Transition in the waiting place

Kim and the kids are now back in Utah, but Josh is down in Florida studying for the bar exam (not because we want this). We don't recommend driving 2500 miles with 6 kids without stopping to sleep, unless you absolutely have to! If you do, it will take a few days for the headaches and momentary lapses of what you were doing, to go away.

Josh still does not have any job prospects and has no idea of where or what he will be doing for employment, after he takes the bar in Florida. We don't know where we are going. We feel in our hearts that the Lord is looking after us and will bless us in his time. We are trying to work through our momentary anxiety or insufficient patience issues and trying to wait on the Lord and to trust in Him.

One of my favorite books is by Dr. Seuss, about the waiting place. We don't like that place much because it bears too close of a resemplance to rides at amusement parks with titles like "Elevator Shaft" where everything seems fairly calm, minus the unease in the air. The next stage always involves extreme acceleration toward unchartered territory and some amount anxiety. It seems that the more time spent in the waiting place, the greater the acceleration ends up being (that is at least how it feels).

There have been so many good people that have helped us through our difficulties - thank you. We have felt your prayers.

Moving on...

Just a quick update. Josh's great job offer was rescinded due to the economy so we have to leave our beautiful home. Our stuff will be in storage. Josh will be house sitting here while he prepares for the Bar Exam and the kids and I will be living in my parents basement for at least 2 months. It isn't ideal but it will work for now. Until then the packing is killing me. No family of 8 should ever have to move!!

Fishing with Daddy

Since Josh will be away from his kids for about 9 weeks this summer we decided to give them some quality "dad" time fishing. I had the twins and stayed at home to pack. They were a bundle of excitement when they returned. Each one of the kids had hooked at least one fish. Daddy got some great photos. Nate caught a large catfish.

Here is Gabby reeling in her very first fish! (Since he has caught 2-3 fish before, our expert Nate was giving her tips:)

Sweet James loved catching the fish but there was no way he was going to touch that thing.

Even Andrew caught this little Bass. It took some coaxing, but Josh got him to touch it before he threw it back.

It wouldn't be a day out without hot dogs & treats at Costco.

Josh is such a great dad. He loves to be with his kids so I am really glad that they got to have this exclusive Dad time doing something they love. Even if Josh never got to fish himself. :)

It's official!!

Josh has finished his last paper and his last final and he is officially done with law school! He will still attend graduation next week but other than that we have him all to ourselves for the next 2 weeks. The kids and I made him signs and decorated our house with balloons. Then we took him to the Olive Garden for dinner.

I can tell that we haven't eaten out much because our kids were delighted to be at such a "fancy" restaurant. We certainly attracted a fair amount of attention. Our kids were behaving fantasticly but so many people were just curious. Several members of the staff came over to ask our kids ages and comment on what a cute family we were. An older gentleman approached Josh and indicated that his mom had raised 7 boys and he can't imagine now how she did it. Then he handed Josh a large sum of money (it covered the majority of the bill) and told him to do something nice for his wife for Mother's Day. We thought that was a cool way to honor his mom for Mother's Day. What a blessing for us! The manager & staff found out what we were celebrating and brought us a free cake to share. Other patrons had heard from the waitress about us and came over to congratulate Josh. We had not anticipated attracting so much attention. 3 times one of my children came around the table and asked me if we were famous--ending with the question, "MOM, are you SURE we aren't famous?" It ended up being the perfect night celebrating an accomplishment that had really involved sacrifice on the part of all of us. Congratulations Josh! We are really proud of you!!

Recovering...

Having our little angels miserable has put a damper on our whole house. It is day 12 after the surgery and we are just starting to see signs that they are getting better. Last night is the first night that we did not have to get up to get the girls medicine. We had been getting up every 4 hours and it was nuts! By the 6th day we were exhausted! Our wonderful little branch jumped in so Josh could focus on finishing his papers & finals. Our YW pres. arranged for the YW to come do service hours for camp and Personal Progress at our home. They have helped hold babies and entertain the older kids. Several ladies have come and taken the girls so I had a break and cleaned, folded laundry etc. They have been such a blessing to me. We are actually getting some packing done before we move in a week and 1/2. Our family has also been blessed with meals every night which was quite the improvement over the cold cereal and canned chili the week before. We really feel so fortunate to have such giving and loving people in our branch.
We thought that the recovery would only be a few days and were not at all prepared for what we have watched the girls' go through. I hope we will be more prepared next time something like this comes up. ("Prepared" means that we will fly a grandma or aunt out to help :)

It breaks my heart that they can't even close their mouths.