Package from Granna and Papa

Thank you Granna and Papa for making the kids' day with pudding!  We love you!

Eric's parents sent a package for the kids with pudding (which is what they always love only at their house), books and homemade cookies.  It makes California seem not so far away.....

It's our first attempt at posting a video. Enjoy.

Fall Pictures taken by Lori

Our friend in Atlanta, Lori Wreyford, took these pictures in the Fall.....she's great! www.memoriesbylori.com

moving

I know I need to post our "official" plans for moving so here it goes....
we're spending yesterday and today (thursday) packing and the movers come tomorrow (that's the 30th). We'll fly out next week all together. This process is so bittersweet. My amazing friends have already shown up to help with everything, yesterday packing almost the entire house. Eli has croup, so I was up making sure he was still breathing several times and at 5 I just decided to get up because there were so many things on my mind I needed to take care of.
Our family at Perimeter has sent us off so sweetly. We will miss worshiping with you and doing life with you week in and week out.
The California house is so cute! I just saw pictures of it for the first time the other day and I think we're going to be really happy there. Amazingly, this 5 bedroom/2 1/2 bath house became available right as we began looking for a house to rent while Mom was in the hospital. All the other houses that were in our price range were 3 bedrooms, which is fine for our family, but when we have guests it will be so nice to have extra space. It's close to the church, groceries, library, COFFEE, bookstores, etc and also close to Katie and Bart and another staff member at Christ Church. By close, I mean it's within walking distance.
Our friend Brent took some pics of the baby the other day and I'll attach one here because it's on my desktop. I also have new ones of the rest of the family but I have to get them on this computer before I can post them. :) I'm slow at doing that.
Hey-if you're reading Pretty Please sign my guest book so I can keep in touch with you! If you don't have an account, it's really easy to create one.

We'll have the same cell numbers for a while, BTW

10 Years

Friday was our anniversary. It’s so hard to believe how our lives have changed in 10 short years. We were only 22 and 23 years old!!! So many things we didn’t know ten years ago. We didn’t know how it would feel to hold our baby for the first time or how it would feel to have to depend on each other so completely to take care of that baby. We didn’t know how it would be to try to live with each other even though our personalities are so completely different at the SAME TIME, not knowing what it would be like to grow more and more in Oneness with each other. We didn’t know what it would be like to go through 6 (almost 7 now) moves, 4 babies, and cycles of depression (mine). Who KNEW that we’d have those first three babies so close together and survive it? And then that we’d go and adopt another one from Ethiopia? Who knew that Eli would bring so much joy to our entire family, being such a gift and blessing to the rest of us? Who knew how our hearts would ache for children without a mommy and daddy to hold them? We never guessed that just 10 years later, we’d be standing by my mom’s bed together as she breathed her last breath. O God, your grace is sufficient. You’re presence is real.
It’s so amazing to me how things have happened in our lives. It’s been so hard, but also so good. It’s incredibly hard for me to leave “home” and move all the way to SF, but at the same time, exciting to begin a new chapter. As we look back, we can see a story unfolding. Although it has been scary and heart-breaking sometimes, I am anticipating what the story will look like after 20 or 30 years. Could I possibly love him more in 20 years? It seems impossible, but older, wiser people tell me it’s true. Being married to Eric is a dream.

today

Today was.....one of those days. It was a day that wore me out emotionally. I have one child that continually keeps me on my toes because she can be so challenging.....her attitude... wow.

Today I just didn't know how to deal with her. It seemed like all day long, there were hurt feelings, tears, yelling, stomping, hard hearts, unforgiveness, sassy attitudes. She's in a summer camp this week and I had to keep her home this afternoon. She was NOT happy and we delt with that initial reaction to the punishment for about an hour before she finally fell asleep in a lump in the guest room. She woke up better, but by the time it was 6:00, the attitude was back in full-swing. She admitted that she had done something to her sister that APPEARED to be helpful but that she was really doing it to make herself look better and her sister feel sad. She totally understood what she was doing and also admitted that she was-and is- not sorry and doesn't know why she wants to be unkind to her sister.

So how do you force a child to feel remorse? How do you make a little girl have a heart that wants to obey? I know, I know, I can't. So we pray. I have prayed so much today....with the offender, with the offended, by myself, all together.....I know God can penetrate her heart where I can't but I'm honestly scared that he won't. I'm scared about what this will look like in a 15 year old. I'm a little mad at her because it's not fair to me or the rest of my kids for her to be so selfish and just plain mean. We are all beginning to tip toe around her. I suggested to the offended daughter that she go and try to talk to her in a "non-whiney" voice. She didn't want to (and I didn't make her because I knew it was true) because she said she was afraid she would yell right in her face.

I'm going to go get in bed with a glass of wine and watch a movie. (it's Thursday night) So there.
I love love love to get comments and emails, but I'm going to ask that if anyone feels tempted to send me some "tips" on how to fix my daughter or advice about what I may be doing wrong, please refrain. I can't handle it.
night night!
btw....Eli is now sleeping 11 hours straight at night! Yahoooooo!

And more.

These were taken at Eli's Baptism. We had the ceremony at the lake at the church after church the first weekend in June. Randy Schlicting, who is Eric's boss baptized the baby. A good friend of ours, Lori Wreyford (memoriesbylori.com) took these pictures. She's great at getting shots that capture the kids' personalities.