The Name Game!

SO........

We have a name!!!!

FINALLY!

However, I am going to be really mean and make you wait....

just a little while longer!

Snicker!

While we wait though and so you don't shoot me - I thought it might be fun to play the name game!

So, hold your fire and play along!

The first person to guess the name can win a wonderful snap bracelet!

These great bracelets were donated to me by my amazing friend, Tammy over at Quantum Jewelry.  

 

 

You will get to pick either

"I Do Believe"  "Help Me Not To Doubt" 

or

"I Am Not Alone" "God Is With Me"

Tammy describes these great bracelets as "snap" bracelets cause you can snap your wrist when you are wearing them if you ever need to remember what they are telling you!  Love it!  

 

I have several more - they would make great stocking stuffers!  Hint Hint!

So, are you ready?

Here is our name list.

Eleanor (Ella)

Samantha (Sam)

Rosie

Virginia (Ginger)

Lucy

Catherine (Cate)

and here is her sweet face

OK, the first person to guess which name we picked will win the bracelet!!!

I will post afterwards to tell you just how the Lord helped us choose!

Good luck!

I am so NOT Ready...

but he is!

Oh my!

I knew it was coming but somewhere WAY off in the future...

not now!

I mean when I look at him...

this is who I see, not this...

Sigh!

I have heard that I will soon love the fact that he can drive to the store and cart his siblings around but I am having a hard time wrapping my head and my heart around this!

 

What?

 

I am working on it though and I figure that by the time the girls are old enough to drive, I will be old enough not to be aware and will need them to take me for Sunday drives from the old folks home, cause after surviving the 3 boys (aka Charlie), I might just lock myself away!! 

 

Heh!

It Feels Like...

Just as soon as it started...

It was done!

Fall Soccer that is...

and while I complain about practices 

and out of town games

and having to miss the little ones games because of out of town (bigger kids) games

I really do LOVE to watch them play!

Christian is incredibly disciplined and actually looks forward to practice!

He is a natural athlete and the Captain of the team.  He takes soccer very seriously and looks so grown up and strong out there.  His back injury has been frustrating but I am hoping this little break will help!  Those 15 years olds play rough and he is right there giving push for shove!  oh my...

Charlie, while not quite as disciplined or serious (just gotta smile when I think of happy Charlie), is a really great, natural player

He can play just about any position and play it well.  He wasn't as happy this season and he may take a break until we get settled in up in NC, where he thinks he wants to try football in the Fall - gulp!  I know he will be great, however, cause he has been playing football "in the hood" ever since he could walk! Hehe!

Caleb, sweet Caleb!  This child gets out on that field and just gives it his all!  

He can also play just about any position and at 9 years old, is not afraid to get in there and mix it up a bit.  He will be the player who knocks down his opponent and then helps them back up!  He plays with his whole heart and is a joy to watch - and - is still young enough for me to be able to yell things like, "Way to go Sugar!" without getting a "look" back!

Emmeline is my babydoll loving, cartwheel turning soccer player!

I can't say that she loves soccer but she is good, really good - when she tries!  She may end up cheering instead of playing but we really want her to give it a little while longer.  I always cheered instead of played and I can see the huge benefit of learning how to play a sport and how to play on a team and how to relate to boys!  There is something to be said for chasing boys around a soccer field and not on the playground - if ya know what I mean! 

Little Miss Lizzie.  What can I say about our little dynamo!  She is a tiny tornado on that field.  

Lizzie just loves soccer and like her eldest bro, she is very serious about her soccer, is very determined - and fast as lightning!  Watching her out on the soccer field and watching others watch her out on that soccer field just fills my heart.  Would she have played soccer if she had stayed in China?  Probably - but would she have had a Daddy, Momma, brothers and sister(s) to cheer her on, to give her a thumbs up when she scores yet another goal?  No and that is what breaks my heart for those left behind.  Every child deserves the love and support of a family and what many families don't realize is the blessings that they will receive once they say yes to adoption.

So, the 2012 Fall Soccer season comes to an end and with it, ends Hubby's leadership of the Little Kickers program.  I honestly think giving up this precious program that he has developed, run and nurtured for the past 3 years was, for him, one of the hardest things about moving away.  He has put his heart and soul into this program and spent countless (unpaid - heh) hours working for these kiddos and this program.  

 

 

He loved it and the kids/families love him.  I am very proud of him and the work that he has done and I don't think I tell him often enough!  I have a feeling the Lord has big plans for my Hubby in NC and I cannot wait to see what they might be - a soccer ministry perhaps???  

 

I like it!

So while I moan and groan and fuss about the missed family meals and the hectic, after school, get to practice routine, the gas and the early Saturday mornings, I would not trade watching my kiddos learn and grow and play soccer for anything, except maybe a late Saturday morning or two!

