Testing...testing...one...two...three

After a two-month (plus) "sabbatical", I wonder...is it worth trying to start again? This blog and I...our relationship is anything but consistent. Yet it sticks around. Thanks, DRRF, thanks for providing a blank page for me even when I forget to write.  I'd promise to be more faithful, but we both know it would be pie-crust (easy to make, easy to crumble).  I'd try to fill in the gaps of time, but where would I even begin.  I know you'll forgive me.  And if even if you don't...that's the beauty of this relationship, it continues anyway.

So, here we go.  I promise to post more pictures, funny stories, and antics soon, but first I need to set the stage a bit for a big change you'll see on this little piece of the web.

Exactly one week after my last post, I had an awesome weekend at the beach with some lovely ladies.  Sadly, I carried my camera everywhere and took exactly zero pictures.  You'll have to believe me that it was a perfect 3 1/2 days, celebrating one of my favorite people in the whole world and her upcoming marriage.  There was lots of laying around at the spa, laying around on the beach, laying around by the pool...mixed with some shopping, a couple of great runs, and too much good food.  I thoroughly enjoyed getting to meet and visit with different pieces of the bride-to-be's world(s).  It was a wonderful way to learn more about someone I already dearly loved.  I came home thoroughly rested and rejuvenated. 

And its a good thing, because the day after I came home, life around our house changed drastically.  Monday was a normal MMM (more later about the "National Pi Day" that we celebrated) and the kids went down for great naps.  Over the course of the next few hours, something RRL and I could not have foreseen began unfolding in a miraculous way.  Here is a little piece of the email I sent the next day...

While the events of the last 24 hours were not even on our radar screen, we know that all along the Lord has been paving a path for these events. RRL and I have felt very strongly over the last couple of months that the Lord was "preparing" us. While that was just as ambiguous to us as it sounds and left more questions than answers, the result was that we have been in a season of growing closer to each other and closer to the Lord. We have confided this in a few close friends and as a result, know that others have been praying for us...even before we really knew what they were praying for.  Yesterday the "what we were preparing for" fell in our laps in the form of three adorable siblings, the children of RRL's stepsister. A, age 3 (three weeks older than Cbug), C, age 2 (6months older than Lou) and baby B (10 months).

We don't really know how long our family will include our sweet nephews and niece, but for awhile at least it will change the photos and stories you see here quite a bit (obviously).  Our daily family tasks take on a whole new adventure-like-quality when handling them with six small children.  Its really hilarious, actually.  Can't wait to give you a glimpse.  For now, though, here's a picture to fool you into thinking we've got it all together (after all, it is my blog).

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I mean, really, how adorable are they?

Life with six kids is anything but easy.  Its full of blessings in the form of tons of sticky kisses and lots of dog-pile-like hugs, but there have definitely been times it when it has been completely exhausting.  We continue, though, to experience that same sense that I wrote about in those very first days.  We still believe that He prepared us for this path.  He's asking us to walk through something we didn't choose, but He's walking ahead of us, behind us, and right beside us.  Sometimes His presence is in the stillness of naptime, the peace of children playing together, or the sweet conversations I get to have with my husband after all 6 kids are in bed.  But sometimes its more tangible.  Many times, He's walking with us in the form of His people.  People that are meeting so many of our needs, before we even know how to ask.

Here's another email excerpt
"I am not exaggerating when I say that every single time we get to the point of being at our wits end, help arrives. There was one point this week that help was walking in our door with arm loads of groceries, at the same moment that help was walking out of our door after dropping off 3 of the children. We feel so loved. So blessed. Not alone.
I keep thinking about the following verses in Nehemiah, chapter 4. The building of the wall is well underway, yet threat of the enemy seems imminent. In order to complete the work they were called to, the people couldn't just huddle together waiting for an attack. Instead they had a plan...
19 Then I said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, “The work is extensive and spread out, and we are widely separated from each other along the wall. 20 Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, join us there. Our God will fight for us!”
Thank you for being the kind of friends that, no matter how spread out we are, no matter how many different paths of service He may lead us to, we know we can be JOINED at the sounding of a trumpet (or email or blog). We've seen this first hand as we've felt surrounded in presence and in prayer and as we watch what God is doing."

We know He is at work and feel privileged to have a front-row-seat.

I know this is long, just wanted to document a small piece of our current lives.  And it seemed a bit abrupt to just show up in Deep Rolling Right Field, and not at least explain why the pictures include six children instead of three.  So there you have it.  Hope to be back soon...but no promises.

ABL