Attacks

Man has our life been FULL these past couple months and not necessarily of all good things. First let me start off by saying that we have felt the enemy's full blown trying to tear down our faith and joy attacks as of late. I am very convinced that he is not very happy about us working so hard and moving forward in bringing a precious, little, and needy life into this family to learn about the love that we can give each other and to grow in the knowledge of God. Why do I say this well let me share two very "big" things we have dealt with lately. First off there is Joel's job situation. About a year ago Joel was told that his factory would be closing here and relocating about 75 miles away. No one was sure if there would be jobs available and if they could continue to work at the new location or at the other plant about 35 miles away. If one worked until the end of their given 60 days they would receive a severance (which was downsized from what they originally told everyone) which would of course help anyone able to take it. Once hearing this Joel started applying to numerous places and did have a handful of interviews but nothing until now really panned out. In fact he did take a test to even get an interview at a factory and did not pass (take note of this for later). Through these many months he and everyone else at his factory got very discouraged, felt rather mistreated, and depressed. Well, it came down to crunch time and there really wasn't any real prospects. Around this time we had our adoption rummage sale and Joel was able to visit with an old friends parents and shared all of this with them. It so happened that their son, Joel's old friend, worked at the same factory that Joel took the previous test and failed. Why is this important you ask? Well, he received a call from this friend shortly after the sale and he was offering for Joel to take this test over if he thought that he could pass plus his boss, whom Joel knew from a long way back, was saying that if he did indeed pass that they would hire him. So very thankful for this second chance and somewhat nervous he took the test and can you guess it? He passed! All to the Glory of God!!! We prayed and committed His will to this situation and He answered! Well, around the time of interviews, physicals, and drug testing for this job Joel received his 60 day notice. Way too coincidental :) Well, with some working things out between both factories Joel is able to work both jobs in September so that he can receive his severance plus insurance until the new jobs kicks in. Isn't He amazing?!!!!! How can we not praise Him?!!!!!
Wait I am not done! There is another very HUGE thing to share, something that literally rocked Joel and I to our core. We're talking when I would think of the possibilities I literally felt sick.......the life of our precious second born. One day I received a message on FB about some pics on this blog that I had posted. This very kind friend from my college days was sharing something that she had noticed and did so because she knew a family that had to deal with this directly. She had seen some leukocoria or cat eye reflections that could be indicators of something very serious and possibly deadly. This is when an eye in pics appears white and not red like most people have in the red eye in photos problem. To be honest I didn't quite take it as serious as I maybe should havet until my in-laws mentioned it a week or two later. What are the chances that more than one person would mention this and even know what this was ( I had never even heard of it)? So I started to get a little panicky, especially when I did some research online about what this could mean. We're talking the possibility of losing an eye and cancer people!! See what I mean about being serious?! Well, it's called retinoblastoma and it really can only be found through pics with this cat eye reflex or in an eye exam. So being very worried and wanting to not mess around with this any longer I made an appt. with an opthomologist in two weeks. Let me tell you those two weeks were very hard for Joel and I. The prayers of the few others that we shared this with are really what got us through. The time came for the appt. and during his normal eye exam he did not do well with that questionable left eye. Let's just say my heart was beating very quickly and I just kept praying over and over "Lord, please give me strength.". Well, it finally came time for his exam with the Dr. and almost right away he stated that everything within that eye looked normal. Man, talk about being able to breathe normally again, I hadn't realized how much I'd been holding my breath that last couple weeks. :) It was determined during this time that something was possibly going on with that left eye but nothing the Dr. seemed too concerned about and another appt. was made for two weeks. Leaving that appt. I was so relieved but still felt very unsettled. I ended up, with the help of some friends that had dealt with some eye issues with their son, making an appt. with an optometrist that specialized with kids and doing therapy with them. To make it all a little shorter it was determined that he has amblyopia (lazy eye) and we are now working with him on patching that eye and doing some computer software therapy. So all in all it was a blessing in disguise for us. I really don't think that we would have found out that he had this issue until it might have been too late to do anything about it. Wowzers, what an amazing God we serve.
Through all of this, these two major "things in our lives" had the potential of stopping our adoption. Although I did feel the Lord telling me the whole time that He would bring it to completion and just to trust in Him. Folks He's no liar. He has blessed us tremendously! I just felt overwhelmed yesterday at church with all that He has done for us. Hopefully you see Him moving in your life as well today!

August Number!

Odds and Ends of the summer.

Brodie finally got his hand-me-down bike from Gavin so he could start riding with training wheels. ( I know we're way far behind with him)

Gavin made this bike ramp and was so proud of it!

Our newest addition to the family! Miss. Zoey (that is if she's really a she, we'll find out Saturday at the vet :)

Other part of Mini Vacation- Marblehead Lighthouse

We left Joel in the car while Claire was napping and the boys and I ventured out. We did also get to go to the beach and had loads of fun but it was WAY crowded and I didn't want my camera to get stolen or filled with sand. Anyway everyone LOVED the beach and that they could go out really far since there's a nice sandbar right there that lets you go for quite a ways and is pretty shallow. It was a very much needed time away.

Cedar Point across the water above.

Part of our Mini Vacation- The African Wildlife Safari

We all had a blast here and there was lots of laughing! Very silly wild animals!

Our Joint Rummage Sale

Boy was this alot of work but we were very blessed in what both families made and a great opportunity to get the word out about adoption.

Before:

After:

Even some of the big items in the first pic of the after where sold but just needed to be delivered.

Gavin's Baseball