Catching up... again :)

So I am obviously not good at this blogging thing. I haven't written in a long time. In all fairness we just moved, again! We finally have internet. So its Thursday night and all the boys are asleep so I thought I would sign on. Even though I have a sink full of dinner dishes, I need to blog tonight.

So we moved to Fl in march right, it was going so great. Everything seemed to be falling into place. We were very happy here. Then July came. We had known that my husbands father was sick for a while, but one night we got the phone call. You know the one, the "you need to pack up and come home, its not going to be long" phone call. Thanks to a blessing from the Lord we were on (separate) planes headed back to PA. I'm sure you all know what happened when we got there, within a few days our dad went to be with the Lord. July 28th, 2010. This has been the hardest day for me and I cannot even imagine what my husband and his siblings are feeling. This was a man who has been there for me for the past 10 years. We had a good relationship. (i think?) Always cracking jokes, making fun, Dad was always teasing me for something. I have so many memories of this one person that influenced my life so much. I am so grateful that God put someone so amazing in my life for such a long time. I am having a very hard time letting go. I have never grieved this much in my life. I feel like I lost my very own father. He was a father, He was always there for me. When I wanted to talk, ask questions about the Lord, talk about the bible, I could always call him. He is such a good picture of what my heavenly father is like. Dad taught me so much. Most of you know that we shared the same birthday, every year we would call each other up, happy birthday!!! I loved celebrating with him and the family. It made my birthday so much more special. My birthdays will never be the same. No one to call to say happy birthday too, no more funny cards to pick out, no more picking up the phone to call when I have a question or can't understand my husband.... I'm left with these memories, I try to remember all the funny things that happened, all the laughs, all the big stuff. I wish I could bottle it and hold on to it forever. A friend told me to rejoice because God keeps his promises and Dad is in heaven, so i will see him again one day. Will it be the same? Will he know who I am? Now I am left with pictures and memories, I love talking to my children about their pappy who loved them so much. It breaks my heart knowing that Hezekiah will never know pappy and how awesome he was. You know typing this, I remember the first time hezekiah smiled was when dad was holding him earlier this year. His face lit up with Joy, getting his 12th grandchild to smile for the first time. Priceless. I still cry most everyday, I don't want to ever forget all the fun we had. Wow how blessed am I?

So we moved from sanford to a town called Debary. We love it here. Our pastor is renting us a house, it is a dream come true. Its so cool to look back and see how God works all things out. The boys are doing great. Jacob just turned 5 and he is writing his name and even starting to write letters to people! So fun! Noah is 2.5 and is a ball of energy! Loves his big brother and always wants to be around him. Hezekiah is 10 months old already! Wow! where does the time go? He is crawling like crazy, climbing, walking along stuff. He does more and more each day. I see him watch his brothers like "hey wait for me" so cute. Everything else is great. Keep our family in your prayers and we continue this journey! Thanks for reading and check back soon.

Lost..............

So we don't have a television so we have been watching LOST on our computer after the kids go to bed at night. We are still on season one and last night while we were watching I was overcome with sadness. It has been almost 4 months since we lost my mom-mom. It seems like forever ago but I think that's because I remove myself when sadness comes my way. I have a way of kind of tuning out the world when trouble comes. I was watching the episode where this girl was sitting there looking at her dead brothers body, I just felt such sadness. Like I knew exactly how she felt. I was in her situation only 4 short months ago. I still can't believe that she is gone.

We didn't have the best relationship over the past few years, lots of family issues that is a bit of every ones fault. She always tried to be the one to "fix" the family or at least get us all in the same room long enough to have some "family time". I was with her just 2 days before she passed. She came to my house to see the boys like she usually did. Mom-mom would come over once a week to play with Jacob and Noah. This time it was just Jacob. Noah was sleeping. jacob played with mom-mom for about an hour before she left. We got in a tiff that day. I don't even remember what it was about. Our personalities didn't go well, she liked to smooth things over and I like to resolve conflicts. Those two don't go well together. Anyway we exchanged some words and then she left, I thought I was going to see her the next week. To tell you the truth I almost told her that she couldn't come over that day, I didn't want to deal with whatever she was gonna bring over. Something just told me to let her come, I believe as I look back that it was God giving me one more chance to talk to her. We used to have a good relationship I guess although when your child and not able to speak your mind you get along well with everyone. We spent much time together, My dad was working a lot so I was always with others. Anyway I realized why I was crying last night, Maybe I didn't do a good enough job of sharing the gospel with her. As far as I know she never really "accepted" Jesus. People think you can get to heaven if your a good person. Why do we need Jesus if we can go to heaven based on our own good? Why do we need someone to "save us"? and from what? I think people who ignore this fact are too scared to admit that there is a hell. Deep down they know there is a possibility of hell. They are too prideful to admit that there life is not their own. People want to do what they want to, live how they want to. No one can deny that Jesus Christ lived, that's history. Or that he died on the cross. The cross was the penalty reserved for the worst people. That was considered the ultimate punishment. hmmm.... is it a coincidence that a sinless perfect man died the worst death? suffered the worst torment? Jesus took the punishment for the absolute worst crimes you could commit. Why?? So we might have everlasting life....

