Well, we are about to “go” from Auburn to Baltimore!  Things have gone ok.  Katie has been somewhat off kilter, but that is to be expected with all the strangers in and out of the house and furniture disappearing.  She was really good for our friend’s wife who watched her for us one afternoon.  She has also still slept well, so that has been great.  One thing, NOT so good, was I hurt my back, again.  I must have pulled a muscle packing, or lifted with my legs, not my back! OOPS!  It hurt so bad one day that I couldn’t breath deeply or talk.  I decided with the big move coming up, I should get some medicine.  usually, I would just deal with it.  I went to urgent care and they gave me some muscle relaxers and pain meds that helped A LOT.  It is starting to feel better.  I am a little nervous about tomorrow.  We will be in the car alot, and I am not sure how Katie will do being in her carrier most of the day.  Please, everyone, please pray that she does ok and doesn’t get too fussy.  I don’t think i could take that in the car, being such a small space!  YIKES!  So, overall, it has gone ok, slower than planned, but ok.  Thanks for everyones prayers and for those who helped, GOD BLESS YOU.  You have no idea how much we appreciate it!

OK! WOW! A lot has happened since my last post.  most people get our newsletter, so you will know what is going on.  For those who don’t, WE ARE MOVING!  We are currently packing up from here and going to be heading to Baltimore come Monday morning!  We found a wonderful deal on a great apartment.  Great price, Great ammenities, great location! If job in the downtown area, he could walk to work! Therefore, we would sell his car, pay off the family car, and then pay cash for a used one for Andrew.  NO CAR PAYMENTS!!! OH, how wonderful that would be!  So, be praying for that.  Andrew is ALMOST done with his tests.  He would have been on Monday, but the testing center messed up and the exam computer wouldn’t work!  SOOOO, now he gets to take it only a few days after getting to our new home. ARRRR.  OH WELL!  He is still waiting on 2, hopefully pass, letters.  So, be praying for that.  Also, katie has been increasingly more fussy (unless on Motrin or Tylenol), has a low grade fever, biting, drooling,  clear snot, pretty much all the teething signs, but who knows.  Hopefully it IS just the teeth and that she is not getting sick.  Please be praiyng that either way, it will be over with before Monday morning!  That would be great, if it is teething, for those pearly whites to pop on through so the car ride would at least be a LITTLE more enjoyable! HAHA. A crawling, pulling up, cruising and trying to walk 10.5 month old really doesn’t like to be cooped up in the first place, lol.  So, we are very excited.  nervous, and hoping for a job for andrew soon, but still excited.  We are finally moving to the place we have felt called too and desired to be for many years.  HOW AWESOME IS THAT!?  GOD IS GOOD!   Be praying for us:  safety in travel, no getting lost, finding a place to stay overnight halfway through, for Katie, for Andrew and myself to be loving and patient in this exciting, yet stressful time.  Thank you!

Ok,  so we are a little better this week.  No job for Andrew, so that is still scary, but we are trying to take one day at a time and expand and grow our faith.  Andrew got a little contract work, so yay!  Please continue praying for us as we begin to pack up and set the move date.  We also think we found a great place to live/ It is a good price and a great location.  So, please pray for finalization on that today!

Something fun, yet scary, haha, is Katie is crawling! YAY KATIE!  That has been fun to watch, especially with her cute and tiny little legs!

Thanks for continuing to pray for our family.  We definately need your prayers right now.  We are still a little discouraged with things, but we can feel your prayers.  Thank you to wonderful friends who support us and encourage us daily.  Some friends yesterday cooked us a wonderful lunch.  That was such a blessing, it saves us from the stress of cooking ourselves as well as help us save money.  PLUS, i got a great recipe to add to my collection! MMMM   God Bless!

