Happy Anniversary Husband!!

I thank God daily for my husband.  Under God he is the greatest love of my life.  I have been blessed beyond measure by God, to have him be my leader, head and covering.  It is an honor to serve him in every way and in return, he is tender, patience and kind with me, even though I can really be a handful.  I know I don't write much about him.  I usually focus on our family, children and Gods hand on our life but today I want to share from my heart about Tim.  It is our 22nd wedding anniversary and as I reflect on those 22 years and the years before having him in my life and what they were like...all I can say is I am humbled to the core, to be married to him. 

Tim and I are opposites in so many ways.  He is steady, calm, quiet, low key, and the Fruit of the Spirit naturally flows from him without much effort.  I am rarely still, have to talk about everything to feel connected and ok with life, have to work at holding my tongue and thinking before I speak, hyper, and have to work at having the fruit of the spirit flow thru me.  He likes to pray about things completely and think things thru before doing anything...I am a pray about it but then jump in and do it and we will figure it out as we go along kind of person.  He has great patience with me, the children and life.  He works very long, hard, hours at work all day and is a hands on dad till bedtime. 

He treats me like I am a treasure to him and is in tune with me and how I am feeling and doing.  He jumps in to give assistance if he sees me needing help with the children or our home.  He notices when I need to get away and have a break and finds ways to provide that for me, often it being a surprise day out with just him for the day.  He notices if I am struggling, happy or sad.  He tries to alleviate stress, bring me joy, help me in what ever emotionally I am going thru and tries his best to support me in all I do.  He is incredibly positive about things, even to the point of frustrating me if I want to be grumpy about something.

He is the spiritual leader of our home.  He reads his Bible, prays and actively leads and teaches his family in the Lord.  He has bible study with the children every Sabbath. 

He tries to find at least one common interest to enjoy spending time with and doing with each child.

There is no other man on this earth I would rather be with.  I am beyond blessed and know it.  I am so very grateful.

Happy Anniversary my husband.  May God bless you in all you do.  May I be a good wife to you meeting your needs before you even know you need them met.  May I be that virtuous woman and helpmate to you in every area, every way.  You are loved and cherished by me and our whole family!

Ephesians 5:25-30

²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
²⁶ That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
²⁷ That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
²⁸ So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
²⁹ For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:
³⁰ For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.

Happy Spring! 4/2017

Spring has sprung and we have been spending a large amount of time outside.  Summer is too hot and humid for my children with special  needs to be outside and winter to cold.  Spring and fall are our "get outside" and enjoy the weather months!

It has been so nice to see things green!

We had such a long, harsh, drought last year, things were brown, dead and dying for months.  We have gotten a lot of rain this winter but our water table is still not up to where it should be for this time of year.  There is a hay shortage around here because people had to feed hay to their livestock all summer and winter last year.

There was no grass.  There was no second cutting of hay either.  Everything just turned to dust and blew away.  This year I am stocking our barn with hay early, just in case.  :)

We are preparing all the raised grow beds for planting.  Lots of weeding to do!

Speaking of weather...on March 3rd we had a terrible hail storm in our area.  Carolyn and I were out in the barn when it hit.  It was terrifying.  We prayed fervently for safety.  It was the largest hail I had ever witnessed in my whole life.  We found many pieces that were tennis ball sized but most were the size of a peach.  Here is a picture taken of a few next to a quarter.

It did a lot of damage in our whole area.  Everyone's roofs in our area needed to be replaced, as well as our house siding.  Our is vinyl siding and it was cracked, pitted and full of holes.  Others had aluminum siding and it was dented terribly.  Our vehicles were also dented and the mirrors were broken off Williams truck.  The chicken coop windows were broken, as well as some windows down at my dads house.  (We live on the same piece of property)  It made us all think of the scripture in Revelation 16 that describes the hail storm that will one day happen with hail stones weighing 100 pounds each...Lord help us.

Tim and I both had birthdays recently.  We are the same age and born about a month apart.  We celebrated by spending the day together alone!  It was so nice.  I am so blessed to have Tim as my husband.  Tim's health has stabilized and he is doing well.  He has to eat a special diet for his kidneys and make sure he gets enough rest.  He still needs to put on some more weight but is doing well.  God is so good!

Anna-Kate, our youngest, is getting to be such a big girl.

She used to carry around a burp cloth with her where ever she went and a stuffed Kermit the frog.  Now she only needs them when she goes to sleep at night.  She will not go down without them.  The Kermit always looks like he has this huge smile and is having the best time.  Often when I do my rounds to check on the children for the night, Kermit is in hilarious positions that crack us all up.  I never pose him.  It is just where he happens to be from her rolling around in her bed.  Here are a few of his pictures.  Hope they make you smile like they do us.

