I suppose I’m like every other mom when I start feeling like I NEVER have a day off.  The last three weeks have just about killed me with the early mornings (and late nights).  My kids have always been fantastic sleepers.  Even now, the big boys get up earlier than ever before (around 7 or 7:30am), but they’re self sufficient now, so they can get their own breakfast and entertain themselves until I get up.  But those days are LONG gone, as of three weeks ago, when Jesse started school.  The alarm goes off at 6am and Josh proceeds to push SNOOZE for the next thirty to forty five minutes!   Some days I literally want to cry as I hold my eye lids open and try to adjust to the bright lights of the bathroom.  Jesse is NOT a morning person and does NOT like to be woken up before the sun.  I try my hardest to maintain a cheerful disposition as I drag him out of bed and we begin the routine…

…needless to say, I was very much looking forward to sleeping in this morning…and I did.  I remember Owen coming in around 8:00am.  I had ear plugs in because Josh had been snoring last night, so I couldn’t really hear him, but he shoved a cup of yogurt in my face and for whatever reason (I guess I was still half asleep) I put it under my pillow and went back to sleep.  I think deep down, I was really nervous about what kind of mess I’d find if I opened it for him and let him wander around the house eating it by himself!!  Next thing I know, I smell cinammon rolls and Josh is jumping on the bed (yes, my husband) telling me “IT’S TIME TO GET UP!  IT’S ALMOST ELEVEN O’CLOCK!”  Thankfully, he was lying.  It was about 9:00am.  I felt like a new woman.  I think it took me another ten minutes to actually pull the ear plugs out and put my feet on the floor.  Our day was good.  Josh and the boys worked outside for a while.  He and the big boys went to Lowe’s while Owen and I went to Sam’s and Walmart.  It’s so funny how excited I can get to buy toilet paper and saline solution.  Last month was TIGHT to say the least.  Lots of expenses with school starting and wrapping up all the last details on the house for the foster children.  By the time the very end of the month rolled around (last week) I was putting $20 at a time in the gas tank and praying that we’d make it to Friday…pay day.  We made it and today we celebrated.  🙂  We bought our much needed toiletries, went to see “UP” at the dollar theater and then went out for pizza with friends.  The boys had a fun evening and were more than ready for bed when their heads hit the pillow at 8:00pm.  Now, it’s 9:30 and I’m trying to wrap things up so I don’t go to bed late, which seems to happen every single night, even though I talk about how badly I need to get into bed earlier!  All in all, we had a great Saturday.  I feel like we relaxed even though we stayed rather busy.  We were busy with what we wanted to do, not anything we HAD to do.  Tomorrow, on the other hand, is a very busy day and I will be looking forward to Monday and getting back to the same old, same old.

goodnight!

~audrey

It’s been a long week and a short week all at once…is that possible? It’s been long because we had lots to do every single day, but because of that, the week went by fast and I’m very thankful it’s Friday! Next week I’m hoping for a lighter load and MUCH more time at home to do ‘school’ with Joshua and catch up on my house work if it doesn’t get done this weekend.

On Monday, I finally repainted the bedroom that the foster children will occupy. I really didn’t want to spend $30-$40 on a gallon of paint, so I bought a $5 gallon in the ‘returned’ section. It ended up being WAY too pinkish once I tried a little on the wall. It actually resembled a color much like my grandmother puts on her cheeks…completely awful for a gender nuetral room…or ANY room for that matter! I decided to check the garage and see if we had something I could use. I found the can that contained the paint we used on the boys’ bathroom. A very soft and nuetral green. I mixed it with a tiny bit of “Adobe White” that I also found in the garage. Together, that made a full gallon and I spent the next two or three hours painting the walls. I even let Joshua take a roller and help. He did an excellent job and surprisingly, we didn’t get paint on anything but the walls and maybe a few fingers. I hung a few things on the wall and got the curtain rod up, and I’m very pleased with how it turned out. This is the warmest this room has ever felt. Even more so than when it was a nursery for Owen. I’m very excited. You may notice above the bed, I tried a new craft that I saw in my latest “Family Fun” magazine. I bought floral wire ($0.67/package), cut up a few fabric remnants that matched the colors of the room, and wrapped the fabric strips around the wire. I spelled the word in cursive because it made it easier to hang. I know, I know, a cursive “m” has three humps, but it just didn’t look right when I made it that way, so instead, I only did two humps in my “m” and I added a little hook to the beginning of the “m” to make it look a little more like it’s own letter. That was totally random, but I just wanted all to know that I DO know how to correctly write in cursive and the word does NOT spell “Fanily”.

