Past Due but 1 YEAR!

I am really late writing this post, and it's a no-picture post but, it's all good! :)

Oh, and it's gonna be really LONG!

March 17th marked our 1 year mark of being in Alabama! It still seems surreal that it has already been that long. Some days, or weeks rather, definitely feel like it has been that long but, overall it flew by! We really miss Virginia a lot-the sites, the friends, the church ward-but we love having our own home now and living closer to family.

It has been quite the year too, since getting here. Nothing went at all the way that we thought. I don't know that we have ever prayed and fasted so hard in our lives-I am actually so grateful for that part though. The Lord tested our faith so much, and there were definitely more days than I care to admit that I think I failed on that one. We lived in temp housing from March 17-May 27(ish). During that time there was no compensation that Mike was making for his work, which that actually lasted until July 4th. Anyway, in April Mike's grandfather passed away and we made a last minute trip to MO for that. I believe it was a week and a half later that we got in an auto accident and are van was totaled-it took us another week or so to find a "new van", and that wasn't very easy at all! Around the 27th of May, it may have been a day or so later, we moved over to Jeff and Kelli's house (that's a super long story in and of itself) with them and their 4 children, along with Jeff's parents and their 3 children. So, yes, there were 6 adults and 10 children living under the same roof! HAHA! Communal living at it's finest! :) In the middle of all this we were trying to find a home for when it all worked out (and looking back it's good that we didn't when we had wanted). We found one, only to end up having more issues than should have when trying to buy a home (on the sellers end). We backed out and started over, again, it was actually good considering the business was take so long to close and we may have had to move the closing date of the house back a couple of times because of it. So, a week in June I kept all 10 of those kiddos during the day for 4 days so Kelli and Becky could attend Girl's Camp. It actually went very well and I found it a perk amidst all the stress of the business stuff. Finally, the very end of June the business was for real ready to close!! It was official on July 1st-what a happy happy day. And very good timing, we weren't sure how we were going to make it the next 2 weeks. We finally got paid on July 4th, back paid that is for all those weeks of work. We almost threw up when we looked at our bank account! We got lucky and found our house that week, possibly the last week of June, and closed on it July 19th-I like to say I got a HUGE birthday present last year, just a few days late! :) I headed to MO again, by myself  the last week of July for my nieces baptism. The week I got home we found out we were expecting. Maddie started kindergarten.That following weekend I miscarried at 7 weeks and spent a couple of weeks trying to figure out my hormones, an ER visit and a few appts. later I was good. We had a fabulous visit from Mike's parents. Mike had been having shoulder problems since 2 weeks before we moved to AL and finally went to the Dr. about it and had to start therapy and have a slew of tests done. The kids were in and out of the Dr. all fall (it was a rough one this time around). Our ward boundaries for church changed and were now in a fresh new ward-combining some of the 2 wards we had already been in and part of another one as well.  At Thanksgiving Mike flew out to DC and helped Jamie and Evan and their family move down to Alabama and made it home Thanksgiving night. December brought ALL of my side of the family down for my nieces baptism-it was a lot of fun! Mike was also called as the YM's president the beginning of that month for church. The day all the family left Mike went into the hospital and found out he had appendicitis and had surgery the next day. The girls were at Kelli's house puking while we were in the hospital and we took them to the Dr. the day after Mikey got home. Then came Makinley's 2nd birthday! Christmas Eve morning I found out we were pregnant and so that turned out to be Mikey's BIG Christmas present that he got Christmas Eve (a nice pregnancy test with a bow on it...no lie!:) January brought more illness but toned it down on us for most of the month. We couldn't shake the millions of virus' going around this year, we seemed to get every single one and they started back up in February-full force, Maddie missed a lot of school that month. And then again in March. So, sickness and Mike never being home due to work being quite psychotic these days is how we ended our first year. And let me tell you, even though this may seem a drab post and seem dreadful-we wouldn't change this year for anything. We have learned a heck of a whole lot about a heck of a whole lot! The Lord has been here every step of the way and we so thankful that, most of the time, we were able to see and feel that. We are hoping that the new year is a bit calmer and healthier but hey, we'll take anything so long as we are all together!

Happy first year to us!