Today is the day...

that the Lord has made. I'm going to be glad no matter what happens!

Today after working out, in the few minutes of peace and quiet in my car on the way home, that song came to my mind. Naia was what we could call difficult most of the morning. Xavier was throwing a fit while I was walking out the door, b/c he had real homework for the first time this year. I got my feelings hurt about something really dumb that's too dumb to even mention. But while enjoying the quietness I realized that it doesn't matter what happens. My God is there. He's always there. He's not leaving me. I'm going to be glad.

Now that may all change tomorrow if Naia's being a stinker again!, but for right now, I'm going to be glad and rejoice that my Father in heaven loves me.

Also, I don't know why I didn't post this picture in the post about my brother, but it's a picture of us the day he began his life over again. The day I took him to rehab. I haven't heard back from him yet, but I have hope that I will again. For those of you that are praying for him, thank you.

Grocery Shopping with a 4 year old....

Today is my last Friday grocery shopping with Naia for awhile. Kind of sad. I have really loved taking my kids with me to shop for our groceries. I love to teach them about the foods we eat, those that we don't eat, etc... Today while Naia and I were in the store, I wouldn't let her have brownies in a box, b/c I told her we didn't need junk food like that in the house. I should have let her have them! They would have gone well with all the cookies we bought today! I literally bought four different kinds of cookies for our house! She was so good today, which is not always the case. I know people always say not to grocery shop when you're hungry b/c you'll buy stuff that you don't need. I think the same goes for a preschooler! She was missing snack b/c of the shopping and the longer we were in there, the more snack foods she wanted and funny enough got!

After a dry week on the Dillon forum, we finally had some great news! Another referral! We haven't moved up the list in a while, but we're handling it okay for now! I had a funny thought about this summer today. Early in the summer I started praying for patience with my kids. Not that I'm a grouch all the time or anything, but I have my moments. So I started to pray specifically for patience when dealing with my babies.(who are 71/2 and 4) I think when I did that God included all of our children. Even our baby in Korea that we don't even know yet! It's definitely teaching more about patience in our children than anything else has! So I'm "patiently" waiting on God's timing concerning our new baby. I can't do anything else but that. There's nothing I can do to change His timing.


And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. Romans 8:23

Psalm 120:1

I love my brother. We haven't always had the best of relationships. When he was 12 his best friend committed suicide. That was 11 years ago. He's had problems with drugs and alcohol ever since. He went into rehab in the spring. I was the one to take him and sign him in. It was his decision to go. It was easily the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my life. After that day I didn't speak to him again until he was leaving rehab against our families wishes. And then after that once before he decided to join the Marines. I wrote him a letter in the Marines last week, not expecting to hear anything back. He never wrote back while he was in rehab. I was reading a book not long ago (a fictional book) about a brother and sister and pretty much their relationship. The sister would write letters to the brother not ever hearing a response in over 12 years. Her husband supported her writing him, but told her when she got discouraged, "You don't write him b/c you expect an answer. You write him to let him know that you still love him." Now I see my brother occassionally, so we've not been apart 12 years or anything like that, but I would love to have something from him that shows he at least acknowledges me as his sister. Honestly I would take the recognition of distant family member if that's all I could get.

I've prayed extensively for my brother. For his problems, for his health, for his soul, for our relationship, etc. I know that all things happen when God wants them to so I'm by no means questioning what He's done. I have friends that pray for him. A friend that is a prayer warrior tells me constantly that she is praying for him. I know that he is surrounded in prayer, and right now, that's the best and really only thing I can do for him. Last week when the kids and I wrote him, it was to tell him we loved him. That we were proud of him and that we were constantly praying for him. While I prayed for him, I also prayed for myself that I would love to get some kind of response. Anything. Today when I checked the mail I got not only one letter, but two! Imagine my sorrow when I read them that he is injured. He has a broken ankle and is having to go through physical therapy so he doesn't have to change platoons. I'm beyond grateful that he wrote. Now I know, that my parents are out of the country and that I'm the only person left for him to write to, BUT he did choose to write me! Like I said, I'll take what I can get!

At a time when I really needed, the Lord has heard my cries, and answered my prayers. For that, I'm humbled and feel loved that He would do something so small for me. I'm reminded of the verse that says exactly those things, Psalm 120:1 "In my trouble I cried to the Lord, and He answered me."

Thank you Lord for loving me. Thank you for my brother. Lord I lift him up to You. Heal him Lord. Bless him. Keep watch over him.

Lord I lift my friend to you. Ive done all that i know to do, I lift my friend to you. Complicated circumstances have clouded his view, And Lord I lift my friend up to you. I fear that I wont have the words, that he needs to hear, I pray for your wisdom oh God, and a heart that's sincere. And Lord I lift my friend up to you. Lord I lift my friend to you, my best friend in the world, I know he means much more to you, I want so much to help him, but this is something he has to do, And Lord I lift my friend up to you 'Cause there's a way that seems so right to him, But you know where that leads, He's becoming a puppet of the world, Too blind to see the strings, And Lord I lift my friend up to you. My friend up to you.
Lord I lift my friend to you. Ive done all that i know to do, I lift my friend to you

Last Minute Details...

