the year of RECLAIMING!!!!!!

Hello friends!

I trust you are all well into your New Year's resolutions, plans, hopes and dreams for 2014.

We have spent a bit of time contemplating what we need to change for the new year, and 1 word came to mind the other morning. I considered several, but after a night's sleep, and deciding, if it wasn't God's word for us, it wouldn't work, I needed to just wait and hear from Him.

And then, while milking the next morning, I heard it.....

RECLAIMING!!!

WOW, I love that word

There is much hope

there is much expectancy

there is much "YES" in this one little word.

After coming to the unhappy conclusion that our life is a mess, and that our messy life needs fixing, and that we have 4 children who will always be with us-Lifers-precious, sweet, and lovable, yet

it does give me moments of panic to consider what the coming years will hold, and how much ME will have to die to self to make our family whole....

yet,

Reclaiming.

Joy

Jesus

Faith

Health

Love

Peace

Hope

Marriage

Home

Vision

Attitude

LIFE!!!!!

I think it is a marvelous word, full of promise and future and HOPE!
BUT
if we are reclaiming the good stuff, it also means letting go/purging of the yucky stuff:
anger
frustration
anxiety
stress
impatience
hopelessness
unhappiness
despair
harshness

It has been a brutal year, with many good things, yet SO many yucky things going on with the emotional/behavioral/developmental issues with our 4, but particularly the 2 girls.

Now that we have hit the 2 year mark with them, and we are truly seeing who they are, and we are truly seeing the extent of the issues they both have, and truly "getting it" that they both do have significant issues, both mentally, emotionally, developmentally, and behaviorally, AND we are deciding to quit feeling hopeless and defeated, and take the bull by the horns and begin some intensive work to help them heal, as well as the rest of us.

Do I FEEL like doing this? 

No, but through our desire to make our family whole again, and to regain some sense of "normal" for our other children, we HAVE to be aggressive and stop letting them dictate the direction of our days and begin leading them down a long road of healing to a place called family.

It is my desire to share our life and its varied travels with you all, and that is another thing I plan to reclaim, some computer time for ME!!!

I have been pouring so much time into the children, dealing with THINGS all day long, that there has been no energy, or desire to share anything by the end of the day.

Yet, for me, it is therapeutic, this writing, journaling, remembering the snippets of life that happen here each day.

So, altho it may start out slowly, I hope to have time each week to share what is going on in our life, both the good and the ugly, and I hope you will share our journey with us, and hold us up in prayer, and by all means, check in on us if I am absent for awhile-

It has been a huge encouragement to me to receive emails after a long stretch of no blogging, with kind words, hopeful thoughts, and mention of prayers being prayed for our family.

I have to admit, I had no idea our family would be so torn after the last 2 adoptions, or that the issues the girls have would be so intense, continuous, or life-changing.

I guess, ignorance is bliss, because if I had known the twists our life would have taken 3 years ago, I am pretty sure I would not have chosen this path. And yet, on the GOOD days, I have to admit, having them home, knowing they are in a family, knowing that they are not orphans, does make my heart smile.

Anyway,

Time to move on with a few pictures of our holiday time.

We kept it simple, quiet, and low-key, but it was GOOD!!!

Blessings on your New Year

Chris, for all 9 of us:)

 the first group shot of my 7 in a LONG time

 Christmas time at my mom's back at Thanksgiving time

 Who knew a simple little World Dairy sweatshirt could be the hit of the day???

 simple little lights, greenery and nativiy scenes and ornaments as we tried to simplify and keep our focus on Jesus, and not on gifts

 Rose enjoyed selecting gifts for her siblings-it was a GOOD day when we did our shopping together!!

 Tyler enjoyed getting his first BB gun from us, and has been using it in the basement to target practice:)

 Nick got a John Deere hat from Tyler-they all had fun picking out gifts for their family members

 Kendell LOVES her headlamp-really helpful for doing chores outside after dark:)

Kendell made this blanket for her little brother-she LOVES John Deere, I don't think Isaac could care, but He loves his blanket because his sissy made it for him!!!

Hoping 2014 is a year of more pictures, healing, and more family times:)