I love CHAPSTICK, I do! Or am I having a stroke?

.....I mean I REALLY do! I am an addict. An addict of having smooth, never dry, always moisturized morning, noon and night lips! I carry some type of "chapstick" on me at all times. I have it in the car. diaper bag, kitchen drawers, bathroom, nightstand, pockets etc. OK I am sure you get it.

But just the other night in the wee hours of the morning, I felt it. The need for my sacred chapstick. My lips were sub par and something must be done. So in the pitch black off I slipped out of the bed feeling my way past the foot board so as to NOT do myself bodily harm. Feeling my way across the dresser, I find my ever worthy lip companion! "Awe, there you are!" I almost want to say. So off with the top and almost immediately my lips are at peace again!

Still in my dream, groggy state I feel my way back to the side of the bed...letting the rail lead me to MY side. I settle right back into sleep as if NEVER having been awake at all. (Perhaps that should have been my first inkling.)

Within about 4 1/2 minutes...my lips are numb and the numbness is slowly working it's way down the bottom of my chin! What in the CRAP! "Oh, dear Lord (I was praying) I am having a stroke!" I am! I thought...I am having a flippin' facial stroke. What to do? I start feeling for my arms and moving my legs...oh, Lord I am freakin' drooling now! This is it. This is happening, I am haveing a stroke! Darn that homemade cheesecake I ate!

In the midst of flipping the 'frig out....my senses are slowly coming to me...but still not my lip senses. I am now fully wake up and jump from the bed, only this time I DID in fact do myself bodily harm to the front of my thigh with the foot board of the bed. I quickly stumble across the room and I am sad to say, that while praying a few choice words were uttered. (Oh please, give me a little break I was having a flippin' facial stroke after all. Right?) SOOOOOO, I flip on the light and I am standing in front of the mirror, now blinded by the light I squint see myself...I am pinching my face and I can see my lips and chin, but I can't feel them!

WTH is going on? I try and start rationalizing the situation. Do I call 911? No you doof you ARE married to 911! Oh, yeah that's right. I run (which ain't pretty, lemme tell you) over to the dresser and get my phone...and sitting next my phone is my chapstick ans sitting next to my chapstick is a bottle of........Avon foot and heal cream with ANTISEPTIC (a nubbing freakin'agent) OINTMENT!

Yup, in my hast to have my lips feeling as they should (in the dark) I accidentally (while half asleep) mixed up the two tubes. Oops. Good news is. I was not having a facial stroke! Bad news: Even if my lips were chapped I wouldn't have felt it anyway.

The Doodlebugs

The Doodlebugs Christmas 2009Doodlebug #5

Beyond Handsome DB #4

Sweet Doodlebug Sisters #'s 1,2 and 3

Doodlebug #'s 1-5!

These five children are my absolute dreams come true! What a blessing and joy they are in my life with each passing day!

What can I say!

I have missed blogging, but for some odd reason can't seem get into the swing of it all again. So much has transpired that I must take the time to fill you in....if in fact anyone is still reading my blog. Are you?

Well, back in August I took a 4 day a week job team teaching a pre-school group of 2 and 3 year olds. I loved it! However after 2 months I quickly found out per the Chief's words....."Your job really isn't working out for me." :-) I had to smile as for 8 years pretty much he has had me at home. So in October I turned in my notice, however I was so heavy hearted that i just had to stay another month, then another, then of course I didn't want to miss the Christmas program. So the decision was made I would leave over Christmas break. Perfect! Well, God had other plans and at the beginning of Jan. I got the call that a two day a week position in the 1 year old room (DB #5's room) was available if I wanted it! So I was hired...quit, and hired again. I start back (although I don't feel I ever left) the first of Feb. and I couldn't be more excited.

We are in the full throws of elementary school. All three girl DB's are in school full time. The boys are with me, however Doodlebug #4 will start school next year....and then there was one! What will I ever do, I can't even think about it.

The Chief and I are doing great. The house is nearly finished...still have the new living room (addition) to complete and carpet to install. My creative wheels are turning as I am SO ready to lighten this house up from the years of VERY warm colors throughout.

I must say that I am excited about all God has for the Chief and I this year. Foster care/adoption of a baby boy still ways on our hearts, we are just waiting for God's perfect timing if that is where He is leading us. I find myself hesitant to give all my baby stuff away for fear the moment I do...a baby will need a home.

I know that this is a bunch of random news from all over, but like I said this is a catch up post. The ages of the DB's as of today are 8,6,5,3,and 1. Next month they will be 8,7,5,4, and 1(16 months). Chief and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary in Dec. and our last baby boy turned 1 in October. I have a 3rd grader, 1st grader, and Pre-K'er.

