Beyond Blessed

So much has happened in my story of life between posts. If I was a writer I would probably sit for hours and tell of the healing and transformation and incredibly hard times these last few chapters have held. It has been oh so good and oh so incredibly hard. For today though I focus on the here and now. I will tell of how today, on Wednesday, September 7th, 2016 I sent all of my wee girls off to school. This isn't the first morning I have been without a sidekick but it does feel like the start of a new chapter and season for our little crew. As I ponder this I think back to not so long ago when it felt like the babies and diapers and constant chaos of four girls under five would never end. Everyone told me it would go quickly but at the time it felt like in so many ways each day passed so incredibly slowly and seemed so very long. I did and do treasure those days. I do not regret any of it and count it all as treasure. I do know that here, today, it feels like I have blinked and my babies, my crew of littles, is grown. No longer tethered to me it feels both freeing and scary. I worry about what the world and life will have for them but trust the their Father holds them and will give them all they need for their incredible journeys. Today I feel the depth of how lucky I am to watch my children grow. So many don't get that chance. So many people would give anything to be a parent for just one day or to hold their sweet child one more time. I want to drink in the fact that they are healthy. They can run and play and laugh and be free in a way that many other kids only dream of. I want to dream into who these beautiful girls may become. Each of them so different. Each one so incredible special and unique. Each little beauty holding a special place in my momma heart. So excited to see where the rest of this story may go and trusting that no matter what the story holds I am safely held by a Father who loves me and will be with me through it all.

England

It has been nine days since I returned from what seems to be the most incredible dream I have had in a while. 

On May 24 Sarah and I journeyed back to her homeland of England. It seems so surreal. It was most certainly a God thing because I was certain that there was no way it would work out for my husband to first allow me to go and then secondly provide child care to the girls while I was away. He was AMAZING!! and stepped up to the plate in so many incredible ways. I am so blessed to have married a man who can identify my needs and put them ahead of his. 

So I guess that for the record I need to at least be sure to include a brief outline of the events of the trip. 

Thursday, May 23 - Left Calgary at 6:30pm and arrived in Gatwick, London at just after 10am Friday morning.

Caught a hired car to take us to Heathrow to pick up the rental car. Sarah rented an amazing Convertible Mini copper for us to bomb around the English countryside in and boy can that girl drive. 

We set off for Grantham with a stop over to visit Sarah's friend Isabelle and her four adorable kids. Such a blessing to get to see Sarah interacting with friends from her past. We arrive at the warehouse just after 10pm on Friday night and decide to get some fish and chips. By the time our first "day" ends the two of us have been up for something crazy like 32 hours but every moment of it is more then worth it. 

Saturday May 25 - The day starts with an amazing walk through the street of Grantham surrounding the nursing home and warehouse. It is absolutely unexplainable to cross the street and wander in the shadow of the big cathedral and wander through the church yard. I snap tons of photos. We spend a bit of the day sorting through boxes, shopping, touring and head out to dinner with Sarah's parents. Again, so surreal to be able to meet and see Sarah interact with her parents. Even more surreal to join them for dinner in Grantham. Sarah tours me through some of the places that she grew up. 

Sunday May 26 - I head out to church while Sarah an her mom do some more sorting. I attend a service at New Life church in Grantham in the building where Sarah use to go to youth group. It is a good little service but most amazing by far is that I meet Shelly a missionary coming through a rough patch whom we had briefly talked about the night before. The situation is a little too perfect to be a coincidence. 

Monday May 27 - We spend a bit of the morning getting things sorted out and then we hit the road for Bradford to Cherish women's conference. The opening of the conference is entertaining and stirs a not so pleasant emotional response for me. 

Tuesday May 28 - Day 2 of the conference starts out a little rough but is overall good. The speakers (Lisa Bevere, Charlotte Gambil, Abs Niblock and Caroline Barnett) are passionate and the LA Dream center is inspiring. In the afternoon we get a chance to hear the Mercy Ministries presentation which does my wart good. Sarah needs to get some work done so I take the opportunity to catch a little catnap before the night session.

