April

April was full of refreshing rain, beautiful breezes, and more madness for our family. We entered the last few weeks of my school and possibly the most challenging emotionally. For my last  6-week clinical rotation I was driving quite a distance (relative for our area) on the interstate. And for someone who has driving anxiety, this was definitely a drive of faith. This added time brought more time away from my family and an increase on our gas bill. But as with all steps of faith, God responds in faithfulness. We all grew and He allowed me to conquer some of my driving fears.

My last rotation was in a Skilled Nursing Facility. This was another area in which the Lord has been faithful to provide strength. Years ago, I could not stand going into nursing homes because they made me too sad. When Wesley's grandmother was dying, I was able to overcome some of that selfishness. Since then I've gradually become more comfortable in some of these settings, especially going to visit his other grandmother who lives in a great facility in East Texas. 

Here I had the blessing of working with older adults in a setting where our goals were to get them strong enough to return home if possible. I truly loved my patients. They brought me so much joy but at times heart ache when I saw them in pain or in need.

We did have some laughs...

This was my "teacher" or clinical instructor. 

Yep. That about sums it up.

Also in April, we had the joy to celebrate a traditional Passover Seder with our Life Group family. It was such a special time! Our dear friends the Blevins are very knowledgeable of Christians' Jewish heritage and they were generous enough to host and lead us through it. It was absolutely beautiful! If you'd like to know more about the Passover celebration you can click here.

This is a picture of Josie helping to dry people's hands after they wash them. She also had the important role of reading certain questions that children are supposed to ask during the meal. Caleb also had a job. He was supposed to hide a special piece of unleaven bread called the Afikomen and he did a great job. He decided to hide it on the toilet.

 We also enjoyed fun days with the cousins! 

 Our baby girl FINALLY lost her first tooth...even though her bottom two adult teeth were already coming in behind....she even pulled both of them herself!

I just love this picture. It's too sweet.

A fun evening with our friend Eli!

Another picture of our fabulous Life Group!

Since my clinical was winding down, I had the chance to try out some of my Pintrest stuff for a banquet at church. So fun! Can't wait to do more!!!

March Madness

This was the craziest month that our family has experienced in a very long time. But as crazy as it has been, it was one of the most amazing times in our lives. God had some really incredible moments for us and if we had been unwilling to step forward in obedience we would have missed out on so much.

We acquired an overhead projector and Josie has had a wonderful time since!

Some sweet friends came from Dallas to visit for the weekend. Caleb misses them so much!

He really enjoyed his crazy straw from Mara and J.R.

Okay. This is when it got crazy. I have been part of group of people in our area who have become passionate about an organization that rescues little girls out of human trafficking in the country of India. The organization is called As Our Own and we participated in 2 events during March to raise awareness of the atrocity of child prostitution and support for a ministry who is passionate about rescuing them. If you would like to know more go here: www.asourown.org. 

The first was an art show and silent auction. We had the opportunity to host it at an amazing venue called The Palladium. The way it happened was a total "God thing". There is absolutely NO WAY we could have pulled off a location like it on our own. We had an INCREDIBLE group of volunteers that worked so hard to get everything together.

The second event was Baylor University's annual Bearathon. We recruited a team and ran and/or walked wearing As Our Own's official team jerseys. We also found people to sponsor us. As for Wesley and myself we had many friends donate anonymously, so if you are one of them, THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!

In all we raised right at $6,000. Because of the project we had "adopted", this amount enabled us to provide over 2 months worth of healthy fruits, veggies, whole grains, and other healthy foods for one of As Our Own's homes. 

PRAISE BE TO GOD!!!!!!!!!!!

This is a little hard to see, but it's a picture of Caleb at the movies when I took him to see The Lorax. He didn't move. It was so cute!

This year, the Jewish Feast of Purim was celebrated in March. This is our 3rd year to celebrate the story of God's faithfulness and His choice to use a young woman named Esther to rescue His people. If you want to know more about Purim click here. (If you go back you'll also see how much these girls have grown!)

