Yes yes... I promised to try!

And then I didn't blog for 3 days :)

It's been a great start to our week! Sunday I took K, N, and L to church then to Wal-Mart (and McD's) then home. We worked on some bookcases, got ready for the school week and just hung out as a family for the afternoon. N and I worked on his make-up work for math and I remembered how much I love teaching! Even more fun when you have a kid that catches on pretty quickly and is actually listening to learn it :)

Monday Mike brought K and E to school then I followed an hour later out the door to bring N to school. Was that only yesterday?? LOL I called my mom to pick up K and E because all three of the little ones were sleeping when it was time to go get them. Mike's uncle came over and looked at our pool and pump setup in the morning and the kids got down a little late to nap. We really appreciated his uncle's expertise and advice on the current setup though!

Monday afternoon we got back from getting N at school around 4:40 and got dinner in Kristopher and him into his new SOCCER clothes! He was so excited to go to his first practice! I did dinner with the other 5 kids and baths and bedtime. Mike and K got home just before bed. N spent almost the entire evening on homework again but is doing well with it.

Tuesday dawned bright and early and I keep thinking it was yesterday (it's 9:20 tues NIGHT now...). Mike took K, E, and B to school then I took N later on. I was going to go by the bank but Micah wasn't feeling well and I decided to head straight home instead. We hung out at the house today, I attempted to lay down (didn't work much) and then was back out the door to get K, E, and B at 2 then went to the bank... then back out at 4 to get N! We had a quick dinner and Micah slept through it. It's been just a go go go kind of week.

Tomorrow is a big day though. Tomorrow is one of those days that you look back on and say "we made it through!" Four years ago on March 3rd we were digesting the news given on March 1st that Brianna has Ds and we were told that she also needed open heart surgery. That afternoon, my 14 month old "nephew", E, moved in with us for an undesignated amount of time. I was a children's pastor at the time and had a bonfire at a student's house that night as one of our ministry events and I remember trying to keep my composure while sharing with our volunteer team what was going on in our lives that moment. All the while trying to keep my 25 month old son, 14 month old nephew, and 2 month old daughter away from the fire. Ok, so the 2 month old that wasn't so hard for!

Anyway, that day the reality struck as one of the most difficult, stressful days of our lives. It just kept heaping on, it felt like. And we didn't know what 'normal' might be like for our family going forward. Four years later I'm glad to say that 'normal' for our family is just perfect... better than I could have dreamed it would be.

And tomorrow, oddly enough, is the meeting that the 3 yr old 'local' little boy is being matched at. We are one of many families that have offered up our home to him and we will likely find out tomorrow whether they have found a home for him among those 'petitioners'. We will welcome him in with open arms if we are chosen... and we will be glad for him to have found ANY home if we are not. I do believe they will find a home within the many that have offered so I'm glad for him that tomorrow will be a step toward getting to be a part of a family!