The Intentional Life

Well, when God closes a door, He opens a window. In a little less than a month Paul and I and the kids will be moving into a home in Grabill, IN to work full time at Gateway Woods. This has been something that we have wanted to do for awhile but never knew when the time would be right (i.e. Paul had a decent job, we have a mortgage, we like where we are at...) But I guess God was tired of our excuses and decided to remove some of them : ) There 'happened' to be an opening for alternate houseparents at Gateway so we interviewed for the position. We start our training on January 12 and begin working on campus the first of February. We are little sad to change the life we have been used to but very excited to be used of God in this capacity. When God closes a door.... For those of you not familiar with the ministry of Gateway Woods, check out their website: www.gatewaywoods.org

This past weekend we celebrated Christmas with Paul's family. We stayed overnight with his mom and dad and stayed up late playing games. We of course had the traditional villia dinner which of course was delicious. We also managed to get a group photo of the fam with all 3 kids being happy (or at least not crying). As a gift I received 2 matching Christmas trees. I want to put them on either side of my front door but since we didn't get a tree this year, I set one up inside (Thank you, Becky!)

Owen and Hannah went to the doctor yesterday for their (late) 2 year and 6 month appointments. Owen is weighing in at 31 lb13 oz and Hannah is a hefty 19 lbs 6 oz (both of them are in the 95 percentile : ) In case the pictures need a little explanation: Owen loves to roll Hannah around on the floor, and surprisingly she loves it too??? And the other shot is of Owen using the head of a broken golf club to "drill" holes in the bookcase. He saw his uncles, grandpa, and daddy using a drill over the weekend and I think the image stuck with him : ) He is getting an imagination and I love it. And a side note, little Reid went in for surgery this morning to repair a hernia - please pray for healing for Reid and patience for Chet and Amanda.

In case you don't already know, Paul lost his job from ITT a week before Thanksgiving. It has been a different last week I must say, and the Holidays are taking on a different light for sure. Surprisingly I am not freaking out (yet). I have sat down and cried, but then got up and moved on. : ) A few people have made the comment that we might have to think a little harder of something to be thankful for (given the current circumstances) but I beg to differ: I am thankful that we have 2 healthy children I am thankful for the warm home we still have I am thankful that our cupboards are full of food and we really don't need to shop for awhile (I'm going to get creative with beans : ) I am thankful that I get to have Paul home with me for a little bit during this cold weather and during the cozy Christmas season I am thankful that God has opened up new opportunities for Paul to possibly work elsewhere or even in a different line of work Most of all, I am thankful that God was an...

So, I realized this week that after Reid made it home, my updates on him have dropped off. Sorry about that : ) This week I took 3 month pictures for Amanda of the little guy. He is now over 8 lbs, probably over 9 by now at the rate that he is growing, and continuing to develop as he should. He is officially off the heart monitor as of a couple weeks ago and he is both nursing and still taking a bottle. He's still such a little peanut, but big compared to where he started. I will need to get a few more details from Amanda as far as anything more specific, but as far as from an aunt perspective - he's doing great! : )

I'm a week late, but Hannah is now 6 months old - I haven't made it to the doctor yet for her checkup but when I do, her stats will be posted : ) Hannah is teething right now and she is having a rough go of it (and so am I) She was sleeping through the night but now is waking up 1-2 times a night and just wants to be rocked and held. So sweet, but maybe not at 4 AM. So we keep plugging her with Tylenol and praying for those teeth to come through soon. She's getting up on her hands and knees, but no crawling yet, which is fine with me. Once she is, there is one more thing I'll have to keep track of : ) Hannah is eating pear sauce (go figure), squash, and peas. She gags on the peas, but with a little persuasion (pear sauce) she gets it down. She is loving Owen and just watches him and giggles. And on a totally different topic - It is November 1st and I have clothes hanging on the line -an absolute beautiful day! Thank you, Lord!

Ever since Hannah was born I have been trying to some up with a decent name for my blog. I wanted something short and sweet but still got my central point across. I finally settled on 'Raising Royalty' with a short description of it. It stems from how there is so much out there about little girls being princesses and all about me, me, me. I thought it could be turned around for the good - we can all be sons and daughters of the King - we can all be a princess or prince - but it's not about us, it's about Him. What do you think?