Our new home

Loooooooooooooooong story short, we ended up in the townhome that Trey loved. Got the keys today, and I love it too :) Here are the pictures:

This is our "lawn". Thank God we don't have to mow that ourselves ;)

Traveling Home

It has been an emotional week to say the least. I can't even get into everything that has happened, because there simply is not enough time. And it might make your head spin and your stomach queasy (kind of like me ;)

This week brought more tears than expected. Every play-date, errand, doctor's appointment, day of school, meant the end of something. Trey actually asked at one point, "is everything we do going to be the last time?". I think we must have said that a lot in our efforts to make our children understand what was happening.

We are here in Portland, living out out of a hotel for at least a week (don't ask how it's going! Let's just say I have to make a Target run to buy a magic eraser, which I really hope will remove ink) until everything we own shows up. It is beautiful here (even with the drizzle we have had all day). The grass is lush and green, there are pine trees everywhere, and even all of the shops and restaurants are very clean and well maintained. The kids have been begging all day to ride one of the trains to downtown, and I think we will do that tomorrow, but I know they are going to love having a train system (every little boys dream)!

As for how two long flights went with 4 kids, because I know you are all dying to know, it was great. We could not have expected anything more from our kids. Luke was a little restless due to lack of sleep, but other than that we had minimal tears, no whining (a complete miracle), and lots of cooperation from everyone. Thanks to those who prayed for us (and I know you did, because this kind of travel would have been impossible without prayers).

Here are some pictures from our adventures this week.

One lady packed our whole house in a day, and Trey really enjoyed helping out :)

I've never seen my closet so clean!

There is our whole house, loaded into a truck.

This just fascinated me, so I had to take a picture. I've never watched cars being loaded onto a semi before. Apparently, they typically load them on top of each other, but since we have a van there wasn't enough room so they had to go one behind the other, leaving the driver no more room on his truck for the other load he was supposed to pick up.

It's very surreal watching the entire contents of your home along with your cars drive off down the street in a giant truck.

Sitting one last time in our empty house. They all have on their "Oregon" shirts :)

Our luggage...

4 massive car seats, a double stroller, 3 checked bags, and 3 carry-ons

being silly on the plane

And, we're off...

Trey LOVING the train :)

Just a few Oregon "Fun Facts":

• It's pronounced "Ore-gEn" NOT "Ore-gOn"
• It is illegal to pump your own gas in Oregon
• Oregon is the only state to have a 2-sided flag
• The hazelnut is the state nut (and I'm pretty sure it's the only state to have a state nut)
• There is a coffee shop on every corner
• And it does in fact drizzle a lot

A comedy of errors

Today was a day that made me laugh and cry (mostly cry, and the laughter tended to turn into crying most times). We started out the day as usual, dragging 4 kids out the door, dropping 2 at school, and heading to the cardiologist with the remaining 2 (I think I can do the drive to UAB's 4th Ave parking deck in my sleep). We go to the cardiologist a lot (obviously), and we are always in and out quickly. But not today. Oh no, the devil declared full-on warfare today. So, as we are waiting and waiting, Ana does a nice little number in her diaper. No big deal. I take the kids to the bathroom pull out the changing pad, lay Ana down, get my wipes ready, grab the diaper...WAIT! There is no diaper. It is in the van in a parking deck a few blocks away. So, as mommies often do, I decide to improvise. Don't ask, and I won't tell. Let's just say that Ana walked out of the bathroom wearing a semi-clean diaper.

We race out of the cardiologist office to attempt to get to the boys' school on time to pick them up. And yes, I stopped long enough to make sure Ana was wearing a completely clean diaper. We make it in time, and we head home. I open the door of the house to a ringing phone, 5 blinking messages on the answering machine, 4 kids begging for lunch among other things, and an e-mail from a couple who was on their way to pick up something I was selling on Craigslist.

