A Happy Birthday!

Today is Leah's birthday.  4 years old.  How did this happen?  To think that our youngest is already 4 is crazy.  She's our wild child.  Our rule breaker.  Our challenger.  Our negotiator.  Our yeller.  Our diva.  She brings all kinds of life to our family.

Leah petting Uncle Ray's dog, Dolly.

Today we went to my brother's camp-site to play at the playground there.  In the time we've been out of the country, he purchased a new mobile home type camper and they have a boat now.  Last night he invited us to take a ride on the boat.  The kids were loving it and it was a nice refreshing little ride.

Noah driving the boat.  He had to slow it down to feel comfortable.

Leah did surprisingly well giving gifts this morning to Noah and Bart.  Her and I agreed she would get me something in Florida so we didn't have one more thing to pack.  She didn't complain about not getting anything and seemed excited for them.  Noah loved getting some new cars and Bart got a personalized mug.  Small and simple.

Noah and his 2 new cars.

Proudly presenting her mug to Papa

We also went to McDonald's today for Leah's birthday.  Her request.  It's on the water (we even got to ride past it last night on the boat) and we were able to feed the geese and ducks after we ate.  They loved it.  Goslings, ducklings, and many adults.  It was really fun.

Riding past McDonald's on the boat

The past few days have been a little stressful leading up to the move to Florida. We are trying to figure out what will fit into both cars and don't want to weigh them down a ton.  So far we've been able to fit all of our suitcases and now it's down to fitting everything else.  I'll try to remember to take pictures, but no promises.

Eating at McDonald's today.

The goal is to leave tomorrow morning around 6:30 or 7:00 at the latest.  We have the trip all planned out, but we're going to just be flexible and hope for the best with traffic and construction.  My parents do have walkie-talkies that they're letting us borrow so that should hopefully help with communication between us driving 2 cars.  We're not looking forward to the drive separately, but I'm sure we'll manage with the help of lots of movies.

More transition

We moved out of our housesitting gig in Columbus.  Moved.  Again.  Our kiddos had to say goodbye to another place.  We're in northwest Ohio at my parents' place.  The kids are loving having toys and cousins to play with and all kinds of stuff to do outside.  But we're ready.  Ready to not live out of suitcases.  Ready to sleep in a place that's our own.  Ready to be settled.

After a few days of fever and over 24 hours of vomiting, Leah is improving.  We found out today that she definitely has a UTI.  Again.  Probably as a result of her being so stubborn and holding instead of going to the bathroom.  She started an antibiotic the other day, but we had to switch tonight since the doctor's office confirmed and said the first one wouldn't work.  Thankfully it'll start working before we start the drive to Florida next week.

So the next few days will be spent getting details together.  We need to make arrangements for random details of moving.  Lots of details.  We need to figure out how to fit everything in our cars.  It should be a wonderful puzzle.  And of course we need to celebrate a special little girl's birthday right before we leave!

Is. 41:8    But you, Israel, ymy servant,

Jacob, zwhom I have chosen,

the offspring of Abraham, amy friend; 

9 you whom I took from the ends of the earth,

and called bfrom its farthest corners,

saying to you, “You are ymy servant,

zI have chosen you and not cast you off”; 

10 fear not, for I am with you;

be not dismayed, for I am your God;

I will strengthen you, I will help you,

I will uphold you with cmy righteous right hand. 

The thief in the night

Oh my.  This. Is. Killing. Us.  2 nights ago, Leah threw up in the middle of the night, had a fever and it has only continued.  Today we've seen a bit of progress in that she's holding down food and her fever has broken on it's own.  She's been super clingy and needy and that's ok.  But that kind of changes everything when these things happen.

I've been sick.  Some sort of strange bug hit me 2 nights ago.  It doesn't seem to be the same thing that she has though which has been good.  But I'm still not right.  So sleep hasn't been something that many of us have been getting lately, minus Noah who sleeps like a rock through just about everything.

One of the things we've discussed is that seemingly little things like getting sick or cutting a finger kind of put us out of commission.  If we were in a healthy place and felt like we could handle these things, it wouldn't be that big of a deal.  But that's not where we're at.  And so these things just take everything out of us.  Our capacity to handle things has diminished.

What does that mean for us?  Well, nothing has gone the way we expected it to.  Conversations happen that trigger things we never expected.  Small set backs take all of our emotional energy.  Traveling/moving steals any momentum we have.  Poor behavior in our kids steal any joy we seem to muster.

Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.                 -Job 42:3

Satan is very real and alive.  We see it in our hearts, in our actions, even in our daughter as she goes through this sickness.  He has come to steal, kill and destroy.  He wants to rob us of life and joy.  What do we choose?  Well, some days we choose poorly.  Others we walk in the Spirit and move toward one another in grace.  Either way, we see him, we see what he's doing and we're not ok with it.

We cry out to God and sometimes it's in the midst of the crying that we receive hope.  Other times we receive silence.  We choose to believe that he sits on the throne and is sovereign over our hearts and lives.  We choose to believe that the things we don't understand or know will one day be made known. We choose to be faithful, even when it's difficult to get out of bed.  And we choose to rejoice in the hope that he knows and he understands.