What a GREAT day!!! :)

First of all, we have not received the test results as of yet. I do not know what the hold up is but hopefully we will get them by the end of today. Hopefully sooner rather than later. Until then, keep praying. :)

Now, the reason for this super excited post! I have not said much about our decision to home school for some very good reasons. Not because I am trying to leave anyone out. My main reason is because I don't want criticism and I don't want the people we love to believe that we think their decision to public school their children is wrong. That is NOT it at all. We firmly believe that this is what is best for Claire & Lily right now. In a few years, who knows? Although, it's looking pretty good that we will stick with home schooling. However, we will take it a year at a time.

That said, one thing I was unsure of was the kids not having socialization. Well, God answered that problem BIG TIME!!!!! We have a homeschooling group!! The oldest one being 8 and the youngest 3 months. Claire, Lily & Drew all have kids in their age group! I am SO Excited!!!!!

We met them Saturday and had such a great time eating and visiting!!! The kids had so much fun playing together and they are all such nice children. They are very well behaved and they pray before meals and say" excuse me" and "please"! My kind of kids!!!! The parents are SO super nice and they work hard to include everyone. :)

Today we got together and took the kids to the park. That was loads of fun! The kids DID NOT want to go home! We are going to get together once a week and just so many group activities with the kids. WOW! I am just overwhelmed and so excited at God's answer to our prayers!!!

Anyway, just wanted to blog about that because I had such a great day and the kids did, too! :)

And if anyone is interested in how the kids can play sports being homeschooled? The kids can play summer league and by state law, I believe that the public schools MUST let them play if they wish, I am thinking that is right, anyway.

WOW! I am just so excited and happy right now!!!!!

Although, I would appreciate your prayers for my family right now. My Uncle Roy passed away and his funeral is tomorrow. Please pray for my Aunt Jean and his kids: Tony, Roy Lee & Kathy and all of their grandchildren. Also, pray for my Dad as he is having a rough time of it.

Thanks and ya'll have a great week!!!

Love,
Julie

a look at my 2009...

A few things I want to share with ya'll!!!!

*Hubby found extra work to take up some slack with our finances!! :) Thanks SO much to the good person who is offering the job!!

*The Love Dare is AMAZING!!! Wow. It's just really kicking my tail all over the place!! (more on this later) ;)

*Income tax return coming soon which means:

1. get ahead on bills!!!

2. home improvement projects

3. new computer (hopefully!!)

4. and these

Because just as soon as I get these babies, I get to start RUNNING again!!!! I am SO excited and I just can't wait!! Running does SO much for my state of mind and I am looking forward to the alone time, time to pray and think and hear God. That's what running does for me! :)

*starting on my annual first of the year DEEP cleaning just as soon as I get through cleaning up after this sickness, YUCK.

A few things on my list to do:

*take down light fixtures and wash thoroughly

*Wash walls (yes, I do this)

*Clean out and scrub refrigerator and freezer

*organize pantry, girls closets and bookshelves

*organize bathroom cabinets (Again, ugh.)

*Get Drew's room, FINISHED......

and,

START SEWING!!!!!! (I want to find a simple book of easy projects that I can teach myself and therefore, teach the girls later) I know a little bit about sewing but I want to practice, practice, practice and just get SO much better!!

Well, that's all I can think of for now but ya'll know me and you know how I LOVE to make lists, so I will be back with more, I am sure!!! :)

Love,
Julie

thank you, Lord...

thank you Lord for your amazing blessings! thank you for answered prayers! most of all, Lord, thank you for your amazing GRACE!!!!

more love to thee, Lord, more love to thee.....

Julie

kicking Satan in the hiney...

*I meant to type hiney, not heiney. My keys are sticking. Or, I just can't spell, I am not sure. :)

Thank you God for bonuses coming just in the nick of time that will buy groceries and diapers for our family this week. Thank you for family that helps my husband come up with ways to make money when money is tight. Thank you for sore throats and fevers, even though they are uncomfortable and an inconvience that force this mama to slow down and hold her babies more. Thank you for dr.'s and antibiotics that will heal the sore throats and fevers. Thank you for the money to take care of this even if that's all the money we will have. Thank you for that much. Thank you for family that we did not get to see because of these things that come up. Thank you for these family members whom we love very much. Lord, please, let us be able to see them this week. Lord, thank you so very much for our arguments this week as we started the Love Dare book. These arguments have only made us stronger and closer. The enemy has been defeated. Thank you Lord, for showing yourself through so many people this week and thank you for the friends that I didn't even realize that I had. Thank you for the emails and cards from my sweet blogging friends. What a treasure they are to me. The encouragement they give me is invaluable. Thank you Lord, for my sister, Crystal and her help in so many ways in my life. Thank you for blessing me with such a sweet and thoughtful and precious soul for a little sister. I will praise you all my days for the amazing sister and best friend you have placed in my life. Thank you Lord, so much, for my darling husband and his strength spiritually. I love seeing you work through him and I love the man he is becoming more and more. I am in awe of what you are doing in our lives. THANK YOU, LORD!! Thank you for my babies and their precious personalities and sweet hugs and cuddles and kisses. Thank you for these three priceless blessings that I am so undeserving of. You are amazing, Lord and I love you. Thank you for my mama and her unwavering devotion to her husband and children. Thank you for that wonderful example. Thank you for her strength that holds me/pulls me back up when I am down. Thank you that she loves and encourages Charlie every single day and through every hardship. Thank you that she truly loves him as her son. Thank you for my Dad and his wisdom that helps me so much. For his kind actions and helpful ways. For the Dr.Peppers and food and stuff for the girls when we are down to one vehicle and I have no way to go and get it. Sweet man and I love him. . Thank you for Charlie's family and their love and support. Thank you that Dad's cancer is in early stages and not spread anymore. I know that you will be with Dad and us through all of this. You will be glorified and good will come of this. Thank you for the sweet cousins that my children have. What blessing they are to them. Thank you Lord for my warm home and another bill paid this week. Food for my family and gas for our cars. Thank you Lord, thank you Lord, thank you Lord! Thank you most of all for the sacrifice you made all those many many years ago for sinners. I love you, Lord Jesus.





