I can’t believe the ‘new children’ have been here six days already. If we can just get past the first ten days, that seems to be when things start feeling normal. Baby Bear slept 13 hours straight last night!! If only we can get Brother Bear (1yr old) to do the same! Ugh.

Sister is very helpful with her brothers. She’s warming up to us, slowly but surely.

Josh has been the most uncomfortable this time. It’s definitely different with two babies, but I’m still banking on the fact that the extra work with babies far out-weighs the extra drama with older children! I’m enjoying these children. Tomorrow will start our new routine when I register Sister for school and get back to schooling Joshua. It’s been a nice long, snowy weekend! Here are a few pics from our snowy extravaganza!

Believe it or not, these pics were taken at 9:00pm at night! The snow was so bright white (obviously! :), it looked as if it were still a little light outside. It was crazy…for those of us who haven’t seen snow in almost ten years!!

See boys, God does make it snow in Georgia!! LOL!

~audrey

Well, here we are again, a family of eight. We got a call from our agency last night while we were still at church. There was an emergency placement that needed a place to sleep at the very least. Three children, ages 6yrs(girl), 17mo.(boy), and 6mo(boy). I picked them up at 9:00pm last night and they were all asleep by 10:00pm.
Between the three of them, I think I only slept an hour or two at a time all night. Surprisingly, I’ve been fine today; probably still a steady flow of adrenaline! I’m sure I’ll crash tonight.
Once again, they came with nothing more than the clothes on their backs, so I’m taking little girl shopping tonight. It should be fun. We ate lunch at Chick-fil-A today and she had never even heard of Chick-fil-A….she asked for a hamburger. :)
Once again, God is already pouring out His grace and goodness. We’ve had friends give us baby clothes for the boys and unused cans of formula for the youngest. Good grief, I haven’t used formula in seven years–that stuff is EXPENSIVE! Holy Cow!
I’m looking forward to whatever amount of time we have with these children. The boys are already doing very well. Owen has been so sweet with the babies and Joshua and Jesse are playing well with the six year old.

More to come later…like when I told sister to stop rocking the baby because he had just eaten and might puke on her. Her response was, “Why do you always use hard words?? What in the world is ‘puke’?” lol. :)

~audrey

One of the very best things about homeschooling, is the joy and satisfaction I receive from being able to teach my children. Joshua took the scenic route to finishing his reading curriculum. I felt like we’d NEVER get through it. He loves math, but getting him to do his reading lesson with no complaints was like pulling teeth. We finally finished, and in celebration of that accomplishment, we went to the Christian bookstore to get some sort of devotional or Bible study that Joshua could read. I was actually looking for a book that Ashley had gotten Sam called, I Can Read God’s Word, but they were sold out. However, what I found instead was absolutely perfect!!

It’s called His Mighty Warrior, A Treasure Map From Your King.

The first page is titled, “A Plan and A Purpose”. It starts out like this:
My Mighty Warrior,
I have a powerful plan for you, my son. I know you are just a young boy, but so was King David when I chose him to become the future king….

…Love, Your King, who has a plan for you.
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11.

Each entry is only about two paragraphs, but it’s just enough for my young, beginning reader. And this is what Joshua said after reading the first line: “Ok, so who is the son and who is the King in the story?” I said, “YOU are the son and GOD is the King!” His response brought tears to my eyes:

“GOD is talking to ME!?!”

Joshua is loving his new book. He’s already on page 10 and has read to both his brothers and to Josh last night. I highly recommend this book. It almost reminds me of a young Wild At Heart.

~audrey

That’s what went through my head as I tried to get a picture of all three of my boys, still, and maybe even smiling! …maybe when they’re 20.

This is what I got instead:

However, I also got these, and I think these are pretty great…

I love my boys.

~audrey