Blessed Mayhem

It feels good to sit down and write again. Maybe life is starting to get back to normal around here. SO much has happened in the past week and a half I'm not quite sure where to start. I suppose I'll begin with the best, most wonderful, part of it all!

Our daughter, Katherine Elise, was born on Feb. 25th at 9:45. John and I got up very, VERY early that day to make our way to the hospital. The surgery went great. In case you didn't know, I was REALLY hoping for a girl. To the point where I was afraid I'd be disappointed if it was a boy. Needless to say, I was ecstatic when they announced it was a little girl. You would think after 3 other children somehow it wouldn't be as special or exciting. Not true. She still melts my heart every time I see her. She is an incredible baby! She hardly ever fusses, took to nursing like a pro, and is such a joy. The children are loving her. Lilly is so excited to have a sister. :)We came home from the hospital on Friday afternoon, picked up the children from a friends house and had a really nice evening of watching the new baby and sharing what had gone on the past couple days. Saturday we got up and had to take Kate back to the hospital to have a few tests. John's co-worker and our friend, Kristin, graciously said she would stay with the children on short notice. As we were driving to Warner Robins we hit some rain, which we new was in the forecast. As we were at the hospital we get a call from Kristin saying she had taken the children to the neighbors house (strange...). Turns out the rain we had driven through spawned a tornado and a tree had just fallen on our house.The fire department was already there. Our back porch (which housed our washer/dryer/freezer/and 2nd fridge) was totally demolished and there was major roof damage. We were told there was already an inch of water on the kitchen floor and more coming. We were also informed that our house was uninhabitable. But, praise the Lord no one was hurt! Now comes the blessings...

We finished up our appointment at the hospital and headed back to Montezuma. John dropped Kate and I off at our neighbors house where I sat like a bump on a log the whole afternoon because that is all I could do after my surgery! Tina fixed my children lunch, let my children drag out every toy she had forgot she had, and even fed them chocolate covered strawberries as a snack. Can we say "saint"?? One of the nice things about living in a small town is that almost all of the men on the fire department are members of our church. John headed over to our house after dropping us off. Our situation was put on a chain call to our church and within a few hours our front yard was FULL of vehicles. Someone from our church offered us a trailer he owned that was empty to stay in until our house could be repaired. So, while the men were over at our house packing up things and loading trailers, the women were over at the new trailer cleaning it from top to bottom. Within six hours we were moved into our new place. And I'm not talking boxes on the floors. I mean dishes washed and put away, pictures on the wall, sheets on the bed. When John picked me up and took us to our new home I didn't have to do a thing before we crashed for the night. At the end of the day, even though so much had happened, all I could do was thank the Lord for a loving church family and for protecting my sweet children. Thank you God.

Here's some pictures:


Does anyone else see my refrigerator teetering dangerously close to the edge in that last picture??

Thanks to everyone for all the wonderful comments. I am, indeed, a very blessed lady. My parents are here visiting right now and helping me out while I recover from surgery and it has been such a blessing to just be able to sit and hold Kate and enjoy these moments with her. Take some time and realized all the rich blessings God is showering on us!

Be blessed!
~A