Honestly, I am discouraged. 
Honestly, we are not doing too great. 
Honestly, this time is effecting all parts of us, physical, emotional and spiritual. 
Honestly, its taking a toll on our marriage. 
Honestly, we are not sleeping well. 
Honestly, I wonder where God is sometimes. 
Honestly, we are scared of running out of money.  Andrew still has no promised job.
Honestly, we both feel like crying, but sometimes the tears won’t come.
Honestly, we could use some help.

This is how I feel right now. . .honestly.

Emily must stop having mommy freakouts! I also must listen to my husband when he tells me not to freak out!  How come, as women, it is easier for us to “hear” things from our friends rather than our husbands?  As kids, it works the same, but instead of not listening to our husbands, it is our parents.  they can say the SAME thing, but for some reason, we like to tune out those who love us the most sometimes!  WHY?  I don’t know.  If anyone knows, please inform me   I need to put the books AWAY!  A good friend just told me she did that for her second child and was much happier.  I think I need to do what people have been telling me to do for awhile.  Put the books down, trust her doctor, and just enjoy your daughter.  Don’t get me wrong, I totally enjoy her, love her sooo much, but I bet I would have even MORE fun if I did those things on top of what I already do!  I need to remember Katie is entrusted to me through our Heavenly Father.  She belongs to Him.  I needto honor and glorify the Lord by enjoying the gift He gave me and stop worrying, reading, freaking out, etc!  

A good friend of mine and I were talking the other day.  We began saying how many times, as Christians, when someone asks how you are doing, we are almost EXPECTED to say “good” whether we truly feel that way or not.  She told that so many times when asked “Hi there, how are you?” that she wants to scream. . .”do you REALLY want to know” but instead resorts to fine, because that is what we are SUPPOSED to say.  I think that as Christ-followers, we sometimes forget it is OK to not be fine.  It is ok to be sad.  It is ok to get frustrated.  Most all people, in fact, when they ask someone how they are, probably expect to hear fine as a response.  Anyway, if you had asked me yesterday how I was, I would have wanted to scream not to good!  Today is a little better, but to be honest, both andrew and I are getting a little discouraged.  Some days I want to cry but cannot get any tears to come out.  Some days I question if God is really listening.  Some days I wonder if things will ever get better, of course, I know, they will.  Anyway, that is how I REALLY feel.  I am going to try and do better about being honest, and in doing that, maybe those around me can begin to feel that they can also be honest when asked “How are you today?”

Well, Nana is gone and we are back to it just being the three of us.  I cannot believe that in only a matter of weeks, we will be moving on from here to another stage in our lives.  We have so many emotions when it comes to moving.  We have some we shouldn’t with the Lord with us, like a little fear, anxiety and worry.  However, we also have excitement, anticipation, enthusiasm for what’s ahead as well as relief.  I think both Andrew and I are thinking “THANK GOODNESS! IT IS FINALLY TIME TO MOVE ON!”  We are not saying that because we hate it here, or don’t have any good relationships, we do.  We have enjoyed this stage in life, it  has felt like home, and I have so many good friends I will deeply miss.  However, when God has been telling us something for quite some time, and we have wondered if we will ever ACTUALLY make it there, it is a great feeling to know we are making steps toward accomplishing His calling in our lives.  So, if any of you out there have a strong sense of something in your life, but have yet to see it fullfilled, don’t give up or lose hope.  If God has told you something, or put a STRONG desire in your heart for a certain purpose, you can rest assured that He WILL fullfill that!  God bless all of you faithful followers out there and thank you for your prayers!  We need them!

Ok wow.  This was a great message from Focus on the Family.  I don’t read everything by them, but I enjoy reading much of their stuff on marriage and family.  This was a great message.  Although it is talking about love with your spouse, I think you can apply this to ANY relationship in your life!  Check it out here.

FOCUS ON THE FAMILY ON-LINE READING

GOD BLESS! I hope each and every one of you enjoy your weekend.  Love on those around you.  I need to work on “keeping score” sometimes.  We all do it, don’t we?  Let’s challenge ourselves to try and not do that for one week.  Start small!  We can do it!  We can LEARN to love unconditionally, better.  We won’t ever be perfect at it, but with the Lord, we can ALWAYS improve. . .and some days, I REALLY need to improve.  I am sorry honey! I LOVE YOU!

