Happy Anniversary - 13 years and still going strong

Today is our 13th wedding anniversary. I can't believe it has been 13 years. It doesn't seem that long at all. I am not saying that things have been rosey by any means, but whatever we faced, we faced together.

Our life has been an adventure to say the least. We don't always do things the easy way. Not only did we start a marriage off young, three weeks later we added our daughter KA to the mix. Yes, you read that right...three weeks later. We had wanted a long engagement so I could get some more schooling under my belt. About 9 months into our 14 month engagement, we found out we were expecting a little girl in about 5 months. After we absorbed this information, we decided to keep our original wedding date. I knew I would be huge, but that was the date we had set, and we pressed on.

That day was a great day of celebration. We had 310 people show up in support for us at our wedding. We come from big families, but an even bigger home church. I had been dedicated at that church of 2000 and Mr. A had been there since middle school. Our original guest list was around 700, but that day we were surrounded by our closest family and friends. That day was surrounded in prayer and love. To this day, we still hear that our wedding was one of the best that many had been to. There was just something about that day that was the best...and I have to agree. God was there. There was also so much love and support that day from our family and friends that you could just see and feel it everywhere.

13 years later - 2 kids, moving cross country, ups and downs, craziness and sadness, joy and laughter - there is only one person who I have ever wanted to spend this crazy thing called life with.

Mr. A - you know you are my best friend in the whole wide world. I don't know what I would do without you. You make me nuts at times, but I would rather be nuts then not have you there by my side everyday!

His Strength is Perfect

I have several favorite songs by Steven Curtis Chapman but this is one has really spoken to me especially this week. I find it almost ironic that this is a Steven Curtis Chapman song he wrote so long ago considering what he and his family are going through this week. Hopefully they are clinging these words this week as God helps them go through this valley. God's strength is truly perfect when we don't think we can continue on more step or have one more thing go wrong.

God please help the Chapman family through this valley. Help them cling to these words that you happen to give Steven so long ago and renew/restore their faith through his time. Thank you for being faithful~your love and peace are so desparately needed especially now!

Steven Curtis Chapman and family

I was shocked to hear today that, Maria Chapman, the youngest child of Steven Curtis Chapman and his wife, Mary Beth, was killed in a tragic accident at home. Their youngest daughter was killed when an SUV, driven by her older brother, hit her as he was backing out of the family driveway.

This story has struck a cord wih me as I have followed the Chapman's journeys of each adoption as international adoption is something I have always hoped to do or support. I am especially been interested in Chinese adoption. Steven Curtis Chapman and his wife have really brought international adoption to the forefront especially in the Christian community. They are truly heros of mine and I know to many others out there who have adopted or are in the process of adopting especially from China.

Once the website is back up and running, please check out the family blogs. There are some cute photographs and videos of the family together. I really hope they don't strip those items off, but I can understand if they do. They are such great parents who absolutely love their children. I love the videos of the three younger girls with Steven. You can see the true love of a father in his eyes and the unconditional love of a child with a parent. It is just precious. I also love the laughter and goofiness of the girls. I miss those memories with my own girls and now wish we had more videos of them at those ages.

My heart breaks for the family, but especially for that young man. I cannot imagine what he is going through. It was an accident, a tragic accident, but that doesn't take away the guilt he is probably going through whether we want to admit it or not. I know that his family has got to be helping him through this, but when we do something wrong, the devil likes to throw it back in our face! He likes to play that rewind button over and over again in our minds and hearts. I am just praying that he is able to let God take away the anger, hurt, guilt and whatever else is going. I am praying that God just help guide him step by step through this time and surround the whole family with a peace that surpasses all of our/their understanding.

Please join with me and pray for the Chapman family, especially for her brother. Also if you want to do something in lieu of flowers or gifts, the family is asking that contributions be made in memory of Maria to their foundation Shaohannah's Hope

What a day!

Today was a busy day!