Last night was back to school night and it was fun meeting some of the other parents from Jesse’s class. I absolutely love both of the kindergarten teachers and I think this is going to be a really fun year. They have a field trip planned for almost every month of the school year, sometimes two in one month! Today I ate lunch with Jesse and he chose a friend from his class to sit with us. It was a sweet time and I enjoyed getting to know Ryan, who happens to have an identical twin brother in the other class. 🙂

Tonight, I have a babysitter coming at 5:30 so Josh and I can go to a “young adults” party, hosted by…a young adult from our church. I’m looking forward to hanging out with some other couples and friends (that aren’t couples) and just laughing having a good time without the kiddos tonight. Thankfully, we have NOTHING planned for the weekend and I’m hoping to really relax and catch up on some little things around the house that I’ve willingly neglected this week in order to get EVERY THING ELSE done. All in all, a great third week of school. Full speed ahead!

Happy Weekend Everyone!

~audrey

Hello everyone!

I can’t believe school has begun again, fall is quickly approaching, and the holidays will be here before you know it! As many of you know, we’ve been in the process for almost a year now, to become foster parents. It has been a LONG, but smooth, journey that has seemed to have no end. Each and every month it has felt like we’re told, “Probably just another three or four weeks.” Each month has come and gone with another trail of paperwork dragging behind. Well the wait is OVER….mostly!
The final leap in the process is our random drug test, which we did last Friday (try to explain to your little boys why Mommy has to pee in a cup for the foster agency!? I told them it was to make sure I’m healthy, which is basically true 🙂 Our finalized home study is already back in Atlanta at the agency’s headquarters and will be checked and filed any day now. On Friday of last week, we were told it would probably be two or three weeks before we receive our “placements” (two foster children), but then I got a call on Monday (three days ago) saying that all our references had finally been called and it could be as soon as NEXT WEEK that we get that long awaited call.
My request to you is that you begin to cover us in prayer. We are so very excited about this new season in our life. There are MANY unknowns, but one thing is for sure; the Lord has prepared us “for such a time as this”. We know for sure that He called us to do this and it has been evident every step of the way.

Please pray that we, especially our boys, will adjust well to the new children in our home.

Pray that I will continue to stand strong in my organization of our household so the transition is smooth.

Pray that Josh and I will have the perseverence to draw closer to the Lord, and in turn, to each other, as we adjust to two new children in our home.

Pray that everyone around us, including our families, will love and accept these children, just as they do ours (I know that will take time).

Please be praying for these two children, whoever they are (we don’t know the age, the sex, their history, or ANYTHING…yet), that God would begin, even now, to prepare their hearts for our home and that they would be able to receive all the love and care that we have for them.

Pray also for the birth parents of these children. Our agency highly encourages, if the situation is right, for the foster mom to ‘mentor’ the birth mom. Many of these women have never been “shown” how to be a mom. They may not have a clue how to keep a house clean, they may not know how to “cook” a meal that doesn’t involve the microwave, and they may have never been modeled how to truly love and care for their children.

It really feels like Christmas day is approaching…you know you’ve got something waiting for you; it’s wrapped up in GREAT anticipation, but you can’t shake it, smell it, listen to it, NOTHING…all you can do is wait until you’re given permission to rip it open and enjoy it. We could get as little as a few HOURS notice when the time finally comes for the children to arrive. Please pray that we get at LEAST 24 hours to prepare. This weekend I will be frantically putting the finishing touches on their room, which just happens to include a new coat of paint and window treatments. I’m very excited about that. I will have to wait until the children arrive to really personalize it since I don’t know whether we’re getting boys or girls. I’ll take a picture of the room when we finish.