You see the bible says " no one comes to the father except through me". So if Jesus didn't die on that cross and suffer the worst penalty there is, we would have no way to see God. Now I don't have a bible in front of me and I can't quote scripture, this is coming from my heart. Just like in society if he break the law we get fines, go to jail, etc. When we sin we are breaking Gods law. God doesn't allow sin into heaven, it is reserved for the perfect. Well God also says in the bible that "all fall short of the glory of God" I think it might say that all have sinned and need a savor. Not 100 % about that one. We all know about the 10 commandments, whether you believe in God or not you have probably heard of some of them. Anyway God says if u break one commandment than you break them all. So just like in society there is consequences for our actions. So who deserves Hell more a murderer or someone who commits adultery? Someone who goes to every baseball game that their child has or the workaholic parent? Answer: All of the above, everyone of those people has sinned. Remember we all have fallen short. God doesn't let any sin into heaven no exceptions. So we have Jesus this perfect man who gets beat, tortured, and hung on a cross to pay the price for every sin, every shortcoming, every bad decision, every selfish act, every situation gone wrong. From the picture perfect parent to the convicted murderer, his death covers them all!!

when I sat down to blog it was to write about my mom-mom and something in me took over. I know now that this entry was for me, I have been praying for assurance that I am going to heaven. That I do have the holy spirit, well I got an answered prayer. I couldn't write this if I wasn't God's child. We as people are to selfish and prideful. I know I am damned without Christ. So is everyone else. Jesus says " I Am the way, the truth, and the Life, whoever believes in ME should not parish but have everlasting life"! Paraphrasing of course, remember no bible :) Anyway this post has helped me and I hope that it helps others to realize the truth. Would someone devote their whole life and everything in to something that doesn't exist?

rain rain go away....

well today it rained on and off all day until about 5pm. we stayed inside and hung out until it was nice enough to get outside. We rounded up some of the neighbor kids and had a water balloon fight. Water balloons go fast with kids. They were gone so fast I couldn't take any pics! Russ went up to one of the bedrooms with his own stash of balloons and started throwing them at the kids! they loved it, they begged him to throw buckets of water on them. They had such an awesome time and we did too. Got our mind off things and helped us enjoy time that we have together.

Russ had another interview today. They said that they would let him know in about 2 weeks. They always say that and then don't call back. Overall Russ thought that the interview went well. We will see if they call. We have to remember that the Lord will give us a job in His timing, not in ours. We are still doing alright financially, after all we "planned" for this. Its just getting hard to be home, we are running out of things to do. Overall its been really good spending time together and witnessing to the neighbors.

I had been praying for a few weeks about some sort of outreach to the community and the church we are attending said that they would give us the funds to do a backyard bible club once a week. We will be starting June 10th and going for 10 weeks. We will be teaching the kids in the community about the Lord. We are going to have some crafts and snacks. Its going to be awesome! I am so excited to see what the Lord will do here. Thanks to all that were praying for us. Please continue to be in prayer about the job situation. There is not one doubt in our minds that this is the place for us.

Here are a few pics from today. Thanks MOM for the water balloons! They were a huge hit!

Well its been a month......

