I'm Ready!

Well, I'm officially ready.
 I have diapers and binkys and now I know baby can make her appearance at any time, and I am as ready as I need to be.

We have had a lot going on in the last month since we got home from Uganda.
 It's not that 
I
am so busy
but all my people are.

Mik, Esther, and Luke have had basketball on a team where they all 3 get to play on the same team.

 Luke has also had wrestling and Esther has had volleyball.

I have been a bit of a hermit.

I was wondering the other day.....what my problem seems to be....I am peaceful and plenty rested and I feel fine...

( I mean, as fine as a pregnant Nay Nay can feel)

 but I just don't  feel up to "engaging" much outside of these 4 walls...or however many walls are in this house.  

And then it hit me....
I have a graduating Senior, which is awesome, 

AND

 a baby on the way, which is also awesome,
 and everything in between.

 I know when my older kids graduated, it took a lot of adjustment, in my thought process.  It also took extra time and energy to let the Senior process thoughts and ideas about all the upcoming changes and decisions of their future.

Whenever you have a person a comin' or a goin', 
it causes everyone to ADJUST to a new norm.

My current Senior has been my wife right hand for so many years and I can feel her gearing up to take flight.

Even if they don't leave the nest for awhile or leave and come back for a season, it is not the same, they are in a different role in the house and family once they have graduated.

  My Senior is being a Senior
(anyone who has had one, knows that the plans of life change every 30 minutes days.)

 I know that this process is normal and totally necessary, but I just jump on one train and it's already off those rails and headed on a whole different track. 

 I.am.in.no.condition.to.be.doing.ANY.sort.of.jumping.

I remember when Lashae and Chaney were getting married and I was 8 months pregnant with Moo, I had the same feeling.  I didn't have a lot to offer outside of the immediate family at the time.  It was as if, all my body and emotions were so busy trying to do and process what needed to be done and still enjoy the moment...that everything else went on the back burner. 

 When the kids get home from school, they (mostly Mik, poor kid hasn't learned yet) will often ask me what did I do all day?? 

**I mean to him, it is a legit question, because it appears nothing is different from when he left the house 7 hours earlier.**

And my new answer is:

I grew a baby!!! 
I mean seriously, isn't that enough for right now.  

By the grace of God alone, it's been very quiet around here, and honestly I'm not that busy, I spend a lot of "down time," and I don't even feel too bad about it
because I know all too well what is coming and I know the "down time" thing will soon be 

O.V.E.R. 

I have to say, now that I'm on the tail end of this pregnancy, in hindsight, it has gone by super fast and uneventfully.
It has been one of the hardest things for me, and also one of the biggest and best blessings of my life.

Brenda - Uganda 2015

One of God's greatest gifts to me on this last Uganda trip was
Brenda!

I love this lady!
We have known each other for many years; we live in the same community and have a lot of the same friends, but we would just see one another once in awhile and usually at a sporting event, or in passing.  I knew she was a sweetie and had wonderful kids and a nice hubby, but I hadn't had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with her.

Just weeks before our trip to Uganda, Brenda did a Beth Moore bible study with me and a whole bunch of other women at our church.  In the last session she told me she wanted to go to Uganda with us.  I kinda giggled because it was only about a month before we left, but I could tell she was serious.
She was very serious, she purchased her ticket the very next day, and of course it wasn't without the typical obstacles that come with going on a mission trip, but it did not detour her for a minute.
She knew this is where God was leading her and she was not only stepping out in faith but
LEAPING
out in faith.

Brenda was an especially sweet gift to me because when Charlie hits the red soil of Uganda, he is in his element and he likes to go and go fast.
 This trip, I was slower and also had several kids to manage and even when they are moving fast, it's not necessarily in a forward direction.
Brenda was my teammate, she did everything with confidence and a smile and acted like whatever pace we happen to be going, or whatever we were doing was exactly the pace she wanted to be going, and the thing she wanted to be doing.
 She adjusted to every situation with such grace and that beautiful smile.  She was "thrown" into some unsure situations without warning and nobody would have ever known, as she took it all in stride.

Brenda, is one of those ladies that just has a sweet and quiet spirit, but she also loves large and fiercely.  

She loves the Lord, and her family and everyone God puts into her path.

  I watched her come to tears many times and also burst into laughter. 

 She is an observer and just steps in where she sees the gaps without ever saying a word. 

She was a blessing to our entire team.

She saved my kids from many horrible things, I am positive of it.....she used about a million wipes and a tube of Cortaid on Reece.  He would have surely itched holes right through his skin if it wasn't for Brenda keeping "itchy cream" on hand.

Thank you Jesus for giving us Brenda to go with us to Uganda, and thank you Brenda for saying YES,

when God laid it on your heart to go.  

I love you my friend and I hope we get to go and do more life and more mission together with you!

Luke 10:1 (ESV)

10 After this the Lord appointed seventy-two[a] others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go.