After feeding the kids, putting the 2 littles down for naps, and responding to a few calls and e-mails, I receive a call from Gary. He is house-hunting right now and has only a few days to find us a new address. We had scheduled to view 8 or 9 properties in 2 days time. However, all morning Gary had been receiving calls from all of the rental management companies letting him know that the properties we had scheduled viewings for had rented in the last few days. We went from 8-9 available properties to view down to 3!!! So, I busily start hunting online again. As I call to schedule appointments the responses are the same: "that one is not available until November," "that one currently has a contract on it," or nobody answers AND they never call back. We are moving our family of 6 to Portland in a few days and we have nowhere to live...AWESOME!!!! I start getting desperate and expanding our search, compromising on budget and on things that were high on our priority list (like a yard). I find a townhouse that has enough space for us, no yard, and 2 attached neighbors. As I pull it up online and prepare to call to schedule a showing (practically crying, I might add), Trey looks at the picture and says, "look it's perfect! We can live in this one, somebody else can live on this side, and somebody else on the other side. That way we can have friends!" Thank you, God for 5 year-old wisdom-once again. So, I call the rental company, give the poor woman my sob story about moving so soon and not having a place to live (with 4 kids). Her response is a comical, "you sound stressed about that". I assure her I am, but also tell her, "I am going to take a deep breath now and beg you to allow my husband to view this town house today". She asks for my husband's name, and when I give it to her she says, "Ohhhhh, yeah. You guys were scheduled to see two other properties today that were rented". Yes. Yes we were. She agrees to show him the property at 3pm. As she is showing him the home she says, "by the way, I am showing this property right after you at 4". SERIOUSLY?!?!?!?!?!?!? At this point I think we should own a rental property in Portland. But since we own nothing but a house we can't sell in Birmingham, instead it just stresses me out! We were almost freaked out enough to just take the first thing available, but faith prevailed and we did not.

After leaving the town home, Gary received a call from the rental agent. Apparently either my stressed out phone call moved her, OR (and I'm leaning this way) it was her deep love for her niece with Down syndrome that made her identify with our family. But, she pulled some strings and found a way to allow us to view a property that we had inquired about a few weeks ago that is not even available yet. Gary will check it out tomorrow, and I am so grateful to her for doing that.

And on top of all of that, I had to say an official good-bye to one of my nearest and dearest today. She started crying, and I started crying...again. Really not fun. Love you, Angela!!!

Just hoping that tomorrow comes with less stress, less crying, more laughing (real laughing, not the half-laughing/half-crying I've been doing all day), AND an address :)

Saying "so long" to the South

I cannot begin to explain the joy that has overwhelmed our family in the last 5 years. Born and raised in the mid-west, Gary and I became deep southerners. We learned to say things like "y'all," "fixin'" and to add "the" in front of every store name, as in "I'm fixin' to go to the Wal-Mart, y'all wanna come?".  We have seen the Tide roll and the War Eagle fly. We have lived well, laughed much, and loved wholeheartedly. We moved here with an 8-week old baby and each other. We knew nobody, and I moved without having ever stepped foot in Alabama before. But it was okay. I felt completely at peace with the decision to leave all of the comforts of "home" and move somewhere very unlike what I knew.

It was here, in the buckle of the Bible belt, that we fell in love with Jesus. He sought us, and we were overwhelmed by Him. Not only did we discover our Saviour, but we also discovered amazing friendships. We became witness to the love of Jesus through our friends, who became like family. In 5 short years, we developed life-long friendships that saw the births of new babies, adoptions, the transition from compact cars to mini-vans, life-changing decisions, marital woes, medical diagnosis, crisis of faith, job changes, and moves. We have welcomed new members into our "family," and we have said good-bye to others as the Lord scatters them according to His purpose.

Now, it is our turn to scatter. We have felt the Lord prompting us for some time now, but we knew the timing was never quite right. Now, with 4 cuties to lead at home, and me acting as a single mom most days, we knew the time was finally right. I am frequently asked when daddy will be home and for how long before he has to leave again. Helping daddy pack for a trip used to be a fun bonding experience for the boys, but with its increasing frequency it has become a dreaded chore for all. We cannot expect to lead our children the way God intends if we are not present for them. We understand that sometimes being away from our families is a part of life (special thanks to all of our troops who do this for our freedoms). But, for us, there was a choice. Our prayer was for God to guide us, and He did...to the Pacific Northwest!!! Next month, we will transport our whole family across the country, and Gary will start a job that will allow him to be home more.

