This week is sweet and sorrowful...

We're super excited to welcome home two new friends and cousins this week! Joshua will be arriving tonight and we can't wait to meet him :). On Friday, we welcome sweet Lily Liu. We have been praying so much for these families - trying our best to love them home from afar. So, we are SOOOOO excited that we will actually be able to meet them this week.


Then Saturday morning we'll get up early, drive to Glen Carbon (near St. Louis) and attend the funeral of my two little nieces. Andrew's brother Nathan and his wife Michelle were 30 weeks along, expecting twins. Michelle was in the hospital so they could keep a closer eye on the twins (one was a bit bigger than the other). Saturday night they did a sonogram and everything was fine. Sunday at 3pm they did another sonogram and couldn't find a heartbeat...not one. Nathan and Michelle are not new to this awful pain - they lost their first blessing 2 years ago April. The twins, Brooklyn & Amelia will be buried near big sister Cassandra.

4 children, 4 blessings from the Lord. 2 redeemed, coming home, 2 at HOME to stay. The thing is, it's easy to see how Jesus has worked to bring Joshua and Lily home, but to recognize that He is no less at work with Brooklyn and Amelia....it's just hard. Yet we know that even though our hearts break and their deaths seem so wrong, this Truth is no less true. God is still on the throne.
the LORD gave , and the LORD hath taken away ; blessed be the name of the LORD. Job 1:21b

Operation Laundry room - completed!

It's been a crazy few weeks, but the new laundry room/mudroom is finished and I LOVE it!! Here are a few pics (look here for before and during pics):

First, the new Living room/Library:
I never liked our front "living room," I just felt like it was 12x17 of wasted space - half living room/half schoolroom, constant mess because the kids took it over to do stuff in and that drove me nuts!!! Now it's 12x11.5 - perfect for a more cozy library space. Andrew and I moved all our bookcases in and I just really love how it turned out. So far kids have done a pretty good job putting away books when they're done with them and since only books are in there, I think it's easier for them to keep it pretty clean.

Finally...drum roll please...the new laundry/mudroom:Love, love, love this space. We have an awesome place for our shoes/coats/backpacks to land, I have more cabinets (and since I have a small kitchen, that's huge) and of course laundry is now down on the main floor :) !! Here are a couple closer views - First, walking in further, I love how I can fit my laundry hampers (we use tall hampers) under the counter on laundry day, I've got a spot to hang shirts, and everything (at least now) fits in nice neat spaces so nothing has to be left sitting out. When I walk in further, turn around and shut the door, you see the pic on the right. A place for everything and everything in its place (happy sigh).