I feel a stirring in my soul this year for the Chief and I...I can't hardly explain it. So much personal issues have come and gone over last year and we made some hard decision, but I can already see God's hand in the decisions we made out of obedience.

Can I just say, how madly in love with my Chief I am. He is such a supporter, and sticks up and by me even when it's hard for us both...and I him. As husband and wife it's difficult NOT to take on the others offenses (even for a friend it's hard)...but I am so glad he has my back and I sho' 'nough have his. Our love is so very different than the love we had for each other 9 years ago. We look at each other differently, even value each other differently and from a different place in out hearts. He is an awesome father and a true husband in EVERY sense of the word.

So, in short....I am working....again....the DB's are growing and moving along, despite my request they don't....I am falling in love with my husband more and more each passing day (so very sappy, I know)....and I am learning to be content at where my life is NOW.

If you have read this far thank you, I am going to be posting ALOT of pictures tomorrow...have a great day!

It Was My Miracle For the Taking. I Took IT!

My Miracle Story
　
　
Four years ago this past weekend I was moving into an apartment as a divorced single mother of four children who were all 5 and under. Oddly enough this wasn’t the lowest point in my life. The lowest point in my life came September 17th of 2005 when I left my 2000 sq ft. house with three children and 3 months pregnant with my fourth. My husband Joel and I were "taking a break" so I thought, however our little break to "figure things out" lead to a devastating divorce which was declared final on December 21, 2005 by the state of Georgia. I remember thinking I never knew you could get divorced so fast.

To make things really short and too the point, I was devastated over the separation much less the divorce. I mostly battled with extreme embarrassment over being a divorcee. I felt the title to be humiliating. {Matthew 1:18-19> Now this is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But while she as still a virgin she became pregnant by the Holy Sprit. Joseph, her fiancé’, being just a man, decided to break the engagement quietly, so as not to disgrace her publicly. As he considered this, he fell asleep, and an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. "Joseph, son of David", the angel said." do not be afraid to go ahead with your marriage to Mary. For the child within her has been conceived by the Holy Spirit. And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus for he will save his people from their sins. All of this happened to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet:}(God was NOT worried about Mary being humiliated, He was in control from the get-go) There were days I just couldn’t get a grip on why I was in Albany, at 28 years old, living with my parents and about to have a baby and lets not forget my three little girls! I was a broken hearted little girl with big people problems. I was stressed, worried, angry, bitter, confused, I was searching, longing, hopeful and hopeless all at the same time. I was forgetful, unhealthy sickly, sad. I was desperate but most of all I was stubborn. {Joshua 14:8-9> For my part, I followed the Lord my God completely. So that the day Mosses promised me, ‘The land of Canon on which you were just walking will be your special possession and that of your descendants forever, because YOU WHOLEHEARTEDLY followed the Lord my God’.}

I was born strong willed on December 12, 1976; I hope I stay that way until the day I die. I spent hours upon hours praying for my marriage to be restored. When I say hours upon hours I literally mean some nights I would pull an all night-er…on my knees 9 months pregnant or standing on my bible in my room my precious new baby boy asleep and just pray. Pray, Pray, Pray. {Luke 18 Story of Persistent Widow- One day Jesus told his disciples a story to illustrate their need for constant prayer and to show them that they must never give up. "There was a judge in a certain city," her said, "who was a godless man with great contempt for everyone. A widow in that city came to him repeatedly, appealing for justice against someone who had harmed her. The judge ignored her for a while, but eventually SHE WORE HIM OUT.’I fear neither God nor man, ‘he said to himself, but this women is DRVING ME CRAZY. I’m going to see that she gets justice, because she is wearing me out with her constant request!’" Then the Lord said, "Learn a lesson from this evil judge. Even he rendered a just decision in the end, so don’t you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who plead with Him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly! But when I, the Son of Man, return, how many will I find who have faith?"} (I was the persistent widow, bugging, pleading praying, wearing out my welcome)

Some nights I would pray for me, for the children, for Joel most times my tears did the praying my sobbing would be my voice. I often thought that if the rocks could cry out, the trees clap their hands and the mountains could bow down, then God would hear my voice through my tears. I prayed in tongues quite often, hoping the Holy Spirit would understand what I couldn’t seem to put into English.{ Isaiah 55:12-13>You will live in joy and peace, The mountains and the hills will burst into song, and the trees of the field will clap their hands! Where once there were thorns, cypress trees will grow. Where briers grew, myrtles will sprout up. This MIRACLE will bring great honor to the Lord’s name; it will be an everlasting sign of His power and love.}

