- In February, we packed up and moved to a huge 3 bedroom apartment for the sake of space. Our new apartment at Sheldon Palms was a fantastic layout and a great amount of space, unfortunately we quickly found out about the HORRENDOUS pest problem they refused to truly take care of. Lesson learned: Don't disregard online resident reviews. No matter how fantastic of a deal the unit is.
- I began my journey towards better health by addressing my issues with binge eating and allowing the Lord to fill the void that was causing me to turn to food instead of to Him. This journey started with surrendering my battle with eating in December of 2012, and all throughout the year I stayed in a state of constant surrender, earning 3 month, 6 month, 9 month accomplishments and eventually, 1 year in December of this year. God is good! He has allowed me to address the root of this issue, divorce myself from the obsession with food and begin my journey to better health. In addition to resolving these issues, I have regained almost perfect cholesterol, blood sugar and blood pressure levels. This coming year, the battle to get the weight that was put on begins.
- Luke began seeing a neurologist for his fainting spells and in April, had a BAER hearing test done to see if parts of his brain were responding to stimulus. The results of this test showed that he had severe hearing loss, especially in his right ear. We then followed up with a ENT who said that developmentally he had sort of an "output" disorder with his speech, where he was understanding what he was able to hear, but responding to it was difficult for him. I worked with him pretty closely and within a few months, he started showing large improvement.
- Lukey turned 2 in July! :) We celebrated with a pretty big Toy Story themed pool party at Mimi's house. It was loads of fun and Luke really enjoyed himself.
- Shortly after Luke's birthday, we were called to Tallahassee for an interview with Boys Town to be family teachers. We had prayed extensively about the possibility of this job placement, and we seemed effortlessly lead to this job. We received a call back a week later, and were offered the position. We packed up quickly, and the first week of September, flew our entire family to Omaha for preservice job training. These were the longest days I'd endured in a long time. We were sitting in a classroom listening to lectures about Boys Town from 9 AM sharp to 5 PM. This lasted for two weeks. When we returned to Florida, we had three days to pack up and move ourselves to Tallahassee. We moved to Tallahassee the 24th of September and were in the home working the next day at 6 AM.
Then began the longest 2.5 months of my life. I know a lot of people say that, but I know that so far, no experience has even compared to the way living in the girls' home in Tallahassee felt. The days felt long and yet the weeks passed quickly. In our first month, we received three new girls, one of which was taken out of the program after only a couple weeks due to horrendous behavior. We dealt with a lot and we did not sleep much. We loved all of our girls and we cared sincerely about their success in the program. We invested everything we could in all 6 of them for the time that we were there. That being said, it was not a good fit for us. We quite literally worked 24 hours a day. We were up before 6 every morning and worked until 9 PM when the girls went to bed. Unless one of them threw a fit, then it was up in the air how much sleep we'd get, since when they were "non compliant" we were not able to leave them alone. I'm tired just thinking about it. In one of my favorite movies, the main character is a women who's husband has left her for another younger woman. Her sister asks her "you never would have left him, would you?" She responds "no, probably not." Her sister says "well you were never really happy, were you?" And she says "no, I just figured that was the life I'd chosen, and I had to make the best of it." We probably wouldn't have left Boys Town, at least not for a very long time. We weren't happy, in fact, it was slowly breaking down our family structure and depressing our children. In my opinion, God saved us and our kids by getting us out. December 9th, everything changed, and we headed back to Tampa.
We are ending this year in a state of "unsure." We are unsure what we will do for income. We are unsure what the next year will look like. I thought I knew what 2013 would look like. Many times I have heard the Holy Spirit impress upon me the question of "what now?" When we were given Luke's diagnosis, we were challenged to trust Him. We did, and He has allowed us to relate to our son in all new ways. When we were shown the job opening in Tallahassee, He seemed to be saying "what now?" and we followed His calling to love 6 of his daughters in North Florida, if only for a short amount of time. Then we were lead away from this home, into the unknown, and the question is still the same. We are choosing trust. We are choosing hope and we are choosing faith. He has covered all the details so far, why would He stop now ;)
"There is faith when my hope runs out,
Cause I'm in better hands now."
PS. My sweet girl turned 4 on December 4th. Her golden year! :)
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