God Wants Us TO GROW

Well, as seems to be par for the course in our household, we recently went through another time of stress. In that stress, I was fairly calm but VERY aware that God wanted some changes in perspective in the way we look at life. It wasn't an easy time. But, it was a growing time.

In thirty years of marriage, it has been, less than ideal. I finally put my foot down a few years back about some things and I haven't backed down. This hasn't been the norm for me in our relationship and it has caused MAJOR issues. I refuse to go back. We have discovered a few things through this. My husband has ADHD and is now on meds. WOW!!! This, along with him working on his relationship with God and reading a book by a spouse of an ADD person has made a difference. Are we close to where I'd like to be? NO!!! Thirty years takes a toll and there is a LOT to repair. But, on to what God did recently...

I had been sensing the need to do some things around our home. Organizing some, decluttering, etc. My husband just didn't see it as strongly as I did but was helping anyway. We had had many conversations on what my needs were in this regard. I didn't really say much about what I was sensing. That usually seemed to backfire on me. Then, we got a phone call from the home that Jonathan is in. Some things were going on there. We didn't know if we were going to need to bring him home immediately or not.

YIKES!!! His room is COMPLETELY filled with things that we moved in there when we fixed up the bedrooms for the older two kids. They now bring spouses home and the bedrooms needed a few changes. Jonathan doesn't even have a bed anymore; he broke his - SIGH!!! We talked about what needed to be done in the house to make it friendly for our son. There was still damage that he had done to our home that had not been repaired. It was EXTREMELY important that he NOT come home to see that!! We haven't had him home for a visit yet due to this. When he sees his home again for the first time, it needs to be with a fresh start.

My husband and I started a list and have been working on getting things done. We will spend most of our Thanksgiving holiday working on this. In this we have discussed what God is doing in our life. I told him what I had felt God pressing upon me. It took a couple of days of processing for me to see that God was REALLY impressing on me that we are to be READY at ALL TIMES for WHATEVER HE MAY bring into our life. We are NOT to sit idle when we KNOW that there are things that need to be worked on in ourselves, our home, etc. We still don't know if Jonathan will need to come home or not. But it doesn't matter. What matters is, that we are to BE PREPARED for God to MOVE in us.

Soooo, we have been busy. We are almost done with phase one of project one. It is a BIG project!!! I'm hoping to finish phase one really soon and move on to phase two. Meanwhile, we have emptied some bookshelves in a little room we have and those will get loaded up with art supplies. I have also looked at homeschool needs in case Jonathan does need to come home. One of the interesting things in all of this, is that I had brought up some things with my husband about how to deal with some things with Jonathan. We had already talked through what we should do about schooling when he comes home. We had already started discussing things regarding how things should be when he comes home. I had been feeling the need to get this out on the table too and he was open. God works to prepare our hearts and prepare us for the future even when we don't what the future holds. But HE DOES!!! And we CAN TRUST HIM WITH IT!!!

Afton

We have a new granddaughter. She was born yesterday. Eva, who is 2 years old got to tell us that she had a sister - it was SO CUTE!!! We have all been anxiously waiting for the baby to arrive. We didn't know if she was going to be a boy or a girl and she dropped about 3 weeks ago. Sarah was also dilated to 2cm and 90% effaced for about 3 weeks. So, we have been expecting this baby for a LONG time; even though she was due on the 13th.

We will probably to to see them on Friday. We are waiting to see when a funeral is. One of my husband's co-workers was riding his bike home from work this last Friday and was hit by a car. He rode out in front of the car. I'm guessing he didn't see it. Sad thing is that he was going to retire in about 10 months. But we have known them for over 20 years, so the funeral is important to us.

We plan to take our trailer to the camp so we can stay for few days. We thought we might do a photo shoot on the way home too. Just stop and take pictures where we see the opportunity.

I'm really looking forward to seeing Afton and snuggling her. And of course, I always enjoy taking Eva out to the swings and doing things with her. She is at a FUN age. We are BLESSED!!!!

Progress

My laptop died and I haven't had a computer that worked well for a LONG time. I finally bought an Apple laptop for myself. I'm learning how to use it - lol. It is going to take me awhile.

We have visited Jonathan a number of times and even brought him to Montana to see his brother and his family. He is making good progress in becoming more honest with us and trying harder to be respectful. We are pleased with how he is doing. He is definitely still not ready to come home but it has been SO NEAT to see the changes in him. We have been told he will always have quirks but I see the tender heart in my boy.

I'd like to post more later when I figure the photos out more on the Apple. I think it is supposed to be easy but I am kinda dumb right now. I paid for One to One classes at Apple for a year. So I get a whole year of training with personal help and then I should be able to go to a table with a trainer that rotates among 3-5 people helping them.

I'm actually trying to make a lot of changes in my life during this time. I have written down some goals for myself. I want to work on becoming the person God created me to be.