Its hard to believe that 2014 is already here. I remember when you are young how time seems to stand still. Christmas and Birthdays always took forever to come. Now it seems we blink and another year goes by before we know it!
Since it has been probably 9 months since I have blog on any page I thought I would share a little bit about how 2013 went.
In 2013 Jeff turned 33, Esther turned 32, Gloria turned 8 and started 3rd Grade, Elijah turned 5 and started Preschool, and Jackson turned 2 and started getting into EVERYTHING!!
We the beginning of the year was like most Americans...
New Years Resolutions- Buy a Juicer- Start drinking our meals and lose weight. - Control our spending. - Get more organized. - Try new things...
-We did buy a Juicer and by February it was packed away. We did lose weight, but gained it back in a month.
-AT&T decided to control our spending for us..in other words... over paid us for 2 months and then took it back over a period of 6 months. God Provides! More to come on that!
-Get more Organized- We moved all the kids toys from our basement playroom up to the upstairs master bedroom and our bedroom down to the master bedroom down stairs. Best decision ever!
-Try New things- Gloria played basketball for the first time. Elijah started Preschool. Jackson realized he liked Juicing, and Gloria started Piano and Voice Lessons.
"When It rains...God's Umbrella Covers"
We found out mid January that AT&T had made a rather large mistake and had overpaid Jeff by about $10,000 pre-tax. Because of Jeff starting a new position within the company in July of 2012 we were unsure of what a commission would look like and he had had two very good months of sales so when we received the news that we had been overpaid we were broadsided. Thankfully we had put money in savings, still had some left from our Christmas Vacation and were able to get our taxes done and deposited by the end of February. God is SO GOOD! Our Taxes was the exact amount that we would need for the next 6 months while AT&T "corrected their error". It has been such an encouragement to see how God provided for us over the year. Our freezer was never empty. We received pounds of free meat. One day I told Jeff whenever my parents freeze started to fill up they said "Ok...God is preparing us for something". Now that we look back, it was God providing! I also received several extra cleaning jobs that help keep our saving account from ever hitting zero in 2013 and even as we moved over to 2014. AT&T provided Jeff with a work truck for most of the year which freed up gas money. We were also able to take a trip to Missoula during Spring Break and we only spent $100 for 4 days! Thanks AT&T and G.O.D! Our house flooded in April right before Gloria's 8th Birthday party. Because our living room was on "life support" we had to move her sleep over to a hotel in Bozeman. Jeff contact the a hotel in town and with his rewards points from work travel we were able to get a room for free!! YAY! Since we rent and nothing in our home was damaged our insurance could not help with any extra expenses from the flood. But our landlord was able to get us a "Birthday Party Displacement" check and also helped cover our utilities for the over usage for the 5 days the machines were running non-stop! I could list so many more of the blessing that God provided for us over the year, but I know you have other things to do with your time.
Were there times when all we wanted to do is throw our hands up and say why? Of course! Did we do this from time to time? Most defiantly. But God always brought us back and reminded us that He is the God who owns and created everything. He will never leave us or forsake us. He will always make sure that we have food and raiment! We serve a Great and Mighty God!
Looking back at 2013 we both feel there would have been no way that we would have been able to make it through this year on our own. God blessed us daily and was always constant! He never walked away from us even when we felt like we turned from him. He grew our relationship together and as a family. Since going out and date nights were not in the budget he provided friends who were willing to take kids for a couple hours (thanks Fraser's) so we could go grocery shopping. We got creative and had at home family nights. Playing games, watching movies, doing crafts and baking! We grew closer as a family. Our out of state family offered to come see us so we wouldn't have to travel. We were able to have one of the best family vacations we have had in a long time. We thought our Christmas was going to be one gift for everyone from the Dollar store! Instead we had the best Christmas. All our kids got what they wanted and then some! Praise the Lord!
There was a song that seemed to alway come on at a time when doubt started to creep in. We found this to be our song of prayer:
He Knows My Name
Does 2014 look like it will be bright, new and full of rainbows and butterflies? Probably not, but with CHRIST ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE !! We know the road ahead is hard, but our God is Great!
