We ended the last week of February with the very sad news that my good friend had been taken to Portland for health issues. Without sharing the details, we were told for the first 3-5 days that the doctors did not think she would be long on this earth. My heart was wrenched out. She has 4 adorable children who had to stay over 90 miles away from the hospital.  We begged to be in the loop to be with the kids along with several other families.  Throughout the month of March – they were here off an on, a day here and there, and then here full time for over 2 weeks.  I can’t tell you how enjoyable the whole time was and how quickly the time flew by.

Miraculously my friend came back to us and was able to receive phone calls in about 7 days, and each day, gained more strength and healing. In the meantime, the kiddos joined us in Art, Composers, Science, Nature, Math and Proverbs study.

I can’t tell you how blessed our family has been to share our home and our time and resources with this family. I am happy to announce that mama was able to come home, and after a week, she was ready to have the kiddos home, and family was able to come and help out the transition. Our home feels so empty and quiet and uneventful now! I miss my morning chats with the lil sister, the long chats with the older boys, and the adventures of the crazy middle boys.

For those of you with large families, my hat is off to ya. Especially if you have time to blog. I know y’all usually get them one by one, and not four at once – but man that’s a lot of cooking, cleaning, and sorting socks. The physical part wasn’t very taxing, I do those things already, but not feeling equipped to deal with the emotional side of blending families, hearing their hurts of knowing mom was in pain, working with my youngest son who had not had a lot of experience of being selfless, – I had to lean totally on our savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, The Word, and the Spirit to guide our days.  Huge pots of Grace and Mercy had to be put out around the house, mostly to dish to the kids to use for me, as I learned to adjust and care for the crowd that ebbed from 4 to 8 to 12 to 9 and 10 as we had visitors.

I’ve been stale on how to blog about this time. I had thought of writing a post bout each of our adventures, but I think a re-cap – and letting y’all know why I’ve only been doing my blogging obligations to vendors, and not sharing our crazy days with you – would be good enough. I will hold this month in my heart tightly, and hold the blessings close.  Sometime over tea – I’ll share all the ways the Lord revealed himself through others, through the kids, and through the mama.  Thank you mama for letting me be an auntie to your wonderful creative smart kind children.