Home Again, Home Again!

It's finally over - four weeks of training, sitting in a classroom 8 hours a day, trying to pay attention and retain so much information, and tests upon tests. Eating out 3 meals a day for fours weeks is not all what it's cracked up to be. I missed Pam's cooking, with a passion. Thankfully I was able to come home on the weekends; some of the students came from too far away to go home on the weekends.

Richmond VA (Virginia's capital - for the geography challenged among us) is an interesting phenomenon of beautiful buildings and old south charm, but it's downtown area is so many desolate empty buildings lining the streets. There are some whole city blocks of vacant buildings. Thankfully there are a few buildings being remodeled for re-use, but the city doesn't look like what one would imagine a capital city would look like.

I've got a long "honey-do" list to get into. I'm going to have to dig deep to make it up to Pam for being the great lone soldier while I was gone. I was as frugal as I could be in saving my travel per diem up to we could afford to take the kids to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg next month.

School starts a week from Tuesday. The kids are getting anxious to meet new friends and teachers. With 7 kids in 4 different schools, it's going to be a hard and long process to get into a comfortable rhythm.

YEA, Dad!!!!!

We have had a really busy last 2 weeks, and it is Friday again! YEA DADDY is coming home tonight!

This is hard on Daddy, being gone from his beautiful family!, not getting wonderful home cooked meals, and being lonely-- but, it is really harder on mommy!-- (7 little darlings!!!)
The Home front is a BUSY one!!

We went back to the beach for 2 days this week-- I work out there one day a week- than we play on the beach one day! We have had such beautiful weather for it each week and so much fun with our friends!

Well, I hope that today goes fast and my hubby gets home safe and sound!!

Only one more week of this single parenthood--Praise the Lord!!

Blessings, Pamela Dawn

SUNDAYS

Sometimes it is just so hard to know what and where the Lord really wants you-



Last Monday, a lady that works in my neighborhood, stopped by and invited the kids to attend VBS. So, at lunch, we voted on attending or not-- and the vote was 6 to 1 to go-- So we did- and we had a ball! That was great that she stopped by-- we never would have known about the VBS otherwise. Each of the kids met some kids their age and so going into new schools will not be as threatening as it might have been. The VBS had some adult classes for the week, and I met some nice people.

Life is good!
Blessings, Pamela Dawn

You know you have a big family when...

You know you have a big family when the ice cream truck slowed down at our yard and I could swear the volume of his music went up! Pam and the kids told me the other day, he not only slowed down but pulled into the drive way!

Share your big family awareness experiences...

Whew!

It has been a whirlwind summer so far. I know I have not posted as much as I normally have. There are lots of reasons...Our trip to Africa which just about did my legs in. (I have had horrible leg cramps since then), husband's loss of his job, and my hours at work changing and being cut back. Add to this 3 new little ones - 7 total. That has doubled all my life chores, i.e. laundry and meals - lots of meals!! We had my daughter and her family come with friends in tow.

Then Juan gets a new job and has training out of town - for a month! In the middle of this we moved to a new city, into another home. I had to pack the hold house, and change utilities. I had to do the entire move by myself because Juan doesn't have any vacation time yet. I had to register the kids into 4 new schools, talk with all the guidance counselors, set up ESL, set up testing, take the kids for physicals, and immunisations.

Now this obviously isn't my first adoption, but this adoption just sent me into huge postpartum "baby blues". Who am I kidding; I am (was) flat out depressed. Then, on top of the depression, I was feeling guilty that I was depressed. I was afraid to talk to anyone about it since I'm the one that wanted to adopt - so why would I be depressed? I was also afraid to talk about it because depression is so misunderstood. Well meaning people wanting to to say that it is a spiritual problem. "Just get right with God." I know that I am totally right with God and I'm still depressed! Depression is an illness and it can get better or worse - but it is treatable. I am so thankful that I have a good doctor and I am now being treated. I am also thankful for my closest friends who have been with me through this the whole time. I feel a lot better and I am not crying all day!

Each day I am becoming more and more like my old self. So if I've missed returning any e-mails - email again! I am on the road back!

ANGELS, ANGELS, ANGELS....

THANK YOU LORD FOR YOUR ANGELS!!!