We are working on the last few things of summer before school starts next Monday. The kids both do extracurricular activities that have to be scheduled and organized. Thankfully, I'm not too late to sign them up for above mentioned activities! Naia's going to take dance/ballet this year and Xavier is going to take karate. We also have to get Naia's four year old shots next week. Not fun. The last time she had shots it was awful and that was over 2 years ago.

There is also tons about to start at church in September. I can't wait! Two new women's bible studies. One a Beth Moore study about the life of Paul called To Live is Christ. It should be really good. And another called You Matter More Than You Think by Dr. Leslie Parrott. We're hosting this one at our home and I really can't wait to start it. I love doing in home bible studies. We don't do them very often in our church so it will be nice to get going on that! On another note about church, I've decide not to teach our Jr. High SS class anymore. It's just time to let someone else take over there. I'm going to teach our 1 year old class this year. It worked out really well b/c we'll be in there for a while anyways when our new baby gets here b/c we won't leave them in the nursery for a good while. SO I might as well serve a purpose back there while I sit and play with our baby! It will be exciting b/c I've never worked with the babies classes before. I've always done youth! Hopefully there won't be near the backtalk!

I love it when school starts. It gets up back into a routine that we really thrive in! Things in the summer get too sluggish for us! We all love the routine of knowing what's going to happen during the week! One more week of sleeping late though! I think that'll be the hardest thing for me!

John Samuel & Xavier at Circus at school last year. Too cute. We live right behind them and there's a creek between our houses. The boys have played together most of the summer building what both mother's hope to be a lifelong friendship!

Kailie & Naia at Naia's birthday party! They're cousins and absolutely love each other.

What's in a Name?

We are having the hardest time figuring out a name for the baby. We had names all ready to go with both of the other kids. We have pretty interesting ways of choosing their names so I'm going to share. Yesterday the kids and I were working on cleaning out our guest room closet where the baby will sleep eventually and we ended up going through their tub of baby things that I've saved that were really precious to me. They love hearing those pieces of clothing or shoes or blankets and it brings back such sweet memories for me.

Xavier Daniel- Somehow, we just always knew that Xavier would be his first name. We didn't tell anyone his name until he was born, but we had known for months that we would have Xavier. As for his middle name, we really couldn't decide. We wanted it to be significant, since Xavier didn't really have a special memory for us, we just liked it. He was the first grandson in either of our families and we didn't want to upset someone on either side(and trust me it would have been an issue with either of our families) by naming him after just Brent's family or my family. SO we rock paper scissored it and decided to name him after Brent Daniel. So that's how our son became Xavier Daniel.

Naia Linnet- Naia's name came a little more difficult to us. We had originally picked out her name to be Peyton. Not after anyone in particular, but Brent really does like the Colts! And that was going to be her name Peyton. We had a couple of middle names in mind and weren't really worried about that at all. On the way to our last ultrasound for Naia at about 32 weeks or so, I had an emotional breakdown about her name! We had a 20 mintue drive to the dr.'s office and I just broke down. I couldn't name my daughter after a football player! I don't know what came over me, but I was in tears and Brent said, Dania we don't have to name her that. We'll find something else! So when we got home we made up new rules for looking. All new names. Nothing from the old lists could be on the new list. We ended up finding Naia and it just fit. We couldn't have picked a more perfect name for her! Linnet is named after me and my mom.

Xavier means new house. Which is kind of funny b/c the day I went into labor with Xavier we moved into a new house!

Naia means flowing. It's Greek.

Okay so with all of that, here are the "rules" that we use(d) to pick out our kids' names.
1. You can't know a person or have known a person with the name.
2. No nickname for the name. Neither one of us are fond of nicknames.
3. No name that's in the top 100 or so maybe even top 500 baby names for the year he or she is born.

I think that's it! Now if only we could find a name for baby number 3! We love all the names that we've seen from others, but I think our creative juices have stopped flowing! Everything we like is either too cutesy or too popular or someone famous keeps naming their kids that!

Back to School already

I bought school supplies for Xavier today. I know, those of you that know "Dania in Real Life" that this is totally out of character for me to buy something so early before actually needing it! I'm the world's greatest procrastinator! It was a little sad buying the supplies though. This is his last year in the Primary school. Next year he'll move over to the elementary school and Naia will start at the Primary school. Also, he had to have spiral notebooks for this year. That seems like such a big kid thing to need! I can't believe he's going to be in 2nd grade.

Kindergarten Graduation May 2007




Father's Day June 2008(notice the difference in his smiles!!)

Just another manic Monday

Not just Monday though!

We've had a crazy summer so far. Trips to Branson, trips to Mena, trips to Springdale. I think we've finally made the rounds this summer with the kids to see grandparents. Last weekend we went to Branson. We bought season passes to SDC so we're really trying to put them to good use! We also went to the Titanic museum while we were there. Very neat. Not something we'll do again, but it was neat to see once. Xavier has been begging us to take him there. He has a huge interest in the Titanic story. He has read several books and watched several documentaries on it. Pretty cool for a soon to be 2nd grader.

We're moving up pretty quickly on the wait list. On the unofficial list we're about #5. COME ON RERRALS!!! We are excited about what's going on in the adoption world. A friend of ours has moved up to the #1 spot for a baby from Vietnam. If they get their referral before September they will still get to go and travel to pick up their baby. Very exciting for them. And several fellow bloggers from the Dillon forum have gotten referrals recently. Also very exciting! So again, keep the referrals coming!