If you are looking for ways to pray with us this year here are a few things you can put on your list:
Jeff - That God would reveal himself greatly in where he should go within his job. Whether it be to stay in the current position he is in or to look into other positions within the company or outside of AT&T. Pray that he will continue to raise his family in the image of Christ and that he will continue to step up and be the leader that God has built him to be. That he would be encouraged and stay positive in his current position until God directs otherwise. That he would continue to be patient with his wife and children.
Esther- Please pray that God will give her strength as she tries to run our home, take care of the kids, clean other people's homes, and works a part-time job at Target. She has taken on a lot this past year and needs strength to know what to say yes to and what to say no to this next year. She runs on fumes most days and is doing her best to stay positive. Pray that God will lead her in the right direction in knowing how to handle cleaning jobs vs. working at Target. God has provided all these sources of income for us and we don't want to take the reins and make the wrong move. Pray she has wisdom in knowing what is best for her and her family. That she will hold her tongue with Sophia and the other Kids and that she would mother with love and not anger. (Esther wrote this in third person :)) Pray that she will strive to be a Proverbs 31 Wife and Mother!
Our Ministry- What God has planned. We have many decisions to make about this during the next few weeks-months
Our Children-
Sweet Gloria Grace has such a soft heart to the things of the Lord, however, her flesh is starting to battle with her spirit. She struggles with controlling her emotions and her attitude. Pray that I (Esther) will have patience with her and show her how to control her emotions in a correct way. Her Best Friend from 1st grade has just moved away and is no longer attending her school. Please pray that God will bring along a sweet friend that will never replace Stacy, but will be one that will be a good friend to her.
High Energy Elijah- He has really started to ask questions about God and understands sin and salvation, but has yet to get saved. Please pray that this year will be his year! Also pray that he will learn how to control his excitement and start listing to us when we put him to bed. We have yet to find a tactic that works on him to keep him in his bed and not running around waking everyone up for an hour before he finally settles down and gets to sleep. His Mommy and Daddy REALLY need him to go to sleep! Elijah will be heading to Kindergarten this next fall so pray we have him under control by that time or school is going to be hard. He loves school now, but 5 days a week all day may become hard and taxing on his High energy personality!
The Jack Attack!- He is such a sweet little boy and we know this year as we head in to age 3 is going to be very exciting time for all of us! He is such a happy little man and always willing to do as Mommy and Daddy say, but we also know terrible 3's are much worse then terrible 2's so please pray we will all make it out alive. Also pray that during this time Jackson will start to have a soft heart to the things of the Lord and one day will come to know him when the time is right! Pray as we make the decision to possibly start him in Preschool this coming fall. He will be a very young Kindergartner and so we feel 2 years of preschool might do him good.
Sophia- we struggle daily with continuing our care for Sophia. Each time is always different. Sophia is a sweet girl that has been dealt a hard hand for life. Her parents are selfish therefore she is only naturally selfish. I know this sounds harsh and mean, but unfortunately it is the truth. She NEEDS THE LORD! At this point she knows what she needs to do, but is afraid to do it. We are not sure if it is because of her dads influence or if she is just fighting within her own self. At this point we struggle because financially we need the income from being her Nanny, but we know that that is the wrong attitude to go forward on. We are starting to see things in Sophia rubbing off on Gloria instead of the other way around and we feel our family , although we care for Sophia, is more important. We have to give an account for our Children and how they are raised. We know that it would be a completely different story if Sophia was in our care 100% and her parents were out of the picture, but they are not. She knows how to manipulate them and tell them half the truth making us sound like the "bad guys". Her dad does not discipline and all we can do is talk to her in a firm voice that she has learned to ignore because that is how she has been talked to for so long. She turns on her defenses and shuts you out. Please pray God gives us his direction on what our next step is with her and that she will soon come to the Lord along with her dad. Her dad has very mixed up views on the bible and God.
Our Family- Please pray for us as we have committed as a family along with our church family to read the bible in a year TOGETHER! This can be hard with an 8,5, and 2 year old. Keeping their attention is hard! Pray that we will grow together through this journey and that we will become a stronger family that seeks the Lord daily!
Thank you for your prayers! We will keep you updated on everything!
Happy New Year! We are excited to share this 2014 Journey with you!
