Christmas Behind the Badge

"We all have a role to play and joy awaits each one of us. The Lord appoints and anoints as He chooses and we should delight in our individual callings."- Patti Tingen, A God For All Seasons.

It's the Christmas season and we are busy getting ready for the holidays. 

The stockings are hung by the chimney with care.

My husband took all the older kids out on his birthday on the "great Christmas tree hunt" while I stayed back with the baby.

(Here is my husband with four of the kids when we started cutting our own Christmas tree at a nearby Christmas tree farm in 2008.)

It's a tradition we started because we didn't have the extra money to buy a tree one year, so we cut one down in the woods behind our house on my parent's property. Now we can't imagine buying a tree when cutting our own has turned out to be quite a lot of fun!

(Here is our "second chance clan"all ready for Christmas.)

So our tree is up inside. I made a wreath from its trimmings and hubby hung it on the front door. He hung lights on our growing fur tree outside. Every year the tree grows and we need to buy more lights for it. It looks magical in the evening when the moon shines high above and is then reflected by the crisp, white snow. Magical indeed. I love that tree!

Our kids are growing too. All seven of them, each with different talents and gifts and abilities. There's never a dull day here homeschooling these precious kiddos for sure! (I love it when they try to help each other too!- They don't know they are actually learning MORE by teaching their siblings!)

(My oldest daughter, age 7 helping her younger sister, age, almost 5)

With all the busyness of this most wonderful time of the year though my heart is very heavy.
Two police officers were executed in New York for simply doing the job they signed up to do, to protect and serve. My heart is broken for the families having to get through the holidays without their beloved officer. It's so hard to understand. I watched the wife of one of these officers sobbing on t.v. and my heart was with her. I may not know her personally, but I know her. Every time the phone rings in the middle of the night and my husband puts on his uniform, I pray. We are sisters in these moments.

(May these officers lives not be forgotten. R.I.P. Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos)

I don't write about my husband's job on my blog usually. It is his chosen profession and his calling. I have supported him through 21 years of marriage while he worked as a military policeman and then as a small municipal officer, to where he is currently serving as a Maine State Trooper. We've been through a lot together. I know what it feels like to have officers show up at my door and not know whether my husband was going to survive.

(This is the car accident my husband survived in 2006

with thankfully only a broken arm and leg and cuts and scrapes.)

I've pushed him in a wheelchair and cared for him while he recovered from a terrible car crash while on duty nearly nine years ago. He has also seen me through seven c-sections, several knee surgeries, an appendectomy, and a tubal reversal. He is my rock. He keeps me going when I want to quit. All the while he, himself works tirelessly to provide for our growing family as he puts on his blue uniform and performs the often thankless job of protecting and serving in our State. He usually works Christmas on call too. Thankfully this year he was able to get the day off. We are so excited to be able to have him home with us for Christmas!

 So as we celebrate the birth of our Savior and prepare to ring in the New Year let us remember the fallen as well as the officers out there working around the clock to protect us so we can sleep in Heavenly peace. They are NOT monsters, and hateful people. Many of these officers are like my own husband, just trying to come home safe to their wife and kids at the end of each shift. Just trying to carve out a little peace, a little hope, and spread little more love than hate.

We leave a candle glowing blue in our window each night to remember the fallen and those who currently protect and serve our great country nationwide.

 How will you show your support to your local police and stop the spread of violence and hate?

 Thank you to all our officers who put on the badge each day to protect and serve our great country!

May you have a blessed Christmas and a peaceful New Year!

The Best Anniversary Gift I Ever Received

After courting for three years, including surviving a year-long long distance relationship between Maine and Okinawa, I married my best friend. That was nineteen years ago! I can hardly believe its been nineteen years!

Two and half years into our marriage we welcomed our first child, a son.

Two years later we were blessed with another child, another son!

These two boys have become my driving force to my life's purpose in raising them up to be men of God, strong, and of good character. Phew! It's not easy! The tempers can flare (mine more often than theirs). I fitfully surrendered my plans for my life and dug in deep to God's promises for my kids. I took them home and began homeschooling them. You can read more about that here.

These two boys it seems have always been together!

And we have welcomed four more children since these first two boys joined our family!

My three boys!

Then we were blessed with our first daughter!

And a second daughter!

And a fourth son!

But back to my big boys and the reason for this post!

They are not so little any more.

My time at home homeschooling them is almost over.

They are growing up!

The oldest has his license now and drives himself and his brother to their JROTC class two days a week.

In this class they learn wonderful things about our country, good citizenship, reaching out to our Veterans, and the value of community service. They write speeches and essays on the military. They wear uniforms and learn to appreciate all our military does to protect our freedoms.

And occasionally, they get to go out to lunch. They are homeschooled so they are free to leave school after their class and grab a sandwich and return later in the day for outside activities. They bring their homeschool work I have sent along with them to do.

If you've ever heard the saying that "having children is to have your heart go walking around OUTSIDE your body", well, I have never felt this to be more true than now. These boys are my world, and yet they are not mine. They are God's. But the best anniversary gift I could have ever received was when they came home last night after their whirlwind of an activity filled day and told me that the lady at the sandwich shop where they were getting their lunch said to them, 

"School's out for the day already?"

"No, we're homeschooled." they replied.

She then went on to ask if they had other siblings and if they too were homeschooled.

They told her.

Then my son told me that the lady said to be sure and tell me...

"that I was doing a good job and I should keep up the good work"!

The best gift I could have ever received on my 19th  anniversary, was some simple, kind words from a stranger who saw a good work being completed in my children. And I am in awe, and give God all the glory! For it is by His grace I have been saved and by faith I continue this race to run it well and complete the task the Lord has set before me. A little bit of encouragement goes a looong way. The Lord encouraged me today through the very blessings I am working so hard at home to raise! I will continue to roll up my sleeves, die to self, and get to work. To not just be a hearer, but a doer for God's Kingdom. For I have at LEAST nineteen more years to go!

Do you have some simple, kind words for a weary mom today? Don't hold back. You words just might be exactly what she needs to hear to carry her for a very long time!

"The right word at the right time

    is like a custom-made piece of jewelry" Proverbs 25:11

I can't wait to share how this verse ties into my life right now!

Here is a sneak peak!