We typically have a sleepover with the girl cousins (the boy cousins will be invited when they are a little older). We always make cookies using star cookie cutters and white and blue icing. This year we also tried our hand at making Haman's Ears. We'll have to take another whack at it next year.

Beauty treatments..."sort of" like Esther received. (BTW, did you know that before the already beautiful Esther was considered to be presentable to the king, she had to receive beauty treatments for a YEAR? See Esther 2:12)

Our sweet friend Amanda came. We also performed our annual Esther play. We did it 3 times so each girl could play Esther. Caleb reprized his role as King Xerxes, Wesley wore the hat of the evil Haman once again, and I handed off my role as Cousin Mordecai to Amanda. (It's hard playing Mordecai, the narrator, and the cameraman at the same time.)

 Another huge blessing in our lives has been our Life Group. We've been leading a college Life Group at our church along with another amazing couple. These are some of the guys with Caleb and our friends' son Eli. These are some fantastic guys and I hope Caleb will look up to them! (BTW, he didn't want his picture taken.)

 The worst asthma attack he's had so far. I can't even tell you how much vomit was involved. We'll leave it at that.

About to go hiking with Daddy. Caleb requested the hardest trails and did awesome!

And finally, we've decided to put our house on the market. This is our Realtor...my wonderful Daddy. We're staying in town, just want to move a little further in.

The craziness of March came and went, but we had some wonderful blessings through all the madness. Praise be to God!

Love is in the Air: February

Here are some pictures from our February:

This is a picture of one of the really cool things I got a chance to do while at the pediatric clinic here in town. We had a very tall patient who was a young adult and had a serious spinal cord injury. We assisted in making a body cast so he could have some equipment made for him. He was very, very, very tall. This is a picture of his upper body and his legs...not including the hips. Did I mention he was very, very tall? (note: the  lady in the back does not usually wear a mask and she doesn't have a mustache. I needed to hide her identity for confidentiality purposes. The girl holding up the cast is about 5'3".)

Our own little patient had a very rough winter of allergies which aggravated his asthma. He really hates the mask and it kind of freaks him out so we took turns reading to him to distract him.

We started having official chores for Josie and this was her Valentine's Day gift. She loved it.

One of our dear friends got married this month! We are so excited for him and think his bride is absolutely fabulous!

Doesn't my man look handsome? He was a groomsman in the wedding.

Some of our other dear friends Brent and Kelly.

These guys laughed all evening. I can't even say how happy it made me to see my husband laugh so hard!

These guys have been friends for a very long time. What a great group of friends!

There was a photo booth there. We have a really funny story that goes along with this, but you'll have to ask me about it. :)

This is one of my very best friends in the whole world. We have been friends since 6th grade. I love her so much! 

If my sister sits still she falls asleep.

But she had better watch out if my kids are around!

We had lunch with Pubs. So sweet.

Caleb enjoying his sister's dust buster.

Josie was so excited when her class at school learned about India. She was able to contribute because she loves India! Wanna know why? Check out what our family did in March.

January

Happy New Year! Okay, I know it's May but I didn't get to tell you in January. Here's a quick overview of our month of the start to 2012. I hope yours was wonderful!

Trying to encourage more scripture memory. I find this verse very fitting for the start of a new year.

Tea Party birthday with the cousins.

I surprised Jo by picking her up from school early on a Friday and catching the matinee of Disney's Beauty and the Beast in 3D. I still remember going to see it in the theater when I was a kid. It was so wonderful getting to share this with my little girl! Not to mention Belle is my all time favorite Princess because (in my opinion) she is one of the only real heroines of the Disney Princesses.

Family picnic. Yes, it was January and yes, it got warm. It was a beautiful day!

January was also the beginning of my last semester of school. It started with a pediatric rotation at a local clinic. I absolutely LOVED it.

Praise to the God of new beginnings!