Photos

Rachael and Jordan. They have a special relationship.





This is one of my current faves of Jordan. His playful nature really comes through here:





Jordan looks so much like Marky in this photo. What a beautiful gift from God, doncha think?





David helping dad hang a cabinet (I can't find the photo of the hung cabinet). David loves to do work around the house!



My Mother's Day flowers. White daisies are my favorite!




Breakfast! Isn't that wild? Rachael made these today. We got the recipe from the cookbook by Marmee Dear. It has really large-size recipes and great instructions!



What can I say? I am so blessed! Luke says I am mean to embarrass poor Jordy in this way.
My baby my baby my baby!! I love this little guy so much! (6.5 mos.)




David with his the drill that he bought himself! He has used it quite a bit lately getting the house ready for G-ma Put's visit. He is in heaven having his own tools! Age 7.

Another musician? He loved playing the piano! Once he figured out that it made noise, he was interested and even sang along!

Stephen says of Jordan, "He's MY baby." OK, I'll share. Stephen is 6.

As usual, Luke is the clown. Jordan spends a good amount of time in Luke's arms. Luke's choice, of course.

One last shot of my baby making the same face Rachael always did. We sure are having fun with our new punkin'!

Hope you enjoyed the photos!

Been Two Weeks and Life is 'Sort of' Back to Normal

Well, the baby DID remember Daddy and they have been inseparable. Well, unless Daddy is attached to someone else or the baby is!

Michael has adapted to a new state with all that entails amazingly quickly. It seems he has always been here. He never looks out the window and wonders if it will ever look familiar. He never gets lost. He never even wonders at the weather. I shake my head at him all the time.

Talk about energy. He is unstoppable. It's like living with a different husband. Still trying to get used to it. It's all good, believe me. All good.

We had Jordan's 1/2 birthday party the other day (May 2) and Rachael made a 1/2 birthday cake. Jordan had no idea what was going on, but we sure had fun!

Some Observations

Jordan was happy to allow Mark to hold him and smiled at him -- at first. Then it was as if he realized that he didn't really know this guy and started looking slightly distressed. Then he put his head into Mark's chest and pushed with his hands and feet to get away from him.

Michael hasn't been able to hold the baby yet (baby night night) so pray he will remember his Daddy and Daddy's heart won't break. All will be well in a couple of days so I'm not really worried about it, but that's what I observed this morning.

Mark is being treated like a long-lost friend. It's so strange to have my child be gone for two months and then come back so much bigger and, bigger. His wrists are as large as a soda can! Tomorrow he will be taller than I am, he's growing so fast. I guess this is what happens when one is 13.

I made two lemon cakes yesterday (one of Michael's favorites) and we think we will eat them between meals and maybe even FOR meals--just this once. ;-)

Cleaning, for me, is therapeutic on many levels. I have realized that even though Michael says he doesn't care about the cleanliness of his home, or even the orderliness of it (except for socks and other unmentionables), I have observed that I clean for him as much as for myself. I know that he appreciates it even if he doesn't know it. Does that even makes sense?

Michael is on an emotional high right now, having accomplished something that was out of reach for a long time. I pray that he finds what he is looking for here in Texas, and that all his dreams come true. So far he is very optimistic and likes what he sees!

It's weird to have been here for two months without him getting used to things at the same time as the rest of us have been. I no longer look out the window and wonder when things will look familiar. I look at the weather, the trees moving in the almost constant breeze, and the birds playing on the back fence. I visualize the grass not having 100000000 weeds and so many spiders and us out there enjoying the backyard. When I get in the car, I don't wonder which way to drive because I know now how to get to our regular stomping grounds. Michael will be getting used to things and I get to watch that. He will master the roads in about three days, whereas it has taken me these two months.

We are on different planes at this time, and that is strange. It will be all the same soon; it's no big deal, really. For 19 years we have been in the same place at the same time so this is something new.

The weather today is warm and slightly overcast. Kind of yucky, actually. Supposed to rain in the next couple of days. Tonight we are going to one of Michael's favorite places to eat, Steak N Shake. There were those in Missouri when he was growing up. He says that they are close second to In-N-Out's burgers.

That's all for now.

Blessings to everyone. Leave a comment and I'll publish it here if it's not too mushy. :-)

They're Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrre!

After a long and arduous journey, Michael and Marky-MAN are here. Mark has gROWN so much. He's huge!

Today we will spend attending to some family business and get reacquainted.

Thank you for your prayers and for sticking with us during this crazy time.

When I find the camera battery's charger and the card reader, I'll take lots of photos and post them (Michael has had these all this time so I was unable to take any photos or access any of the old ones).

They Are On Their Way!

Michael and Mark finally left Sunday morning, about 10:30 California time. They made it to Deming, NM, which is about 100 miles from El Paso. That's 686 miles in one day. Whew. It took me pretty much all day just to do 300 miles.

They are now about nine or so hours from home, and we anxiously await their arrival.

Yesterday I called him to check progress. He answered the phone, "What?" I said, "Is something wrong?" The tail lights on the trailer thingy were not working. I hung up and immediately prayed for the Lord to solve the problem, as I know Michael is not an electrical guy at all and he was frustrated. I said to the Lord, "I want him to call me and say, 'the Lord solved the problem and all is well.'" About 20 minutes later, Mark called and said, rather incredulously, "Mom, it's all fixed now. I don't know how Dad did it, and neither does he; he doesn't know anything about fixing electrical stuff but I'm amazed that it's fixed."

So, praise the Lord!

