Guapo and Gramma

Our world has forever changed.  Forrest Neil joined us this morning at 10:28am weighing 9 lbs, 1 oz and 20.25 inches long. 

He was delivered by C-section because of his size - it ended up the cord was wrapped around his neck - three times.  God is good.

I am not sure I realized how much this one event would impact me.  When Tom called to let me know - I cried.

When we made it to the hospital - there were tears in my eyes.  God is so good.

As we begin this new season in our life - being grandparents, we can hardly wait.  To take him to the zoo, camping and the beach.  To shower unconditional love on him.  To talk to him about how much Jesus loves him!!

As we drove home I wondered if this is how our Heavenly Father feels about us - totally, completely head over heels in love with us.  He wants the best for us.

God has blessed us so much - we have each other, we have some pretty amazing children, we have a brand new awesome grandbaby.  

We can't wait to see what God has next for us.  We know He is about to shower us with even more love, more blessings because we love Him and we are being obedient to His word.

Life is short, we are hanging on to Jesus and loving every minute of it.

Thank You Abba Father for this new little life.  May he grow up to be a man after Your heart.

God is good beyond our imagination!

Furniture

Over the years we have developed some distinctive taste in furniture.  Pretty rustic, laid back.

As we are preparing to move we have put a living room set on lay-away that will more closely match our style. 

Since our rental home has built-ins we knew we would need an entertainment center.  Brian also needs a desk (no, he doesn't share well!).  And David wanted some bedroom furniture....

Well, the Craigslist Kings, aka David and Brian, went to work.  In three days we found a wormwood desk that is great; a bedroom set for David that includes two dressers, two nightstands and the bed frame AND an entertainment center that is better than we could have imagined!  All for $500.  Is God good or what?

Before we move we will sell some of our current living room set, single bedroom set and other miscellaneous stuff.   It is so amazing to watch the furniture come together. 

God is so much more than good to us.  Thank You Abba!!

Colorado

The last week of April Brian, Vicki and David headed to Colorado.  Brian and David took part in a Tres Dias weekend.  Vicki hung out with Joyce.

The trip up there was beautiful.  Lots of snow on the mountains, ice on the lake. 

The view from Rex and Joyce's home is magnificent to say the least!  We arrived on Wednesday.  It rained Thursday - beautiful and a stark contrast from the 105 in Phoenix the day before we left.  It is so relaxing just to be there - no television, no news.  Just resting in Abba Father's arms.  Something Vicki desperately needed!!

On the way home we found this little park in Placerville.  We also stopped at Four Corners, my how that has changed.  When I was a little girl it was a marker - that is it.  Fifteen years ago we took the children there and there were some booths set up - now they have built structures with a snack bar, nice bathrooms and a Visitor Center scheduled.

We have such amazing family and friends up in Colorado.  It is always special to spend time with them. 

God is so good to us!!

So it has been a while.  No reason in particular - just doing life. 

We are so excited about:

• our new home
• our growing family
• our new grandson
• the mighty work God is doing

Hopefully the slab will be poured this week.  The tentative move in is mid-July.  David will round up a bunch of his friends and get the job done.  We will be replacing our furniture so will have the new stuff delivered there. 

A couple of weeks ago Jake, David's best friend, moved in with us.  He is a delightful young man who works hard and loves Jesus.  They are absolutely crazy sometimes - it is good.

Forrest will be born in about seven weeks.  It will be a fun season.  We actually purchased a pac-n-play to keep at our home for our grandbabies to use.  It will be odd to be called Gramma and Guapo.

God is doing great things.  David is amazing in his internship  - it brings us great joy to watch him interact with the children.  We had the privilege to facilitate a pre-marriage conference - what fun.

God is about to do great and mighty things - we are praying with anticipation knowing He will bless us beyond anything we can imagine.

God is so good.

Home

Looks like we will be moving again.  The gentleman we are renting from who led us to believe he wanted to sell - doesn't.  Since we want to be good stewards of our money and qualify for a loan, here we go.

It is easier to build a new home rather than take a chance on buying a preowned one and figure out the timing. 

So, God in His infinite wisdom, led us to a Beazer home in Waddell.  It is further out, right at the base of the White Tanks.  It is about 2,000 square feet, one level, on an oversized lot.  And it has a three car split garage!!

David is quite excited because the master and the other bedrooms are on opposite sides of the home.  So he will have his bedroom and his man cave.  Brian will have a large office area to work in rather than the kitchen table.

The home will be done mid-July.  David will gather his friends and do the actual moving. 

Then we will be settled for a LONG time.  God is good to us.

A Lesson in Gratitude

We had an amazing trip to Puerto Penasco, Mexico last weekend. On Friday we left and headed to 1Mission.  We set up our camp and headed into town with our new friends Pat and Donna and our other new friend Frank.  We ended up meeting others from our group in town.

Our adventure started with getting caught in a Mardi Gras parade.  What a hoot.  We finally reached our destination - a wonderful restaurant called Mary's.  The food was wonderful, the view breath taking and the companionship a taste of Heaven.

Saturday morning we were up early and headed to our site.  There were 25 adults and about 15 children.  We built an 11'x22' home.  In reality it is a concrete slab with framed walls and a roof.  No water, no plumbing, no electricity....

The first day part of us poured the slab, the others framed the house and put on the sides.  We hand mixed the concrete.

The second day we raised the walls, put on the roof, tar papered, chicken wired and put on the first coat of stucco.  Yes, we made our own stucco down to screening the gravel to get sand!

That evening the family joined us for dinner at 1Mission for a fiesta - what yummy food we enjoyed.  Then we sat around the camp fire singing and visiting with our new friends.

The final day the last coat of stucco was put on, we shared the gifts we brought and had a dedication.  Lots of smiles and tears.

Honestly, I wasn't sure it could be done.  There were lots of aches and pains for those of us unaccustomed to physical labor.  But the gratitude of Francisco and Maria and their children made it all worthwhile.  They have so little compared to what we are blessed with.

It was almost surreal, a simple line between countries means the difference between cleanliness and trash; the hopelessness versus the opportunity.  Our new friends love Jesus.  In many ways their faith is so much greater than ours. 

We came home feeling blessed.  Our God is so good.

Meetings

Over the past few weeks I have sat through more meetings that took way too long.  I wonder if it is just human nature that some folks have to say something about every topic.... 

There was a challenge - we were tasked with figuring out a solution.  Sounds so simple.  But we had to listen through - what caused the failure, then the "no one is to blame" we need to figure out what to do speech.  Great - then let's do that rather than hash and rehash what went wrong.  We are all human - mistakes are made.  Let's fix what went wrong and figure out what needs to change so it won't happen again.

Then you have the new person who doesn't understand the process, the players or the problem who keeps asking questions.  Why was she even there?? 

So what could have been resolved in a 20 minute meeting with the right players has become two very LONG meetings and we still have a ways to go.

I know God is using this situation for a reason, only He knows what!!  So I speak when I have new information or information that is critical and sit back and listen.   There are times my mind wanders to what these folks believe....  will they be with me in Heaven?  

And I pray - sometimes that the time will hurry up or that folks will hush up.  At other times I pray for God to be glorified somehow - I know He will.

God is so good.