Saturday, May 31, 2008

Happy Birthday Eddie Boy

Eddie-
You are our first little one, I remember the first time I found out I was pregnant with you and joy filled my heart. From the moment I found out I was in love with you. I would sit and dream about what you would look like and what we would name you. I only got to experience you growing within me for 17 short days, they were precious and heart wrenching as we felt deep within that God was going to take you to be with him. You were ten weeks old, had little hands with ten little fingers and little feet with ten little toes, you had a beautiful heart beat and the Doctors say you were an active baby growing big because you made my levels rise so high. You have influenced our lives making us appreciate every moment God gives us. You were and still are a gift that no one can ever take away, you are precious to Kevin and I and we love you now and will love you every day until we get to see you in heaven. You made me a mother and for that I am forever grateful. Happy birthday little one!

Saturday, May 24, 2008

What did you do over Memorial Day weekend??

This is Kevin - typing my 2nd blog ever, Every 3 months seems about a good amount of time for me to take a break and tell you what I've been up to. Seems like every spring time, for some reason or another I get suckered into doing a large project on my house. This year it is putting this:




Into this:



And this:



And this:



Yup 39 boxes of Maple floors are going into the house. It wil look nice and we got a great deal on the floors, but it will take some time to make it happen.


We'll post pictures of the final product when it's all in - it may be a few weeks (months)

Monday, May 19, 2008

Every Second Counts

Part II of my story

I got up early the next morning before my alarm was set to go off, to get ready to leave. As I was lying in bed I was talking to the Lord about how each second of my day is planned. If I left ten minutes later maybe I would hit a car that would not have been there If only I had left ten minutes earlier. So I was asking the Lord what time he wanted me to leave. I got up packed up and headed on my eight hour drive. An hour down the road I pulled over and threw up, not a great start to my day. I must of pulled over a hundred times to pee and every place I pulled over it was an exit where the gas station was 2 miles down the road. Then I pulled over to fill up my 64 ounce jug of water with ice, and of course had to go to the bathroom so I took my heavy jug in with me. Not wanting to put it on the floor I propped it up on the toilet paper thing just for a second so I could get situated then I was going to hold it, but I did not get the chance to hold it because it fell and hit my eye and gave me a one inch gash and a swollen eye. I sat and cried and kept asking the Lord why this trip home was so hard. I finally pulled into my driveway 10 ½ hours later. Stressed, bruised and upset, but home. Kevin’s cousin was in town and they decided to go and get pizza so I decided to take a walk. The dogs and I started our walk around our neighborhood when I turned down a street and saw a young girl, all dressed up sitting on her luggage, a ton of luggage. I first passed her and noticed she was crying but would not look at me, when I came back around I asked her if she was okay. She quickly said no and told me she needed to charge her phone and the only way she could do that was with a car because she only had a car phone charger. I told her I would get my car and come back to her. I quickly walked home called Kevin explained what was happening and got in the car. As I pulled up, her first response to me was “thank you for coming back..” I asked her if there was anything else I could do and she asked if I would take her to the airport and I of course said yes. So we stuffed all her luggage in my car and started our short drive.
I asked her what was wrong and here is her story….

“….I am from Chicago, I was working for a pimp when he became abusive. I tried to get away but could not afford to go anywhere until I met a family here in North Carolina who said they would give me a job and help me out. So I came here and lived with them and trusted them but they stole all my money and all my things and kicked me out and told me to never come back again. I don’t know anyone here so I did know who to call. Now I am worthless, I have sold my body, given everything away and have nothing to show for it. I am worth nothing and can never do anything with my life, who is ever going to want me.”
As I sat there and listened to her in awe, my heart began to break with the fathers love. There was no condemnation, no judgment, all there was, was love. There was nothing but pure heartbroken love for this child of God. So I told her that, I told her that Jesus loved her that he was crying out to her and he did not care about her past he wanted her future. She said that her parents would fly her back to Chicago if she would go to school and live at home and that was what she was going to go and do. I dropped her off at the airport with my phone number a hug and an I love you. As I pulled away I prayed for this child, that she would know Christ, because that is all that matters.

Then I was reminded of my day, how from the start I gave my day to God for him to use. So now I challenge you, the next time you get stopped in traffic, are running late, get behind a slow person or things don’t go as planned, open your eyes up to what the Lord is doing, because you don’t want to pass the person God wanted you to meet because you were to concerned about the meeting of dinner you were running late for!

Dumpster Diving (you know you want too....)



Oh I just have to share this story with you guys. Last week I went and visited my good friend Jamie, and what a week it was. First of all I drove eight hours down there last Monday; this actually was not that bad. Once I got down there it was great and Jamie and I had so much fun. I even got to see Jodi which was a blast.



Now many of you don’t know this but Kevin and I have actually become amazing dumpster divers. What is this you may ask? Well here is the correct vocab for exactly what we do… “Dumpster diving is the practice of sifting through commercial or residential trash to find items that have been discarded by their owners, but which may be useful to the Dumpster diver.”
Oh gross you may say, but actually you would be surprised as to what Kevin and I have found here are just a few examples….



Webkinz (8 brand new) beanie babies, L.L Bean bags (brand new), Toys still in package, Christmas ribbon (brand new), folders and cards, paper shredder, office chair (still in box worth $200), Rope, knee pads (for working on laying floors and stuff….a kev find!) lights, blankets, craft supplies, dog food, dog treats, dog toys, burts bees soap, organic body wash, calendars (2008) and the list goes on.



I have actually taken loads of stuff to Goodwill just to get back into the system. Where do you go? May be the next question on your mind, well we go all kinds of places however our most successful visits have been, Michaels, Office Max and Depot, Kmart, Dollar General, Hallmark….
We go late at night and we try not to draw any attention. I looked this up to see if this was illegal and could not find anything that says so, so we always just try to stay in the dark and leave when we see someone coming. It is a rush and so much fun.



Now while in PA I had told Jamie about this and she was just dying to go, and so was her neighbor who is 7 months pregnant. So we decided to make it a girls night out and we go dumpster diving. Jamie’s husband was having a hard time with this and was afraid we would get arrested, however when Jamie brought home a Leather office chair still in the box he was a little more encouraging the next time we decided to go.



We kept joking that it would be so crazy if we did get arrested….but I never thought cops would really pull us over. However we decided to go by one last place and we noticed a cop in front of all the stores, we thought it would be no big deal because we go behind the stores. Jamie was out of the car with a head lamp on looking through a dumpster when we see the cop car pull around the corner. We yelled for Jamie to get back in the car but by the time she did his lights were already on and his spot light was right on our car. We were all flipping out not sure as to what would happen. Before he comes to our door, three other cops show up with there lights on us and we are completely surrounded.
The cop approaches my car with his flashlight and is very unhappy to see us, when asked what we were doing I say… “Have you ever seen the Oprah show?” (Note to all who know I gave up Oprah, this is before I banded he show…just so you know”)
Cop replies “Uh…yes?”
Me “Well a couple of months ago she had this show on about freegans and well these people go….”
Cop “Don’t tell me you girls are out dumpster Diving?”
All of us “Yes…is this illegal?”
He just starts laughing tells all the other cops that they can go, that three girls, one who is pregnant is dumpster diving. He sits and talks to us for almost 20min about all the great stuff he has found and the dumpsters to check out. Checks our id’s and sends us on our way. It was an exciting night but not as exciting as my next day.