Here is what happened today:

My father-in-law's birthday

One of our student's birthday - Happy Birthday Cody!

My sister-in-law and brother-in-law's 2nd wedding anniversary

Our nephew came home from Children's Hospital on his parent's anniversary

We are so thankful for these special people in our lives! We have reconnected and moved my father-in-law to NC after years of separation. This is a huge answer to prayer. We are still working on the relationship...it is hard at times, but God is bigger than us.

We consider Cody like a son! He is a great guy! Today he turned 18 years old and we are so proud of him! He has grown so much in the last two-three years since meeting him. He has to make some big decisions to make in the next few weeks, but we know that God has awesome plans for him! He just needs to trust that God is in control and to let go and let God!

For our sister-in-law and brother-in-law, Happy Anniversary! You have been through a lot in the last few weeks, but God is faithful as we saw today, with your son coming home after a rough couple of weeks! We can't wait to see what God has in store for your family in the future. Give that baby a huge hug and love from us out here. We will get to see him before he turns 10 - I will guarantee that!

Today has been an awesome day!

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Happy Birthday to my Dad!

I hope that you enjoyed your shirts. I loved talking to you this morning. Sorry we had to go but we wanted to make sure that you at least talked to us at some point on your birthday.

I am so thankful for my dad! He is the greatest guy! I was really lucky growing up...my parents hung out with the youth group as parent volunteers. While at times it was annoying having them there, everyone one thought my parents were great.

My dad has great spiritual wisdom. I know he doesn't feel like he does, but he is really great about giving advice and knowing what the Bible says regarding the subject. He is also a great story teller. If any of you have had the pleasure of meeting my dad, then you know. He can't just give a one liner...there is always a story with it. I also loved watching my dad tell Bible stories in Sunday School. He is so animated and takes a little liberties with the story to make it interesting. Not enough to make the story incorrect, but enough to keep little kids attention.

The best time I ever saw was when we were at a church family camp out and they asked my dad to tell a Bible story for the kids. He chose the story of Shadrack, Meshack and Abednigo and the firey furnace. As he was telling the story he kept getting closer to the fire pit that still had coals that were hot from the night before and a little earlier that morning. As he began talking about them dancing around in the fire, he tripped and started to fall towards the fire pit himself. Luckily he caught himself on the edge of the fire pit and was able to sit down. I don't think the parents have ever laughed so hard and the kids so attentive. That's my dad...he puts everything he has into the story!

Another thing about my dad is he also doesn't know a stranger. My dad has lived in the same town all his life and seems to know everone. Now why this town is not a small town (San Diego is not small) but you would think it was by how many people he knows. Everywhere we go my dad knows at least one person and if he doesn't, he will make a friend. My sister and I are always amazed when we go out with him about how he gets into conversations with folks. We are usually waiting for him at the car or at the exit because he is in a conversation with someone.

Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining at all! This is who he is and I wouldn't change a thing about him. I love my dad - just as he is!

Happy Birthday Dad! We love you so much!

Happy Mothers Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there!

I hope that you all are able to spend some time with those you love.

I want to say a Happy Mother's Day to my mom who I can't spend time with as the miles are too great, but we are all there in spirit. I am so grateful to still have you around to bounce off of, talk with and even argue with. I love you very much!

I want to say Happy Mother's Day to my mother in law! Thank you for raising a great son whom I love! You did a great job - pretty much on your own! Your son is my best friend and I am so grateful to spend every day with him. Thank you for all for all your influences, guidance and love to him and his sibling. We all love you and hope that you are treated like a queen today.

To my sister, Happy Mom's Day - a couple more months and there will be another reason to celebrate! Looking forward to meeting Baby #2! To my sister-in-law, Happy First Mother's Day. We are so glad Baby J is here and hope he gets to come home soon!

To my girls - KA and AJ. Thank you for making me your mom! I know you didn't really have a decision in the matter, but I am so grateful to be your mom. You two are my lives and I love you both! I may not always show it the best, but trust me, I don't know what I would do with out you both!

