God is Good!

**If you are my friend on Facebook, you have already seen this but I wanted to document it here as a reminder of God's goodness.**

Lately going to the mailbox has become dread. I'm always fearful that there will be yet another person wanting our money. But this Monday was a different story! I opened up the mailbox to find a green envelope addressed to us but had no return address on it. Anxious to see who it was from, I ripped it open and out fell 4 $50 gift cards to Harris Teeter. I opened the card and only the verse "And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus." Phillipians 4:19. I sat there in my car at the mailbox sobbing. I can't believe that someone/s would do this for us. These gift cards equal almost our monthly grocery budget.

I am overwhelmed by the generosity of this donor. As a family, we have been praying that God would provide the means to pay for all our medical/IRS bills. We knew that the Lord was going to take care of us as He always has, but we never imagined that this would be one of the ways that the Lord would provide. The card was so true.....God does provide for all of our needs. Now we can use the grocery money to pay another bill.

So thank you...whoever you are....you have blessed us and we pray that the Lord will bless you in return.

Ok Lord You Have Our Attention..

I'm sorry the blog posts have been far and few between these days. We've had a lot going on and writing hasn't been the first priority.

So what's going on with us? Well first, our computer is on the fritz. We thought we had solved and fixed the problem ourselves but it was only a tease. Best Buy can't figure out what it is in store and would have to send it off for repair. It's $85 just to send off before any dignostic test or repair. We're looking into local computer places. Our computer is just coming up on his 2 year mark and I swear they design them to fall apart faster these days. Luckily my brother is letting me use one of his netbooks that he isn't currently using until we can get ours fixed. Money really is the key issue right now.

While we are extremely grateful that we live in a place where medical care is easily obtained, we are overwhelmed with how much they charge for it. While we do have insurance, we owe the hospital quite a bit for Oliver's tests and birth. I have contacted the hospital to see if we qualify for any financial aid. They are sending us forms in the mail that we can fill out and send back for further review. We are praying that the hospital will show favor on us and reduce (heck, I'm boldly praying they will eliminate) it.

Also we received a lovely letter from the IRS stating that if we were not currently living in our house, we had to pay back the 1st time homebuyer's credit we received in 2008. This is not cool! So once we did our taxes, we now owe them instead of getting our usual refund. Add that to renters who have continued to be late on their payments and you end up with not a fun situation.

We know that the Lord is not surprised by this and He uses everything for the greater good of those who love Him. He is going to use this situation to teach us something..we just have to rest in that fact. We have already learned that we had poor budgeting skills and it has forced us to really evaluate our finances. We have discussed whether or not I should go back to work full time. Sadly, this is a terrible time for a teacher to be looking for work as the state plans to lay off 23,000 teachers this year. I have investigated all the private schools but find no open elementary positions. The other question is could we find a reasonably priced good daycare for the boys that wouldn't completely deplete what I would bring home. I did have an interview at a church preschool last week, but have not heard back from them at this time. The boys would be able to go with me there, which would be really nice.

I have literally been in tears with the Lord this week asking him what else can we endure. They say the Lord won't give you more than you can handle, but sometimes I wonder if He realizes I'm not as strong as He thinks. I know the Lord is going to take care of us and I have to rest in that. If you think about it, just pray for us.

Didn't Your Mama Ever Teach..

it's not nice to take other people's stuff!?

This morning we woke up kind of late and therefore were too late to make it to the early service at church. We were up and ready but still had tons of time until 2nd service, so we decided to run over to Trader Joe's to pick up some stuff so we didn't have to do it after church. Since we still had time, we decided to ride around looking at neighborhoods around church. We got kind of turned around and I told Jeremy I would get out the GPS to help us get back. I opened the console to get it out and realized it wasn't there. We never take it out of the car so we soon realized it must have been stolen. That is the worst feeling! We ALWAYS try and lock the door when we get out but we must have forgotten. We now wonder when it happened. Now that I know my way around, I don't use it as much. I remember using it on Monday but can't remember if I remember seeing it in the car later on in the week.

I know in the grand scheme of things this is minor. But I just feel so violated...someone went in our car (probably in our driveway) and took something of ours. Also I think I already was feeling defeated. Thursday we got our bill for Oliver's first round of testing...$2K, much better than the original $16K they billed the insurance. Then yesterday we got our "this is not a bill, but we have billed your insurance" for his 2nd round of testing, $17K. So his total testing was over $34K!! I'm just waiting to see how much we owe on this one. We still haven't paid for his birth because of they had to fix the bill. I know the hospital will set up a payment plan, but it just feels overwhelming at times.

I feel like our life has been crazy since moving to Charlotte. Hopefully it will slow down soon..

Oliver @ 3 Months Old

Oliver turns 3 months old today! This boy has had an eventful three months of life! We praise God that his last scans were clean and there are no tumors internally. We now just have to wait for the one on his arm to envalude (sp?) on its own.

Now on to the fun things...

His stats (taken Monday at the hematologist)
Weight: 14 lbs 2 oz
Height: 24 in
Head: I forgot :)

At 3 months, he:

• Is wearing size 2 diapers and 3-6 months clothes
• Is sleeping from 7 pm to around 3:30 or 4 am (if I only I could go to bed when he does, I would get a full night sleep!)
  
• Is still on acid reflux medicine and it is helping tremendously. He still spits up, but it's not burning like it did previously.
• Loves playing on the floor. He likes tummy time, but loves to lay on his back and coo and talk to you. He has always had really strong neck muscles and they are getting stronger every day. I think he's going to be quite the talker. :)
  
• Has rolled from his tummy to his back 2 times now. Jeremy has been the only one to see him actually do it though.
  
• Not a fan of the bouncy seat or the car seat...he fusses big time in both of them. Car rides in the city are interesting because when you stop for a red light he starts to scream.
  
• Is just like his mommy and wants to be where the action is. He doesn't like to be left alone or not where the action is. Most nights he is sitting in one of our laps for dinner because he wants to be where everyone else is.
  
• Has just started to break out of the swaddle. He does a great job sleeping in that position so I am hesitant to give it up yet.
• Not a great napper when on the go. His brother was great about sleeping in the car seat so we could be out and about all the time. Oliver however does not sleep very hard in the seat so if you move him in and out, he wakes up. I know I should just stay home more but it's hard for both Owen and I to be stuck inside too much.
• Loves to gum and suck on his fist. Unlike his brother, he will actually suck on a pacifier. He usually uses it for a little while to help soothe himself to sleep, then he spits it out. I honestly like it that was because he doesn't seem dependent on it.

We praise God that He chose us to be his parents. Here's to hoping the next month will be less eventful, (well at least when it comes to medical stuff.) :)