Caught, up and playing when he should have been sleeping!

Hi-ho Kermit the happy pillow!

Squished Kermit.  :)

He has her foot in his mouth.

They are too funny!

Here is a silly snail I have in one of my salt water tanks.  He has a long black rubbery trunk that he cleans around in my tank with like a vacuum.  His eyes are up on two long stalks.  He is looking at the camera as I took this picture of him.  God sure made some interesting creatures.  For those children who like to google what things are, he is a Tiger Fighting Conch.

I love to garden and nurture things.  It is a huge part of stress relief for me.  The children and I garden outside.  Here is Carolyn's lemon tree named John.  Its her first lemon.  :)

I have fish tanks and large fish bowls all over our home.  Gardening in them is a very relaxing hobby for me.  I will leave you with a picture of the one by my desk in the kitchen.  It is a 3 gallon Walstad bowl.  It has plants, a few shrimp, a zebra nerite snail, two dwarf cory catfish and a few Chili Rasboras in it.  Very fun to watch while working at my desk, doing the tons of paper work, that come with having a home full of wonderful children, with special needs.  :)

James 1:2-3  My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;  Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.


Blessings,

susan 

Happy Birthday To The Man I Love!!

Happy Birthday to my husband Tim!

The man who:

Serves God with his whole heart and life.
Keeps his marriage covenant between God and wife.
Is a kind and tender husband to serve.
Is my very best friend.
Makes good God sought decisions for his family.
Sacrifices needs and wants in order to give more to his family.
Is a good example before his wife, children and the world.
Works tirelessly to provide for his family.
Is man enough to be hands on with his infants/children sacrificing his own free time and sleep.

Happy Birthday Tim!  Thank you for being who God called you to be!  A servant of God, wonderful husband and father.

Romans 12:1-2  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

 

We all love and appreciate you more than words could tell.

Love always and forever,

susan, Stephen, Antonio, William, Carolyn, Zeke, Elizabeth, Billy, Timothy, Kinsley and baby "A" 

Catching Up... January 2016!

Kinsley playing with the bucket of potato heads we have accumulated over the years.

I pray everyone had a wonderful holiday season and Happy New Years! 

Life has thrown us a curve ball with Tim's health as of late and with the other things that pop up from time to time around here, we have been a bit overwhelmed at times lately.  We try to always take it in stride and trust in God, for He has shown Himself to be very faithful.  He is so good to us, always.  Life is good.

Some happy news that makes my life a LOT busier... is that two of our does had their babies. 

The largest of the bucks in the triplet birthing.

The smallest of the bucks in the triplet birthing.

Milky Whey had triplets (two boys and a girl) on December 27th. and Amelia had twin girls on January 2nd.

The smallest of the twin does born to Amelia.

I am now happy to say, we have plenty of milk but I have to go out to milk twice a day to get it.  :)  I have sold off all the babies I did not want to retain. I kept one of the does to raise up and a little buck to keep her company for a few weeks until she can go in with the bigger goats, then I will sell him.  You can read more about it on my farm blog if you are interested.

Antonio just got over having one of his bad spells from the Botox injections.  The bad reaction from the overdose in July, must have done damage, as every few weeks he goes back into that weak, sleeping, dementia, paralyzed type state.  This last episode lasted three weeks.  There is a lot more work to his daily care when he is in that state.  Praise God he is coming around the last two days and speaking again.  We have also had a lot of frustrating things happen since he turned 21 in December.  A week before his 21st birthday they sent us a letter telling us his insurance would be canceled the end of the month.  We had one week to get an appointment and try to get insurance and help from the state, thru Social Security for him.  Lots of paper work and delays. 

Tim has not been feeling well for quite some time.  His last blood work came back a mess, about a month ago.  He was told by his doctor that he needed to get to a pharmacy as soon as possible, to get some medicine to take, as his potassium levels were so dangerously high, he was at risk for a heart attack.  He then referred us to a Nephrologist, as his creatinine levels were very high.  It was a two week wait before we could get in to see that doctor and when we got there and listened to the doctor, he told us that Tim had kidney disease and was in stage three kidney failure.  That his kidneys were functioning at 44%.  They took 16 viles of blood and ordered an ultra sound.  When we left, we were told that he was to eat only foods that are the lowest in potassium and low phosphates.  Our next appointment to go over all the testing results is for the 11th.  Tim has been feeling very poorly.  The change in diet has not agreed with him.  He has lost 13 pounds in two weeks and his Addisons balance is off now.  We have an appointment to see a dietitian which should help us.  All in all, we are grateful that this has been caught and now we can go forward and try not to cause further damage to his kidneys.  He tuckers out quickly and has been extra tired lately. 

