Sweet Life in the City

" This child's birth mother did not know her pregnancy at all. In June or July of 2004, her mother and her eldest sister saw her big belly and got aware of her pregnancy. She entered the unmarried mother's home on September 23, 2004 when she was 9 months pregnant and then was delivered of this child on the next day. However, she and her family thought that it would be impossible to raise the child alone because her family could not help take care of the baby in poor condition. Therefore, she released parental right and referred this child for adoption." This is the account of Samuel entering into this world. Every time I read through the accounts of my kids birth experience I cannot help but be saddened. My heart aches for the birth mothers while feeling so overwhelmed by the joy that I have received at the price of their sacrifice and heartbreak. I grieve because I did not experience those first precious days of their lives. I think about what a significant event too...

Not sure where to begin this post. I cannot believe it is already Thursday night! Sunday night after I had posted we found out that the Delegates that needed to vote to end the strike would not be making a decision until Tuesday, which meant we would not be returning to school for at least two more days. This was not the news we were hoping for:( The kids and I crawled into bed early and we were watching a movie on my computer. I thought Emma had fallen asleep so I just let her sleep because I knew she had not been feeling well. Jeremy came into the room and touched her head and she was burning up! We checked her temperature and it was 104.7! The highest temperature any of my kids have ever had. She was almost lifeless and it was one of the scariest experience I have had with the kids. Jeremy swooped her up and they headed to the ER. They got to the hospital and she threw up all over him and they quickly took her back to get her checked out. They did several tests and determined that i...

My alarm went off at 5:30 Friday morning and with the suggestion of Jeremy I did not go into work. I had a rough night Thursday. My head was hurting so bad that I was in tears. As I laid there in pain I knew that this physical pain was coming. We had been through emotional, financial, mental, and spiritual pain, so it only made sense that we would be entering into a time of physical pain (on top of the fibro pain). My principle was completely understanding about me not going in. I hated to lose the money, but I could not imagine being with kids all day feeling so bad. Emma also started to complain of a sore throat and a headache. We rested most of the day Friday and we both seemed a little better Saturday morning. We took the kids to the park because it was such a nice day and then headed to Aldi to get some groceries. We got back home and took a nap. Emma was restless all her nap and when she woke up she had a 104.2 fever! I was pretty panicked. I do not think any of my kids ever had ...

6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. I Peter 1:6-7 I have to admit this has been a tough week on me emotionally, spiritually, physically, and any other "-lly" word. I am exhausted! We are very optimistic that a deal has been made and we could be back in school by Monday. We continue to pray that a contract will be made by tomorrow and the strike will be called off. I have gone to a CPS school every morning this week and then headed to the YMCA for a second shift. Yesterday we found out that the CPS schools would be offering childcare until 2:30 instead of 12:30 so I was able to work extra hours there and not go to the Y tonight and tomorrow. This is a huge blessing! I woke up yesterday with a headache and so...

Last night Jeremy and I waited anxiously for the news conference that would be taking place at 10:00 PM. We had been following tweets about what was taking place and we were some what optimistic. The president of the Chicago Teacher Union came on-screen and announced that no agreement could be met and that the teachers would be striking. Tear ran down my cheeks and I felt like some one had punched me in the stomach. I sat on the couch crying and trying to figure out what in the world the Lord was up to. Once again, this was not how we had planned on living our first few weeks in Chicago. I stayed awake much of the night trying to turn over my fears, worries, plans, and control over to the One who is really in control. I know there will be more tears and worries, but I did wake up this morning with a new sense of peace. Here are a few things that I am thankful for today. 1. This strike has opened up opportunities to make relationships that would not be happening under "normal"...

I have to warn you I am about to sound like a complete whiner and complainer, but here it goes. Since we moved to Chicago TWO weeks ago: 1.We got a ticket on the Budget truck our very first night. 2. Our Envoy got hit and required us to get a rental car (which we still have). 3. The CPS teachers filed a petition to strike and an agreement has not been met yet. As of right now teachers will not report to work on Monday. 4. We got a call from our renters that there were fleas in the house and needed an extermination. Our pets are treated regularly for fleas and we did not have this problem. They asked us to help pay for it even though we can not prove that they did not bring them. 5. I got a call from one of our bank accounts (that I thought was closed) that several payments went out of this account and I was several hundred dollars overdrawn. This all happened at the beginning of August so there were several late fees also attached. 6. We have not been paid for over a month so money is ...

I have been meaning to blog all week, but I forgot how exhausting the first week of school is and I have been wiped out by 7:30 each night. Tonight I have been sitting at my computer trying to decide if I wanted to blog tonight because honestly I had a complete breaking point this afternoon and I could not relive those details again tonight. I might share tomorrow once I have composed myself. It is not one thing that tipped me over the edge it is a whole lot of little and not so little things. So, trying to keep things a little lighter, I will share some of the good things that have happened this week. Last weekend the kids and I went to TN for our family reunion and as usual we had a wonderful time. It was nice to be with family and spend some time relaxing before school started. There was some drama that took place that started the breakdown that happened today, but for the most part it was a wonderful weekend. We got back to my parents' house Sunday night and then they brought t...