A Year in Review

2007 was a CRAZY year in our family .... Here is just a bit of what went on in our world this past year ...

• January - Found out we would be moving to a new state for a new ministry job for Jeremy. Sold our home in 24 hours. Packed countless boxes of stuff, donated countless boxes of stuff, and trashed countless boxes of junk. Moved to our new state.
• February - Unpacked all those boxes! Jeremy began a new job at a new church. Grieved the friends and students we left behind. I got the shingles. Met new friends and slowly made our new home ... home.
• March - Jeremy was released from his job with little reason or rhyme. Hearts were confused and broken.
• April - Jeremy still hunts for a job. Spent Easter with my parents. Jeremy's parents visited for the first time. Found a new church that rocked our worlds and made us feel so welcome and at home. Ryan had surgery on his eyes.
• May - My Grandmother passed away. Pace turned 1. Got involved in a great small group at our new church and began to meet some neat friends that I'm sure will be lifelong friends. Jeremy got a contract job after being out of work for 8 weeks.
• June- Ryan was away for a week visiting Jeremy's parents. My first time having him so far away. Jeremy got to golf with his dad.
• July - Potty trained Ryan in a weekend! WOW is all I can say about that. Jeremy turned 31. Pace took his first steps.
• August - We celebrated our 4th anniversary. The boys and I spent a week with Jeremy's parents. Jeremy's cousin Casie was married. I turned 32
• September - Went through the membership class at our new church. I began leading a mom's Bible study group weekly through our church.
• October - Ryan began school and LOVED it. Jeremy had his first asthma attack since he was a child. Jeremy was able to come out of contract status and we finally got insurance!
• November - Pace is 18 months old this month. My brother severely injured his hand and needed surgery. Jeremy's parents came up for thanksgiving. Ryan moved into a big boy bed this month.
• December - Ryan is 3! Hubby planned a date day - secured a sitter for the whole day! Ryan was in a school Christmas play. We spent a few days in GA with my parents, grandparents, brother and his girlfriend for an early Christmas. Jeremy's parents came up on the 26th for Christmas. Found out we are expecting baby #3!

It was a crazy year with more ups and downs than I can put to words. However, all in all God always took care of us. He always does no matter what life throws our way.

Our prayer is that we follow him closely in 2008 and that we stay in line with His will for our lives. I pray that we are consistently in step with Him. Not a step ahead, behind or beside, but always in step with where He is leading us at any given moment. We pray this for you and your family as well. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Huge Scare!

Last night we had a HUGE scare b/c of our dog Zoe! Somehow she managed to get out of the house and we didn't realize it. We did Christmas with my in-loves, then headed out to dinner. We came home and my normal hyper dog was not waiting on us at the door when we got back. So, I called out for her and she didn't come. I knew then she was not in the house. We started searching the neighborhood and yelling her name. People thought we were crazy! By this time, we assume she had been out for at least 3 hours. We had no idea where she could be. My mother-in-love bathed my boys and I helped her get them in PJ's and in bed while Jeremy and my Father-in-love were still out looking for our dog. After getting the boys in bed my Mother-in-love joined in on the search. We all had to finally stop looking as it was rather late by this point. As soon as everyone got in, our phone rang and it was someone who had our dog!!!! The guy who found her had used the tag on her collar and called animal control, since we had registered her in our new city, they were able to call us and bring her right over. She was only a few streets over. A man almost hit her with his car (she is only 4 pounds and very low to the ground), thankfully he didn't. He scooped her up and called animal control for us! I was so afraid she was gone forever. So thankful that God answered our prayers, my boys will be so happy to see their Zoe this morning!

Things I learned on Christmas ...

Here are a few random things I learned yesterday ....

• Toys with parent proof packaging should not be wrapped ... rather they should be taken out of the parent proof packaging and batteries inserted and sat beneath the tree... this way it's not dinner time before the kids can actually play with their toys.
• Items that are not parent proofed can be wrapped.
• Do not feed or water the kids before putting them to bed ... otherwise they will pee out of their Christmas eve pj's and you will have to dry them if you want them to wear as they are opening their gifts ... you know pictures look so much better when still in PJ's on Christmas morning.
• Buy LOTS of batteries because Santa's toys will run out of battery power quickly from all the other people trying them out while still in the packaging! Toys without batteries are not fun for little boys who really want to play with their new toys.
• Batteries at the gas station are expensive ... so we let the gas station keep them.

So ... did you learn anything new?

