church planting, mama bear & man cubs

The past few weeks for us have been extremely busy and emotionally draining with so many things happening. Maybe you saw my last post about my parents, which is certainly nothing short of a tragedy in and of itself…but I have to be honest that that is not even what’s taken the bigger emotional toll for us.

Some of you who have been following along for awhile have known about our house hunting saga. We’ve been looking for so long to try to move into the city where our church plant has been…we’ve been hunting and searching and even making offers…but to no avail.

We know now why nothing was panning out… and it’s because we are finally coming to grips with what is actually happening with our little church plant.

From the looks of it now, it is highly likely that our plant will cease to exist. There’s a thousand reasons as to why, but I’ll save that for another day. While our hearts grieve the upcoming adjustments and necessary transitions knowing that this season has come to a close, we truly feel we have been exactly where we needed to be for the past 2 years.

Some sweet, sweet stories of healing, redemption and faith have come from our time here with this group…and we will be forever grateful for the people we’ve shared life with during this journey.

Matt and I have a dear friend who just flew into town tonight who has willingly (somewhat ignorantly 🙂 I suppose as this is his first time to even meet a few of the kids….) offered to take on our little brood of munchkins for a few days. The plan is for Matt and I to get away to get some time to talk and pray.

Having weighty, meaningful conversations every night from 10pm to midnight certainly takes its toll, so we are really looking forward to this coming week getting to be together to chat during daylight hours.

We are praying for what the Lord has next for our family. Praying for wisdom and a clear calling for how we might spend the next this next season of our lives together. Praying through the specific convictions we have concerning our growing family and asking God to send us to a place where Matt’s gifts in teaching/preaching/shepherding might be utilized.

We are praying the Lord will direct, place and use us in this next stretch…and are trusting/hoping that He will meet with us this next week with this time away.

We have asked friends and family to be praying for us these next few days and if you think of us, we would love your prayers as well. I promise to keep you all updated as the next stretch of life unfolds.

On a lighter note….

I’ve been seeing shirts like these all over the internet…super cute matching shirts for the whole family…love them right??? But whenever I’d look them up and did the math for what it would cost to get all 5 kids the same one I could never justify spending that much money! So I started doing some research and found this Etsy company called PiecesOfHart. 

And they make iron-ons!!! Which is waaaaay cheaper!!!! I ordered some, got them really fast, bought my t-shirts from Target…because they had all matching shirts in the same grey color…and then we followed the super simple instructions included in the package.

The kids helped me and in less than 15 minutes we had all matching super cute tees for a fraction of what it would have cost online.

Now, getting all my cubs to smile at the same time is another story!

The boys LOVE them and were so proud that they had helped make them. AND they thought it was a great opportunity to get to wear the ears we got from our spring break Great Wolf Lodge trip.

My “mama bear” tee is from another shop called Thread Tank. I’ve got 2 other tees from them as well and they are the softest, best fitting women’s tee I own. I love their company slogan too….”stories you can wear” because motherhood is all about sweet stories of places, times and seasons to remember. I will always cherish this short window of time of having these four little man cubs all to myself…

Everything was going just fine with this little mini photo shoot….until one kiddo decided to tackle me….

…then the others joined in…and it became a full on tickle torture….

…and I wasn’t sure if I should scream at Matt to come help me or let him keep letting taking pictures while I got attacked!!!! But I have to say I think I made the best choice as I couldn’t love these pictures more!

It’s these kinds of moments when we are all playing and wrestling that I just can’t ever capture enough. These are my favorite kinds of days, everyone in t-shirts, nowhere else to be, playing dress-up, laughing, giggling…I absolutely love motherhood and being these kids mama is my greatest joy.

Are you ready for it? We got ONE pic with everyone looking at the camera…and 4 out of 5 smiles is a WIN! (right moms???)

I want to thank you all of your love and support during this season of confusion and trial. We truly covet your prayers and are so thankful to all of you who have reached out to offer encouragement and hope…especially this past week. We know that we can trust the Lord and fully believe that He will lead us because He cares for us. We’ll be sure to keep you posted as the days/weeks unfold…

2 Corinthians 4:8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed but not driven to despair, persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down by not destroyed…