Family Updates : Part 2 !!!

Brayden has been doing well! He is far from a baby any more. He definitely seems to have more of Ethan’s personality. A personality that is sweet but most the time is busy, loud, energetic, fearless, aggressive and feisty. He enjoys playing with his brothers so much! He loves to mess up board games, knock over toy towers, play drums (like his brothers and dad), dance, color, and wear Austin’s dress shirts (for some odd reason ;) ). His vocabulary is still small but he is always trying to talk or sing along with the musical Frog and Toad! He will be 2 in May and we simply can’t imagine life with out this amazing little critter. What a blessing God has given us!

Ethan has been busy keeping up with his older brother while also taking care of his little brother Brayden. Brayden’s nickname is “baby” or “Braaddee” and Ethan prefers to call him baby! Its so cute. Ethan is learning to recognize his letters and sounds and seems eager to learn! He is still a cuddle bug…he loves to ask if he can sit with us or if we can nap with him. He is king of facial expressions…both good ones and bad. He is fun, cute, crazy, feisty, and aggressive and one of the best gifts God has ever given us!

Austin…wow….a blessing like no other! He has always been sweet, thoughtful, kind and compassionate. He continues to express these attributes while taking care of his little brothers. He watches them like a hawk and has extreme panic attacks when they do not follow closely to us while away from home. It’s really sweet but not healthy for him to carry such a burden. We continually try to comfort him by sharing with him that it is not his job to make sure the boys don’t get hurt or lost. Home schooling is going great! It has been getting better along the way as we both have had to learn to prioritize our day and set goals and expectations. God has given this guy great brains!

Austin, is excited to stay here another year. It’s a God thing! Over this last year he was literally counting down the days until January so we could return. We were concerned for him when we decided to stay. But God is faithful and took care of our concern!

Aaron and I are praising God for His never ending faithfulness in our marriage, in our spiritual growth, in our children’s lives and through his provisions for us! He is amazing and we are excited to live everyday, he allows us to live, learning more about Him and how we can bring glory to His name. God’s grace in our lives is so evident and we can’t thank him enough for rescuing us and giving us hope and a bright future!

Pray for us as we continue, to work with doctors, looking into my headaches and 3 lumps on my neck. I was having headaches at least 3 times a day for two months. The day after Christmas I discovered a lump on my neck. The next day I found another and the third day I found the third . A little over a week ago I had a CT scan and the doctors do not seem to be alarmed at this point. Praise the Lord! However they do want me to get another CT scan in the next month or so.
Currently, the lumps are barely there and I have had hardly any headaches this last week!

Will you continue praying for us in these ways?

* Wisdom as we continue to help repair and fix my mother’s house.
Pray for us as we will have to continue selling his personal belongings and as we see God provide for each of us.

* that God would use us to be an encouragement to a broken, hurt or lost family in our local area this year. Pray that God will use our insecurities of reaching out and ultimately see Him bring a family to know Him. Last year we started training with Lucas County Children Services to see if God would allow us to adopt a child. After 1/3 of our training we were advised that we would not be able to adopt until this February. Needless to say we were planing on not being here...and yet ....here we are! We joined their training again and look forward to seeing if God will use us to plant seeds in a hurting family here, help take care and love a hurting and abused child for a time or , if the Lord allows, to be blessed with adopting one.

* raising our boys and for Brayden as he will have his 2nd hypospadius surgery mid summer

* pray for my twin sister, Kristi, who is an amazing woman and such a fighter! She is taking chemotherapy until May. I believe she is half way there! The doctors have her taking 4 of the worst drugs for chemo. The Lord has again given her much strength as she continues to raise their 3 children herself and fight this disease. Recently, she has had lot of pain in her neck and in her thigh. She is a believer but has seen so many (family, friends and acquaintances 8+) die this year that she is really freaked out and doesn’t seem to be able to rest in God’s ultimate control in the lives of His people. Pray for her marriage and for salvation for her husband.

My mother, Linda, What a blessing she is to me and so many other people! Pray for her as she continues to feel the loss of my father and is trying desperately to pay the bills. Pray that the Lord will show her the importance of fellowship of believers and give her a desire to build Godly relationships.

My sister Korinne, Korinne is very intelligent, funny and accepting of others! Pray for her as she is attending Ohio State, teaching, preparing to graduate, fixing up and selling her trailer ( in order to move in with our mom to help pay bills) working , fixing and repairing dad’s house, dealing with the loss of my father (her closest friend in the world), struggling financially and feeling really discouraged. Pray for her husband who hasn’t been the same since our father’s home going. Pray that God would restore both of them to be supportive of each other at this very difficult and most important time.

My baby sister, Elisha, who will always have a special place in her oldest sisters heart! Pray for her ...she has taken the death of our father really hard and continues to struggle with the activities in her life. Our father was very involved with all her activities and interest and she feels like nothing in life is worth living for. Pray that God will give her some thing in life that she feels is worth living for. Pray that God will protect her from sadness and depression. And that God would continue to wrap his arms around her and raise her up to serve Him despite the valleys.