Last Monday Emma celebrated her 9th birthday, and this Monday we are three days away from the start of school! I’ll be honest and tell you that I don’t feel like summer break was long enough this time. It was/is such a transitional time with moving, settling into new routines, finding a new school, looking for a church home, and everything else. I feel tired, and we haven’t even started the school year yet! I’m reminded that God has brought us this far, and He will continue to direct and lead.
Last Sunday (8/7) we re-visited a local church in our area. It is close to home- that’s nice. The people are friendly- also nice. Several of the people that attend are actually people that live on our road- nice too. A few things that we aren’t crazy about are holding us back, but sometimes things that we aren’t crazy about aren’t doctrinal issues and sometimes they are doctrinal. We will probably have the pastor and his family over for dinner to get to know them as well as ask a few questions. We continue to wait and pray as well as visit other churches.
As I mentioned, last Monday was Emma’s 9th birthday. I can’t even believe it! This girl celebrated her first birthday in Wisconsin, her second birthday in Arizona, her 3rd-8th birthdays in Maine, and her 9th birthday in North Carolina. It’s completely different raising a daughter than raising sons, but we do know that we still want her to grow up to love Jesus and serve Him with her whole heart. We had a simple birthday dinner for her, and then everyone had to rush off for sports practices. After sports practice we came home for ice cream cake and gifts. Emma enjoyed the Lego set the boys bought for her as well as a new lunch box from Aunt Jen and nine dollars from Nana and Papa. Emma received a birthday box from her friend, Lucy, on Wednesday, and that was a really special surprise. It was kinda weird not having anyone over for her birthday dinner, but we haven’t made any close friends yet. We know a few people, but not people that we have established relationships with yet. It’ll come, it just takes time.
Often on the kid’s birthdays, I ask them a few questions. Below is Emma’s birthday interview:
Favorite color: rainbow
Best friends: Lucy, Olivia and Story
Favorite food: shrimp and salmon
Favorite sweet: ice cream cake
What do you want to be when you grow up? Answer: a teacher
Where would you like to visit? Maine
Favorite thing to do: gymnastics or go to a trampoline park
Favorite activity to do with dad: fly in the airplane
Favorite activity to do with mom: shopping
Favorite Restaurant: KFC and Dunkin Donuts
Favorite teacher: Mrs. Davis
Favorite Bible story: Jesus dying on the cross and rising again
Our children are each so special and unique, and we thank God for them daily. It’s been a transitional year for them too, and we still have several major transitions- please continue to uphold them in your prayers. God is so good.
I started teacher’s inservice on Wednesday. I know that I’ll be the librarian this year (soooo much to learn) and I’ll be doing a study hall. I’m not sure what else I’ll be doing, but doing a variety of things will give me an opportunity to meet a lot of people. We had three days of in-service last week, and two days this week. I’m not a huge fan of leaving the kids alone for six hours a day, even though they are fine. It’s just not my preference. For the past five years in Maine, we had multiple friends that the kids could go play with during in-service. Perhaps next year will be different. This week was a little more challenging altogether as the boys were needed to work on the farm for the neighbor. I ended up asking two boys to stay home so that Emma wouldn’t be by herself (obviously) and we’ve been getting by. Roger has been very busy with fires that aren’t supposed to be in existence as it’s not fire season! However, it’s been so dry that Roger has had to put in extra hours and he even was called in on Sunday due to a fire.
It’s been a bit crazy around here as we try to figure out everyone’s schedules! Once school starts then the boys will be done working on the farm, and we will have school and sports to figure out. Chandler is planning on running cross-country and playing soccer. He wants to try anyways. It works out for Chandler as cross-country practice is right after school and then soccer after that. It’s going to make for some long days for our children, but one thing that they’ve been excited about is the opportunity to play sports. My prayer is that they will be able to adjust, maintain their grades, and that this will be a wonderful life experience for them. The four boys are playing on the same soccer team, and the soccer coach has been thrilled to have the four boys join the team. Chandler has his first cross-country practice tonight, and he’s looking forward to that. The sports season starts off with a bang as they have their first cross-country meet next Monday, and a soccer game on Tuesday with practice on Thursday and Friday. Emma and I will be doing lots of reading and hanging out together while the boys practice and compete! We are excited about this for them though, and I do think that so much can be learned through sports. I played sports in my middle school and high school years as well as in college, and I learned so much through those experiences. I’m excited that the boys will have opportunities for other coaches to mentor them as well as the boys to learn to work together with others (and yes, there are people more annoying than your sibling!).
This past Sunday the kids and I visited another church. The people were friendly and kind, and the pastor preached a message on the power of our words. The songs were ones that we were familiar with, so that was nice. The thing that was a little disconcerting was how quiet the congregation sang the songs. I don’t mind a worship team, but sometimes it seems like the worship team overpowers the congregation singing and then no one seems to be singing! I don’t think there’s a need to be obnoxiously loud, but since God created singing, it brings Him delight when we worship Him with song- so sing! When you look around the congregation and only some of the people are moving their lips, it’s a bit concerning to me. Are they not singing because they don’t know the words? Or are they not singing because they really don’t think it’s that important? Or do they really not believe that there is “power in His name”? Just a curious church person over here! One of the boys made the comment on the way home about how he wasn’t sure if he was supposed to be singing when the overhead said to “please stand and sing” because no one around him was singing! Just goes to show you that yes people are watching, so worship and praise His Holy name!
We are going to be having parent/ teacher meetings tomorrow. This is an opportunity for the parents to meet their child’s teacher and for the child to meet the teacher. Emma is excited about meeting her teacher, but the boys said that they would meet their teacher on Thursday. (They have the opportunity to work tomorrow). One benefit of the teacher in-service has been the opportunity to get to meet some of the teachers ahead of time. Roger is hoping to take off tomorrow morning so that he can go with me to meet the teachers, but that remains to be seen.
Thank you for your love and prayers!
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