The Fabulous Four!

My fantastic four! I love them dearly!

He is in the details....even when we don't think so

Next week I am taking our daughter on a road trip to the mountains of New Mexico and Colorado. It is just a special time for the two of us. She will be 13 in April and I am using this opportunity to really have some meaningful talks about modesty, purity, sex, friends, and general teenage girl things. My precious husband is giving us this wonderful opportunity to experience my most favorite place in all the world and share it with our daughter. We are going to have a wonderful 'passport to purity' week!

I am so looking forward to this uninterrupted time with H. She was only six months old when her mother was diagnosed with cancer. Her mother was only given weeks to live but the Lord gave her 3 years. I would have loved to have known her mom and can't wait until one day we can meet in Heaven. At times I hurt so deeply that I am having the chance to see her children grow up and become such awesome, godly young men and a young lady. I never dreamed I could love three children so deeply that were not my very own. I mean I can see loving adopted children, children you have prayed for and chosen but you hear so many traumatic cases where there are hard feelings, or the children cannot stand their 'stepmother'. This has never been the case. We just bonded. Step is not even in our vocabularly. Even their mother's dearest friends noticed this when we met in Texas over five years ago. They said their dear friend had prayed for her husband's new wife and a mother for her precious babies. They met weekly to pray with her and for her. She specifically prayed for one to love her children as if they were her very own but also that she would not let them forget her. Imagine meeting all these people that had known and loved my new husband's wife so deeply and they were asking all these important questions about where I stood with Christ, how I felt about my husband and children, etc. I just began to tell them that I can't explain it but I feel as if the children were my very own and that we often speak of their mother. Several women burst into tears in the room. I thought, "Oh no, I should not have said that!" When they regained their composure they told me that this was her hearts prayer. We all cried then. It is not in my own strength that this is being achieved. It is by the GRACE of our Lord that He has done this very thing. This circle of friends are unlike any I have ever had in my life. They surrounded my children's mother with love, prayer, friendship, companionship, and so many other things. Perhaps her closest friend of all is one of my dearest and most precious friends to date.

The Lord was in the details down to the very meeting of my husband and myself. It is truly an unbelievable story but one I will save for another time. Until then, I will continue to be in awe of how we have a Lord that loves us so incredibly that He takes each little circumstance of our lives and spins it into this beautiful tapestry called life. I don't want to miss out on what He has for me and my family. It is so easy to do. Tonight I feel grateful and yet so unworthy. He has taken the broken, shattered hearts of two families and made one. The story is only beginning...

Praising Him in ALL things,
Vickie

Life is full of surprises

I cannot believe that I have not posted to this blog since January! I mean this is unbelievable. I have no excuse. After all my last post was on busyness.....I mean I have been busy. Anyone that has four children, a husband (with an erratic schedule) and works full time is bound to be busy. Add to the mix we had our oldest graduate in May from high school and oh did I mention that we have one going into high school in August, two still in middle school, and oh yes the graduate will be a freshmen in college. Our daughter will be 13 in April. It will be official....we will have four teenagers!

Many who know me laugh at my over excitement at times and my harried nature. Just over five years ago I was a 'busy' single mom of a 12 year old son. I 'thought' I was busy! What a sense of humor our Lord has! He knew that He was preparing me for my new life that was around the corner. The last five years have been the most wonderful of my life and yet some of the most difficult. It is hard suddenly being a wife after ten years of being alone. It is even harder becoming a mom to four children overnight. I will tell you this....life is full of surprises...I cannot imagine my life without these precious four Texans in it! My joy has truly been made full and the Lord has restored what the locust had eaten. He gave me a Godly husband that truly loves me as Christ loves the church which is just exactly what I prayed for the entire nine and one half years I was single again. He also brought into my life three children that I cannot imagine not being my very own flesh and blood. They lost their mom to cancer when they were only toddlers. All the years I was single again I prayed for the man the Lord had for me. I prayed for his circumstances and whatever surrounded his delay into my life. I prayed that if he had children that I would be able to love them as my very own. I specifically prayed for children that would need a mom to love them and care for them. The Lord answered my prayers as specifically as I prayed and even more so. He is a loving God that has our whole entire lives planned. Yes, life is full of surprises. I can't wait to see how long it will take me to update this blog. I am hoping to tomorrow but if not....it will be soon and I am sure I will have more to ramble on about. This one thing is true.....I am blessed beyond my wildest expectations or imagination.
Until next time....