For those of you Nascar fanatics (I am not one, though I have never TRULY given it a chance either, that is another post, another day) you know what this means.  Most people know what this means, thanks to Nicolos Cage in Gone in 60 seconds, or Vin Diesel in Fast and the Furious.  Anyways, we like things FAST.   We want things RIGHT then, RIGHT away and RIGHT to the point.  We don’t like having to wait a long time.  We want a “car” that goes from 0 to 60 in only a few seconds.  Well folks, back in the good old days when they had horse drawn carriages, I am pretty sure horses didn’t go zero to 60 very fast, geez, horses don’t even go 60 mph, do they?  Well, when it comes to God, sometimes His zero to 60 isn’t quite as fast as we want.  Sometimes He wants us to wait.  However, another way to see this is God can also go from “zero to 60″ when we least expect it.  When we feel like we have waited and things are hopeless, all of a sudden 3 seconds later, BOOM! Something  big happens and God comes through.  God most ALWAYS works that way!  We can feel like we are moseying along, feeling we are getting nowhere, then God goes full force on us and we are slammed backwards into the seat of our car! This is something from “Above the Line: Take One” by Karen Kingsbury, that I think sums up whyGod does this pretty well.

“That’s how He (God) likes to do things — at the last minute, so we’ll know for sure it wasn’t our brillance or our great plans or our hard work that brought about the miracle.  It’s Him.”

Sometimes right now, with only have 6 more weeks in our lease here and STILL no job for Andrew, it seems things are not coming together.  Some days it seems like “what the heck are we going to do”?  However, I have a feeling at just the last minute, God will pull a “Zero to 60″ on us and come through Big time!  He has done it before, He will do it again, and He will continue doing it until the end of the age, for us, for you, for everyone.  Just believe Him!

My mom is coming today.  She will be staying a week.  Both Andrew and I are really looking forward to her visit.  I know she will  be glad to see us, but I am pretty sure she mainly wants to see Katie.    I think that is how it works once parents become grand-parents.  I think they don’t care too much about us as their kids anymore.  It is all about the grandkids! Haha.  Which is ok.  We are going to use the time she is here to take a much needed dinner date together.  So, we are looking forward to that.  I think the last time we went out for dinner alone was perhaps even before Katie was born.  I know, I know, that is terrible, however, we do things alone often.  Andrew and I were talking about this yesterday actually.  Once kids come into the picture, it is hard sometimes to find that alone time that you could so easily take before kids.  It is just as, if not more, important now.  Katie goes down for bed around 7:30, so we have been using our evenings for alone time better lately, and it has been really wonderful.  Also, we have a babysitter who watches Katie for us during our counseling time, and sometimes we go walk around a little together after that.  Last time my mom was here, we took many walks alone together.  I still consider those “dates.”  You don’t JUST have to go to dinner for it to be a date or to count as quality time.  The KIND of time you spend together is more important that what you are doing during that time.  Lately, Andrew and I’s evenings together (after Katie has gone down for bed) have been better than most times we go out alone!  Also, if you take dates together alone, say for dinner, but then all you do it talk about that baby or kid related things it isn’t doing you much good either!  We have really been working toward TRYING not to talk about Katie related things once we have OUR time.  Some days we do better than others, but we are getting there  

SHE IS SO CLOSE TO CRAWLING!  She wants to BAAAAAD!  Be praying she does it within the next few days.  Her nana would LOVE to see one of Katie’s “firsts!”  However, she stood a few seconds alone yesterday!  She is also crusing a little and walks VERY well with us just holding her hands.  SOOOO, we shall see   God Bless!  Oh, and don’t forget.  Father’s Day is SUNDAY!