, and even laughed. I thought that although things would take time to get back to where it had been, that it'd get there. I believe I was wrong. We live on a SMALL Army post in Germany, small. We are involved in many of the same activities. Our children love each other and my kids care about HER and her husband and her kids care about Chad and I. I still love on her kids, hug them, everything I've always done. But there's a wall and I have been praying for God's wisdom on this situation and he so far has been silent on the matter. I truly am just not sure what do.
She's not a bad person, just the opposite she's a good person with her own faults of course. She's loved and admired by many.

I just am at a loss here. I've had friendships who run their course and in a way it seems that's where we are at, but normally friendships that do that, you're not around each other often. It just feels so uncomfortable to me. I have no doubt Gods teaching me something in that uncomfortable feeling.

I am sad that the friendship seems to be over. I'd truly thought we'd be able to weather this small storm that we went through. It's hard. I wish I could pinpoint if I've unintentionally done something else to her, but the reality is we've hardly spoken since our conversation of getting everything out into the open. When her name is brought up, I normally smile, say something nice.

It's a lot easier to let a friendship drift off, when they move away or you do. When you're both here though, it's a lot tougher. Through writing this, I feel like God's telling me to let her go. Pray that I can be obedient and let go gently and just be still in Gods love and comfort.

New Life

Emma and Baby M 2 days old

Last Friday, June 3 I got the priviledge of being a birthing coach! M is a single soldier who we love dearly. I took her up to the klinikum around midnight, her contractions were around 10 minutes apart, they kept her and had her try to get some sleep while i came home to get some sleep. She didn't want me to come up until her labor was truly active, so around 6 PM I got up there and she was in full force labor. She did amazing! She initially wanted to try to go unmedicated, while knowing that if it was just too much she could get something. It got to be too much and she had an iv med, which didn't help much other than make her tired, which considering she'd gotten about 2 hours of sleep over the last 24 hours wasn't really too helpful to her exhausted body. She finally decided she couldn't take it anymore and asked for an epidural, they finally moved her into the delivery room to get the epidural around 8:30, me and another friend were "kicked out" and at 9:20 we were finally allowed back in. It took them forever, and then the epidural never took. She gave birth to a beautiful baby girl at 9:50PM!! She did amazing and I'm truly so proud of her. It was one of the most exciting and blessed things I've ever been a part of! M and baby came home with me and she plans to spend the first week with us, she'll go home on Saturday. Let me tell you M is a great Momma and that sweet baby is beautiful, wonderful, and just pretty near perfect! I adore her!

It's been so precious to have a newborn in our home again. Chad's had baby fever for a good 6 months, I'd like to wait at least another 6 to 9 months before God blesses us with another one, IF it's his will for us to have another child. Of course she's so good, I don't think she's making him want to wait anymore! LOL

I'm going to be watching baby M once M goes back to work. I'm looking forward to it. I know it'll be challenging at times, but I know that I can do it. Thankfully M's apart of our family (she spends holidays with us and every important event) so she knows her sweet girl will be loved in our home. Emma's very excited that the baby will be spending her days with us. The older boys think she's very sweet! Noah thinks she's a toy/doll and although hasn't show full out jealousy, I can see it in our future, he is 12 months after all and our baby! :) So feel free to pray for us all as we adjust. I want to make sure I find a balance in all of this from homeschooling, taking care of all the kids, caring for our home, etc. I know God is gracious and his hand is over us.

Noah's birthday

Our Noah bug turned 1 or as I like to say 11 months and 42 days lol! The actual day of his birthday was low key. I made him cupcakes (his first taste of sweets) and he opened up his presents from the kids! It was a beautiful day and honestly couldn't have been better!!! His birthday party we invited just a few friends over (although one family that came does have 7 children so there was lots of kids), thankfully Noah's used to being around lots of kids, so it wasn't overwhelming to him!! He had lots of fun! We had a monkey cake made for him, it was adorable!!
The first slide show is from his actual birthday and the 2nd one is from his party a few days later!

Last Day

Today is Noah's last day of being an infant. Oh how fast this last year has been. Last year on this day I didn't have a clue that tomorrow our world would change so drastically! I had no idea that for the first time in 12 years I'd get to experience labor again. I had no idea that the "best laid plans" were once again GOD's and not mine what's so ever!


(Noah climbed up on the slide all by himself)

Today, I'm eating up Noah still being able to be considered an infant one last full day. I'm loving on him as much as he'll allow (thankfully he's a cuddly BABY!!). So little bits about my sweet Noah James! He's the happiest baby in the world. He's almost always smiling and laughing. He's a total cuddler and love bug (as we call him). He laughs a lot. He's loved so deeply by everyone in our family and oh how he loves back! He adores his big brothers, especially Jacob and appreciates his big sister, who loves him a little obsessively! LOL





He's not walking, yet, but oh so close. He will happily take little steps between pieces of furniture. He's taken to if he's beside a wall, using one hand to steady himself with and walking along it quite quickly, normally giggling the whole time! He's mastered crawling up stairs (much to my dismay) when he see's the gate is left open and he's up quickly as lightening, only stopping to turn and grin if he see's someone's caught him and is going up behind him! haha





He has 6 teeth that have popped through so far and more to come I'm sure, very soon! His eyes twinkle constantly. He makes all of us laugh constantly. I honestly don't know if I've laughed so much from a child as I have from Noah! (Please know I'm not taking away from my other kids who also make me laugh, Noah just makes me laugh a little more often and a little harder!)

Jackson,Noah, and Jacob

He's one loved, adored, and doted on little man!

How could you not love and adore that face??? He's the epitimy of beautiful perfection isn't he?!! I'm so thankful for the blessing that is Noah James. Happy Last day being 11 months old my sweet beautiful boy. I love you and adore you, forever and ever.