Musings

My blogging lately has been severely lacking, to say the least.  I miss it - writing is cheaper than therapy and my family would all agree that sometimes therapy is an absolute necessity for me.

This post will likely just be a random conglomeration of our recent happenings - random conglomeration is actually a pretty good description of our lives lately.  I will intersperse it with some pictures, just for variety.

First up is my "bad to the bone" little guy who is almost four years old!!  It simply blows my mind that he is about to turn four.  To keep it brief, Patrick is funny, smart (in fact, a self-proclaimed "genius"), way too old for his age which I guess happens when all of your other family members are over the age of 12 and all of your "friends" are the college kids your brothers and sisters bring home.  He loves to watch movies, go to the library, build with Legos, color, cut things with scissors, and make random messes that usually involve toilet paper.

The other kids are also all doing well - here is a brief update on each one!

Our gorgeous 20 year old daughter - college freshman, awesome grades, standing firm for Christ.  Makin' us proud!

Our other handsome 20 year old - college freshman, awesome grades, standing firm for Christ.  Makin' us proud! (No, they are not the same person, but praise the Lord they have these things in common)

Lyndsey is almost 16, loving' her daddy, beautiful, tender hearted spirit.  So proud of the young lady she is.

This guy just celebrated his 12th birthday.  My super cute wild man, going to the gym with dad, gettin' buff, growing tall.  Love his spunk and his approach to life - God's got big plans for this one!

Babe of my heart - growing up too fast, infectious laugh, loves his family and loves Jesus - beyond thankful I get to be his Mama.

 Our lives have recently taken a turn that is both exciting and terrifying at the same time.  Stan resigned from the corporate world, where he has lived (and I mean that in the most literal sense) for the past 24 years.  In those years he has most definitely put in the hours for 40 years worth of work and it was taking its toll.  He needed a rest and we needed him here.  He has been home now for almost two months and we are figuring it out.  I won't say it is easy - if there are two opposite personalities on the planet, it is Stan and me.

I love this guy to the moon and back again - but let me tell you - we could not be more different.  Where he is analytical and organized - I am spontaneous and just basically a hot mess.  He wants to sit down once a week and sync our calendars - I have spent the last 18 years of our marriage avoiding even owning a calendar.  I hate schedules like the plague that they are - they feel like a ball and chain to me -- I think that maybe I feel like a ball and chain to Stan!  We are so thankful for the opportunity we have in front of us to start our own business and to finally launch the orphan ministry we have prayed about for years and we WILL make this work.  We will just keep laughing, keep loving, keep praying -- and I guess I will submit to my husband's desires and buy a freaking calendar!

We have our house on the market with the intent of living lightly and debt free.  We want to be ready and willing to go where God calls us without being tied down to "stuff."  The last almost 20 years of our lives we have run the gamut as far as material things.  Early in our marriage, God did a huge work in our lives and though we were both church attenders most of our lives, we did not have a personal relationship with Christ.  When He drew us to Himself, we decided that our possessions belong to Him.  (They do anyway, and it is just easier to be willing to give them up)  We have still over the years made some unwise decisions - we have lived in houses that are too big, we have made some unwise financial investments and even though we say we don't care about "things" we have not always shown that by our purchases.  We don't have a tremendous amount of debt (except for a mortgage) and we don't buy things that we can't pay for.  However, we have been very convicted lately of the message that we are sending to our children - and Stan has been convicted of how much of their growing up he has missed.  So - we are downsizing.  We have no idea where we are moving - or if we will be staying in Arizona.  We are wide open to God's call.  It is exciting and it is SO incredibly scary.

We have fallen in love with this guy from Ethiopia and we know that somehow he is going to be part of our future.  We just are not sure exactly what God is doing, but we know He is turning our hearts towards the older orphans - the ones who know their time is short.  This guy is such a sweet boy, smart, with such high hopes for his future.  Hopes that we know will be dashed the second he "ages out" of the system and ends up back on the streets.  Hopes that we want nothing more than to be able to help him fulfill. God's hand is mighty for the widow and the fatherless - His heart is FOR them.  Not only for this one, the one he has given us earthly responsibility for, but for the countless others who are out there - just wanting to be loved.  I can't wait to be able to share our orphan ministry with you -- a place where you will be able to be a part of bringing kids, just like our guy, into their forever families.  Where they can rise to their full potential.

So, in an effort to celebrate Stan's "retirement," get our thoughts together and get the heck out of the house for all the showings - we rented this absolutely adorable little cottage on Coronado Island, California.  It was the cutest little house, on the cutest little tree lined street.  We could walk literally everywhere we went - the Farmer's Market, the beach, the grocery store, all the shops and restaurants in the downtown area.  It was absolutely idyllic.  In fact, we gave serious consideration to throwing all caution to the wind, selling our car, and moving to a small walking town where we could literally hide from the real world and live out our days sipping coffee on that tiny porch that you see there, dipping our toes in the cold Pacific waters, and waving to our neighbors as they walk down the sidewalk.  Every evening the neighbor kids came out into our front yard to toss a ball around and Graham and Patrick rode their scooters up and down the street.  We stayed there for three weeks and none of us wanted to come home.  But, alas, we decided that hiding is not God's plan for us - and that no matter how out of control the world appears, we know and rest on the Truth -- "the world is not falling apart, it is falling into place."  We stand amazed at what God has done in our lives and trust that He intends to carry that work to completion.  We are renewed in spirit and ready to go!

You can surely clearly see why we were tempted.  This is a totally unedited sunset shot of the beach in front of the Hotel Del on Coronado Island.  Truly, the Pacific Southwest has got the market on weather and beaches.  We miss many things about living in Florida - but, San Diego is astounding in almost every way.

So, there you go - an update on the past six months of our lives in a couple of paragraphs.  I hope that my next update will include a SOLD sign on our house and news of where our next residence will be.  We are all ascribing to the theory, coined by Pumbaa, that "home is where your rump rests."  This next move will make Patrick's fifth house - and he is not yet four years old.  We could see that as sad or we could see that as exciting.  We are choosing exciting -- and we are choosing to live on mission with our God - who is bigger than what we can see with earthly eyes and who has a plan that is more than we could ever ask or imagine.

Stay tuned......I can't wait to introduce you to our new ministry!!  Soon.