Again, Happy Mother's Day to every mom, grandma, and every woman who hopes to be a mom someday!

Welcome to the world, Baby J

This week has been an emotional filled roller coaster for Mr. A's family. On Monday, May 5th his sister called to have us pray.

Good news: She was 2 cm dialated and still having contractions
Bad news: She was 6 weeks early

Mr. A talked with her for awhile and let her know that everything was going to be ok. We would pray and talk with her again tomorrow after her monitoring at the hospital.

Well we talked to his mom around 5 pm EST and the first words out of her mouth were "You're an uncle!" Apparently the baby's heart rate was dropping to much so they decided to do a c-section. The baby was good - 6lbs 8oz and 18 inches long - not bad for 6 weeks early. Mr. A talked to his sis who was still a little out of it, but they said everything was good. Welcome to the world baby!

Well, the next day we get a call that the hospital took the baby to Children's Hospital about 30 minutes away from my sister-in-law. They noticed something with the baby and wanted to do further tests. Also due to being 6 weeks early they wanted to monitor the baby's lungs and eating to make sure things were good. My poor sister in law was distraught - being so far away and crazy complications - and this was her fisrt baby. My heart broke for hers. I could not imagine what she was going through. She was trying to recover from a c-section at one hospital while her baby whom she saw for about a total of 15 minutes was at another hospital.

The biggest complication - we thought the baby was a girl but it was really a boy! Apparently this is what caught the doctors attention in the delivery room. They wanted to do further testing to see and make sure. Talk about crazy - preparing for the last few months for a girl, even naming her when born only to find out it was a boy a few hours later. Don't get me wrong - ultrasounds are wrong all the time as my husband reminded me, but the fact that things were still in question made it hard. My poor sister in law and her husband's heads were spinning!

Well after 3 days of scans, x-rays and blood tests, we are proud to say we have a nephew, Jonah! They were 90% sure after day 1 1/2 but they wanted to make absolutely sure. We are proud to say he is all boy but will have to have some surgery in the next 6-12 months to fix what apparently did not develop correctly. The doctors don't see anything that will be a problem in the future. Everything is currently working correctly and he will hopefully be out of the hospital in a couple of weeks once he gets the eating thing down.

We just praise God because he is here, growing, getting better every day and we can't wait to meet him! We are so excited to have a new nephew in the family.

What more can we cram into one weekend

This weekend was a crazy one! Here is a run-down of the events:

Friday night - Painted the remaining 60 or so hats that were made but had yet to be painted. Nothing like waiting until the last minute. I pulled together everything we needed for the next morning and waited for Art to get home. As soon as he got home we loaded our Saturn VUE to the top. We made sure we had enough room to get us and the kids in but other than that it was paper bag hats and supplies. After that we came in and crashed knowing that Saturday was going to be a whirlwind.

Saturday -FESTIVAL OF HOPE
I have been waiting for this event all year! We woke up at 6:30 and didn't stop until 11 pm. It was insane but rewarding. We woke the girls and finished getting ready ourselves. We loaded the last few things and we were off. We drove through Mickey D's (McDonald's) and headed downtown. Set up for the festival was starting at 7:30 am. I knew I didn't need to be there that early, but 8:00 seemed better. I know it is only a 1/2 hour, but 8 seems so much nicer an hour than 7 to me. We arrived and found out that we were able to park just down from where our booth was located which was awesome! Last year we had to walk a block to get our stuff from our car to the booth.

Mr. A, AJ, KA and I went off to find out where the rest of our hats were located. The rescue mission was nice enough to allow our pastor to bring about 200 hats down the night before. He was going to be out of town and we were worried about how we were getting these hats there. They found an empty office and let us fill it to the ceiling with paper bag hats.

