Answered Prayer

Sometimes God chooses to answer our prayers by saying "no". Sometimes He says "wait". And sometimes He answers "yes". For a while now, He's been telling Chris and I "wait", but I was too caught up in my own despair to realize it. I'm not proud to say I was really struggling with God and questioning Him over and over. I really was wondering what was taking Him so long providing Chris with a job. Certainly, God wants our children to have a stable home! So why are we still here with Granny?

Don't get me wrong now. I am a thousand times grateful to Granny for opening up her home to us for these (almost) 4 months. I'm sure it's not easy to go from the quietness of living by yourself to having two more adults and two young children causing extra commotion! So yes, we are incredibly thankful and grateful to her for what she has sacrificed for our family. Although I think she'll miss the kids when we leave. :o)

Last week, I started to change my prayers from something similar to this: "God, please provide Chris with a job so we can get a place of our own. Let your will be done," to something more like this: "God, please give us a miracle. We're going to start testing out doors, so give us the wisdom to know if the door is opened or closed." Basically, I got a little tired of saying the same prayer every single day, countless times. I know God wants us to tell Him what we feel, but it just felt like He wasn't responding.

So this past Monday night Chris was sitting at the computer looking for jobs. He found a posting on Craigslist for a company a little south of here, near Orlando. It fit his skills, but it was something a little different than he's done in the past. He called them Tuesday. The guy asked if Chris could be there Wednesday for an interview. "Heck, yeah!" "Um, sure!" was Chris' response. So dropping off Caleb with Grandma and Papa Wednesday, Chris, Laura Anne and myself all took a trip south for the day. While Chris was in his interview, Laura Anne and I prayed and played. I took her to a nearby McDonald's so she could play on the playplace and not be bored to tears. When she got tired we drove back to the office where Chris was, and where we were (thankfully!) invited inside in the air condition and Laura Anne fell asleep on my lap.

At one point, Chris was getting a mini tour of the place, I guess, and he walked by me. When he passed me I saw he was doing a thumbs up behind his back! I took that to mean things were going well.

It all came down to this: Chris liked them. They liked Chris. If they could all come to an agreement on salary and a start date, Chris had the job. So the evening was spent in Downtown Disney for Laura Anne where she found a new friend. This Cinderella doll came with a little puppy that she decided to name Blanket. Cute, right?

Here they are with the sea monster made out of Legos!

One of the toy stores has a table with a bunch of potato heads and parts. This is the one Laura Anne made:

My little shopper:

On the drive home, Chris and I discussed our finances to come up with a minimum salary that he would accept. We also talked about when he could start work. We started praying for those specific things, and told God, "Okay, God. Here's what we need. If this is your will, let these two things be acceptable to the company. If they offer what we are asking You for, we will take it as a green light." Thursday, around lunch time, I called Chris to see if he had called them yet. In a roundabout sort of way he told me he got the job!!

Praise the Lord!!! God made everything work out in His timing, when He knew Chris and I were ready! How I regret my attitude lately, but I am so thankful God didn't give up on me! He actually went above and beyond our requests. How great is our God! Now we move on to finding a place to live. Chris starts his new job August 1st, so we have about a month to move. I know, and this time I really mean it, that God has something already prepared for us and I am excited to find out what it is!

Fun Around The House

We've just been having ourselves a lot of fun around here. Caleb got this new walker from Grandma and Papa that he loves to play in outside.

Laura Anne has her tricycle over here, too. The kids' cousin, Steven, came to spend some time with us a couple weeks ago and all three kiddos had fun playing outside together.

Here's our big shot boy standing up!
Laura Anne was pushing Caleb around on this stool. As you can see, he loved it.
Showing off his balancing skills!

And Laura Anne with our old furry pal, Wubbzy.

Ahh, summer days. :o)

What He's Been Up To

Wow. That's a good word to sum up the last couple weeks. Never in my wildest dreams did I think Caleb would progress as he has recently. So what's new? Well, Caleb has become a master crawler. He has also mastered pulling up to stand. Just this week he has even let go of whatever he was holding on to, and just hovered for a few seconds! And friends, yesterday he took his first few steps unassisted!!!!!! He's so fearless, it's like he has no idea that he's not holding on to something. Yup, he'll be running next week! Ha!

This is what I found one morning recently when I went to get him from his bed:

This is something my heart has longed to see. My precious fighter boy, with energy to do whatever he wants and can! Woo-hoo!