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas! Hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas. We spent the weekend in Atlanta visiting family and friends. It was great to see everyone and get some good quality time with my parents, grandparents, and my brother and his girlfriend. Tonight we settle in and await Santa's arrival.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Why is it that my kids take better pictures with other people than they do with us?

This is my brother and his girlfriend with the boys.

new t-shirts

We love adoption! Hopefully, one day we can adopt. Until then, we will support others who do. Today, I won two shirts from Tamara who is promoting Adopting August and Amos & Story. We have the kids "Saving Dowensky" Shirts and now we will have shirts for us as well!

If you want to follow their journey through adoption you can click on the links above.

What Kind of Christmas gift are you?

You Are Socks!

Cozy and warm... but easily lost. You make a good puppet.

What Crappy Christmas Gift Are You?

An early christmas Present

And then there were 5...

Merry Christmas!

Prayers needed...

Today, during Ryan's bounce house birthday party, my dad got a phone call from a friend of his from home. Today a friend lost her 19 month old daughter, Lilli. Their family could use your prayers. If you think of it pray for Paul and LeAnn. I can't imagine loosing a child at any time of year but especially at Christmas. Please lift up this family in your prayers.

Give your kids an extra hug and kiss tonight, just because you can.

Happy Birthday Ryan!

Sweet boy today is your day. Today you are 3. I've said this a lot this week but it doesn't seem like you should be 3 yet. It feels like just yesterday they placed you in my arms for the first time.

You are 100% boy and you love cars and trains. You have a vivid imagination and enjoy telling stories to Lightening McQueen and Sally! You love to help and are a great helper to mom and dad. We enjoy watching you and your brother play (when you are not fighting) and laughing together.

You pray some of the sweetest prayers I've heard. It is so fun to hear you as you pray for others and tell Jesus what's on your mind. We never know what you will tell him but I love the way you talk to him and how your little heart is already learning to trust him. I look forward to the day when you ask him into your heart to become your Lord and Savior! What a day that will be!

Today you will have a Christmas program at your school. I'm so excited to see you in your first ever production! I love you so much and am so thankful that God chose me to be your mom. I have enjoyed watching you as you have grown to 3 and look forward to all the years we have ahead! I love you sweet boy!

If you are out there and still reading this ... Leave Ryan a happy birthday message if you don't mind! Thanks!

3 years ago ...

Three years ago today, Jeremy and I began our trek to the hospital. Ryan was letting me know it was time. It was a Sunday morning, Jeremy called our Pastor to let him know we would not be at church (he was on staff) and that if it really was time, he would not be at work the next day. He keep joking with me to hold on until lunch was over. You see, that was the day that our small group was going to this Brazilian restaurant for lunch. For a husband who loves to eat, this was something he was excited about - all you can eat meat? The thought of it at that moment just did nothing for me as I told him I thought we would be missing that get together. We got ready and stopped for breakfast on the way. I knew I would get nothing else once admitted so I wanted to eat, and was thankful I did!

We made it to the hospital around 9am that Sunday morning. My body was contracting, however it was NOT dilating. So they had me put on 2 beautiful hospital gowns and walk the halls to see if I could dilate a bit more. NOTHING. It was beautiful! (not really) I was in all kinds of pain and walking the halls was not what I wanted to do. For all of those women that can do a natural birth, I am not one of them! I hate pain, it is not my friend, and I dreaded the pain that I knew went along with birthing a child. I wanted an epidural. I was literally worried that I would not get to the hospital in time to get one and that seriously concerned me! I'm a wimp and I am not afraid to admit it.

Finally, my doctor made his way over to see me....my favorite was on call! He told me they were going to admit me but that he wanted me to walk some more ...WHAT! I was tired of walking, I could barely sit the contractions were so hard and so fast. Putting one foot in front of the other was not what I wanted to do. However, it was about 2pm by this point and walking I was doing. A sweet couple from our small group ventured over to the hospital after having lunch to see us and wound up walking the halls with me. Tag and Jeremy walked ahead of us and Wendy lovingly walked s.l.o.w.l.y. with me and stopped with each and every contraction. I could hear Jeremy and Tag up ahead talking about food and how good this restaurant was. Not what I wanted to hear at that moment ... I was Pregnant and HUNGRY! :)

We got back to my room where my doctor was waiting on me ... checked me and I had only dilated about 1/2 cm from where I was before. He mentioned epidural and I was ready! He broke my water and the epidural doc made his way to my room. I was of course worried that this would wear off and would not be in tact when Ryan was wanting to come out, he assured me they could give me a re=dose and I was OK with that.

