A Whirlwind of a Week

In one week...

Dale 'graduated' from 8th grade and all our boys are now in high school!  He was awarded a Principal's award at the end of the year 8th Grade Promotion Ceremony.  We are very proud of him.

He looked so handsome all dressed up in his suit!  He wore some loud socks that day.  Apparently, he had some of his teachers a bit nervous as he rolled his pant legs up during the school day.  They believed he would attempt to walk the promotion line that way.  Truth is...if he thought they would have allowed it or if he thought he could have in any way got away with it...he would have!

Goodbye...

Brooke graduated #1 in her class from Bullitt Central!  She gave a moving speech to her classmates with the composure of a professional!  Her boldness to include her Lord and to quote scripture brought tears of joy to my eyes.  We are proud of her for her many accomplishments!

The day after graduation, we celebrated with family and friends.  Brooke loves to have fun!

Just a few days after all this celebrating, Brooke turned 18!  Once again, we were celebrating.

Then, only two days later it was time to have some more fun as we celebrated with Blake and Cody as they turned 16!

To top off all of this fun, Blake and Cody went today to take their Driver's Permit Tests...

They both passed and are now officially drivers!  How exciting!  We're very proud of both of them for the young men they are and the grown men they are becoming.

God has truly blessed us!  Having 4 children this close in age has its challenges; but the rewards far outnumber those challenges.  Each day is an adventure to be sure.  There are times we have to remind one of them or all of them that our job is not to be their buddies, but to be their parents.  That's okay, though...because there are many times we just get to have a blast with them!  I am so thankful God chose me to be the mother of Brooke, Blake, Cody, and Dale.  Even on the most challenging of days, each of them gives me a reason to smile. 

Cindy

Celebrations!

As I said in this morning's earlier post, this week has been a week of roller coaster emotions. We've dealt with disappointments, but we have so much to celebrate! To steal a line from Brittany's blog, even in the valley, GOD IS GOOD. Even if we had none of these celebrations to report, God is still good, and is always good! God is faithful! He takes care of us even when we think things are at their worst.




Last Friday evening, Brooke was voted 1st runner-up Homecoming Queen. We had a lot of fun watching Brooke and her friends participate in this time-honored tradition. The best part for me was seeing Brooke's surprised expression when they called her name. It felt good to know that she was happy to just be involved and that winning was not what was important to her.



















1 year ago last Saturday was Becky's (my sister) 1 year anniversary of God allowing the doctors to rid her of her breast cancer!






On this past Wednesday, Brooke, Doug, and I went to Campbellsville University for a campus visit and appointments with an admissions counselor and Color Guard representative. It was a beautiful day! The admissions counselor was awesome. I won't tell you all the details. Brooke will need to blog about that. :) However, it was a wonderful day. God has been working in Brooke's life, and I believe this is just one more way He is working out His plan for her life. If she doesn't blog today, I'll HAVE to so that I can share all the good news! (The picture is of Brooke and Corey, the admissions counselor.)





Friday, January 29th, was my parents 45th Wedding Anniversary! I am so very thankful for the example of Christian marriage they have lived for us all my life and all our married life. Doug and I are blessed that both my parents and his parents have lived out their marriage vows as examples for us. We've planned a trip for Mama and Daddy in the coming weeks to celebrate!




Yesterday, Trena (Doug's sister)called with the news of whether her baby is a boy or a girl. It's a...well since I don't know if she has told everyone, I won't tell on here. HOWEVER, WE'RE SO EXCITED TO BE AUNT, UNCLE, AND COUSINS AGAIN! Babies are a gift from God. I'm looking forward to this new bundle of joy joining the family in early July!








Finally, SNOW...beautiful SNOW! As I've posted before, I love the snow. It is such a beautiful reminder of how God washes our dirty sins away and makes us white as snow when we respond to the Gospel of Jesus Christ dying on the cross and taking on OUR sins so we didn't have to be punished for them eternally, being buried, and then rising from the grave!






Love you all,
Cindy