I always had a sense of being taken care of, every one of my needs was met the very moment it was needed. The childrens and mine. Whether by God’s peace, or the people around me that gave and gave and gave. People sowed into my life that may never even realize what their actions did. I am going to take a sidebar and name a few things that happened to the children and me.
-Went to mail box, card and $100
-Couple gave me $300 dollars
-Same couple (lady), just about furnished my apartment. (bedding, paint, new rug)
-Couple gave me washer and dryer
-Couple gave me microwave and coffee maker
-People came five days in a row and painted my apartment
-People took my children and loved up on them
-I had the greatest baby shower out of all my children’s showers
-I had a $1000 dollar check written to me because this lady was in the shower and was listening to the Holy Spirit when he just happened to whisper to her.
I could go on and on. The giving that these people showed me was and still is unbelievable. Some people did things for the children and I just out of love for my parents! Talk about getting in on a good deal ! What a privilege to be so loved by people just because I am Morris and Sarah’s daughter. This defines covenant relationships.
(SET OUT FIRST PLATE OF CHINA)

There was a turning point, it happened in the driveway of my parents’ house. I knew I was divorced, but was beyond accepting it. I was sitting on the bumper of my car having one of my many meltdowns. I don’t remember what the melt down was about. At this time I was on a waiting list for GRAFA, on every imaginable assistance program available, in college and just struggling day to day to keep it together. My dad came out and just as I had looked at my own children over the last year with sorrow for their hurt, knowing they wanted to scream and shout and didn’t know how to tell me how they were feeling, he looked at me that way. I knew then the saying that we all say to our own children "If I could take it would" his eyes welled with tears and he said, "Aimee, you are a divorced women, I can’t change it, you can’t change it, it’s just what it is. I am so sorry." He loved me the same married or divorced, I was not a disappointment to him. In that moment I felt I could breath for the first time in over a year.

I still absolutely without a doubt didn’t accept my divorce as final (in the heavenlies). I never for a moment ever heard anything from the Lord allowing me to walk away, I did however changed the way I was playing the hand that was dealt to me. I played it or prayed it as divorced women. I moved out in November of last year like I said earlier, in fact this very weekend, within 3 weeks of moving into my own place, my miracle began. Joel and my turning point came in November however there is a certain date that comes to mind…December 12 my 30 birthday, Joel after working a 20 hour shift was standing in the cold at 7:15 a.m. in the morning waiting for me to open the door to take our oldest to school. He was there for me…. for my birthday. (This showed me Joel’s actions, because our trust with each other had been broken so badly.)
(PLACE OUT TEA CUP SAUCER-2nd piece of china)

Through much counseling, prayer, counseling, prayer we began our journey to reconciliation. So pretty much just a suddenly as the ending had stared so the beginning began. It came out of left field, it came when I least expected it, it came only when, I listened to my Father and obeyed. My heavenly father and earthly father. (Under different covering reversed the cleaving process) The day my father was so brutally blunt with me was the day I couldn’t live as a married women any longer, I had to come under a different type of authority.

I find it a privilege to say that I have lived to see something raised from the dead. I have seen God take something dead and breath life into it, make it whole and new again. I don’t know how He did it…how He made something out of nothing. He is the Master Craftsman that’s for sure.
What I have given you today is a piece of my wedding china; it was broken along with three other place settings on the brick steps out back behind my house. My daughter recently found some pieces still laying in the dirt out back. She came in and said remember Mommy when you broke this? (This was not a shining moment for me) I was hoping she wouldn’t remember the last year and a half. Not really knowing what to do I explained that I did remember, and I was again sorry that she saw me do this awful thing, then I took her to the china cabinet and said…that little piece is what happened to our family…but look what God did, and I pointed to a full place setting of my wedding china. So this began my writing this testimony.
(PLACE TEA CUP OUT)

No matter how small the piece God has to work with. He can do it! I always was waiting for the miracle; I knew it belong to me. It was mine for the taking. I took it. Joel and I remarried in February, I moved back home in May. Are things perfect? Not by a long shot. It’s tough; it’s work, a lot of work. I believe this miracle of mine is still in the making and evolving in God’s Kingdom everyday.

