Top Reasons why.....

Top Reasons Why This Was A Difficult Easter

1. My brother is still in the ICU after heart surgery.

2. It is our first Easter without Nonnie.

3. My little girl found out about the Easter Bunny and Santa. :(

Top Reasons Why This Was a Great Easter

1. My brother responded to us today! :)

2. We spent a wonderful morning in the crib room at church with the new babies.

3. My little girl still had a fun Easter.

4. We had some beautiful snow and beautiful sunshine. Sometimes at the same time.

5. I had a wonderful evening with family.

6. My brother responded to us today!!!! :)

Our God is an Awesome God!!

Another stressful week

The hamster is doing well. He sleeps all day. He is a boring pet actually.

I"m getting over my conversation with the hamsters owner.

I'm enjoying sleeping in late during my kids spring break week.

I'm anxious about Good Friday and Easter weekend for many reasons.

Good Friday is Tinmans surgery.

This will be our first Easter without my mother-in-law.

My kids are questioning the "realness" of the Easter bunny and Santa. I"m not sure I want them to lose that part of their childhood so soon after losing Nonnie.

This has the potential to be another stressful week.

2008 has not been simple yet.

Thank goodness for new babies to enjoy.

I am looking forward to the crib room on Easter Sunday.

AGREE to DISAGREE but she's wrong.

A church/school mom friend just brought over their hamster for our family to watch while they go out of town for a baptism. While she was here she saw Barack Obamas book that I am reading. WOW, she does not like Obama. I felt like I had to defend him. It didn't help. Apparently she was rooting for RUDY Guilliani. hhhhhmmmmm When she said she was worried that Barack would mess things up, I childishly replied that he couldn't do worse than Bush has. She said she would vote Bush in for 4 more years if that was possible. NNNNNOOOOO. It was at that point I told her to have a great time on her trip and call us when she got back. We went back to a cordial conversation. I guess what made me so angry was the petty things that bothered her about Barack. She even said she wished people would open their eyes. He is brain washing people. Some of the most intelligent people I know are huge Obama fans and have been for years. They aren't easily brain washed. Oh well, we will remain friends and will learn to agree to disagree. We definitely have different views. I will take good care of the hamster. I won't take it out on him.

Auntie Joy

This has been an incredible week as I discussed in my last post. I have met three adorable babies. I have felt like "Auntie" Joy this week. Two special families in my life have new babies and although we are not sisters by blood, we are sisters!! I was telling another special friend/sister last night that although I have never had a sister, I feel like I have many now. Last week I received so much love and support from my sisters and their families after my mother-in-laws death . We have been sharing our sorrows and our joys.
Two of the babies are adjusting nicely to their families. One is having a more difficult time. One of the twins had to be readmitted to the hospital. It is a scary time for his family but also for all his aunties. We have a phone tree so we can keep up with what is happening with the littlest of the new babies. His mother updates us regularly.
We have an amazing group of sisters/friends. I love these babies as if I truly was their auntie!! We are all bonded in love for each other. God has brought us all together. What an amazing feeling to have an incredible extended family. Welcome to the family kiddos. We love you.

2008

What a busy, incredible, emotional year this has already been. Several weeks ago good friends of ours lost their mother/mother-in-law. Right around that same time different good friends lost a very important person to them. Then we lost our mother/mother-in-law. All 3 passed away too young and to horrible illnesses. We are all still grieving and learning to live with the loss of our loved one.
This week has been a different, incredible, emotional week. This week we are crying tears of joy. Friends had twins on Monday. They are healthy, beautiful babies and mom and dad seem to be adjusting to a family of 6. Today another baby came into our lives. A beautiful 3 month old boy joined a family of 4 to make 5. We are still waiting for another friend to deliver her baby anyday.
What an incredible wave of emotions over the past few months/weeks. Waiting for life to end and watching new lives begin. 2008 has only just begun. What else will this year bring? Whatever happens with the remainder of this year I know I can face it. What an incredible family of friends I have. We share our sorrows and our joys. We experience it all together. Now thats incredible. Bring it on 2008.

Blessed

We are truly blessed by wonderful friends, family, pastors and an amazing church family. Thanks for making a extremely difficult time a little easier.

WAITING

The definition for "wait" in Webster Handy College Dictionary is.. remain, expecting something. We spend a lot of our lives waiting, expecting something. Waiting for a phone call, waiting in lines, waiting for test results, waiting for Christmas morning, waiting for a friends baby or babies to be born, waiting for the time to come when we are called to heaven.
I laid in bed last night thinking about life and death. We are waiting for our friends twins to be born. Two lives just beggining. But we are also waiting for a life to end. We have had a wonderful past 5 months with my mother-in-law. We know the time is coming that she won't be with us. Its strange to be anticipating new life but also anticipating the end of a life. It's comforting to know that God is watching over both.