Thank you to all my girls who showed me what it means to put others first. You have guided me in my relationship with Christ. You have been more than patient with me, and you have helped me keep my sanity ;) I will miss you all dearly, but I am really looking forward to leaving the comforts you have provided here for the opportunity to tell others of the saving grace of the Lord, and to show them the love of Christ.

~Lindsay

Grandma and Grandpa have been here helping out post-surgery. They have been a HUGE help, and Grandpa got to meet his newest grandkids for the first time! We took the kids to the Botanical Gardens to try to get some pictures. Ana did not make it easy. Our beautiful girl changes her expressions in a split second. Below are some of the many faces of Ana... (cracks me up :)

Can you believe this is our baby 1 week post surgery?

Ringing the bell

Watching Trey ring the bell

Can't believe how fast he is growing up!

Luke says, " don't forget to stop and smell the...berries"

Thanks for coming Grandma and Grandpa. We love you!!!!

Mr. Unstoppable

I'm finally ready to share the pics of Sasha post surgery...

Picture your child here. See why I cried a bucket of mommy tears? 

"Ah, my own room...finally!!! Now can we lose this silly heart monitor?"

Today is day 3. He is down to a heart monitor, the line in his neck that they access on occasion for medication, and minimal oxygen as needed. The chest tubes and the pacemaker came out today (both were high on our list of hardware to lose :). Sasha is in a regular room, and he will probably remain in the hospital for a few more days. Apparently some lung collapse is normal after open-heart, so that is the deciding factor for him to come home. He has to undergo some chest PT periodically throughout the day. And once his lungs appear to be in good shape, we should be heading home. Today, he walked around a bit, played in the playroom for a few, and we actually got him laughing and singing.  Gary is on guard duty tonight, and I will take over in the morning for my 24 hr shift :) 

"Thank you" cannot even begin to express our gratitude for prayers!

Love to you all!!!

Changing hearts!

God gave us all our of our children for the sake of His glory. He knew that without them we would remain in our sin, in our selfish lives. Today Sasha underwent a massive open-heart surgery. I looked at his frail little 20 lb frame and thought about the fact that a team of doctors and nurses were about to stop his heart, hook him up to a bypass machine, attempt to repair the heart, and basically put him back together with a mended heart. I wasn't even in the hospital with him. Gary took him while I stayed with the other 3 kids and ran them to school, got them all fed and down for naps. I cried and prayed as I waited to hear any updates. I asked a friend to come over to keep me occupied while I waited.

Our prayer has always been for God to be glorified through this surgery. I didn't know how that would happen, but it did. After a 4 hour surgery we were not only told about the intricate details of the surgery (the closure of 3 holes - one they didn't even know existed, creating valves, removing his PA band, a blood transfusion, the insertion of a pacemaker, and so on), but we were also told about the way God was being glorified through our sweet boy. Our prayers were answered. Your prayers were answered. Not only is Sasha's heart changed for the better, so was everyone's that he came in contact with! Our sweet boy paraded around pre-op smiling, waving, and blowing kisses. Melting hearts, and calming the fears of other patients. After surgery we were told that he blew kisses to the whole OR and did not stop until they put him under! Post surgery, a nurse told Gary that she had called her husband and told him she was determined that we should be friends. They have 5 kids and are looking to adopt. They had talked about the possibility of a child with Ds, but it was not until meeting Sasha that she knew it was the right thing. Gary told her about Reece's Rainbow and left her with all the information she needed to get hooked :)

Pre-op

Sign outside the surgery waiting area. Thank you for lifting Sasha up to Jesus!!!

Our kids have the ability to make days brighter, smiles wider, and they open a door to share Jesus with somebody who needs Him. They are changing us everyday, and we are so grateful for them.