An Amazing Girl!!

My family is beginning the rounds of graduations we are celebrating this year. My second born is among them!!!

But last night belonged to my lovely and amazing niece. I am so proud of her!!! She graduated last night from her small Christian school with all her family and friends cheering her on.

She gave a speech that gave all the glory to God for how He has turned her life around. Tears were everywhere.
You see my beautiful niece was born to a mother who loved drugs more than she loved her children and she let them all slip away from her as she focused on her next high. For many years this sweet girl made the rounds in the foster care system until God brought her to my brother's home. This was where God began to do his mighty work in her heart. And now she is firmly His child and firmly anchored in out hearts as well!!!

Eight years ago my niece joined our family feeling like nothing but "leftovers" in her words and now she is a child of the KING!!!

Last night I wept with sadness at what my niece had to endure as a mere baby and with incredible joy at the amazing, beautiful, poised and vibrant young woman she has become. God has great plans for this young lady, I'm quite sure!!!!

My brother and my sister-in-love with their lovely girl:

My brother praying a blessing over his daughter:
What a fabulous evening it was!!!

Congratulations sweet girl!!!!

Blessings,

Christine

A Special Find

I did a little garage sale/treasure hunting this weekend. Honestly, I do much better treasure hunting at thrift stores instead of garage sales but every once in a while I give garage saling a try. I had heard that there was a HUGE community sale in a fairly wealthy area in a neighboring town last weekend. I decided to give it a shot. Well, Ruthie and I drove around and didn't find the Huge sale but we did find plenty of regular garage sales. We found some good clothes and some pretty baskets for cheap - but still no great finds. After an hour of getting in and out of the car we decided to call it day.

We saw one more sign and agreed to drive by. As we slowly made our way past the driveway we both gasped at the same time and I made a quick stop. We looked at each other and dived out of the car and quick stepped right up to the home. They were packing up but welcomed us to look around. We knew exactly what we wanted to see!! The ladies were selling their Depression Glass!!! Depression Glass still for sale at the END of a busy garage sale day!!!

So for a few bucks I got two new special treasures!! I love depression glass - especially the green and pink and I ended up with two pieces that I have never even seen before - complete with bubbles in the glass!!! So pretty!!!!

Hope your day is filled with treasures!!!!

Blessings,

Christine

Life

Boy, I have been away from my computer for a long while!!! I have been occupied with ...well...Life!!! Every day just slips by so quickly.

Life has been both wonderful and difficult lately.

Some wonderful stuff...

My sweet 4 year old little man turned into a sweet 5 year old little man:

He is a little man just filled with joy and love - every day he tells me "I love you infinity!!!" And I love him infinity right back!!! He is a true gift from God to this family!!!
We've had some lovely family outings:
And some fun times at home:

We have also had our share of storms:
Literally - Essie is enjoying the recent snow and hail storm we had:

And figuratively - you know - the regular ones - gray days, rowdy kids, busy schedules, bills, broken cars etc.
Then there are the bigger ones - Hubby going out of town for a week and the stomach flu sweeping through the family while he was gone.
And others a bit more traumatic - another ER run - yes!! another - making up a total of three in three weeks!! This is so out of character for us!! This time Abbie had symptoms that were very, very similar to our friend Gunnar over at Knights and Maidens Gathering when he had appendicitis so after watching her for a while we felt like we should not mess around - so in she went. After much poking and prodding it was discovered that she did not have what we feared but she indeed did have a nasty infection. So home we went with antibiotics that cost $300!!!! So while we are so very glad she did not need surgery we are kinda standing here scratching our heads - after many, many years with fairly good insurance (which we rarely needed to access) we had to make a change to less than good and now we are holding the bag to some very large medical bills.
Through all this I wish I could say that I have rested with peace and joy in God's gracious arms. But to be honest - I really haven't. I am ashamed to say that my old evil friends - fear and anxiety have grabbed ahold of me and won't let go. Oh how I hate these terrible emotions!! They are robbers and thieves!! I know how I should live - I know God is much bigger than my circumstances - that not one sparrow escapes His loving gaze - so - why 0h why - do I fret?!!! One thing is certain though - God is a forgiving, loving God who cares for me in spite of my sin and even when it doesn't feel to me like things are going well - He is in charge!! And I am so glad He is!!!!
I have done some rearranging of my schedule (again :0)!!) to allow me a bit more time on the computer - yay!!! I have realized my computer time for the last year and a half have been while I've been nursing a baby. Nursing a toddler is a bit different and it's not easy to blog at the same time!!! :0)