We will be forever grateful to Show Hope and Steven Curtis Chapman and his family. Show Hope was one of the organizations that gave us a grant. We also love Veggie Tales. So what could be better then- Steven Curtis Chapman partnering with Veggie Tales for a video! The video shows some Show Hope families as well as the Chapman's meeting their daughter.

The One Factor

I have begun reading the book “The One Factor” by Doug Sauder for the second time. I don't recommend reading this book if your life is going well and you are content to not make any changes. The challenge for me is to interpret what this book is challenging me (and my family) to do.

I was sweetly reminded of Psalm 25:14 ~ “The Lord confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them.”

Tyler and Jeremy went to a Farm with a group of 3-5th graders from our Church. They both had a great time bonding together and apparently taking lots of silly pictures.

He's All Boy!

He's silly!

He's strong!

He's handsome!

He's smiley!

He's my BESTEST boy named, Jonathan!

and he LOVES to have his picture taken!

Pictures

This is the ride we called the toilet flusher- Tyler is going down on the above picture and Amanda in the picture below.

Jonathan loves swimming!

Great Wolf Lodge

We just returned from an overnight stay at the Great Wolf Lodge. I am exhausted and will post pictures hopefully tomorrow when I am more awake. We made these reservations months ago when both Jeremy and I were feeling like we needed some family time away just the 7 of us. We had a great time.

Some things we were reminded of:

We have AWESOME kids! We had fun "playing" with them if you can call being hurled down a steep slope and splashed in the face at a high speed and almost falling out of your tube at 75 mph while your children are laughing - fun! Really, it was great just to hang with them.

We were reminded and our kids were reminded that they really do love and more importantly like each other. Amanda, Tyler and Jordan had a blast hanging and running from ride to ride with each other. It was great to see them laughing and having so much fun together. We didn't have one single fight or complaint our entire trip!

We were reminded that Jonathan and Ben have crossed to the other side. They are brothers, they love each other and they had a blast playing with each other. It was so neat to watch them interact with each other and just be brothers.

We were reminded that our family is not "normal". Yes, Jonathan got many stares and comments. Amanda heard 2 life guards talking about Jonathan in the bathroom (nothing negative, actually admiring his skill), Ben told a boy who had made a comment that "he was just born that way!" (I added the exclamation point because Ben did in fact yell it at the boy) We are all learning how to cope with people's stares and comments. One man was very concerned that Jonathan's leg was caught under the tube until Jeremy told him he didn't have that leg.

We were reminded we can do this. We can be a family of 7 and have fun and make memories. Although we are exhausted, this trip really did energize us.