I am quite aware of Satan and his work to kill, steal and destroy more than ever, especially when it comes to my family. Within three weeks of the children and I moving home, we had a small tornado come through our town and a branch impaled our roof, our daughter McKenna had a very, very rocky start to the first grade and her teachers suggested she go back to Kindergarten, then I hurt my back, Joel was under attack from a citizen in Climax, our only family car broke down for three weeks, and our air conditioner bit the dust. However….because God was ever faithful and EVER true he also saw fit to bless Joel and I with an un-expected pregnancy. Our 5th child Grant was born on October 9th 2008. We struggle a lot, but we believe that if God brought us through what we went through, He will bring us through these struggles. I am proud to be a daughter of God’s Kingdom, but what makes me ecstatic is that my family is a family of the kingdom of God. My cup truly runneth over.
{Psalm 23- read entire Psalm}
(Pour water into teacup and let it over flow…symbolizing my blessings)

Playing Blog Catch Up...

.....obviously I have THOROUGHLY enjoyed my Doodlebugs for the summer, as blogging has taken a back seat. We have been so busy! We had vacation, we spent that time around semi-locally and it worked out great! We were able to hire a baby sitter so we could both enjoy the older DB's on our many outings. I would so do it again, it was definitely the way to go until they are a bit older.

Then the Chief and I left on a great little get away. We went to Savannah for 5 days. The Chief had his annual Georgia Chief's of Association convention and I tagged along for the trip. originally I was going to take DB #5, then I really felt that the Chief and I really needed this time alone. So I did what I have NEVER done with any other DB in the history of having all the DB's...I left them. It was very hard, for me and for the DB's. However, they survived and so did I!

Our wonderful friends Greg and Karen Toole were a God send. One thing they did for us besides keeping all 5 DB's was that they came into our home and kept them in their environment. My girls love Mrs. Karen and her daughters and the boys love Mr. Greg. I was so at peace being gone for that long. I truly am thankful for Karen and Greg.

The Chief and I spent such wonderful time together. We talked and talked and used that time to pray over some matters and situations in our life right now. The Lord truly met us and like minded we became and some decisions were made.

School starts all too soon around here, we are winding down on summer vacation. All the DB's have "shot" up this Summer and DB #2 is about to pass #1. I hope you are all having a wonderful Summer.

So the next few weeks will be getting ready for school. This year will be different as we are looking into a few things to throw into the mix around here. (more on that later.)

Happy Father's Day To Our.....

Of All Things I Remember, I Remember My Daddy's Hat...

......I have heard this from the Chief for years. The Chief's daddy was murdered when he was only 10 years old. Throughout the years I have learned about the extreme harshness inflicted upon the Chief and his brother's, coupled with all the great memories the Chief has of his Daddy. One thing that is a constant in talking with the Chief and other family members is that someone always seems to mention the hat. I always asked, "Where is the hat? What happened to it?" I learned that the hat was taken by a family member after the Chief's daddy died and was buried. Later I would learn that it was just sitting in a garbage bag for 26 years or more shoved into a closet.

We have know for years that this family member lives a county away from where we live now, so last Summer we took a trip over to see her. This was the Chief's aunt (his daddy's sister). We had a great visit, although I was GREAT with child and miserable, I loved listening to the Chief go down memory lane (good and bad) as we got closer to our destination.

Quite a few months went by, actually 5 months rolled by and the Chief's birthday was approaching. I was doing dishes one day, and had a thought come to me....."it never hurts to ask" I thought, I wonder if anyone has ever just "asked" Aunt Mary Alice for the hat? I learned a LONG time ago the worst someone could ever say to you when you ask for something is NO.

So with a little scheming (I had to get her # from the Chief's phone) I called and asked. Without a moments hesitation the reply was, "If I can find it, you can have it." Scuse' me? What was that? For real?....now weeks pasted and I hadn't heard anything and I was getting worried, I finally got a call, "I am so sorry, I have searched hi and low and I just can not find it." I was a bucket of tears, I was so sad...so I started praying. "Lord, help me honor my husband, with this gift. Help me please to show him my love by working this out. Please find that hat for me."

Two days later and 1 week before the Chief's birthday I got the call. "I have found it." I will bring it to you.

So with the Lords help I was able to be there to watch the Chief receive his Daddy's hat, his daddy's hat with greased finger prints on it, his daddy's hat with his daddy's hair still on the inside, the hat his daddy last wore. A hat the Chief will pass down to our sons and hopefully their sons. A hat that in a memory filled with sad and horrific things brings the "good" memories to my husbands mind. A hat the Chief had not seen in 26 years. I have never seen my husband at a loss for anything. There were no words...he was in awe that in his hands he was holding his daddy's hat.

I am honored to be a part of watching him get the hat, I am grateful that I was listening when the Holy Spirit whispered " It never hurts to ask."