I’m asking you to cover us in your prayers in the coming weeks. I look forward to the day when I can post the exciting news of our new arrivals. It will be here sooner than I can imagine!

~audrey

Jesse was grinning from ear to ear as he climbed into the van with his book bag, lunch box, and his turtle Franklin (for “rest” time). He was so excited for his first day of kindergarten and never looked back after that sweet kiss good-bye.

Joshua was excited about starting first grade and using his Papa’s desk from when he was in grammar school. They had saved it in their attic and were pleased to let Joshua use it in our homeschool. I love this picture of Joshua because it captures the essence of our freedom in homeschooling. He has a mohawk, a collared shirt, untucked, and is barefooted in front of our dogwood tree.

We all had a great first day “back”. 🙂

Of course, being the sweet big brothers that they are, they both wanted pictures with their little brother Owen as well. Notice how they didn’t necessarily want pictures with EACHOTHER?? 🙂

~audrey

Monday, Monday, Monday. Something about that word just makes people shutter. 

I, for one, love Mondays…normally.  Today, not so much. 

Today marks the beginning of the second week of school. The first week was a total success all the way around. Jesse loved his first week of “real kindergarten” and Joshua had a wonderful week at home at our beloved “Wilkerson Academy”. LOL! 🙂
Today started off just like last Monday, minus all the excitement of the first day. I walked into the kitchen and realized the entire kitchen, dining room and living room smelled like a mixture of death and rotten trash. Hmmm, I guessed there was something nasty in the trash, so Josh took it out right away and I sprayed the rooms down with room spray. Breakfast, lunch packed, teeth brushed, check, check, and check! We were just about to head out the door to take Jesse to school. My husband was giving kisses good-bye and stopped in the kitchen to help Jesse button his shirt. I guess they started acting silly and Jesse turned to run away from Josh. The only problem is, he had his hands in his pockets and tripped. Josh says he hit his knees first, but all I recall is hearing a loud thud on our kitchen floor, as if someone had dropped a bowling ball, Jesse began screaming and as Josh swept him up into his arms, blood went everywhere. Apparently it was coming from his nose and was getting in his mouth, because the next thing I remember is someone turning on a bloody sprinkler in my kitchen as Jesse ‘blew’ the blood out of his mouth and all over me, the floor, my white cabinets, etc, etc. Not only was his nose gushing blood, he had the biggest goose egg I’d EVER seen on his forehead above his left eye. I’ve seen a LOT of goose eggs, large and small, colorful and not so much, but this one topped them all. I don’t know why, but I always tend to get angry in situations like this…I begin thinking, “Well, if you hadn’t been horsing around….GREAT, sixth day of school and we already have drama…Oh, this is going to look good three weeks before we receive our first foster placements…the list goes on and I really have to fight off my frustration and take care of the emergency at hand.
I loaded the boys into the car, called the school to inform them Jesse would be late, and headed for the doctor’s office. We were seen pretty quickly and luckily, everything checked out fine. No concussion, no broken nose, and then the doctor asks Jesse,

“Did the kitchen floor do this to you?”

Jesse replies, “no”

So the doc asks, “Oh, did you do this to yourself?”

Jesse says, “no”

then the doc asks, “well then who did it?”

and with a pitiful, wimpy voice Jesse responds, “Daddy did it.”

OH MY GOODNESS! GREAT! NOW DFCS IS GOING TO BE ON MY DOORSTEP ALL BECAUSE OF A LITTLE HORSING AROUND BEFORE SCHOOL!

