Christmas 2005

I have finally posted some pictures at http://members2.clubphoto.com/hal219370/guest-1.phtml For those that I haven't filled in on my newest additions to my extended family here is the introductions:
Mary Hannigan is a wonderful, sweet lady who now attends the Bible Study on Tuesdays with us and she loves to knit socks and is single and 49.

Jared Garth is a single 39 year old who works as the head of security at our Church and has become good friends with all of us after Jennifer invited him to watch one of her triathlons this summer. He is finding himself doing a lot of things he has never done before like picking out a live Christmas tree.

Patrick (13), Cassie (9) and Cadler (10 mos) are the children of Marie Augustin (originally from Jamaica/Haiti). Marie works weekends, Friday - Sunday, in 12+ hour shifts as an in-home care giver and she has had to work Thanksgiving, Christmas eve, Christmas and of course will be working this next weekend on New Years too. God keeps blessing us with extended family to enrich our lives. Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! Danae

Merry Christmas!

I can’t believe how quickly the years go by the older in years I get… I went sledding the other day with the kids and thought how much fun we had sledding last year in Alaska. It seemed like just a few months to me and yet Jennifer and Jordan were sure that it was more than just one year ago.
The kids and our friend Mary decorated a beautiful gingerbread house last night during our Bible Study and it turned out so adorable, they had such fun making it and it was a wonderful way to demonstrate the importance of building our foundation on Christ the Solid Rock. I have decided that I will try to let them do one every year from here on out just to see the improvements over the years. I hope you like the pictures.

I took the kids on a field trip to downtown Chicago today. We went to go get their airline tickets for January when they go visit Grandpa and Grandma Lincoln and to go to the Federal Building to get my Passport application turned in. It was not as much fun as I had hoped due to the cold, wind and wet slushy sleet, but it was great spending time with them and looking at the cool buildings, neat window decorations, and as Jordan puts it..”all the crazy looking people”. Once again we are starting the weekend with more things on our 'to-do-list' than we can possible hope to accomplish but as always we will give it our best shot. We will be making several Birthday cakes for Jesus' Birthday next Sunday and we will also be making fudge, cookies, and Rice Krispy Treats. We are going to be volunteering at the ROPE house on Saturday all day and night and hopefully getting in a sledding trip during the day with the residents. Sunday is worship and then we are having a few families over afterward for fellowship and food. I am so blessed!

In Everything Give Thanks

Thanksgiving was truly a blessed time for me with a house full of friends and my children (13 people in all) I was completely happy and content to cook and serve. I am definitely planning on starting my preparations much earlier next year though. I need to start at the beginning of October just like my Christmas list.
Thank you to all my friends, family and most importantly, My Heavenly Father, for all the many blessings, encouragements, support and love throughout this past year. I am BLESSED!!!

Our basement is nearly finished finally. The walls are being painted and the shower and toilet have been reinstalled. The floors need to be finished and a few small finishing touches before we can really start using it again. It is my prayer that we will get it all done before the 1st of the new year. For those of you who may not know the situation, our basement flooded the first spring after we moved in and all the carpet, paneling and the entire bathroom and laundry had to be taken out. It was a MESS! There was no sump pump at the time and so I had one installed as well as an interior drain tile system. We also found major foundational cracks in the walls once the paneling was removed. I waited an entire year to make sure that the basement would not leak, or flood again before beginning the project of refinishing. It has been a long, costly and painful experience and definitely NOT one that I would ever wish on a single mother ever! I had estimates ranging up to $42,000!! The idea of pouring that much money into my basement after spending over $7000 just to get the water problem fixed was quite overwhelming and I often thought it would be different if I were a man.

Through this entire ordeal I kept reminding myself and my Lord that it is HIS house and I am just taking care of it for Him and He needed to show me how and when to fix it because I didn't know the first thing about such matters. : ) God is faithful and finally a gentleman was referred to me who charged me only $2,500 plus materials which means that the basement will finally be usable very soon. Not that I didn't remind the Lord many times that it sure was a waste to have the space unusable but I waited on His timing and praise Him that it is almost here. The total cost should still be under $6000. The kids and I are so excited to have a play room once again. It will also serve as a school room while I am home schooling.

So I thank God for everything that He has blessed me with this year and even those things which the world would think was a curse I can honestly say "thank You Lord for allowing me to trust you in this too!"