Friday- yea, Daddy coming home tonight-
We had a full morning, 7 kids, one mom in our 12 passenger van. Off, we went on a ton of stops- One store for a few school things, and one store for a few food things-- (thankfully just a few bags)
Then off to find our first park in our new city. We found the park, and off the kids went to explore and to play on the swings and slides. I opened the windows and started a book...
About 45 minutes later, the kids came running back- everyone getting hungry.- So, I tried to start the van, Oh No, it didn't start- Oh Lord, what do I do? All 7 kids more thank 5 miles from our house?
ANGELS??!!-- A beautiful lady was in the car next to the van. And as I was trying to start the van, she was coming around the side of the van.
When I saw her I had the window down, and she said- " The Lord told me to give you this to buy lunch for the kids- they are so cute....
" Oh thank you God, You are in control and You are here...
I jumped out of the van, and asked her to pray with me for the van to just start- (wouldn't that be neat??!!)
Well, it didn't start- but this wonderful angel, sent from God, put the kids in her car and off we went home-
She and I had a wonderful time of fellowship. God had this time all planned out for us-
We don't know anyone in this city yet to even call for help-
But God knows and God cares.
My wonderful husband got home and off we went to jump the van- And today got a new battery and the van is just fine now.
The Lord is teaching me He is in control and He is taking care of me and my kids...;)
I am listening to HIm! I love you Lord--
Blessings, Pam

THREE MORE WEEKS...

ONLY 3 MORE WEEKS OF ONE PARENT!!

ANGELS

Angels....
We are now officially moved. And totally out of the house in the Outer Banks. Now, in the house up in VA. I am still working down at the beach one to two days a week. We have some Angel friends that are helping me with the kids to be able to be at the beach while I am working. Thank you so much Lord for your angels.
The girls are great babysitters- but not when both parents are several hours away in different cities... God is so faithful and I am so thankful for such wonderful friends.
Sometimes is is very hard to accept help- God is showing me how to and God is showing me His love and grace. At this point, I really need the help.
THANK YOU GOD- for all of your Angels......

The 10 commandments

This is just a thought. Our pastor at Nags Head Church has been doing an extended series on the life of Moses. He has started on when the LORD God gave to Moses, to give to the people, "The Ten Commandments". Of course volumes upon volumes of material has been written and will be written on the commandments and The Law. What I gather is that The Law provides us two things. One is a set of guide lines like those on the highway. They keep us from running into each other on the road and from running off the road. The other is to show us that we're not perfect and God is.

No matter how many lessons/sermons I hear on The Ten Commandments, I will always hear something new and awe inspiring. But no matter how many lessons/sermons I hear, I always remember the one that said - One of the reasons God gave us these laws was because He loves us and wanted the best in life for us. Just like parents give rules/laws to their kids for their own good, God did the same for us. The one thing I remember is when the speaker said something like this; Imagine what life would be like if everyone were to actually follow these laws (we realize that our flesh keeps us from doing it, so our imagination has a difficult time with it, but try to follow along anyway).

Imagine, if we didn't lie to each other - Ever! We could trust every one. Of course we wouldn't need lawyers, written contracts, judges, courts, and the divorce rate would plummet. Imagine if we didn't steal from each other - Ever! No police, lawyers, judges, fights, courts, jails. Imagine if we didn't murder each other - Ever! No military, wars, terrorists, police, lawyers, judges, courts, jails. Imagine if we were all virgins at our weddings and never stepped out of our marriage vows - Ever! No babies born out of wed-lock, no STD's, no lawyers, judges, no step people, divorce rates and abortions would go way down. Imagine if we loved and honored our parents - Always! No "disfunctional families", no nursing homes, we'd have great family unions and not need reunions. Imagine if we didn't envy what our neighbors had - Ever! The Joneses would just be neighbors and not the ones driving us to work ourselves to distraction and destruction.

Now imagine if we all loved the Lord God with all our hearts, minds and souls - Forever! I can't begin to imagine what life would be like on this earth.

It doesn't take a PhD in theology to see how great life would be...does it?

What I hate about moving

One of the parts I hate about moving is looking for and starting over again in a new church family/group. We pray that the Lord leads us to where He wants us to serve. We try to stay out of the way of His leading, but I'm human... We try not to find a duplicate of the church we had to leave, that's the hardest thing to do. The music and singing worship will be good, but different. The children's church/Sunday school will be good, but different. The small group gatherings will be good, but different. As much change as we've endured over the years, it's still challenging to accept change. It's stressful, it's tiring, it's scary.

We went to Believer's Church today. I'm fairly sure they are a Baptist church without the denominational tagging. The people there were all very friendly and inviting. The music was good, the facilities were very nice. Unfortunately the lead pastor was out for vacation so, we'll go back again when he returns. We realize the pastor is not the church by any means, but we kind of get the jist of where the flock is by getting to know the lead pastor. You know, where is the leader going; how close is he following the LEADER?

We have a couple other churches in the area that were suggested to us, so we'll visit them as well. Please pray that our eyes and ears will be open to the Lords leading. We need a place to serve and a place for our children to grow and be nourished.