Luckily, we’ve been with this doc for decades and he just laughed and said to make sure I tell Josh what Jesse said.
I dropped Jesse off at school just before 9:00am. When we got home, I opened the front door and was smacked in the face by the STENCH of nastiness AGAIN!! My first thought was, “GREAT! Josh never took care of the squirrel that got in our attic during the construction of our addition, he died up there somewhere in the insulation and is now decaying and stinking up our entire house.”
I opened all of the windows in the house (even though it’s 90 degrees out with 500% humidity, if that’s possible) and turned the attic fan on to air out the house. I also went ahead and cleaned the kitchen really well, filled the sink with Pinesol, and double checked the fridge for any food that may be causing the smell.
I decided we could definitely not stay in our stinky house to do school, so we loaded up Joshua’s memory work, math books, and reading book and headed to the library. We had a great hour at the library. Owen played with puzzles and brought me about 97 books (none of which did he actually let me read with him!?) and Joshua completed his lessons for the day.
Thank the Lord, by the time we got home, my house had cooled back down and all I could smell was Pinesol. Hopefully that means it was just the lingering smell of the trash from a few hours before and the stench would not be returning.
What a day…and it’s only noon!
I will take a picture of Jesse goose egg when he gets home this afternoon.
HAPPY MONDAY EVERYONE!

~audrey

This post is by request and I think I have about 50 friends (maybe a little less) that are pregnant right now, so I hope this will help simplify the “waiting game”.

I cannot stress enough how important it is to PLAN.

Fail to plan, plan to fail. This list should be tailored to your family’s specific needs, but here is what I do to get ready for baby:

1. Get your housework down to a science. A great way to do this is to check out and subscribe to FlyLady. Go to www.FlyLady.com and she will help you divided your home into “zones”, tackle clutter areas (a.k.a. “Hotspots”), and turn the cleaning aspect of your life into a well-oiled machine. If you have three of four weeks before your baby arrives, that is plenty of time to completely makeover the way your clean your house. It’s amazing how, once you get your house clean and begin to use FlyLady’s methods, a mere 20-30 minutes a day will maintain a clean house. Do it!!

2. Food. I don’t know why, but as a mom, I feel so much more relaxed when all of my meals are planned out, I know what’s in the fridge and pantry, and I don’t have to think about what I’m going to make for breakfast. Start by doubling your favorite dinner recipes over the course of a few weeks. This is much easier if you have an extra freezer, but it can be done with a normal fridge/freezer as well. If you make chili on Monday, double the recipe and freeze half. Label it with the date and what it is and stick it in the freezer. To save space, use gallon sized freezer bags whenever possible. For example, last time I made spaghetti, I made a TON of sauce, I poured the excess into a freezer bag, labeled it, and now, when we want spaghetti again, all I have to do is defrost the yummy sauce and boil noodles. My other tip is referenced in the “Back to School” post. Make breakfast foods and freeze in individual wrappers; breakfast burritos, cinnamon rolls, muffins, biscuits…the list goes on. Yes, you can buy these items in the freezer aisle and stick them in the oven, but that costs a LOT more and takes more time to prepare those the morning you’re ready to eat them. If you cook and THEN freeze, it only takes about a minute in the microwave.

3. Laundry. Yikes. I suppose this COULD be included in ‘housework’, but I think it’s a catagory all by itself! Laundry is the bane of every mother’s existence. Just when you feel like you’ve achieved victory over Mount Washmore, the kids and hubby get home and suddenly you have another LARGE load of misc. dirty laundry and it’s back to square one. The best advice I can give is: JUST DO IT. Laundry stinks (well, not when it’s clean, but you know what I mean), so you need to make it part of your everyday routine. For me, I do at least one or two loads EVERY day. As they come out of the dryer, I pile them on my bed and while Owen takes a nap, I turn on the TV in my room, or a favorite CD, and I fold until it’s complete and then I PUT IT AWAY. For me, putting it away is the hardest part. It’s not so hard to fold it and make lots of nice little piles all over my bed, but actually bringing it to three or four different rooms, putting things on hangers, finding room in drawers; THAT’S the yucky part. Surprisingly, the putting away process only takes about five to ten mintues. I don’t know why we make it so painful. Get in a good routine NOW and it will be much easier when baby (or BABIES) arrive. Another good system is to have a laundry sorter in your laundry room. For us they consist of “kids clothes”, “adult clothes”, “whites”, and “towels/linens”. As soon as one divider gets 3/4 full, I do a load. That typically prevents those mornings when your husband is whispering, “honey, do I have any clean underwear?” Enlist the kids! My six year old gathers the laundry from every room in the house (yes, it’s in EVERY SINGLE room) and sorts each piece for me in the laundry room. This saves OODLES of time. 🙂

