We're Back!

It's been six months since I last blogged!!  How did that happen? 

 

Not sure how to begin again.

 

Play catch up or just start back up? 

 

Here is a very brief catch up. 

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Kellen enjoys reading and learning, building with legos, planes, drawing, and anything competitive.

 

Annie enjoys coloring, anything associated to babies, princesses, and pretending to be a librarian.

 

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We decided to home school our children. 

 

I've been practicing saying that with confidence and conviction, rather than apologetically. 

 

 Could you tell? ;) 

 

Kellen is doing 1st grade work in all subject areas, except reading.

 

He is an amazing reader, so we are doing 3-4 grade reading.

Annie does "school" most days and has learned about half of her alphabet. 

We also attend Classical Conversations every Friday. 

 

The jury is still out as to whether we will continue CC throughout our home school journey, but more than likely we will. 

 

Here is a picture from the first day of CC in September. 

 

 

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We are expecting again! 

 

Another little girl will be joining our family at the end of January. 

 

Anna is beyond thrilled at the prospect of having a sister.

 

And more importantly, having a baby to mother.  :) 

 

Kellen was initially bummed that the baby is a girl, but has since decided that another sister might be okay, "if this baby is as sweet as Annie."

 

 

 

 

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Tandon is still selling wood for the Master's Craft. 

 

We now have hardwood floors in a portion of our house. :)

 

He has joined an intense men's discipleship group at church, which has him reading during most of his free time. 

 

Last summer, Tandon coached Kellen's baseball team. 

 

Tandon often said coaching 4 and 5 year olds felt like 'herding cats.'  ;) 

 

 I was very proud of the coach and our team of cats! 

 

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My time is mostly consumed with homeschooling. 

 

I've also started playing the piano for church.

 

Those of you who know me well probably just fell out of your chairs. ;)  

 

I can honestly say that most of the time I enjoy being on the worship team. 

 

Who would have thought?!? 

 

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Can't forget Sadie--she is as naughty as ever.

 

Sweet girl eats anything and everything. 

 

We've had to deal with two medical emergencies in the last 6 months due to her eating something she shouldn't. 

 

Her new favorite pastime is eating toilet paper and unrolling it all over the house.  

 

It's like having a toddler in the house. 

 

 

I have every intention of blogging more consistently now.

 

We'll see what happens...

Camping May 2013

Went camping last weekend.

Used our new tent for the first time.

Kellen was much more intrigued by the fire this year. 

His wonder and curiosity were fun to watch.

This was Sadie's first camping trip and she was a trooper.  I nearly forgot she was there a few times.  

Made our usual cone s'mores.  Yum!

Morning snuggles with my girl

Tuckered out!

We had to leave a night early due to thunderstorms and hail, so we went to Dinosaurs Alive 3D at the imax. 

Picture Overload (because I'm super behind)

Dress up

Stop taking my picture!



Overcoming my fear of yeast this year.  First batch of cinnamon rolls were super pretty and yummy.  The next batch, not so much. :(  My family is looking forward to many more practice runs until I prefect my cinnamon roll making skills. 

This is what Kellen did when we broke the news about swim lessons again.  Strangely, after the first lesson he ran up to us and said, "I really like swim lessons."  Grateful for the change of heart!

Crazy Pancake Man

Flip flops on Tuesday--Snow Pants on Thursday

Lovely Lady

Grateful that spring is finally here

I love having a girl. :)

First of many cups of 'flowers' given with much love.

The guys went fishing. 



On a breakfast date with my girl while the guys were fishing.

3 legged race with a sweet friend at church.

Love them to pieces!

 

 

New Glasses

Kellen failed his eye test at the pediatrician during his 5 year check up. 

Therefore, we got to go to the eye doctor.

 

And get new glasses.

Doesn't he look handsome?!

Thank You For Praying

Thank you for praying for the baby girl and our family over the last week. The situation did not turn out as we would have liked.

 

The birth mother returned on Monday to retrieve the baby and take over care again. She is currently closed to the idea of adoption.

 

In the meantime, one of the medical tests came back positive--confirming that the baby has been exposed to meth. As a result, Child Protective Services has been called and the baby will be (or already has been) removed from the home. She will more than likely be placed in Foster Care while the mother has the opportunity to go through rehab. We are not legally able to foster at this time.

 

The situation totally sucks for this baby girl! We are thankful that, if nothing else, this baby girl had hundreds of people praying for her. Please continue to pray for her safety and salvation--even though we may not ever know the end of the story. 

Blessed Be Your Name by Matt Redman

Blessed Be Your Name
In the land that is plentiful
Where Your streams of abundance flow
Blessed be Your name

Blessed Be Your name
When I'm found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed Be Your name

Every blessing You pour out
I'll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name

Blessed be Your name
When the sun's shining down on me
When the world's 'all as it should be'
Blessed be Your name

Blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there's pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name

Every blessing You pour out
I'll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name

You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say
Lord, blessed be Your name

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=du0il6d-DAk

"Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head, and he fell to the ground and worshiped.  He said,

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
And naked I shall return there.
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Through all this Job did not sin nor did he blame God."

