On Monday morning, October 8th, it was life as usual.  After a series of phone calls, Israel came into our bedroom and asked, “What do you think about all of us driving to California?”  After about 30 minutes of deliberation, I said, “Okay.”  It was the craziest, most impulsive decision of my life.  I immediately started the 2 loads of laundry, packed up our clothes and belongings, packed up Bentley’s things, made phone calls to cancel or reschedule appointments, asked Alanna to watch our cats every few days, gathered DVDs/CDs and toys to keep the boys occupied in the car, packed food and snacks, cleaned up the house, and prayed that we weren’t forgetting something important.  Within a few hours, we were saying good-bye to our cats and our home and we wouldn’t be back for 3 and a half weeks. 

It had been much too long since we were able to spend time with Israel’s family.  While my brain was shooting out a million reasons why this would be a ridiculous and even irresponsible decision, my heart was telling me to go…that it would be well worth it.  After all, there aren’t many things in life that are more important than family.  My heart was right.  It was such a wonderful trip.  God really blessed us.

I tend to be a doer, especially on vacations.  But this trip has taught me to appreciate just being, and finding value in just living out our lives together.  I will treasure all of the authentic conversations and hearing so many life stories and experiences.  It was a time of refreshing and happiness for us.   

Here is a slideshow that I pulled together from our trip.  It is especially dedicated to Israel’s mom who has been and continues to be the rock of this family.  Lala, we are so blessed to have such a beautiful, strong, and Christ-like woman in our lives.  Your 7 boys love and respect you so much and so do I! 

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged about our family happenings, so I thought I’d play a little catch up.  We’ve lived through all four seasons here in DeWitt, MI and now we’re on round two.  I like where we’re at now.  I no longer feel like we’re getting used to our lives here.  We’re trying to conquer it.  Here’s the latest:

GRACE ORCHARD:
We had a great first season for our U-Pick Blueberry business.  When we first decided to buy the house, we had no idea about the blueberry bushes.  It wasn’t mentioned in the property description.  It did say there were “fruit orchards”, but we thought they were referring to the apple & pear trees.  After moving in, we got a good look at what we were up against.  The property had been overgrown for over a decade!  My parents began coming every weekend to help us clear the yard and we came across some amazing treasures.  The best was discovering the 10+ cherry trees in the northeast corner of our property!  The biggest project was the 2 acres of blueberry bushes.  My parents dedicated countless hours to pruning and tending them – especially my mom…which is why we named the business, “Grace’s Blueberries” and the land, “Grace Orchard”.  The business took off with the one Craigslist posting that I put up.  I posted that we have all-natural u-pick blueberries and if anyone was interested, email dewittblueberries@gmail.com to be added to a list.  Within the week, we had nearly 50 responses.  I then started a public Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/GracesBlueberries.  We had lots of people stop by and pick our all-natural blueberries.  We gave away free Balance magazines to our customers which we hope were a blessing to them.  We were able to eat blueberries to our hearts’ content, but hope for a bigger and better harvest next year. 

 

TRIATHLON SEASON ENDS:
We are done with our season training and are now in our off-season training.  This year Israel raced in one sprint triathlon (Hawk-i), one intermediate triathlon (Lansing Legislator), and finished his season with a century ride (Tour de Witt).  I raced in one sprint triathlon (Hawk-i), one olympic distance triathlon (Tri2Finish Holly), and ended my season with a half-marathon run.  Manu and Micah raced in their first triathlon, the Muncie ToughKids.  We’re planning our End of Season Bash for Team Revolution which will be on Sunday, November 18.  Endurance athletes can still sign up to be a part of the team for next season here.  We hope to stay in shape by going to the gym and getting on our bike trainer throughout the off-season until we get back into race mode in the spring! 

HOMESCHOOL:
This fall, Manu started first grade and Micah is in Pre-K.  Ty is trying to learn how to color.  It’s been different, but going well.  Last year, school wasn’t as structured and we did more projects and unit studies.  This year, I am following a curriculum for Manu so it is more structured.  I decided to go with a few different programs to try them out.  I’m using Christian Light for Math, Social Studies & Reading, and A Reason For Handwriting & Spelling.  Bible & Science are still on our own.  I’m enjoying it and it actually brings more independent learning which can be nice.  We also have taken advantage of being on the road.  This past trip, we were able to stop by Fruita, Colorado and visit a Dinosaur museum.  They were able to see many different dinosaur & “prehistoric” skeletons and also see real paleontologists at work in their lab!  The kids had a blast.

 
 

ADVENTURERS:
A couple months back, the boys signed their first official contract to be a part of the Lansing Lightning Bugs Adventurers program.  We had to miss their induction (since we were in California), but they are now legit.  Micah is a Little Lamb and Manu is an Adventurer Busy Bee.  Ty is a wannabe Little Lamb and every time it is time for a meeting, he has a pout on his face because he doesn’t have a uniform to wear.  The Little Lamb teacher is so sweet and she lets Ty participate in basically everything for that class.