4. This is one of the most important things you can do for yourself and your household as you await the arrival of the new baby (or BABIES)…get your children on a schedule and be CONSISTENT with discipline. I know, I know, it’s hard to hear, but you’ll thank me for it later. It’s so hard to be consistent, especially during the summer months, when you’re exhausted, sore, moody, hungry…all those lovely symptoms that come with growing a human in your womb. It is so very important that your children are getting enough sleep. Put them to bed early every single night. It doesn’t take long for children to adapt to a new routine. If they usually go to bed at 9:00pm, move bedtime to 8:00. Most kids are up by 7:00 or 7:30 in the morning and they need to be getting ten to eleven hours of sleep at night. It would be to your benefit to have an extra hour of peace and quiet at night, and your child’s teacher will thank you (especially if the teacher is YOU! 🙂 Discipline is a tough one, but so very important. If you’re not already consistent with disciplining your children, it will be nearly impossible to control them when the baby arrives. It is vitally important that your children know what is expected of them. Most discipline issues stem from disrespect and disobedience. If you already have specific punishments for these infractions, BE CONSISTENT. Your child WILL push your buttons and push the limits when the baby arrives. Show them that you mean business and that your expectations of them will be the same when the baby arrives. Good luck.

5. Communication. Create a “master schedule” for each person in your home. It is important that all of your waking hours are accounted for. It is also important to have a family calendar somewhere in the house (usually the kitchen or office) so that you and your husband know what’s going on in each other’s day to day life. I know that sounds silly, but I can’t tell you how many times I will think I’ve told Josh something important only to find out I never mentioned it to him and I didn’t write it on the calendar! Make your needs known. Let your friends and family help if they’ve offered. If you need to, keep a list of the people who have offered help, whether it be babysitting, cleaning your house, bringing you a meal. Swallow your pride (if you have any left after three or four kids! LOL!) and take all the help you can get. I’m not sure I agree with “it takes a village to raise a child”, but it sure makes the process easier on Mommy and Daddy in the beginning! Most importantly, you must maintain ‘communication’ with your heavenly Father. Make time, find time, create time to spend in prayer and in His word every day. If Mommy isn’t full of joy, grace, mercy, and love, how can we expect our children to be? Take care of yourself. Make sure you get a shower, get out of your jammies and maybe even put a little make up on every day. It’s amazing how much better you’ll feel just doing those things. Take care of yourself! Mommy is the glue that holds it all together! But our ‘glue’ is only effective if God is the active ingredient. Okay, if I get any cheesier, my computer might shut down.

Good luck my dear preggo friends!! I LOVE YOU!! And please put me on all of your lists of “people to call in time of need!”

~Audrey

Out of my love for simplicity and organization, I’m going to do several posts titled, “Five Ways to Simplify: _________ “.  I already have some ideas for future topics, but if you have any requests, leave a comment and I’ll see what I can come up with. The first in this series will be “Back To School”. Some children in our area went back to school today and the rest will start on Monday.  I’ve been racking my brain trying to get my house organized and ‘in order’ before “school” resumes.  Here are five ways that I will simplifying the “Back To School” process in my home…

1. Every child needs to eat breakfast, so make it as simple as possible. Last week I made two dozen muffins and about ten breakfast burritos (sausage, egg, and cheese, wrapped up in a tortilla) and I froze them individually. This makes breakfast nutritious and simple. Throw it in the microwave and you’re ready in less than a minute…not to mention, no dirty dishes! …Mommies, don’t forget, you need to eat breakfast too! It gives you a boost of energy to start your day and it helps fire up your metabolism.