*Just felt like praising my God tonight. Maybe you will fell compelled to join in. I often find that after praising GOD for awhile, Satan has left the building. There's just not room for the both of them! :) Just a little "kicking Satan in the butt" tonight for ya! Have a great week!



Love,

Julie

Hello!.....

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! :) Thank you so much for the sweet cards and emails! Your Christmas/New Year cards should be arriving soon in your mailbox, if they haven't already. I am really sorry that I was so late getting them sent out. I tried.

We have had a wonderful Christmas! First of all, Charlie got a week off from work, unexpectedly. It wasn't great because it was a week without pay or unemployment (long story) but it was great because we got to spend a lot of time and have a fantastic Christmas week instead of a rushed week. Thank you, Lord, for that. See, there is good in everything, even financial difficulty. :)

So, our Christmas spending was cut back even more, but that's okay, because we just focused more on important things and the true meaning of the Christmas season. Charlie bought us the book, "The Love Dare", as one of our Christmas presents. We have just started doing this and already Satan has attacked us in almost every area of our marriage. It has been rough but it's funny, too, because we just fight back that much harder and WE are winning! If you haven't started this book, I cannot recommend anything any more than I can recommend this book! It's great!

The girls have had a fun filled time with their Daddy and with cousins and visiting family. It's been a wild week and we are looking forward to settling down this week and just getting back into our groove. :)

Charlie's dad is doing pretty good, considering. He has a really great attitude about everything. He's good like that. :) They did not find any cancer in his bones and it is a really early stage so, those are all great things. Hopefully, they can take care of it with radiation. Please continue to pray. We sure do appreciate all of your prayers. :)

We are looking at a rough year again. HOPEfully, things will improve finanacially and otherwise. We are praying and prayerfully considering some options available to us. Please pray for Charlie as he makes a lot of decisions for the future of our family. He really is trying so hard to seek God's will and direction in his life. I am SO proud of him and in all of almost 11 years (next week) of marriage, I have never seen him walk as closely to the Lord as I see him walking now. It gives me goosebumps just talking about it! :)

*Well, I have to go lay clothes out for church tomorrow and read my love dare for tomorrow and get some sleep. I will try to post pictures of our crazy kids and their wild antics at Christmas if I can get the computer to cooperate! (Because of the week off of work, I will have to wait a little while longer on our computer, that's okay, the Lord is sure teaching me how to wait patiently!) :)

Happy New Year!

Julie

The greatest gift...

My husband spoke about the greatest gift of all today. He spoke of our Lord Jesus Christ being born so that He would be tortured and crucified for our sins.....in order that we may live..............ETERNALLY. WITH. HIM.

All day I have been thinking on these things & asking myself how I can draw closer to my counselor, my fortress, my Savior, as should we all..

Merry Christmas to all.....

prayer update...

Just an update to let you know, those of you who have been praying, my sister and her husband have reconciled! Please, please, continue to pray that they make it work! :) God is SO good !!!!!

Much Love to you all,

Julie

Our Struggle....

*updated on November 7th, 2008.

We now have 3 children!!! Praise God!!! We were blessed with a son, Andrew Coy David Fogg on September 4th-he was yet another surprise and an even greater blessing from the Lord!!! It is true, God does answer prayer and He does immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, According to HIS power that is at work within us!!!

I read a post today that brought back a lot of painful memories. I normally don't say much about our struggle to have children because it was so painful and it is still painful to reflect on it. But, it changed me. It made me a stronger, better, more compassionate person. Looking back now, I can see that. I could not see that then. I saw everything through the haze of pain. So, I am going to share a journal entry with you. I wrote this on August 13, 2002. We had already been trying for four years. We had lost several babies.

"My body is driving me crazy. I have no idea how to fix what is wrong with me or even all the money it takes to keep going. I am so tired of being sick all of the time and I am beginning to think that I will never hold our child. I am so tired of it all, Lord. Why can't we just be normal? I can't let go of the baby thing.I cry watching movies with Mom's and Dad's, I cry going to the grocery store and seeing all of the moms and babies. Moms and babies everywhere. Why is it so hard for me and Charlie? What do I have to do to make it happen? I wish I knew. Nothing is going to make it okay. The only thing that will make it okay will be to have a child. I know I should be grateful that I have my husband and I am but it's not the same. I don't know, I don't know! I just wish that you, God would take away this awful pain. It hurts SOOO bad......"

I now have two beautiful little girls after 7 years of infertility. I have two babies, but I will never forget the pain of not being pregnant and the horrible crushing grief over the babies that I couldn't have and the babies that I lost. I know it hurts, hurts so deep you can't even describe it. I went through a time when I was very angry and even suicidal at one point, I was just so depressed. The Lord carried me through. That's all I know. He answered me when I called for Him, time and time again. That's all I know and that's all I can tell you. There are no words that will fix it, nothing will. Just hold to God's unchanging hand and he will drag you through if he has to. He had to drag me a very long ways out of a very deep and dark pit.

I hope that this helped someone. Please remember to be kind when you are talking to someone who is struggling with this. We are very sensitive and words cut deep.

Hope you have a blessed day,

Love,

Julie