In other news, Caleb weighs 21 pounds 5 ounces still. (Which, by the way, just happens to be the same exact weight as Stellan McKinney. Not that that's of huge importance or anything. It's just cool.)

We're also in the process of transitioning him to table food. It's going to take some getting used to with his allergies, but we're slowly finding things that he enjoys to eat. He has tried hummus with carrots, canned mandarin oranges and peaches, fresh strawberries and bananas, gluten-free tortillas and waffles, to name a few.

Oh yeah, and some more terrific news: he is sleeping through the night!!! When he's not itchy or teething, that is. Just last week he cut tooth number 9, and number 10 is not far behind.

He's making more sounds these days, too, trying to mimic us. He can say bubbles (bubba), mama, dada, uh-oh, baby, and my favorite: Spongebob (bob-bob). I can't think of any more at the moment.

So anyway, all in all, Caleb is doing fantasticly (is that a word?) and we are thrilled with his progress!

Recipe For A Road Trip

In a small white sedan, place 3 adults and two small (mostly happy) children:

Leave there for about 8 1/2 hours. Remove from the car. Add a generous helping of friends, card games,

yummy food,

a swimming pool,

some more yummy food,

and some sleepy children.

Repeat as often as possible.

Retreat

Chris and I took a mini getaway to Orlando recently. We left the kids with grandparents and spent the next 2 days/2 nights alone! It was super awesome and I would love to do it again. We actually paid for the vacation a long time ago but didn't get to schedule the trip until now. It was a Wyndham thing; we agreed to sit through a 90-minute timeshare presentation and in turn, we get a discount on a resort room, cash, and a gift certificate to a restaurant. A pretty cool deal. I wish this (below) was the resort we stayed in. This is Bonnet Creek, and it is gorgeous. I would live here. This is where the sales presentation was, and let me just say, Chris and I did not purchase a timeshare. I can think of a few better things to spend my money on!

Friday night we walked around Downtown Disney, and even got to have dinner at the Rainforest Cafe! (Thanks, Wyndham for the gift card!)

Saturday was my birthday and although we wanted to go to a theme park since I could get in free, we chose instead to go swimming and walk on the Disney Boardwalk. It was a relaxing day. It was a relaxing weekend! And the kids behaved nicely for the grandparents!!

Look Here!

There he goes!

So, in addition to mastering his crawling skills, this week Caleb has also learned how to sit up from laying down, and he can pull himself to stand too!!! Holy cow! It's so incredibly exciting to see him do these things! June has been a great month so far! :o)

In other news, Caleb had an allergy test today. I was thinking earlier, "wouldn't it be super cool if he turned out not to be allergic to anything and we can feed him whatever he wants?!" But it was not meant to be, my friends. Caleb is most definitely allergic to milk, eggs and now wheat. We've been suspecting the wheat for a while now (partly because he tested borderline for celiac disease when he was in the hospital) so it's a good thing we already cut that out of his diet. He had the biggest reaction to the eggs, which surprised me a little. So I guess life continues on as normal, whatever "normal" means.

The Best Birthday Present!

*UPDATED*
This morning (Tuesday) Caleb was laying on the floor. He rolled over, sat up and then began to crawl! I can't believe the progress he's making!! It's so exciting!

ORIGINAL POST:

He did it!!! Caleb took his first crawling steps without help yesterday!! We are so excited! I thought this day would never come. I'm still trying to get it documented. He likes to do it when the camera isn't around. ;o) Also, he pulled himself up to stand this morning! He's getting so strong and it's the most wonderful thing ever!!

Chris and I went to Orlando for the weekend. Well, Thursday night to Saturday night. Saturday was my birthday. The original plan was to take advantage of the Disney deal so I could get into a park for free, but we ended up not doing that and just walking around, swimming and relaxing. We had a great time and I'll post pictures from our trip soon. The kiddos stayed with grandparents. It was so nice to get away for a little bit!

Just a few minutes ago the following conversation took place between Laura Anne and me:

L: Mommy, I missed you while you were on a date.
Me: I missed you too.
L: I cried four times. For Grammy.
Me: You did? Why did you do that?
L: Because I mis-did you.
Me: Oh, I missed you too.
L: But you're back now.
Me: Yes, I am.

Then she flung her arms around my neck and gave me a great big hug. Ah, motherhood. :o)

Oh yeah, Caleb can CRAWL!!!! Whoopee!