Catching Up

           Ok, let’s play catch up, shall we! It seems like so much has happened in my little world since my last life update. It is amazing what a summer can bring. I feel like it has been forever since catching up with a best friend and now I must pummel you with my words. I will try to restrain myself from sharing every last detail with all of you beautiful unsuspecting lovelies.

First and foremost, we are in the home stretch with our adoption process. It looks like little miss sassy-pants will officially be a Morris sometime in November (we are praying it doesn’t take any longer than this). That will make three years since she entered our home. We officially sent in all of our paperwork and payment so we are just waiting for the courts at this point. We have been dreaming of this day for so long it almost doesn’t seem real yet. For those of you that are my friends on social media, brace yourself for the massive amounts of pictures we plan to post as soon as this is final.  I plan to post on here as well.

Second, we decided to homeschool our middle son, Tony. This was a difficult decision for us, but once it became clear, we were washed in the “peace that transcends all understanding.” You know, that peace that only God can give. We are a few weeks into the new school year and I am even more convinced than ever that we made the right decision. I am not saying this is easy, but I am saying that it is worth it and it is clearly what Tony needs at this time. I’ve learned that the hard decision is usually the right one. I am really trying to be present in each moment and not to miss any teaching opportunities. We joined the local 4-H and plan to go on some group field trips. Plus, he is still taking horseback riding lessons once a week.

Since we decided to homeschool Tony, we also made the decision for little miss to start pre-k 3. Whew, this was a hard one! A couple of months before school started I began talking to her about it, and every time she would cry and explain through her tears that she didn’t want to go. She was really pulling at the heart-strings…and the guilt-strings. She told me at one point, “You can’t yeave me, you my mommy;” I wasn’t sure my heart was going to survive that one. But by the first day of school she was ready to go. My husband and I walked her to class and she was fine. I choked back my tears like a good mommy. When I picked her up and she came running out of that school with her pink backpack on, arms reaching for me, and yelling  “mommy” as loud as she could; I totally lost it and cried all the way to the car and the short drive home. I am such a sap! The next day when I took her to school she cried at the window banging on the class and screaming for me. So yet again, I cried all the way to the car and all the way home. By the end of the second week she seemed to have it down (though she still cries at least once a week just for good measure) and my heart is slowly recovering.

OK, so now I have to address the Texas weather. At the beginning of the summer we had some crazy rain…like monsoon! My husband bought himself a new car and gave his old one (which wasn’t really old, it was still under warranty) to our 16-year old. However, the sunroof was acting up, so he took the car to the dealership to have it repaired. The next day he got a call that his car, the one for our 16-year old, had flooded at the dealership. He was frustrated, to say the least, because he bought that car for the sole purpose of passing it on to our son. As a matter of fact, when he bought himself a new car, he just got the same one, just a newer model and different color so he could do the same thing for our middle son. However, you must know that what my husband really wants is a 4-door, full-size, pick-up truck. At the same time, he wants to do the right thing and pass on a car with better gas mileage for the kids; he is sacrificing his wants for the kids—good man, huh?

So, after the car was determined to be totaled, we learned the amount of insurance refund and my husband feverishly begins looking for a vehicle for our son. He finds the perfect deal. He shows Lance what he found and he is so excited he can hardly stand it. So they go to the dealership to make the deal. We got him a red 4-door, full-size, pick-up truck! It is then that the young man turns to his Dad and says…“Dad, how are you going to feel with me driving a pick-up truck and you driving a car?” To which my husband replies, with a puzzled look on his face…“like I made a mistake!” Boys and their toys!  I am not going to lie; I sure do love it when I get to drive his truck.

Last, but certainly not least, my husband and I celebrated our 20-year wedding anniversary this summer. It is still crazy to me that I am even old enough to be married for 20 years. Here’s the crazy news; for the first time in our marriage, went out of town for our anniversary—just the two of us.  It was so lovely to get away with him and be alone.  Do you know what we learned? Or actually just reconfirmed? We like each other…like A LOT!  That may sound crazy, but after having kids in our home, stealing our focus, it sure is nice to know that we can still be just the two of us and enjoy each other. We still have lots of stuff to say to each other and not just about the kids. We really just love being around each other, which gives me great hope for our empty-nester years; but that’s going to be a while with a three year old in the house! And there you have it, the latest-and-greatest of the happenings in my life.

So what is going on with you?