Job 1:20-22

Adoption

Below is an email that we sent to our church family yesterday.  Please read and join us in praying! 

 

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Dear Church Family,

 

Once again our family is in need of prayer. As most of you know, Tandon and I have always planned on adopting at some point in the future. We never really knew what exactly that might look like for our family and had hoped to add a couple more biological children to the picture first. However, when God took our baby in February we began praying about and discussing adoption once more.

 

Over the last few weeks we have been researching adoption agencies trying to determine the best fit for our family. We had come to the conclusion that we would pursue domestic infant adoption. When we contacted two different agencies, we were told by both that they are not taking new applications at this time for domestic adoption because there are so many families waiting for infants.

 

Wednesday afternoon we received a phone call from a friend who knew of our desire to adopt. A healthy 3 week old baby girl has been abandoned by her mother and is in the care of a distant relative. The birth mother is no longer able to care for the infant and the relative does not want her long term and is looking for a family that would be willing to adopt the baby.

 

The relative was contacted yesterday regarding our interest in the baby. She was relieved and thrilled to hear about us. She is going to give the birth mother a week to get her act together--which based on what we know of the situation is unlikely. After that time--if all the many details fall into place--we will bring the little girl into our home.

 

Please pray that the mother would willingly choose to put her baby up for adoption so that child protective services does not have to be called into the situation.

 

Please also pray for the safety of the baby girl!

 

Please pray that we would be able to guard our hearts from getting attached too early--as parental rights have not been signed away yet.

 

And finally pray that we would be able to trust God's sovereignty throughout this entire situation.

 

Thanks for your prayers!

Shawn and Tandon

Baby Samuel

I think I'm finally ready to post pictures of our sweet baby.  The first two pictures were taken at our 8 week appointment in December.  The last one was taken during the 16 week ultrasound in February when we discovered that our baby was in heaven in the arms of Jesus.

 

 

Like Hannah, (in 1 Samuel 1-2) we prayed for a baby for an extended amount of time. 
Like Hannah, God heard our prayer and blessed us with a baby.
Like Hannah, we have given our baby back to God (although not as willingly as Hannah). 
Therefore, like Hannah, we chose the name Samuel for our sweet baby. 
 



"I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him.  So now I give him to the Lord."  1 Samuel 1:27-28

 

Christ the Lord is Risen Today!

 

Christ the Lord is risen today, Alleluia!
Earth and heaven in chorus say, Alleluia!
Raise your joys and triumphs high, Alleluia!
Sing, ye heavens, and earth reply, Alleluia!

 

Love's redeeming work is done, Alleluia!
Fought the fight, the battle won, Alleluia!
Death in vain forbids him rise, Alleluia!
Christ has opened paradise, Alleluia!

 

Lives again our glorious King, Alleluia!
Where, O death, is now thy sting? Alleluia!
Once he died our souls to save, Alleluia!
Where's thy victory, boasting grave? Alleluia!

 

King of glory, soul of bliss, Alleluia!
Everlasting life is this, Alleluia!
Thee to know, thy power to prove, Alleluia!
Thus to sing, and thus to love, Alleluia!

Trust Him

 

In my attempt to protect Kellen and Anna, we chose not to tell them about the pregnancy until we were in the "safe" zone. 

 

God had other plans.

 

He wanted them to learn--by watching Tandon and I learn--what it means to trust Him. 

 

EVEN when life doesn't make sense!   



Here is a conversation I just had with this sweet lady. 

 

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Anna: Why are you wearing a mask?

 

Me: To wash my face. 

 

Anna: Oh, to get the zippers off.

 

(Hahaha!  My skin doesn't know what to do with the hormone changes that my body has been going through lately.)

 

Me: Yes, to get the zits off.

 

Anna: Why do only mommy's wash their faces?

 

Me: Well, we wash your face when you take a bath.  And when you grow up you will wash your face every night.

 

Anna: When I grow up I'm only going to eat pizza and macaroni and snacks.  And I'm going to get a baby. 

 

Me: Great!  So I can be a grandma.

 

Anna: Yep.  But if God says no, then I'll just trust Him. 

 

*****

 

"And we know that in ALL things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."  Romans 8:28



Girl's Weekend



I went to Oklahoma City last weekend to celebrate my cousin Abby's Baby Shower. That's Abby next to me in black. Isn't she adorable?!?

Girl Cousins (minus Hannah and Sarah-Ann)

 Andrea and I modeling our white hair bows.

Shari's Berries!

 My brother sent a text of my niece eating an oreo while he was home on kid duty.  Cutie Pie! 

 In an attempt to take the above picture of our face masks, we accidentally took the picture below. Not sure what we were doing, but I promise that I am not telling Lisa off.  ;)

 Thanks girls for a wonderful weekend of laughter and love!

And thank you, Tandon, for holding down the fort while I was gone! 

"His compassions never fail.  They are new every morning."  Lamentations 3:22-23