2. If you have young children, decide on Sunday what they will wear to school next week. That’s right, go ahead and pull five pairs of shorts and five shirts (different if you have girls of course), pair them together and place them where the children will not mess with them. Each night, pull the next day’s outfit down and set it out for the morning. You may be thinking, ‘what’s the point?” afterall, it doesn’t take more than 30 seconds to choose an outfit, but this will take the guess work out of the process. You don’t have to worry on Friday whether or not their favorite shirt is clean or whether they wore their nice khaki shorts to play in the dirt one day after school. The clothes will already be picked out and placed out of reach.

3. If your child takes their lunch to school every day, decide on the weekend what the lunch “menu” will look like for next week. Make or prepare as much of that ahead of time as possible. If your child wants grapes in their lunch, go ahead and divide the grapes into five containers/baggies and put them in the fridge. If you’re going to make brownies for their lunch, wrap five brownies in foil and set them aside in the kitchen. Now all you have to do is make their sandwich (or whatever), grab the bags of grapes and the brownie, and you’re done!

4. Use sticky notes!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE sticky notes (“POST IT” notes). Almost every Sunday night and Wednesday night, I place a sticky note on the front door to remind Josh “DON’T FORGET THE TRASH!”. This also helps for “Don’t forget your lunch box”, “Field Trip Money!”, “Purple Shirt Day!”, etc.

5. REST. Even the most difficult child (or parent, LOL!!) is easier to handle and manage when they’re well rested. Did you know that five year olds should be getting ELEVEN hours of sleep a night? Nine year olds still need TEN hours and parents should really try to get seven to eight hours. My children go to bed between 7:30 and 8:00 each night, but now that school is back in session, we’ll be shifting bedtime to 7:00pm. That allows me a good three or four hours of peace at night to spend time with my husband, get MY things done, and still get to bed NO LATER THAN 11:00pm.

That’s all for now. Make sure you take pictures of their FIRST DAY BACK TO SCHOOL!

~Audrey

Once again, August is here and I find myself over-joyed at the thought of school, fall, and the quickly approaching holiday season.  Every summer seems to fly by faster than the one before and each summer brings new experiences and joyful memories for our family.  This summer we spent many days at the pool, made several visits to the grandparents’, went camping a few times, had a visit from Uncle Luke, and continued the work on our addition onto the back of our house.  Jesse learned to swim by himself and even took some brave leaps from the diving board, Owen began potting training, and Joshua finished the book that taught him how to read.  We read Little House in the Big Woods and Swiss Family Robinson and of course we had many “family movie nights” in our living room with popcorn and M&Ms.  It has indeed been a wonderful summer.  The months ahead hold many firsts for our family.  We will finally have our first foster children, Jesse will go to kindergarten at the same Christian school that my husband and I both graduated from, and I will have the opportunity to homeschool Joshua for another year.  We have changed curriculum and we’re looking forward to learning new and exciting things from a Biblical worldview. 

Of course the coming months also hold the most exciting new thing of all…the birth of my best friend’s twin boys.  I am so excited about their approaching arrival and look forward to many days at her house helping in any way that I can as she adjusts to a major change in their lives.

And lastly, the holidays will be upon us before we know it.  Here it is August and I can hardly account for where the entire summer slipped away too.  That only means that November and December will get here with equal haste and before we know it, we’ll be ringing in 2010.  Wow.  I’m getting tired just thinking about it! 

I hope you’ve all had a great and memorable summer as well and are already planning for a successful fall regardless of what it holds for you. 

It is officially Saturday!  Well, it’s 1am, Saturday morning.  Josh and I had a much deserved, well earned, much needed date night tonight with some great friends.  Our last stop was the “S” word…yep, Starbucks.  The smooth salesman behind the counter talked me into a venti and now I’m wide awake with no where to go and no one to talk to.  Josh fell asleep the moment his head hit the pillow an hour and a half ago.  I started to get ready for bed, knowing that sleep was way off in the distance, and I realized I really ought to take advantage of this jittery caffiene buzz and get some house work done.  First I unloaded the dishwasher, put a load of towels in the dryer, cleaned up the living room, and then moved to my big project…the kitchen…dun-dun-dun!!!  Yuck!  I swear I feel like I clean the kitchen everyday, but no matter how careful I am at each meal, and no matter how quickly I load those dishes into the dishwasher, it still manages to get filthy and messy every 12-24 hours or so!? 

