starting to move some stuff over!!
but there are too many kids in the van to be able to move much in one trip......



before you all get too excited- we are still waiting on cabinets and a railing before we can officially move. it'll still be a couple of weeks yet.
but the home inspector told us we can move anything over that we want in the meantime.
AND since my parent's house is going on the market next week we are trying to move just enough to make their house look nice for showings.

so here begins the chaos- our things divided between 2 houses, showings at one house and finishing up another.
and school starts in 2 & 1/2 weeks.
this will be a true test of how much i can handle.
i'm tired just thinking about it.

here are house pictures from today. i spent the day there sanding trim, organizing, and sweeping and wiping the floors. with kids hanging on me most of the time.
my knees are raw- literally. they are missing skin.

tyden's room-








hallway in between the 2 upstairs rooms-


shaeya and tekoa's room-








master closet- (i'm showing you all the closets with the hopes that you will notice the beautiful shelves that someone hung....;)




fireplace in the great room- dave and i decided to leave it unfinished for now. we will have stone put on it later-


dining room- we are going to move our table in next week- i haven't seen my table for a year!


that's that.
i am so tired. it's been a really long, exhausting week for me. glad to put this one behind me.

wren has been having lots of accidents lately- don't know what that's all about.
neiko is getting molars and he is really cranky and clingy. i pulled a muscle or something in my hip from carrying him so much- i'm trying to carry him less cause it hurts my hip, but if i'm not carrying him then he is crying at my feet.
makes it hard to get anything done- and there is always so much to do. i feel like if sit down for a second then the house starts falling apart around me.

i probably shouldn't be blogging this late at night after a hard day......my tiredness is showing a bit too much ;)

so now the 2 bright spots in my day-

#1 my wonderful sister-in-law katie brought us lunch at the new house and then stayed and helped me sweep floors. so wonderful.

#2 shaeya had earned $4 from dave the other day and was very proud of it. she had been carrying the $ around with her everywhere she went and talking about all her plans for those $.
then last night she spent the night at the lake with my parents- and my aunt joan (who lives in haiti and is going back there on thursday) was there for part of the day yesterday.

so tonight shaeya was chatting about everything she did while she was at the lake-
and then she asked dave and i if we wanted to know what she did with her $4.
we said yes.
she told us that she gave her money to aunt joan and asked her if she would take it with her to haiti and give it to someone there who needed it.

so sweet. i love to see Jesus working in her little heart.

keep working on us all, Jesus, we need you every minute of every day....

Psalm 68

4 Sing to God, sing in praise of his name,
extol him who rides on the clouds;
rejoice before him his name is the LORD.
5 A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows,
is God in his holy dwelling.
6 God sets the lonely in families,
he leads out the prisoners with singing;

7 When you, God, went out before your people,
when you marched through the wilderness,
8 the earth shook, the heavens poured down rain,
before God, the One of Sinai,
before God, the God of Israel.
9 You gave abundant showers, O God;
you refreshed your weary inheritance.
10 Your people settled in it,
and from your bounty, God, you provided for the poor.

19 Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior,
who daily bears our burdens.
20 Our God is a God who saves;
from the Sovereign LORD comes escape from death.

28 Summon your power, God;
show us your strength, our God, as you have done before.

32 Sing to God, you kingdoms of the earth,
sing praise to the Lord,
33 to him who rides across the highest heavens, the ancient heavens,
who thunders with mighty voice.
34 Proclaim the power of God,
whose majesty is over Israel,
whose power is in the heavens.
35 You, God, are awesome in your sanctuary;
the God of Israel gives power and strength to his people.

Praise be to God!

happy birthday to my beautiful little boy-





















good news!!
neiko's birth mom texted me today to wish him a happy birthday.
which means we have contact again!
i got to ask her more about the move. she is not happy where she is at and is planning to move back to louisiana in september.
which is WONDERFUL. we can pick things up again with the adoption right where we left off.
THANK YOU FATHER!!

and hopefully by then we will be somewhat settled in the new house and things will be a little less crazy for us....

lots going on around here. lots of things that i haven't taken the time to blog about.

one of which is our work at the mission.
ever since tyden was a baby i've been going down to the mission during the summers to sing with the kids there. another mom from my church does a bible lesson and then we play games with the kids.

we took last summer off as the other mom was adopting 2 boys at the time, and the summer before that we had our little "sunday school" in a neighborhood close by the mission (some of you might remember when I wrote about "summer sessions on wiswall.")

this summer i recruited some more help and we are back at the mission.
and it is awesome. i cannot even describe what a blessing it is for my kids and i to get to spend time with the kids there. the kids sing with all their hearts and the learn my songs so quickly. they listen really well to the lessons, they LOVE game/craft time, and the say the funniest things. (last week a girl asked if katie, my sister in law, was my daughter- really funny, right??)

another thing i haven't written much about is the adoption.
a couple of weeks ago my lawyer called me and said neiko's birth mom was not ready to sign any adoption papers at this time. i was really confused because she had always acted more than ready to give him up.
after a week and a half of waiting to hear again from the lawyer and wondering if neiko's mom was going to change her mind i finally just called her.

and i'm really glad i did. we got to talk for a long time and catch each other up. i got to fill her in on all of the milestones neiko has hit and tell her a little about how he's grown and changed and all that he's learned.
and she told me that the lawyers had things confused. she is still very sure that she cannot take care of neiko and that he is in a better place than she could provide.
and that he looks so happy in all the pictures that i send her and that's all that matters to her.

and then she told me that she was moving the next day to a different state. i promised her i would let our lawyers know and find out what that meant as far as the adoption.
we both assumed that that meant that she would have to fly back to new orleans once we set the court date.
well, after talking to the lawyer i found out that her moving is a really bad thing. it means that all the work we've done in new orleans is void and we have to start all the way over with a different set of state adoption laws.
frustrating. but i'm not letting it get me down. this is totally God's doing and i'm just along for the ride. no use being anxious as i have no control.
i'm trusting in my Savior to bring the adoption about in His perfect timing and in His perfect way. not mine.

and one more thing going on in my life right now is shelving. i'm learning how to install the wire shelving in all the closets in the new house. and i have lots of helpers.
needless to say installing shelves takes me a looooong time. but we try to have fun doing it.











baking and decorating cookies. for no reason at all :)



wren relaxing outside. having a little alone time here in the corner....



the theme of the summer so far has been "next week things will finally slow down."
i'm starting to lose hope....

www.momentscapturedbyrachel.com