Children...Couldn't Live Without Them!

It just wanted to update everyone on how my children are doing since our big move. Jay is 6 now and started kindergarten this year, although he called it preschool for about 3 months when he first started. I started both of the kids on a reading program this summer and I am happy to report that they are doing swimmingly. They moan and groan a bit whenever we sit down to read, but the light in the eyes when they get the words right shows that they really enjoy learning.

Jay's big accomplishment this year was learning how to count to 100. That may seem like a small feat for some 6 year olds, but to Jay, it was huge. He was still mixing up numbers counting to ten when he went into kindergarten. They tested him at the first of the year and he scored a 13% in Math. We started working on it everyday and something just clicked, it was almost audible. Within a six week period, he was not only caught up in school (they tested him again and he scored a 94% on the same test). He decided he wanted to learn to count to 100, not just to 25...so he did! It was so fun to watch the growth and confidence that came as he was so proud of himself...I must admit, I was a bit pleased myself :) He also learned how to swim this year, complete with the extreme pleasure of being able to go down the big, big slide all by himself. He has started to be such a big helper around the house too. He vacuums almost everyday and takes out the trash (although I do hear, "why do I always have to do this", quite frequently), he is a really good example to his siblings and can often be heard saying, "is that following Satan, Mom?, cause I want to follow God". He's such a great kid!

Ellie has been reading as well this year. She is almost at the exact level academically as Jay, so she is going to be all ready for Kindergarten next year...perhaps even a little bored. She is very, very tall for her age. She is wearing size 7 in clothes and she doesn't turn 5 til January. In fact, Jay is in afternoon kindergarten and it never fails that when we go out together in the mornings, someone will inevitable ask the kids why they aren't in school. Ellie usually takes the lead and answers very directly, that she isn't in school and that Jay is in Kindergarten, either that or they both give the questioner a blank stare...as if to say, "what are you talking about?". Today, in church, she was acting like a 4 year old and climbing in between rows and all over the chairs, I leaned over to one of my friends and said, "I really hate it that she looks like a 6 year old, when she is acting like a 4 year old," as her long legs were getting stuck as she tried to slide back into her place. She's a little spit-fire and always will be. She's been that way since birth....why change now? One of the memories that I have of Ellie this year is her countless prayers she said during our time of transition. We moved out of our home at the end of April and didn't get a home of our own until September. Every one of those days that we were "homeless", she said in her prayers, "Thank you for our home". Sometimes, I would get a little exasperated and say, Ellie do we have a home? She would quickly reply with, "yes", and she was always right. We always did have a home to live in, even when it wasn't our own.

Joseph is really the apple of the whole family's eye. He pretty much only loves one thing for sure, and that is to eat. I have never seen a baby that can put away so much food. He is a bottomless pit and I don't know where it all goes. Joey is cute and chunky, but the way he eats, he should be at least 50 lbs heavier :) I took all the food out of the pantry this week and put it in higher cupboards so that the little chunk won't be able to get into anything. He is hilarious. I have found more cereal all over my kitchen floor with him than with any of them. We all love him so much though and his big brother and sister adore him. He, of course, wants to be just like them and seems to be doing everything faster than they did at his age. Older siblings will grow you up fast, I guess. This year, he finally decided that walking was an okay thing to do at about 16 months. I must say, I was kind of getting tired of carrying him everywhere by that point. He promptly began to run soon after, and he looks exactly like Charlie Brown when he does. He is all upper torso, with short little legs, with the blond hair and round little face, all he needs is a yellow shirt with a brown zig zag stripe and shorts to complete the picture. He's so cute! I was trying to get him to say I love you recently, and he was doing quite well, but now whenever I say, "I", he completes the sentence with, "U" and a hug. So sweet! I told you he was the apple of our eye:)

All in all, the kids are fairing very well! They have probably adjusted better than their parents to all the changes. They have enjoyed being with their Grandma and Grandpa Brunner and cousins very much. Children are very adaptable creatures and I have been so very pleasantly surprised at how well they have adapted to their new life. I honestly can't imagine my life without these precious, precious little ones. I am such a lucky mom!

Year 2009 Re-Cap

What an interesting year this has been! So many twists and turns, so many set-backs, so many changes...it's enough to make your head swim. At the end of Jan 2009, Doug lost his job. We had been working on a business plan and started going through the steps to implement this plan in Oak Harbor, WA, where we were living. We got our logo on our cleaning van, got our website up and running, and we felt very strongly that the Lord was guiding us each step of the way. However, He had a different location in mind for us then we originally thought.

At the beginning of March, My mom called, and Doug answered. She told him that my parents had both felt strongly impressed that they needed to offer us the opportunity to move to Kansas. They were willing to pay for the move if we would like to come. Doug played it off, with okay mom, we'll think about it...blah, blah, blah...all the while thinking, "why would we ever move to Kansas?". When I got home that evening, he told me that she had called and what she had called about. I promptly had the same thoughts that Doug had...played it off...decided that moving to Kansas was not really an option I even wanted to contemplate.

Fortunately (we may have thought that it was unfortunate at times this year :), the spirt started working on both of us. I kept having this strong feeling that I needed to call my mom back and talk to her about it. I resisted for about a day, then finally gave in. As I was talking to her, the spirit started confirming in my heart that this is what the Lord would have us do. Of course, I was fighting it - being the stubborn person that I am, but the promptings were coming too strong to deny. So, I talked to Doug about what I was feeling, I think he was in shock. I called and told one of my friends about these feelings and she called me back two minutes after we got off the phone and told me that she was watching my kids the next day and that we were going to the temple...whoa! Okay - I guess moving across the country is prayer worthy :)

So, early the next morning, we were on our way to the temple. Doug was still completely in shock that we were even talking about this...I was still trying to deny my feelings. However, we were fasting anyway, and we decided to say a prayer before we went in the temple. The day was a typical one for a Seattle winter, complete cloud cover, scattered rain showers, not a hint of the sun anywhere in the sky. We were asking to have guidance to know if moving to Kansas was something we needed to do. As we finished the prayer, before we even had a chance to open our eyes, we felt a very strong ray of sunshine, start to shine down on us. We opened our eyes and our car was full of sunshine. We looked up, and the only opening in the whole sky, was directly above us and only lasted for a couple of minutes. That was the first time that day, we felt that possibly our prayers were being answered.