SO, I did what I always do to get motivated…I cranked up my itunes, filled the sink with warm water and Pinesol, and got to work!  🙂  About 30 minutes and some dish-pan hands later, my kitchen is almost sparkling and now I’m winding down on the computer, a lot closer to sleep than I was an hour ago.

I have a long list of things that I’d like to get done this weekend, but most of all, I just want to relax and hang out with Josh and the boys.  We had plans for Saturday, but luckily, they got rescheduled due to expected rain, and I’m really looking forward to sticking around the house.

Time to get in bed.  Oh, that reminds me…I need to change all the bed linens tomorrow. 

~audrey

I don’t know about you, but my momma always said, “choose your friends wisely”, and I’ve even found myself saying something to that effect to my own children. But something hit me the other day…how much more important is it, that we choose our friends wisely as adults? Sure, it’s fun to have friends that “like” the same things that I do, but what about the hearts of my friends? Do we value the same things? Do we have similar goals in how we are raising our children? How about how we treat and talk about our husbands or our parents?
To me, a GREAT friend, sister in the Lord, and eternal blessing, is a girlfriend that you can spend five minutes or five hours with, and leave her presence feeling encouraged, uplifted, and motivated. I’m laughing as I type this, because my husband KNOWS which friends encourage me in specific areas. I have one dear friend in particular that always manages to encourage me and inspire me in the “love department”. LOL! 🙂 She strives to fulfill her husband’s every need in that area and I always leave her presence motivated to do the same. My husband thanks her for that. 🙂 I’m so blessed to have several girlfriends who GREATLY, HUGELY, ENORMOUSLY encourage me in the homeschooling department. Typically, these friends also encourage and inspire me to be a better mom, handle things better with my children, and spend more time with the Lord. I have to add that some of my dearest friends are single and can’t relate to me on many of these topics, but their love for the Lord and their desire to wait on God’s perfect mate completely melts my heart, and I pray for them daily. What a rare treasure to find a woman that is truly following after God’s heart and putting aside the desires of her own. Their husbands will be richly blessed.

Then there is another type of friend, or sometimes we simply refer to them as “acquaintances”. This is the girl that you don’t see very often and don’t really have a very close relationship with, but you still have a few things in common, so you make the effort to maintain a friendship, by meeting her for coffee once in a blue moon, or have her and her husband/family over for dinner once or twice a year. This friend, however, thrives on drama, always has bad news to share, and looks at life rather pessimistically.  It doesn’t take long before you feel mentally and emotionally drained, and by the time you leave her presence, you don’t ever plan to hang out again.  I don’t have very many “acquaitances” like this, but there have been a few over the years.  Don’t get me wrong, there are always going to be seasons in our lives when we’re not the most exciting person to be around.  We all go through hard times, we all need a shoulder to cry on from time to time, but I’m talking about people who are generally like that ALL THE TIME. 

All I’m saying is, I’m SO very thankful for the girlfriends God has placed in my life.  I have no doubt in my mind that God hand-picks our friends if we let Him.  Have you ever noticed how God often brings someone new or someone from the past into your life right when you need her…”for such a time as this?”  I love being able to look back on seasons in my life when a new friend or a friend from “way back when” is able to encourage me and help me out of a hard time.  I know God has used many of my friends as angels in my life at certain times.  For me, never having had any biological sisters, my girlfriends are that much more important to me. 

So isn’t it even MORE important to choose our friends wisely as adults?  When God puts specific friends on your heart, give her a call, write her an email, or send her a card.  You never know when God may be trying to use YOU as her angel that week. 

Thank you, Lord, for the blessings that are my sisters in Christ.

~audrey