   
 

POTTY TRAINING COMPLETE:
It is with great satisfaction that I am able to announce the promotion of Ty from being a baby to a Big Kid!  I decided to do a one-week intensive potty training session with Ty while Israel was in Austria.  That meant the diaper came off and we lived in our bedroom with wood (aka washable) floors where we ate all our meals, munched on salty snacks, and drank water like it was going out of style.  #1 was taken care of by day 3, but #2 took some time.  We went on a crazy, last-minute road trip to Cali soon after Israel came back and Ty successfully completed his training during our vacay.  Go Ty!  Diapers, I will miss you…said definitely not me!

 

BENTLEY SEES THE WORLD:
I already mentioned our random hiatus to Cali and a post will definitely be coming soon.  But something special about that cross-country trip was that we were able to bring Bentley.  He has never left the great state of Michigan, save the greater state of the U.P.    At first he was a little nervous during the drive.  He was a little shaky and didn’t eat much.  But by the time we drove back, he was hanging in the back with the rest of the boys begging for food and looking forward to each stop.  He was able to see Weimar, CA and chase some of their infamous deer, hike at Lake Tahoe, relax at the Im resort where he received his new favorite dog toy, meet his 3 cousins: Scooby, Sunny, & Brownie for the first time, and stay in the many pet-friendly hotels along the way.  He left a piece of himself (literally) in nearly every state we passed.  Just another way he is building his legacy.  He did miss his cat-brothers Aroe & Chance, though.  When we got home and he was reunited with them for the first time, he gave them licks and carried them off the ground as he ran under both of their legs.  They didn’t seem to mind it at all.

 

TRAVELS:
As a family, we have traveled from coast to coast in the past few months.  We also spent a wonderful weekend out in Camp Akita in Illinois.  The boys rode horses for the first time and ever since, to ride horses in Camp Akita has been a reoccurring prayer request!  We had a relaxing time at the CAMPUS vision retreat out in Williamsburg, VA.  The boys were able to swim in the Atlantic ocean at Virginia Beach for the first time.  We also took a tour of the historic Berkeley Plantation on the James River.  We have spent many Sabbaths traveling around to different churches in Michigan for Israel’s speaking engagements.  He and Sebastien preached an evangelistic series on the campus of Western Michigan University.  Israel also was asked to be the Pathfinder Pastor so he led out in his first Pathfinder Investiture.  And of course, most recently, we drove to the west coast and spent time in Sacramento for the Waterbrook wedding and then to SoCal to spend much needed time with Israel’s family.  It had been too long!  When we weren’t traveling, we were watering & harvesting my parents’ numerous tomato and Korean pumpkin plants!

 

This past year has required a lot of adjusting to new scenery, a new job, a new schedule, and the changes that come with a growing family.  We are so thankful to God for leading the way.  Challenges come and go, but one thing is certain: our family and friends make the journey so much more worth it.  We are praying that we can be more faithful, more loving, and one more step closer to Eternity.   

About a week and a half ago, I was outside pruning the blueberry bushes when Imanuel and Micah started yelling excitedly.  Imanuel ran over first and told me that they had found a birds’ nest.  Then Micah caught up and was crying, “Look Mama!  An egg!”  He was holding a perfect little blue egg in his hand.  He was so overwhelmed with excitement that when I realized that it was a real egg, I had to do all in my power to not panic, show excitement, but then explain the importance of leaving the egg in possession of its mama…in its nest.  They showed me the nest and I had Micah gently put the egg back.  I said a little prayer asking for restoration of the egg, in the event that Micah had shaken it too much as he ran to me. 

From that day, we’ve checked on the eggs, briefly, every day.  Mr. & Mrs. Robin are on vigilant watch and we have been trying not to cause too much stress on them.  But nonetheless, we are thankful that Mrs. Robin decided to nest in our backyard – and so low to the ground so we could be a part of this miracle.  (Even Ty can walk up to it and see inside.)  And we thank Jesus that He has kept our robin family safe thus far.

The nest is securely situated in a little wedge of the apple tree, just a couple feet from the ground. 

This is when the boys first discovered the nest and the beautiful eggs.

Watching Mama & Daddy Robin take turns sitting on their eggs with binoculars.

A few days ago, I sent Manu to go check on the nest and he brought word to us that the eggs were starting to hatch!

This past Friday, two of the three baby robins had hatched!

I was a little nervous as to whether the third egg would make it.  Couldn’t help but think that maybe this was the egg that Micah had picked up.  After church yesterday, we went to check on the nest and the third chick had hatched!  I was thankful.   

You can hear Mama Robin going nuts as I came close to her babies.  But just couldn’t resist taking a short video!  What a blessing to be a witness to God’s power and love.