The nurses and Doctors had warned me that it might be a while. I was ready for this baby to get here, however, my parents, brother and in-loves were all on the road and God heard their prayers to let the baby wait on them to get there over my prayers of get this baby out of me. Just kidding of course. Ryan decided to wait on everyone to make their arrival and then waited a while past that.

I started pushing about 2am MONDAY morning and Ryan was born at 4:08AM. I was so happy to have that baby in my arms. My parents, brother and in-loves were anxiously waiting in the waiting room to hear the news that he was here. They finally got to meet Ryan around 5:30AM and then everyone went to rest. We were moved to another room where we would spend the next 4 days .... I was running a fever, chills, and had the shakes bad. My muscles were so sore from shaking so much. Finally, I was released and we were able to take our precious first born home. Tomorrow, this boy will be 3. I can't believe it ... it feels just like yesterday!

Help!

I need a little help with a feisty 19 month old! He is in the stage where he HAS to do everything himself! Which is fine .... until the food doesn't go on the spoon and he throws a F.I.T. He hasn't learned how to get the food to go on his spoon and under NO means will he allow anyone to help, thus resulting in a tantrum, not eating and a cranky mom and child. He puts the spoon in his bowl then to his mouth and then gets mad that there's nothing on it (unless it's yogurt which just sticks to the spoon). I can't guide the spoon with my hand to get food on it for him to put in his mouth. No sir, that would be too much help! So this morning he had about 3 bites of oatmeal and half a cup of milk because he was so upset. If you have any advice ... I'd love to hear it as I've exhausted everything I know. I don't want to give him only pancakes and cereal for breakfast - things he can do himself. I know he wont starve himself but I'm pretty sure he'll wait for lunch :) I should give him oatmeal or grits at each meal so that he HAS to figure it out! That would be mean though because I'm sure he would not eat all day. Help, Please?

Busy week!

This week is a BUSY week! Ryan's birthday is Thursday! I can't believe he is about to be 3! Where does time go? He is also in a Christmas program at his school on Thursday, so excited to see what I'm sure will be his first of many school programs! Friday, my parents come into town for the weekend to help us celebrate Ryan's birthday. Friday night, Jeremy and I will go to our small groups Christmas party - white elephant gift exchange should be hilarious. Saturday, we will have a bounce house birthday party with Ryan and 9 other friends! I also have a lot to get accomplished today and tomorrow. I'm off to begin my day! Hope yours is wonderful!

"Spit it out"

These are words I will not say again to Ryan! He has a little bit of a stutter, repeating the same word several times in a row before he gets to what he wants to say. Last night he was trying to tell me something important about his cars and so I finally said "spit it out buddy" and all of a sudden he SPIT IN MY FACE!

I asked for it ... all I could do was laugh. I will not say that to him again!

The ADVENTure of Christmas

"Redeeming the Meaning of Christmas... Have you discovered that Jesus sometimes gets lost in the middle of the hustle and bustle of His birthday party? Would you like to be able keep your children’s focus on Jesus and be able to join them in the wonder of the celebration?

For each of the twenty-four days preceding Christmas, The ADVENTure of Christmas serves as a fun and handy guide that describes the true meaning hidden in your most cherished traditions. Hanging lights on the house, wrapping gifts, and decorating the tree will become opportunities to share how these traditions relate to Jesus’ birth. The ADVENTure of Christmas recaptures the delightful essence of this beloved season, giving reasons to joyfully celebrate for years to come."

This came from Lisa Whelchel's website. This book is wonderful! Our church bought these for our Mom's group to purchase at our last meeting. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this book and plan to incorporate many of the ideas in this book into our Christmas traditions. The book gives you great ideas and questions to ask your kids, with ways for you to answer the questions. It is a great book. If you don't have this book .... GET IT~! :)

A crazy week & Update

It has been a crazy week around our house. The boys are keeping me on my toes these days. it's a good thing, but makes for some crazy times as their imaginations explode! Fun times for sure! We took them on a hayride to Bethlehem with our small group this past week and they had a blast! I forgot to take my camera .... not sure what that is about as I always have my camera with me.

Some of you have e-mailed about my brother Benjamin. He is doing OK. In therapy with my good friend, Janice. However, the tendons seem to be growing to his skin, so he may need surgery again soon. The doctor will recheck him next week. My brother has also been having some crazy conversations with me this week which make me realize he is not so much my little brother any more - he's all "growed" up now :). I may have some news to share soon. CRAZY!

More on this later but my little boy will be 3 next week .... where does the time go?

