A Day at Bubba's

Yesterday, we spent the day at Bubba & Lou's (Brett's grandparents) out on Big Pine Island Lake. We had an amazing time with great family - Brett's parents also went out for the day! The boys absolutely loved getting to ride on the boat, play in the sand, swim in the water, and of course enjoy ice cream AND cake!! Here are some photos from our day! Thanks so much to Bamma Shelley for being our photographer for the day! And, good news is our new camera arrived while we were gone!! Hopefully I will have more posts to follow!

We couldn't believe it when Jackson and Brady both fell asleep on the boat - the sun and water really wore them out and then we just putzed around the lake for awhile (yes, putzed is a word :))

Jackson and Papa D - Jackson loved walking all over the boat and visiting everybody. He was pretty good at walking on the boat too!

Brady got really brave and jumped into the deep water with Brett. I was so proud of him because it's the best he's done all year! Jackson LOVED the water, but he just floated around with either Brett or me. This was my favorite part of the day - swimming in the water as a family. I have always loved the water and I hope that my boys will too!

Thanks for a great day Bubba, Lou, Dave, and Shelley!! We had so much fun and can't wait to come back!

Uncertainty

I feel so lost right now. As most of you know, we have been trying to sell our house for almost two years now. I took a job in Grand Rapids two years ago and Brett has been working in Grand Rapids even longer than that. Since taking the job, our house has been on the market with lots of showings, but absolutely NO OFFERS! We have dropped the price $25,000 from where we started and we are now listing our house for less than we owe on it.

Let me start out by saying I am thankful. I am thankful that we have a Savior and a Father who loves us. I am thankful that we are all healthy. I am thankful we are blessed with a happy marriage. I am thankful we are blessed with two of the best boys. I am thankful we have wonderful family and friends who are so supportive of us and love us so much. I am thankful that we both have jobs. I am thankful we have insurance. I could keep going on and on about the things I am thankful for and I have no doubts about the fact that we are blessed!

However, I am also confused and lost and uncertain. Two years ago, when I was offered the Spanish position at Cross Creek, we felt like God was answering our prayers to move back to Grand Rapids and to be closer to family and many friends (even though we have some wonderful friends here in Kalamazoo!!). Everything just felt like it was supposed to happen and we felt completely confident that we were doing God's will. We knew the housing market was starting to go down, but we thought we could and would sell our house because God would make it happen. Here we are two years later with a for sale sign still in our yard.

Last year, we thought we had walked into an unbelievable position with a couple in Grand Rapids who wanted to move to Kalamazoo. We were going to try to buy each other's houses and it just seemed to good to be true. Turns out it was! Things got very complicated and there were issues with home values that prevented it from working out.

We don't know where to go from here. I would really like a clear message from God telling us what to do. I feel like crying out..."I'm willing to follow you Lord, but I don't know where you're leading me!" How do you follow when you don't know where you're supposed to go? How do we know what to do? I'm tired and I'm confused and I just really don't know what we're supposed to do anymore. I don't know if we went down the wrong path and all of this is a result of that or if we are still following, but it's just a little unclear of where we're going.

As it stands right now, we can live in our house until the market turns around and drive an hour both ways (so two hours a day) for work or we could lower our price yet again even though that doesn't guarantee a sale. We definitely aren't making money and we're willing to take a loss, but we're at the point now where the amount of loss would equal a house payment before we start talking about where we will live. While I trust that God will provide for us, we also have to be realistic about how much of a loss we can take on this house.

I guess I'm using this entry to vent what's on my heart, but also to ask for prayer. Please pray that we would know what we're supposed to do and that we could follow where God is leading us. Please pray that we could find the lesson in all of this and learn from it. Please pray that we can remember God has a plan for our lives. I know these things deep down in my soul, but right now they feel buried under all of this uncertainty and confusion. I just want to be able to move forward from this...

Air Zoo

On Saturday while we were supposed to have two showings (not sure anyone actually came at all) we decided to head to the Air Zoo since they have free general admission. We have actually never been even though it's about 10 minutes away. It was fun, but a lot smaller than I thought it would be. Lisa came to visit us this weekend and she came along with us and took pictures for us!! Our camera is broken and I just ordered a new one last night! Hopefully it gets here soon!

There is a kids' room where they have toys and four free rides. Brady and Jackson both enjoyed "flying" on the rides. I think that Brady will be riding roller coasters with me soon. He loved the rides and wanted to do the simulator with Lisa and I!! I can't wait to take him to Cedar Point.

He rode the airplanes twice and we went on the balloon ride together which went around fairly fast :)

It was a fun trip and not too expensive either since admission was FREE :) Thanks for going with us, Lisa and for being our photographer :)

4th of July Festivities

We are having a wonderful 4th of July weekend and we hope you are too!! We celebrated with family and friends on the 3rd of July at Green Lake! We did some swimming, boating, played music, and enjoyed some fireworks! Both of the kids loved the fireworks, and even though Jackson fell asleep before them, he woke up to enjoy the show!

On Saturday, we went to the 4th of July Parade in Richland. It was a fun parade once Brady got some candy :) Jackson enjoyed the music, as always, and did some dancing for the people around us!

Congratulations Nick & Kerri Petersen

Last week Saturday, we attended Nick & Kerri's wedding in Grand Haven. Kerri is Brett's cousin. Brady really wanted to come with us, so Jackson stayed home with Bamma Jess and our family of three headed to Grand Haven!

It was a BEAUTIFUL wedding with one of the most beautiful brides I've ever seen. Brady was a little crabby at first because he had a very short nap on the way to the wedding, but after a few sweets, he enjoyed dancing the night away!

We only stayed until 9:30, because Brady was starting to get a little crabby, but we had a wonderful time!!

My Brother

Many of you know that we have not had much contact with my brother over the past year. He suddenly moved out around April of 2008 and stopped communicating with our family. It has been a VERY rough year with him and I've struggled a lot through different emotions. I've been angry about the way he's handled things, but also very sad that I had lost my brother and the boys had lost their uncle. We didn't know what was going on or why he wouldn't communicate with us, but we speculated about it.

Two weeks ago, my mom got a call from him and found out that he has been struggling with anger and depression. He attempted to commit suicide and was admitted to River Valley Treatment Facility. He called my parents because he needed a place to go. We have since been "reunited" and it feels so good to have him in our lives again!! I have missed him so much and ask that you pray for him as he starts to deal with his anger and depression.

On Thursday, we went to dinner at his house where he is living with his girlfriend. We got to meet his girlfriend Maria and her two sons, Christian and Jackson. They all seem very nice and seem to care about Jon a lot. Jon got to see Brady for the first time in over a year and he got to meet Jackson for the first time!

Praise God that Jon is back in our lives, but please also pray for his healing!!