Wednesday May 29 - We skip out of the morning sessions to drive up to Ilkley Moore and it is well worth it. The day is foggy and rainy but what an incredible experience. We stop in at a fun little pub on our way in to catch the final session of Cherish. We head back to Gratham arriving at the warehouse late in the night after a stop at Asda. After a little night cap and some fun we wind up the day in the early hours of Thursday morning. 

Thursday May 29 - Sarah wraps up her visit with her family and we head to Gravesend to spend the night at Janice and Izzys house. We make a whirl wind top down car tour through the city of London and under the tower bridge. It is so amazing I almost feel the need to pinch myself. It is nice to catch up with Janice and to actually get to see where her new life has taken her. I stay up too late having too much fun.

Friday May 30 - Sarah, Janice and I head into London on the train. We experience so many great and amazing things in one whirlwind day. We see Westminster abby and Big Ben, the London eye. Then we jump a double decker bus and take in all the amazing sites. We get off the bus at Buckingham palace and walk through Hyde park to head to Oxford street to do some shopping. Janice has to part ways with us mid way through the shopping but it was so amazing to get to see London with Sarah and Janice, I would've never imagined it. After a few hours of shopping Sarah and I manage to somehow find ourselves in a crazy fancy restaurant in the heart of London. We jump back on the train and head back to the car to drive to the hotel at Heathrow arriving just after one in the morning. 

Saturday June 1 - the hired car picks us up at 6:30 to take us to Gatwick. Our plane leaves at 10:30 and will arrive in Calgary just after lunch. 

Best part of the trip by far was spending time with Sarah. Late night conversations and seeing some of the places where her life has taken her. This trip has done incredible things for our friendship and allowed me to connect with her on more of a heart level. It has been so meaningful to be able to meet her family and see some of the places that mean so much to her heart. 

Summer Catch up

In my usual style plenty of time and events have come and gone since my last blog post. 

We celebrated Jordynns second birthday and I cannot believe that little girl. She is a lover and a fighter. She is full of spunk and loves to make you laugh. She is also one to stand her ground and give people a good scratch or perhaps a bite if she doesn't get her way. Oh and can that little girl scream. She is wonderful, fiery addition to our crew of chaos.

Kamryn and Charlee finished up their year of preschool and Mckinna managed to kick butt in the first grade. Kamryn is excited about starting kindergarten in the fall. 

At the end of June we loaded up Grams van and made our way to the coast for two and a half weeks. We stayed with Aunty Michelle, Aunty Coralee and spent a bit of time in Washington at Black Mountain Ranch. We did all sorts of things and spent time at the spray park, crescent beach, the zoo and even went out to Timberline.

Sadly while we were away our beloved pony Buxton died. It was fast and unexpected. I waited till we came home to tell the girls. My old boss from Timberline also passed away from a stroke. 

We celebrated Charlees fourth birthday at the family picnic. She got a lot of money and was very happy about the whole situation. When we returned home Anthony took her to get a bicycle. 

I am so blessed to be able to watch these little girls accomplish such simple but important things. 

Blessing in loss

Our lives are so filled with blessing and it is important to me that my children remember that even in sad times we are blessed by a God who loves us. Today was a bit of a hard day though. Our beautiful kitty Daisy May had to be put down after they discovered she had a mass in her esophagus. This paired with the funeral for an amazing lady who ended her life long before The Lord was done working good through her made for a challenge. Again, while my heart is hurting I remind myself of how blessed I am to have all the amazing blessings I am surrounded with. I am reminded that life is not a guarantee but a gift and it can end at any time. I pray that if my life were to end in the near future that those around me would celebrate the time that I was blessed to share with them in this world. My girls are happy and healthy and growing. This is a gift some parents never have. I have a loving husband. I am surrounded by an amazing, supportive family. I have things that many people only dream about and not because I deserve any of it.
I need to post more often about the good things that are happening in this growing an changing house. I am so thankful for those "ordinary" days that so quickly pass by. My babies are growing an our loves are changing. I looking deeper at teenagers these days an try to envision the baby, toddler and preschooler they once were. I marvel at my girls innocence and wonder when the time will come that little things they now believe so fully will slip away. When I get angry and short I worry about what impact that will one day have. I want to love them so much every minute because I am keenly aware that I will never have that precious minute back. I am growing and changing right along with them. Thank-you Lord for the blessing of an ordinary, extraordinary live.