Help an Orphan

Go here and if you feel led, help out the orphans in Thailand.

Happy 21st Birthday Casie!

Today is Jeremy's cousin Casie's 21st birthday! We hope you have a great day and that the next year is the best one yet! We love you!

Ryan & Pace say "happy birfday cousin casiedillia" :) We love you!

Trivia question

OK so how many of you know how old Joseph was when he and Mary were betrothed/engaged? I have to admit I did not know. Our church is doing a series right now about what we thought we knew surrounding the Christmas story. Sunday's was all about Joseph and Mary ...

Go ahead take a guess at how old you think he was .... I'll come back later and let you know!

I've been thinking ...

I've been thinking about what I would do if i actually won these lotteries, as I won two more just yesterday! (gotta hate spam mail) 9 Million dollars, minus the takes paid, is a lot of money. I know most churches do not agree with the lottery but I'm sure they wouldn't turn away the tithe off of 9 million! I started thinking about all the people that, once winning the lottery, it changes their lives and their lives fall apart quickly. What is it about money that causes so many to be worse off after they get the money than they were before? Greed. I think that's all it is. Our eyes are bigger than our stomachs and our purses!

What would we do with that money, here's a partial list:

• Tithe
• Pay off our house and car
• Help out the ones in my family who need a little help
• Put some away for my kids education fund
• Put some away for retirement, us and our parents
• Help someone who doesn't have a home, have a home of their own
• Start a foundation to help families adopt - scholarships (adoption is so close to my heart since I myself was adopted)
• Give to my friends who raise support for a living (such a step of faith for them)
• I'm sure we would take a vacation and take some other families with us

I'm sure we would find some other fun stuff to do but mostly we would want to help others as much as we could. I would hope that having that much money wouldn't drastically change us as people.

Of course, we will never win a lottery, since you have to play in order to win! It's always nice to dream though!

This past week ...

I have won the following things even though I never entered their drawings ...

• a million dollar lottery -7 times - the UK lottery
• a HD flat screen TV - 2 times
• a Sony laptop - 3 times
• $100 Macy gift card
• $1000 wal-mart card

I wonder what next week will bring ..... Don't you just love spam mail?

Jeremy is THE MAN!!!

I just have to write a post about my hubby being THE MAN! For the past month he has been working on a date day for us to surprise me with. He checked our calendar to see nothing was there and secured a sitter for the D.A.Y! We had a blast today! It was so fun to be able to go and do without kids. We had planned to go about an hour away to this fun town but we decided to get some stuff done around here and do some shopping instead. We were able to do some Christmas shopping, hang Christmas lights, hang our Christmas decorations and put up the tree with no interference from little hands and we didn't have to referee any fights! It was bliss. We were able to go out to lunch and eat a meal slowly without having to share any of it! And he put this together all on his own! I am so proud of him for thinking of this all by himself and doing all the leg work to make it happen!

Honey, you rock and you made my day! Thank you for creating a special day for us! I love you so much and am proud to be your wife!!

Thank you Heather and Olivier for keeping our boys and helping to make this day possible! You guys rock! Let us know when we can return the favor!

The Golden Compass

I have gotten SEVERAL e-mails regarding the movie The Golden Compass that is coming out soon. I'm not one to just dismiss a movie because someone says to, unless it has merit. I believe this warning has merit. This is something I would say for you to look into and decide for yourself about this movie. As for me and my house ... we will not be buying this movie nor the books. Here's a piece of an e-mail I received ...

"The Movie entitled The golden Compass is coming out December 7th. It stars Nicole Kidman and is directed toward children. Whit is disturbing to me is that this movie is based on the first of a trilogy of books for children called HIS DARK MATERIALS written by Philip Pullman of England.

He is an Atheist and his objective is to bash Christianity and promote atheism. I heard that he has made remarks that the wants to kill God in the minds of children, and that's what his books are all about. He despises C.S. Lewis and the Narnia, etc .... In the trilogy a young girl becomes enmeshed in an epic struggle against a nefarious church known as the Magisterium. Another character, an ex-nun, describes Christianity as "a very powerful and convincing mistake." As I understand it, in the last book, a boy and girl are depicted representing Adam and Eve and they Kill God, who at times is called YAHWEH.

They are hoping that unsuspecting parents will take their children to see the movie, that they will enjoy the movie and the children will want the books for Christmas. That's the hook. Pullman says he wants the children to read the books and decide against God and the kingdom of heaven."

For more info go to Plugged in Online - click here

One of those weeks!