Part Two -- How We Came to Texas

I don't remember what we had for breakfast that first day here. Maybe we went to the store and bought stuff. We didn't have our fridge yet so we must have done something. A MOMYS (mother of many young siblings) came over that day and brought lunch and dinner and we had a fun time getting to know her and her nine children. I think I was still in shock that we had moved out of our house, driven to Texas, were in strangers in a strange land, then this strange woman (strange as in I didn't know her!) brings us enough food to get through a week and acts like all is normal. That really helped me. We are used to being different, but this was *really* different. Our spirits were up, seeing evidence of God's presence with us throughout the trip.

The first day we arrived, it was sweltering hot and humid, around 92 degrees (on Feb. 25!). The next day, it was WINDY and COLD. For four more days, it was warm, sunny, and clear. Beautiful. Then it got cold and windy again and the next DAY there was thunder, lightning, RAIN like a firehose was soaking the windows, sleet and snow. Yes, snow. It was so beautiful. That was also the night the vomiting started. Yeah. Of the eight of us, five got the actual messy part and I only got the nausea. Luke and the baby were spared, as per our prayer requests. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. Not me.

I will let you imagine what it's like to do laundry without a dryer (I had my washer, thank God!) and having no way to hang up sheets and towels to dry. So I didn't wash them. I let them sit. Use your imagination. (They are done now, don't worry, but I was so tempted by the trash bins in the garage!)

Getting to know the area came about by finding the grocery store, water store, Sam's Club and Wal-Mart (which are right next-door to each other but have vastly different prices on many of the exact same products!), Costco, thrift store, and the library. Those were our only destinations until... well, they still are our only destinations, with few variations. We have visited a few churches, but they are on the way to those other places.

Speaking of churches, there are so many here! The churches are as varied as the weather. We are visiting different ones each week.

We've joined a homeschool group and I found an email list for homeschool moms in this area. I met another MOMYS from the Digest and she has been such a blessing to us already.

Speaking of blessings, so far, FIVE families whom I met via MOMYS (and have since met in person) have welcomed us, fed us, unloaded our stuff and organized it, given us money, or just called to be encouraging. It's overwhelming and so very nice. I want to be that kind of blessing to someone.

The email list moms have also been accommodating, inviting us to parties and events, offering to pick me to go to mom's night out and stuff like that.

We LOVE Texas!
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Part One -- How We Came toTexas

I thought I would write out our story of how we came to Texas.

End first: I (without hubby or ds13) drove seven of our eight children from Southern California to McKinney, Texas, taking five days to do so. I don't recommend traveling that far with one adult and seven children, even if two were 15 and 17. It just wasn't one bit fun. The scenery wasn't pretty, either. The poor baby... oh, the poor dear!

The Beginning: Sept. 7 we got notice that we had to move from our rental. Right away, we found that it would be next to impossible to find another house we could afford. That was one part of the trouble; the other part was that we got a 30-day notice. It's required by law in California to give 60 days' notice. I was due to have a baby in 51 days. Hmmm....

Our landlady said we could have until mid-December to move (six weeks postpartum). That was very nice of her, yes. But, where were we supposed to go? Rentals were scarce as it was. December was an even harder time to find one. We decided to look and look and look until about two weeks before my due date, and move before the baby came. If we couldn't find a place, we would wait for the baby and begin looking after he was born. Meanwhile, my midwife and friend told us about a house in Texas that was for rent. All those details fit with what we needed in a house. Trouble was, it was in Texas. We prayed for the Lord to open the doors He wanted us to walk through and close those He didn't. Texas was one big wide open door, from the first day.

I won't go into all the details of the open doors just now, but, believe me, it was obvious God was leading us to Texas.

We finally got moved out of our house in CA on Feb. 15 (yes, very much after Dec. 15, but we had reasons), and moved in with my mom for five days. The plan had been that we would leave asap but Michael couldn't go because he kept getting work so I went with seven of the children. Michael needed someone to stay to help him (and keep him company, being an extreme extrovert) so the 13 year-old stayed (he was actually 12 but his birthday came in March).

We talked at length about whether I should drive without my husband, 1500 miles away, to a place I had never been before, with seven children, one of which was a three month-old baby. I am not the type to do such a thing, and my mother was sure that I could never do it. I didn't want to prove her wrong, either! I had no desire to drive that far but we kept thinking that we would never get here if I didn't just set my face to the wind and go.

On February 21, we set out at 3:30 pm, having given up on the early start theory. We made it only 100 miles that first day, and slept in North Palm Springs that night. We stayed in Tuscon the next night, and in Van Horn, TX, the next, and Abilene the next. We hoped to drive 350 or more miles each day. Never happened. We spent 2.5 hours in Phoenix (don't ask), and the first day we traveled only a couple of hours. The baby didn't enjoy the trip one little bit, no no no. It was very stressful, even if the driving part had been peaceful, scenic, and leisurely. The entire event was far from pleasant, for many reasons. I guess I've painted a very bleak picture, haven't I?

We did have some funny moments, mostly in the motel room at night when we were scrambling to get to sleep so we could get up and get going. We never hit the road before 9:45 am, and that had to be OK. The best part of the entire thing was that I could call Michael any time I wanted and cry and moan and complain all I needed/wanted to do. That happened a few times.

We finally pulled into our driveway about 6 pm on Monday, February 25, via Fort Worth and Lake VeryHuge (which were not supposed to be on the way), ordered pizza, put everyone to bed, and I took a very long, very very hot BATH. We slept on the floor ( but I had an air mattress) until Friday night when three very nice families extended Christian (and Texas!) love and hospitality to us by unloading our two 28 ft. trailers and then putting together beds, the kitchen, and whatever else was needed for to function until my hubby could get here.

Part Two Coming Soon