Pray for Us

I am making it short and sweet tonight. Please pray with all your might that our home will sell quickly so we can feel like a family again. I have some kiddos who are really missing their daddy and need to spend more time with him.

Please pray for the house to sell quickly every time you think of us.

New Haircuts

We have a new short haircut and Mommy loves it!We also now have a monkey that can climb up on the furniture and jump on it! His mission, straight to the girls' room after we get back from dropping them at school to jump on their bed and play with all the toys they thought he couldn't reach. LOL;)

Thanks...And a Mom Story

I want to start by saying thank you to everyone who has prayed for me this week;) By God's grace Jack took a turn for the better on Wednesday and decided to sleep more than 2-3 hours at a time. Mommy broke her record of 4 hours of sleep a night for the first time in a week! I woke up a much happier person and more prepared to care for three kiddos.

This is one of those weeks where I look back on the week, breathe a sigh of relief, and feel proud to have survived. Do I wish I could have done it with a little more grace and a few less tears? Yes. However, I am still proud to have reached out to some of my Christian sisters to pray me through this. I love you guys:)

This is just a little update on my current situation. As you already know Jack slept. Woohooo! Our foundation is not cracked the cracking in our ceiling is just your normal settling. Thank God! I was terrified we were not going to be able to sell. The ceiling is only going to be about half as much as we originally thought to fix! It will put us out of showing for a week or so but I am confident that God has a plan that will one day reunite our family under one roof. Until then I pray that he continues to give me the grace and courage to guide the kiddos through this time where they really miss Daddy. David traveled safely to and from OK this week and I seem to have gotten my anxiety a little more under control. Lastly, our car situation is no longer a complete financial disaster.Whooo...

Now for my mindless blog of the day. I was having a splendid morning wandering aimlessly through Target when I received my laugh of the day from a woman who could have been me 5 years ago. I would surmise by her appearance and judgemental expression over my child that she has not been blessed with any babies of her own as of yet. It took me a minute to read her expression and then the disgust in the shake of her head to figure out exactly why she was looking at me that way. I quickly followed her gaze and realized in an instant that she was disapproving of my sons lack of shoes. I admit it, Jack O. had no shoes on and it was about 46 degrees outside. Here he was happily sitting in my Target basket eating Starbucks banana bread and waving big blue around shoeless. I started laughing. I laughed because she didn't know that this was the most perfect moment in my world all week. He was happy. He was quiet. His diaper and clothes were clean (well except for a few banana bread crumbs) . And I was making my way through Target in record time accomplishing picking everything up on my list and stocking the girls spring wardrobe with some of the cutest and most reasonably priced clothes I had seen all week. Needless to say the least of my worries was whether or not he had any shoes on even if it was 46 degrees outside. All you moms out there know that there are just some battles with your child that are not worth fighting and trust me this was one of them. You see my precious son had already taken his shoes and socks about 6 times that morning and tossed them from the basket and it was just not worth the fight. Hence the reason I stuffed them in my purse about half an hour before she saw me. I mean really he was eating and playing gleefully and I was shopping uninterrupted in Target for about an hour. What more could a mom want!?!?! She of course doesn't know this yet but her time is coming! I can't tell you how many times I said or thought "I will never...when I have a baby." Three words. Famous last words!

With Love~ Amy

"Not Me!" Mondays

If you were able to catch my last post you would know that I have had a rough couple of days. The main reason for this is lack of sleep. I am one of those people who requires my nightly eight hours or I just do not function well at all. What you might ask could possibly be keeping me awake at night? Hmmm...

It is definitely not me who has been up the last 8 nights now with our son who simply refuses to sleep from the hours of 2am to 5am in the morning. I have not tried everything from changing his bed time, nap schedule, giving Tylenol (maybe he is teething???), rocking him, trying to get him to sleep in our bed, white noise, letting him cry it out, etc. It was not me who at three o'clock this morning sat on my bedroom floor and sobbed uncontrollably over the ear piercing screams coming from my son's room and the realization that this was another night down the tube.

It was not me who called my friend Tammy this morning and "thought" out loud to her that I couldn't do this another night and that I might have to sleep in my car tonight just to get more than 2 hours of sleep in a row and 4 hours all together. It was not me who thought after I hung up that the idea of sleeping in my car wasn't half bad. I did not then go through the logistics of how I could do that safely for both my kids and me. That is a crazy idea and not something I would ever truly consider. Right?

Surely not!

It was not me who could have been found wondering the aisles of Walmart in tears yesterday because I was too stressed and too tired to even see straight. I did not have to call my friend Jenn L. and have her talk me through the tears and tell me that even though it doesn't feel like it God really is on my side. Certainly not!

It is not me that is sitting here at this computer at 10am and wishing it was time for bed already.

Nope not me!

Prayers Needed

I have been stressed lately. I fill like my plate is just overflowing with to do lists that I never seem to be able to complete. I am aggravated with myself for letting life stress me out in such a manner and that only makes me stress out more. It is a vicious circle and I have been praying numerous times a day for help because I feel like I am a train wreck that can't be stopped.

Many of you know that I struggle with anxiety and panic attacks. I take a daily medication to try and keep things under control but the more stress that builds in my life the less likely I am to effectively ward off the most severe of these attacks. My biggest fear is the fear of having these attacks in public or anyone knowing what a mess I truly am.

This would explain why in the midst of grocery shopping today the tears over took me and I had a minor meltdown in the middle of Walmart. I am sure I left plenty of other customers wondering what in the world had happened to that lady in the detergent aisle that was a complete wreck. The whole time I was was praying for God to help me calm myself and get through this moment. I prayed over every worry I was having and begged God to help me let go of them.

I hate that I am a worrier and control freak. I started searching the bible today and do you know just how many times we are told not to worry? More than I could count. My favorite verse of the day is one I found in Philippians chapter 4


6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

I really needed this reminder today. I needed to hear His word, His encouragement, and feel His love in a moment where I felt alone and extremely overwhelmed. I was also reminded that I need to not only pray but I need to ask others to pray with/for me. I love you all so much and I need your help.

So please pray for me!

Pray that I can pass control of all situations to Christ and lay them at his feet. Pray that I will find a peace in this that consumes me and allows me to be the wife and mother that my husband and children need.

Amy

Happy New Year!

Christmas with the Culberson's

Christmas with the Culberson's consisted of 12 kids (ten of them age five or under), 8 very tired parents, 2 grandparents, 2 great grandparents, 1 great aunt (Linda~we love that you came to brave our chaos), 2 dogs, 2 cats, an incredible amount of food, and lots of fun and laughter!

Yes. We are all very brave but believe it or not, it is so much fun! Ryan and Ivy came in from France and it was so fun to watch all the little cousins playing together once again. God blessed us with some wonderful family time and many of you know after this year it was something I am sure we all yearned to have!

We love you all!