It has been one of those weeks! One I'd rather not remember and I'd rather it go away quickly! Pace has really been testing the waters. I'm learning how totally different my children are. I knew this already but this week it is so apparent. Pace is throwing some major fits! There are days I just want to pull my hair out and scream, throwing a fit myself! Today, he threw a fit at breakfast. Y'all he barely had time to wake up and he's throwing a fit! I need to tame me a boy!

I think part of his problem is not being able to communicate as much as he wold like. He has a fair amount of words and signs - more than Ryan did at this age. However, I still have a hard time knowing exactly what the child wants sometimes. Whatever his reasons for throwing these fits, I want/need to harness them. It just seems like nothing I am doing is working with this child. I feel at times like a bad mother - as if it is my fault he acts this way. The old guilt trip "if I were better at this mothering thing my children would not act this way." I know it's a lie straight from the pit of hell itself!

I love my boys - both of them - tantrums and all. This week has just been hard - May next week be better!

Question of the day?

Today the boys and I were playing with the Veggie Tales Nativity set and Ryan's question was:

"mom where is my baby Jesus now?"

New Bed!

Tonight my little boy becomes a big boy, sleeping in a BIG BOY Bed! Yes, he is almost 3 years old and he is just now leaving the crib. My train of thought has always been ... "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." Up until a few weeks ago it hadn't been broken. He absolutely LOVED his crib!! Then it started ... he was climbing out of his crib and INTO his brothers crib. You may have remembered that post a while back, if not you can read about it here. So we figured time was here for him to get a big boy bed.

Fast forward to last week. My in-loves were in town and they surprised us by buying my boys bunk beds! Now, Pace is no where near ready for this but Ryan is. The beds arrived today and my son could not be happier! He wanted to know where his ladder was. As my in-loves took me shopping for bunk beds with my boys, Ryan would climb up every ladder with NO fear and get on each and EVERY top bunk in the store. So as soon as the ladder entered the house it was put away! :)

A big thanks goes out to Poppa and Jojo! You have made my boys day. In fact I don't think a single toy will be played with tomorrow at all and I'm quite sure Ryan will not want to go to school :) We love you guys!

Wordless Wednesday

Looks can be deceiving!

He looks perfectly harmless, sweet even! Most days he is, there are several minutes/hours in each day where this little angel throws M.A.J.O.R. tantrums. If you tell him no, gasp, he will throw a fit. If he doesn't get his way he throws a fit. D.A.I.L.Y. Ryan would throw his fits but they were nothing compared to what Pace has been up to and they didn't start this early. He's 18 months! How do you stop it at 18 months? I do not want them to continue, or get worse. I guess I'm going to have to unpack the pack-n-play time out. I'm sure this kid will be spending 75% of his wake time inside of time out though! However, I want to deal with this now so that they do not get larger.

Lord, please help me!

Saving Dowensky

Here are my boys in their Saving Dowensky shirts! You know you want one! Get yours here and help Aaron and Jamie bring home their son from Haiti!

Hard to believe!

It's hard to believe that a year has passed since the craziness began in our lives. This time last year Jeremy was in job search mode, our hearts were hurting, and we had no clue where God would take us. The past year has been full of more ups and downs and we would not have dreamed about the things that have happened. All in all though, we are in a good place.

This time last year we were dreading telling our youth at our church that we were moving. Those students rocked! They are awesome students who love each other and love God. It was hard to leave them!

We were also sad to be leaving a great group of friends. There was our small group, who we had been through so much with. There were also 2 other couples who worked with the youth with us who we love dearly. (one of those was getting ready to move themselves)

Then there were all Ryan's friends. Another hard part of the move. He would ask for so many Sunday's if he would get to see them at church. It was hard to see him miss his friends.

However, the last year, as hard as it has been, has been good for us too. God has taught us so much about his faithfulness and provision. He has been so good to us. The Word is true and we have felt it active and powerful in our lives this past year for sure. I know in my heart that God is preparing us for something and for that I'm thankful. We are excited about where we are.

We have a new small group of friends who mean so much to us. We still miss those back home but God was so good to provide a new community for us to dwell in, to do life in and with these new families is so good. I'm not sure where we would be without folks to do life with! We have also bonded in new ways with friends we left behind ... e-mail and blog world, what would we do without you?

Ryan has found new buddies (still misses his old ones) who he enjoys playing with and looks forward to seeing.

So, it's hard to believe all that has happened in a year ... However, we are thankful for all God has done and will continue to do in our lives.

God is good and his faithfulness endures for all generations!