Merry Christmas from us to you

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Tis the season

Okay, try number two. I had a really great, really long post written about all of our adventures and misadventures going into this holiday season. Now that beautiful, perfectly composed post has disappeared into technology land. I will try to both summarize and expound upon some of the wonders that were contained in that perfect post ;)
Things have been crazy around here but I am pretty sure that given our situation, crazy is the new normal. We have been running around to school, preschool, music, gymnastics, playgroup, you get the idea. It is fun but at times also exhausting.
Charlee and Kamryn had their preschool Christmas concert this week. Thy both did amazingly well but it was so neat to see the differences in their personalities. Charlee is a ham and spent most of her time marchig to the beat of her own drum. This included a bit of a misstep resulting in body contact with the poor unsuspecting boy next to her. Kamryn on the other hand performed flawlessly not missing a word or a beat, not wavering from her assigned tape mark. I think that it is amazing that God has designed both of them differently but the same and equally as loved and beautiful and absolutely unique within his purpose and plan.
We spent last Saturday night caroling with the Music for Young children program. It was both a disaster and a success all wrapped up into one little experience. I spent the night carrying cranky Jordynn while Charlee filled her pockets with rocks. To start Mckinna focused her energy on caroling but that focus quickly (4 houses in) shifted to the social necessity of finding a best friend for the remaining time. Meanwhile Kamryn teetered between full force caroling and clinging desperately to my leg. I often worry that I will mess up with the frailty and frivolity of dealing with the delicate balance of girls emotions. This was one of the many times that I felt I just could not win. The night must not have been all bad though because the girls did say that they want to return next year.
Saturday morning we went Christmas tree shopping. The shopping itself went fairly smoothly for having four little girls in tow. We pick a beautiful tree. The decorations have changed a lot from my days of thematic Disney or Roudolf ornaments. The tree is now adorned with salt dough, sparkly balls and colored wooden ornaments. I have to say that I do like it better this way. The kids went a little overboard I the decorating and it most certainly was not the peaceful, calm event I had envisioned but it was fun.
We spent the tail end of Saturday at the Hungarian Christmas celebration where the girls had their first Santa experience for the season. They all did well except for Jordynn who liked Santa from a distance but was most certainly not a fan of sitting in that strafe mans lap. We followed up with a quick visit to the mall to get the infamous mall Santa group shot. I think Jordynns face tells the entire story :)
This season has made me even more aware of the rich, undeserved blessings that have been poured out on my life. I am so very blessed by my Heavenly Father and so humbled. I'm drinking from my saucer for my cup has overflowed.

Let it snow

It is October and we live in southern Alberta. This of course could mean a variety of things but today it meant that we woke up to like a zillion inches of snow.
The girls were of course totally pumped to go out and play. As the parent required to adequately dress four little people, I was much less excited for this wonderful, memorable, painful experience. I spent roughly half an hour getting everyone, including 17 month old Jordynn, dressed to explore the cold outdoors. Of course, just as I wrapped up the dressing process and sent the last girl out they proceeded to pile back in to warm up and spread snow throughout the house. This is the first time that Jordynn has really been big enough to appreciate the foreign concept of snow. I am fairly certain for her quick re-entry to the house that she is not yet a big fan of the fluffy white stuff. It was fabulous to have a day spent at home for once.
Another big event for our family was the taking down of the crib. We assembled that beautiful, specially chosen white Aspen dropside crib from Storkcraft six years ago in a nursery stenciled with Sesame street characters. Two years later we moved it into the nursery at the present house. It has held all four of our precious girls. Since it is convertible we will keep it and probably use it for a double bed before too terribly long but for now it sits disassembled.
Jordynn has so far made the switch to the bed like a trooper. She went straight to bed at both nap and bedtime so I guess the true test will be if she stays in the bed till morning.
It is so amazing and mind blowing how far our lives have come in six years. We now have four amazing, beautiful, unique daughters who each in their own way bless our family beyond measure and make it what it is. I am finally getting to sleep through the night more and more.
I am so blessed, my cup runneth over.