Hi All! I’m going to try to make this a quick post. As I type the family is upstairs watching some type of educational program about animals, and I don’t want to miss out on much needed family time. However, it’s been a few days since I last posted and I wanted to let you know what’s been going on around our house.
Our friends (that I wrote about in my last post) made it from Tennessee and the kids have been having a BLAST with them. They have been staying up late, playing outside, going to the water park, and just really enjoying each other. Jeff has had some much needed one on one time with Jon. For those of you who don’t know Jon Ritchie, he has an amazing testimony of how God healed him from an alcohol addiction and saved him right in his own home. Anyway, they have had some much needed “guy” time. So that has been fun. I just can’t wait for my friend (Jon’s wife) to come into town on Tuesday so I can get my time in with her.
Jeff and I went out for our Anniversary on Friday night. (Today is our actual anniversary, 12 years). Angie (my sis) watched the muppits for us so we could have a night out. We decided on Mexican food and saw The Proposal at the late show. I have to mention that I’m feeling a lot like Nana these days. We have been on such a budget this summer trying to pay for Carleigh’s school tuition, that I brought a coupon for our Anniversary dinner. Can I just tell you that we both ate very nice for the low, low price of $15 bucks. That’s right $15!!!! And I still had half of my meal left for lunch the next day! Am I good or what? Now I know that it’s our Anniversary and technically I could have had whatever I wanted, but I was so happy to use that darn coupon. Nana would be so proud! He, He!
Since I mentioned above about Carleigh’s tuition, I feel the need to tell you what’s been going on this summer with that. We chose an AMAZING but costly Christian school for our kids. Lee’s Summit has wonderful public schools, but we were drawn to this school the minute we visited it and we have never looked back. Because we are a single income family (I teach aerobics, but do not make a ton of money doing it) paying thousands of dollars each year is certainly a stretch for it. That is the reason that Jeff works on his day off. To pay for LSCCS (a school of about 700 students). The school has wonderful academics, plenty of extra curricular activities, awesome parents, students and teachers, but what is most import is that my kids are getting “THE WORD” every single day. It’s not uncommon to get a small piece of paper home in their back pack that says “we prayed for you today” with all of the teachers (Kindergarten or 2nd grade last year) signatures on it. They took the time from their busy day to pray for MY child. Wow. It makes me tear up. I also cannot talk about how amazing the school is without telling you what they have done for us after loosing the babies. Last year, when we lost Mia, Emmitt was having a hard time. We didn’t send him to school one day and that afternoon someone from the class delivered a huge sign that said “Hands lifted in prayer for your family” and it had ALL of his classes handprints on it with their signatures. He lit up. It made his day. They delivered plants, gift cards, flowers, cards, prayer shawls, jewelry with HOPE on it and many more things. I simply thought that you could never top how wonderful that they treated us. Until I lost Elijah this year. They truly went above and beyond what we could have ever hoped for. They sent even more cards, and several moms from school got together and planned meals for us for an entire month. Every day someone would call and say “this is ___ and we are bringing you supper tonight”. One mom stopped by after ordering us Pizza and delivered a movie for the kids because she knew that every Friday night we did pizza and a movie for family night. Can you believe that? I also received an email from the principal a few days after I got home from the hospital. It said that she had a busy week and had heard what had happened with us, but didn’t have much time to pray for us. Then she said that when she got the time that he was born she couldn’t believe it. That exact day she got home from her busy day at school and started praying for us just “happened” to be the EXACT time that he was born. I could go on and on about the school but again, I’m trying to keep it short tonight. I said all that to say this. Sending them to this school has been a sacrifice for us. We haven’t done many fancy vacations, we don’t go on shopping sprees, and more days than not I really just wish that we had the extra money to use on other things. This summer has been spent scrimping and saving the $5,800 that we need to pay for Carleigh’s portion of school and books for both kids. (keep in mind that amount doesn’t include Emmitt’s tuition). To be honest with you at the beginning of summer I didn’t know how we were even going to pay for half of it. But here we are, 3 weeks before school starts and we have about $4,800 saved. (We did this in TWO months). Can you believe it? God is so good. It is truly a miracle. I’m sure that we will just have to take it year by year (can’t imagine what paying for 3 kiddos will be like), but for now they will be at LSCCS for another year.
You may be wondering why the title of this post is called Freedom Sunday? Today at Sheffield Family Life Center we had Freedom Sunday. It’s a time each year that is put aside at our church for us to come together as a family (no nursery or kids church on that day) and pray for the needs of our family and ask God for our requests. We also get anointed with oil and prayed for by various Pastors and Board Members of the church. It is a probably the most powerful Sunday for our church. God shows up and shows off every year. And every year within a few weeks someone gets on that stage (the church runs about 5,000 people) and talks about how God answered what they prayed about on Freedom Sunday. Our Pastor said that someone told him today that last year someone was praying for a liver for his daughter and she had one within three months of Freedom Sunday. A LIVER! My prayer for our family today was that God would continue to heal our broken hearts over the loss of those sweet babies. I prayed that God would reveal to us whatever He would want us to do to help others that ever have to do this. I also prayed for financial FREEDOM from the bills that we have incurred from having these babies. We literally stopped paying on Mia’s medical bills one month, and the next month they were rolling in for Elijah. All three of our last babies cost 3 or 4 times more than our three living children. I’m going to be honest and tell you that it’s very depressing to go to your mailbox and get a bill for what’s called a “Voluntary Abortion”. That’s what it is called in the medical world. Don’t you think that they could come up with a better name for the bill? How about delivery? I didn’t do anything voluntary. I did it kicking and screaming. I didn’t give those babies up, I didn’t have a choice. Anyway, I would like you to agree to bind together with Jeff and I about these bills. I’m not asking for money to drop from heaven (although that would be nice), I’m just asking that they get paid soon so I don’t have to get sick every time I sit down to write bills out. Is that too much to ask?
Lastly, I just want you to know that it doesn’t have to be just Freedom Sunday for our family and church. Right now, reading this on your computer, you can stop and “Make your request known to God”. This could be your FREEDOM SUNDAY! Get down on your knees, say it under your breath, go grab a family member and pray with them. Like the Nike add, JUST DO IT. What are you waiting for?
I cannot end this without saying “Happy Anniversary” to my wonderful husband. 12 long, short, happy, sad, crazy, but amazing years. We weren’t supposed to make it. Many people, including us said it. But here we are! I love you!
Ya’ll I tried to make this short but you know me. I love to talk! I’m going to go kiss on my kids now!
Have a great night!
Marsha