Today was the First Day

of Hubby's new job!!  

He left last night and we are praising and trusting.

We are so grateful to the Lord for this provision.

It is a good job.

It is a job that Chris has wanted for a long time.

 

It will provide for our family.

It allows us to get our adoption started again but...

it is not here.

We really did not want to move but knew that we would have to just trust in Him to either open the door for us to stay here - or not - and I am so not complaining because HUBBY HAS A JOB but simply asking for prayers as we muddle through our first big move as a family.

You see, I grew up an hour from here, my Mom is still in the same house that I grew up in, my brother and his wife live 15 minutes away from my Mom on a beautiful horse farm 

 

 

and our kids have known no other home.

 

We did move to Jacksonville Florida for about 3 years right after we got married but could not wait to get back.

We have many good friends here, friends that I know for a fact, the Lord specifically placed in our path to help to guide us in our faith journey.

 

 

We have soccer.

 

 

 

Hubby has run the Little Kickers program for the soccer club that he helped to start for about 3 years now and that will be hard to give up.

Our kids have friends whom they have known since they were 2 years old - or younger.

We have a church that we love.

I have a front porch that I love - hehe - and neighbors who are wonderful.

 

It is home.

BUT...

There is a plan and we have learned to just trust and know that it has all been mapped out and because we cannot see the plan, we know that all we have to do is get out of the way and watch the plan, His plan, unfold...

and unfold in a way that is for our best, whether that "best" is in the here and now or way off in the future, so we pray and we trust and we have patience....

and we move...

not right away but after the school year and/when this house sells.

The kids, well most of the kids, are excited.  All it took was the mere mention that we would have snow every year,  and all but the oldest, Christian, were packing.  Ack!

Christian is 15 and well, nuf said.

 

The other cool detail, cause we all know that God is in the details, is the fact that ALL of Hubby's immediate family lives there, where we are going.

 

 

Yep, the Lord arranged it so that we would move to the same area that Hubby's parents, brother and his family and sister and her family live and, just in case you were wondering, that is an awesome gift!  I know it may not be for everyone, but for us, it is!!!

Really - hehe

 

I am not done yet though!

Right when Hubby was interviewing and considering this job, we got some pics of our sweet XM!!!!

A wonderful family who was adopting one of XM's roomies, you know the one who sent me the video of her eating, not knowing that our XM was actually in the video??  Go here , to read that incredible blessing.

Anyway, this wonderful family visited the hospital where XM is and where her son was and...

got pics, and...

found out that there is a sweet little 2 year old who is very attached to our XM!  According to this family, this precious little 2 year old follows XM around and our sweet child, watches over her!!

 

 

Be still my heart!

I am still not finished though...

that precious little 2 year old, who is so attached to our daughter is coming home to a sweet family who lives VERY close to us and will still live VERY close to us, even after we move!  We had already found each other through a mutual friend's blog (thanks Tammy), before we had a clue that our girlies were friends!

WOW!

REALLY?

Lord, you ROCK!

How could I not trust?

How could I not just give it all to You?

Your plans, while not always easy, are just waaaay better than my own and I am so excited to see what You have in store for us!

So, it is full steam ahead for our precious XM - gotta decide on a name for real now!  LOL!  

 

Might have to do a name poll!

 

Just remember, the girls want Ella and those silly boys want Samantha - shhhhh.

You did not hear that from me but I am not above buying votes, not really but maybe.  Hehe!

Saying Good Bye

It is never, ever easy...

 

 

and we have had to say good bye to many of our pets...

 

 

all of them passed from old age and illness....

It was hard....

 

watching them decline and knowing that the end was near...

but last night, we watched as the end came fast and furious for our sweet kitty, Memow.

She was not sick one day and very sick the next and last night...

we had to make that dreaded decision, the one you know in your head is right but the one that your heart screams no.

Memow just showed up one day and never left.  I didn't even want to keep her because...

I am not a cat person!  Heh!

However, she insisted and how could I say no?  She wanted to stay in a house with (at the time), 4 kids and 4 dogs!  I thought she was crazy but she knew exactly what she was doing!

Not only did she want to stay but she chose the one person in the house who is NOT a cat person to attach herself to!

Told ya she knew what she was doing.  That little kitty with the broken tail quickly turned me into a cat person won me over as well as the dogs!  She would accompany us on our walks and thought nothing of hitting the dogs up for a quick nuzzle if she needed one.

She loved Caleb's home school and would plant herself right on top of whatever we happen to be trying to study, leaving a trail of cat hair behind.

Memow, you were so loved and are so missed.

Our home and our naps just won't be the same without you.

 

 I promise to fill in the details of the job and what it will mean for our family - soon!