In the evenings I feed baby "A" her night bottle and hold her till she falls asleep and Tim feeds Kinsley her night bottle and holds her, while they watch Blues Clues together till she falls asleep.  Most days he falls asleep first.  Bless his heart.

We are praying for Tim to be healed and gain in strength and health.   

The Oscar Mayer Wiener Mobile was at our local Kroger recently.

We are happily back into a good routine again with schooling.  It helps me to get more done, if we can stay in a loose routine.  The children also do better knowing what to do and what to expect every day. 

The south has gotten a huge amount of rain this winter and the weather has been very mild for this time of year.  We had a lot of flooding.  Most of the flooding has receded now.  Our pond is still very full.

A huge tree fell on one of our fence lines and my dad and William have been very busy trying to get the wood cut up so they can repair the fencing.  Because of the mild weather, the children have been able to play a good bit outside when done with schooling and it is not raining.

Zeke loves all animals.  Here he is with Mr. Skunk.

Kinsley loves to swing.  She would swing every day if the weather were nice.  Carolyn loves to take Timothy and Kinsley out for an hour in the afternoon if the weather is nice.  They are both very well behaved for her and look forward to it.  Below are the many faces of a happy Kinsley!

 Billy and Elizabeth can only go out with proper supervision because of their hard behaviors.

On rainy days Billy loves to play on a mat in front of the wood stove.  He is very into pirates lately so Uncle "B" and Aunt "S" got him this cool ship for Jesus Birthday.  He plays with it daily.

 
William is still studying for the Language Arts section of his GED.  He should be taking that part very soon.

With such a large family and so many with special needs, we make several unexpected trips to the ER yearly.  Usually in the middle of the night.  William is the one that goes with me when I have to go.  Tim stays home with the rest of the sleeping children.  This time Carolyn had hurt her ankle at ballet.  It ended up being badly sprained.  So glad it was not broken.  In the above picture I took a surprise picture while he was reading.  This was at around midnight!

Elizabeth is doing much better with her schooling since we switched her over to just workbooks. 

She also recently got new hearing aids.  They are much smaller and you can not even see them unless you are looking closely at her ears.  She has two pet rats she plays with and loves.

God is so good and life is fine.  We have had fewer appointments lately so it has been nice to be home a bit  more and get some things done.  I am going to try to garden in my raised beds this year.  I have not had a garden in two years because of all the new little ones, that have come along, needing so much of my time.  I think I am up for some light gardening this year.  So we shall see.

I pray that the One True and Only God will be with you, leading and guiding you all through 2016.  That health, peace and the bonds of friends and family will be strong the whole year as you live and grow in Him.

Blessings,

2 Timothy 1:12  For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.

susan

Three More Nichols!!!!!

I am overjoyed to announce the adoption of three of our foster children!  I feel so very humbled and blessed, to know that God would entrust us to raise these children as unto Him.  That God answered my earnest prayer, to raise more children, if it was His will.   To gift us the gift of these lives, into our family, to call our own forever.  That we are now and forever, family!

I no longer have to refer to them as "B", "T" and baby "K"!  I no longer have to hide their sweet faces!

Introducing Billy, Timothy and Kinsley!

Kinsley, Billy and Timothy!

This was before we went into the court house.

After we went to court, the first place we went was to meet Stephen for lunch to celebrate!  Then we took Billy, Timothy and Kinsley to the store to let them each pick out adoption day toys!

Billy had been wanting a farmer and animals for a while so he picked out this tractor and a Robot.

Timothy picked out two cars, two dinosaurs and a football.

Kinsley had never shown interest in dolls but grabbed this one and has not hardly put it down since.  She also picked out a stuffed giraffe that plays lullabies.

Since we were all dressed up I took some pictures.

Billy and Timothy.

William, Zeke, Carolyn and Elizabeth.

My grown ladies.

William and Zeke.

My "Bigs" and "Middles".

Happy new parents!

I am so very content and my heart beams with happiness in this event in our lives.  The miracle of how they came into our lives.  How far they have all come and who they are now, is such a testament to God and His faithfulness, mercy and grace.  That His Word is true and we can stand on it and believe. 

Thank you Dear God in Heaven for all you have done for our family.  May we always be as faithful to you as you are to us.  Amen!

Matthew 18:5  And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.

Blessings,
susan