One Thing Remains

WOW! That's all I can say.. Wow! It's been a long time since I have been able post an update. Yikes, it was a busy busy Holiday Season. We went to TX (Blake's family) for Thanksgiving and CA(my family) for Christmas. I flew alone (with the kiddos) to and from TX which has quite a hilarious story. If you ask me to share it with you I will, but it is too long for this post. It was great to go back to where it all began for Blake and I. We were able to see family and friends and that's what meant the most to us. 

The minute we got back to IL life started happening so to speak. :) As if it wasn't already but, if it wasn't one thing it was another!! The kids got sick, I got sick, our car got towed, and we couldn't find it in this stupid Chicago system. We got numerous parking tickets( we didn't know you need a city sticker, along with a zone sticker, along with a street sticker on your car) have you heard of this before?! Blake had to have surgery on his mouth due to a softball accident (the ball wasn't very soft). Just one financial hit after another. We almost didn't go to Cali because of it. But we prayed and prayed and felt like we were supposed to go. So, we booked the flight. A couple days later we found out Blake's work PTO schedule changed. which meant the dates we had selected to go to CA we were not going to get paid for. Well, not as many as we would have liked! All this to say we were committed to doing our "12 Days of Christmas" (read earlier posts) for a family. We had budgeted a certain amount a couple months prior and really wanted to bless this family. But, with all of the life strain we were going through we were trying to figure out where it all was going to come from. But, we knew that blessing this family was more important than anything. We decided we weren't doing gifts within our family or to each other, and that would help us have more of a giving fund. Lets just say that going out in faith and going through with our promise of this 12 days of Christmas was probably the most rewarding feeling; emotionally, physically, spiritually and mentally for our family in the last couple months. Blake and I had a blast finding gifts to go along with the song 12 days of Christmas and even more fun door bell ditching and leaving the gifts knowing or at least praying the family felt blessed (and liked the gift)!  We can not wait for our kids to be old enough to be there along side of us in the joy of giving. There is nothing like it. In fact it's one of the few things God says to test him on. In Malachi 3:10 it talks about giving of your tithe and seeing the abundant blessing that God will poor out upon you. It's not about Him wanting your money. It's about him wanting your heart! Knowing that you are a giver and have full faith that you will be taken care of. 

We were blessed by friends who helped deliver packages the last couple days while we traveled to CA. Then we arrived in CA..... Of course missing our first flight which put us into San Fran at 3 am our time! THEN as the first day of our vacation progressed my son Bear was struck ill and I mean it came on fast. He looked like he had been beaten up. The picture below says it all.

We took him into an urgent care the next morning. Found out he had double pink eye, double ear infections, some kind of flu type deal etc..... you name it this poor kid had it! The next 4 days with him were miserable. He was miserable which made us miserable. Not to mention we were worried about getting my sister and all her family sick during CHRISTMAS TIME! Who wants to be sick during Christmas?!? Brooke had double ear infection as well!! You guessed what happened next. I became sick. How can a mother not get sick from her children when all she does is wear their snot the entire time they are sick. Turns out I had strep throat. It was the worst thing and the gnarliest looking! I was so so sick. Never been on antibiotics in my life and I had to go on it. Even though I fought for 5 days not to. And of course Blake got it! Can you see where this is going? We were all very very sick. It also turned out that I am allergic to penicillin. So I broke out in the most Ugly rash covering my entire body and it closed up my throat. Which, sent us back for the umpteenth Urgent visit to a Dr. 

We couldn't help but ask the question were we doing something wrong to cause all of this? Blake and I talked to friends and family asking; what is the deal? Why are we going through this? And the easy answer would be, we must be "doing" something "wrong." We searched our hearts and actions and just knew that wasn't the answer. We got back home from vacation still not well, but better :/. From here we started to figure it out. We found out that Blake's work decided to grant him those PTO days after all. We started getting little bits of good news here and there. And we realized that life JUST happened these last couple months. God doesn't promise every day to be easy but He does promise He will be there to give us the Grace and Mercy to get through it. God didn't make us sick or cause us to be sick. It just happened!! How we responded and embraced the situation is what mattered. We have come to find out recently that: all of our financial needs were met during all of the hits, our goals/plans were met if not exceeded, we learned that giving was more of a blessing to our own personal self and family then we think it was for the receiver. We are happy to say that we had the faith (most days) knowing that no matter what would come next we could get through it. So, what am I trying to say? I am trying to say that 1) Giving (no matter how small or how big.. Its all about what you HAVE) is one of the most important things!! 2) Things happen, Life happens sometimes and it's our heart and attitude that determines the conclusion of it all. 3) Having hope and faith can help you get through anything and 4) One thing remains. His love never fails never gives up never runs out on us.