Well we have been here exactly 4 weeks today. The Lord has done so many things in the short amount of time that we have been here. Our family has grown closer which has been awesome. Russ has been eating wheat since we came here with no side effects. God has truly healed him, in the past when Russ would eat something that was even contaminated with a small amount of wheat he would get sick and it would take him days to recover. Now he is eating it like crazy, Russ has already gained 11 lbs which is a blessing because he had lost about 30lbs when he first got sick. Jacob and Noah have been doing great and just loving florida and they love waking up to sunshine. I am going well, this new life in Florida is what I have been waiting for my whole life. Its so neat how life has changed. I believe now that one of the reasons the Lord had us move here is to really start the healing process on me. Russ even commented on how I am such a different person now that I am two thousand miles away from the constant drama. We are enjoying the bible teaching church that we are going to. It is small and like a family. Everyone has been awesome and has made us feel like family. We are still praying for a job for Russ, not just any job but the right one. A job where Russ can use the talents that God gave him. I know Russ will use any job that he gets to glorify God. For now we are all enjoying the time together. We have been trying to minister to the neighbors. Where we live in Sanford is not exactly "hellertown, Pa". We are one of the only white families here and there has been some crime in our community. We are confident that the Lord brought us to this community for a reason so we are doing our best to be an example and show the love of Christ. Please continue to pray for us that we would know and carry out the Lords will for our lives. Also that the Lord would provide a job for Russ and that He would give us patience to wait until its in His time. Thanks for reading! I will post some pics soon...

we have arrived

Well we arrived in FL and we have been here for about 10 days. We are just about settled in and Russ already had a job interview! Praising God for the practice! We have had mostly work days here, cleaning up the house, applying for jobs, getting insurance, etc. But we had a few fun days too. We went to the beach last wed. We had a great time, it only cost us $5.oo for all of us and we parked right on the beach. Its not like Jersey where you waste all that money to park and even more money to go onto the beach. Then yesterday we went on a timeshare tour where they paid us after we were all done, so we took that money and went to downtown disney to eat at this fun place called T rex. It was like this dinosaur themed restaurant, the boys had an awesome time. Then we walked around the marketplace and had some family time. It was a good, long day. Anyway, no job yet but its only been 10 days. Keep praying for us. Thanks All!

Bon Voyage!!

Well as most of you know our family is taking a new adventure. We are moving to Sanford, FL on March 26th. I can't believe that in just 9 days we will be setting sail (but really loading in the packed SUV) to sunny florida. Over the past few weeks as we were preparing for this huge change in our life, I have been praying and seeking the Lord in all this. Yes we are moving to a new city where we know not one person. Yes we are moving with no concrete job offer. Am i worried? no. I am excited, excited to see what my God has planned for us. Excited to see what happens when you literally leave EVERYTHING to follow his will. Most of you might not know that we had to sell most everything in the past week in order to save $$. Some people think that it was foolish of us. But what I think is true foolishness is paying $1300 to barely fill a truck with things that mean nothing. This way we take only what we need and what can fit in our SUV and go. This passage comforts me everytime I start to doubt or have trouble giving things up.
Matthew 6:31-34 (New American Standard Bible)

31"Do not worry then, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear for clothing?'
32"For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
33"But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
34"So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Wow, that means so much to me. That my heavenly father knows everything, all we need and I don't have to worry about what to wear, eat, etc. He will provide. You know I have been thinking about all the times in my life that the Lord provided for us through family, friends, and strangers. How awesome is He?

My new favorite song that I sing to get me through:

You are my supply
My breath of life
Still more awesome than I know.
You are my reward
Worth living for
Still more awesome than I know.

And all of you
Is more than enough for all of me
For every thirst and every need
You satisfy me with your love
And all I have in you is more than enough

You're my sacrifice
Of greatest price
Still more awesome than I know.
You're my coming King
You're my everything
Still more awesome than I know.

And all of you
Is more than enough for
All of me
For every thirst and every need
You satisfy me with your love
And all I have in you is more than enough
You are more than enough.

More than all I want
More than all I need
You are more than enough for me.
More than all I know
More than all I can see
You are more than enough for me.
More than all I want
More than all I need
You are more than enough for me.
More than all I know
More than all I can see
You are more than enough.

All of you
Is more than enough for
All of me
For every thirst and every need
You satisfy me with your love
And all I have in you. (Oh Yeah)
And all I have in you. (Jesus)
And all I have in you is more than enough.
More than enough.

Thats Jeremy Camp ~ enough. I wish I had that song..

Hezekiah was born December 31, 2009 after 33 painful hours of labor. He entered this world weighing 7lbs. 3 oz. My smallest baby. He is now weighing in at almost 12 lbs. Yikes, my kid is a little porker! Everything is going well, the boys love him when they stop what there doing to notice :)

Well I will see you all on Saturday or Sunday afternoon at one of our parties that we have going on. Enjoy the Sunshine all!

Catch up.....

Here are a few pictures from over the past few months that I love!