We went into the temple and I went up to the dressing rooms. The first person I saw was Doug's mom. It just happened to be a Tuesday which is the day they work in the temple all day. As I told her the reason for us being there, I started to feel the spirit. The first thing she said after I told her was, "you are supposed to go aren't you?" It wasn't really a question! I told her that I was pretty sure, still in shock, but felt that it was right.

All through the day, Doug was playing little games with the Lord, you could call it seeking signs...but for a good cause :) In his mind he would say things like, "if we are supposed to move to Kansas, then I will see my Dad before the first session". Less than a minute later, Doug's dad came bounding around the corner of the dressing room, and he not only saw him, but he got to sit by him through the whole session.

We had decided beforehand that we needed to ask his Dad for Father's blessings while we were at the temple that day. After lunch, we went into a private room, and proceeded with the blessings. Doug's dad, knowing we were trying to make this decision, did not bless us to have the answers we needed like I would have thought, but blessed us with safetly and faith in our travels to Kansas and talked about the decision as if it was already a done deal - we were moving in his mind. His parents were convinced that we needed to go, but Doug was still struggling.

Oak Harbor is where Doug grew up. It was exactly where he always wanted to live and raise his family. We loved it there! To us, it is one of the most beautiful locations in all of the Northwest. We had his family there, really great friends, we enjoyed our callings, lived in a beautiful house, the ocean was right there ready to be sailed at a moments notice (Kansas is kind of land-locked, quite a big consideration for a sailor). Plain and simple, he did not want to move, plus, even with all the little "signs" that he had received over the course of the day, he hadn't really had the faith to ask the question sincerely.

He was still struggling with these things as we drove home from the temple. We were talking about it, and as we talked, he was feeling more and more confused, more and more clouded about this decision. I finally had to say, "Doug, I am not moving to Kansas unless you know for sure that it is right, even though I feel like I have already gotten an answer. If you have any confusion, we are not going!". As soon as I said this, it was like the fog started to clear, he took a leap of faith and said,"Phame, we are moving to Kansas!". In that moment, he got his answer. He had to leap first, then he was able to feel the spirit testify that his decision was correct.

I moved to Kansas, the end of April, a little over a month later. I drove across the country by myself with my 3 little kids, leaving Doug in WA to wrap up some work that he was already committed to do. We still own a home in Kent, WA and the same month we moved, our renter decided to stop paying rent. Doug spent those two months, kicking our renter out, fixing the septic tank, finding a new renter and trying to work as much as possible. I spent those two months doing market research for our new business, trying to figure out where we were going to live (we got the answer to move to Kansas, not specifically where we needed to be in Kansas), going through culture shock, and tried to adjust to living close to my family (we tried to stay with my mom, moved after 2 days to live on my sister's farm in a 100 year old home that is constantly in a state of construction). Tough, tough stuff! Glad I got through it.

We were finally re-united the middle of June. We met in Utah for a wedding and had a second honeymoon, driving to Kansas again (we drove to Kansas for a wedding reception on our honeymoon). We promptly moved to the the Kansas City area the end of June and set-up our new cleaning business (www.wholehomecleaners.com). This summer, I don't think that I would have ever recommended starting a new business in the middle of an economic down-turn unless you are absolutely crazy! However, somehow, after 5 months of spending countless hours struggling to get it off the ground, the business is actually starting to thrive. We spend very little on advertising, and we have been booked solid for about 3 weeks now with lots of jobs already on the books for the rest of December and even into January.

I know the Lord directed us to move to Kansas, even though it was the last place we really wanted to go. Ever since we made that decision, life has handed us one problem after another to overcome. We have been without a home of our own for 4 months of this year, looked down the nose at foreclosure and bankruptcy, sold or lost many of our worldly possessions, had one financial set-back after another, suffered health problems severe enough we were afraid Doug might not be able to work, worked endlessy trying to get our business up and running, and hoped and prayed for a better day!

There were numerous times over the course of the last 7 months, when I took comfort in reading about people like Job, the Martin and Willie Hand-cart Companies, and many others that suffered tremendous hardships as they were trying to follow the Lord's will for their lives. My repeated phrase in my mind was: "The Lord did not send us to Kansas to starve, we will find a way to provide for our family". It has been quite the trip...but I think I have learned somethings along the way.

About 6 months ago, I created a stress journal. This journal was created for the express purpose of writing down all the stress in my life, just so that I could sleep at night. I found an interesting pattern while writing. So often, I felt like my stress was so unsermountable that I couldn't bear it, but as I wrote the things that were weighing me down, I started to notice all my blessings at the same time. My journal entries would start with all my problems, then turn to why I needed to have these problems, recognizing my own need for growth in these areas, and turn into entries that were all about how blessed I was. I began to see all the ways the Lord was trying to bless me with by giving me those particular trials. I have seen the hand of the Lord many times over the course of the year, and although it will never be a year I would willingly repeat, it was much needed in becoming who the Lord would have me be.

BTW - I don't think we are going to starve either :) I even have Christmas already bought for my kids...woo hoo! Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thy own understandings and He shall direct thy path.