Slowly our group arrived and we began setting up our booth. We had a great location this year next to a stage where we could see different performers and where our ladies also performed. We were also near bathrooms and food which made it easy for any of us to go take a quick break and not have to go far.

The dances turned out great. Our human video with our students was awesome. They performed to Skillet's Last Nite off the Comtose album. They rocked it...even though we actually only had two true practices. I love those kids. They have such a huge heart and that songs speaks to so many people.

The people started coming around 9:45 and didn't stop until 2:00. We were literally tearing the booth down and people were still coming to make hats. We were really busy from 10:30 - 11:30 and again from 1:00-2:00. We think we actually gave away about 200 hats. We had made a little over 300. Not bad for my estimate. We have approximately 100 or so hats left, but we can use them for smaller community outreaches and things that we do as a group.

We were exhausted but we were happy!

Off to our next event: Youth Movie Night

We had been promising our youth we would do more events. We had a sleepover last weekend at our house which was cool. We hung out and talked and watched the Borne Triology - yes all three movies back to back. It was insane, but we finished at 2 AM. After the movie, some of the students began talking about stuff going on in their lives. As tired as we were, it was an awesome time of connecting with our students.

We had found out that a lot of the students were interested in the Iron Man movie so we decided to go see it opening weekend which happened to be the same weekend as the Festival of Hope. We said let's make it a full day and go watch the movie after the event.

Luckily a student's parents invited us over to their house for dinner and to chill out between events. It was an awesome time to just relax after the festival and get to know this family better.

The movie was good. One of our female students and I didn't get into it as much as the guys, but it was a good time to just hang out with the kids and show them that we care about them.

We got home a little after 11pm. I think as soon as my head hit the pillow I was out. I wouldn't change it for anything though. Helping others, getting out of our comfort zone for a few hours, building relationships with new people and hanging out with students showing them we care was the best 17 hours I could have spent.

Happy Birthday Mom

I just want to say Happy Birthday to my mom! She is a frequent visitor to the blog so I wanted to make sure to wish here a Happy Birthday here to!

My mom's birthday is a special one to us as she is a cancer survivor, not once but twice (officially). She was originally diagnosed in September 1997 with two forms of Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma and in Stage 4. One was a slow growing non-curable form and the other was a fast, highly aggresive form. She had tumors in her chest, spleen and hot spots throughout her right side from the top of her head to her toes. She began chemo and ultimately had a stem cell transplant in May 1998. She received her "new life" on May 1 just two days shy of her actual birthday. She did well, was released from the hospital that summer and went into remission shortly thereafter.

She had a few flare ups with the slow growing cancer but they were able to treat with radition and small outpatient surgeries. However in 2005 the cancer again came back. As she had done these "spot" treatments she had run out of options for treatment. The last option was a bone marrow transplant. This was a hard call for the family, but felt we had just been putting bandaids on the problems before and this was our/her best hope for a total cure.

We began the search for a donor. None of the family matched her so we had to search the registry. Luckily we found a young man who agreed to donate his bone marrow to my mom. She went in the day after Thanksgiving and came home on Christmas Eve. We were amazed...last time she was in the hospital for at least three months.

Today she is doing awesome! She and my dad are retired and are loving it. They have a ton of "projects" that they work on. They do quilting, computer classes, travel, the list goes on.

We are all so thankful she is here and doing well. All praise and glory go to Our Heavenly Father who got all of us through this last decade of ups and downs. When this whole thing started I was pregnant with AJ. We weren't sure if she was going to be able to see her. Today AJ is 10 and mom was there for soccer matches, plays, etc. My sister had just moved away to college after going to a JC for two years. She had been there less than a month when we called her on her birthday to tell her mom was sick. We weren't sure if mom was going to see her graduate or get married. However, mom was there at graduation both times for her Bachelor's and Master's degrees, her wedding and the birth of her first child (we are now waiting for the birth of the second at the end of the summer.)

God has been faithful!

Happy Birthday Mom! You are truly a walking miracle!