So, When are You Moving?

As weird as it may sound....we have no idea when we are moving....or if we are moving any time soon. We may launch this marriage retreat while we live in Houston. We might have to move to Bartlesville to get all of it started, but that might be 10 years away. My last post was not meant to be an announcement of a move. It is just a heart call. For us, moving is just another part of life, but it is still not something we take lightly. We are staying put until God tells otherwise. 

Right now, Dave and I are working on a business plan. We are meeting with couples and people to give us advice. We are dreaming about how we can use the land we found, even as that may be slipping out of our hands. We are talking logistics in one conversation, and avoiding them in the next. We hope to get certified with the Smalley Institute and take Symbis + Marriage Assessment by Drs. Les and Leslie Parrott. We ask for your prayers as we live in a state of limbo, asking God to be our daily bread, our joy, our teacher and our everything. We'll keep you updated!

What are we waiting for?

This last weekend we attended a Power and Love conference in Fort Worth Texas. But even before we attended this conference, Dave and I have hearts that have begun to burn with the moving of the Holy Spirit. We feel the Lord talking to us about new adventures and dreams that have always been, but that has yet been realized until very recently. Here is some of the back story:

When Dave and I were dating, He would often tell me he wanted to do marriage ministry. Not having a lot of experience in the matter, we waited.

We enjoyed learning from other couples and books what to do and what not to do in marriage. Then we got married and things were super less than perfect in a few areas of our marriage. We still longed to teach others about what a gift God has for them in marriage, but God allowed Dave to get laid off, and we moved to the state of Texas from Bartlesville, OK. So, in the matter of ministry, we waited.

After moving to Houston, I was super frustrated, hurt and angry with the Lord. Dave was gone for 13-14 hours a day with his commute. Houston was the one place I prayed not to move to. I didn't feel like a big city kind of a girl, and I wanted my two adorable and toddling girls to know and have thriving relationships with their grandparents. I fell into a depression for a few months. Coming out of that time was a journey in itself. God showed His LOVE to me again, and I slowly emerged from the cocoon of anger and tried to spread my wings again. How on earth would God use this hurt I'd experienced? How can he use this move for our good? For these answers, I waited.

We lived in Houston for five years, loved and attended Houston's First Baptist church, had many moves within Houston, had many job changes, had another baby girl, continued to hear the promise God gave us for a son, and still desired to teach. After 4 years at Houston's First, Dave and I got the opportunity to teach a Newlywed or Close class. We were so excited, and taught with all we had. However, with my new career as a real estate agent, our new daughter still an infant, and spiritual warfare, our relationship suffered during that time. And then God made it abundantly clear that we were supposed to move to ND. After a year of teaching, and feeling beat up by the enemy, we had to let the directors of our class know that we were moving on. Moving to North Dakota, a new church, and learning the customs of a new state had us reeling. It was a blessed opportunity for sure! We met wonderful people, but knew that we were too new to come and start a class about marriage right away. We got the huge blessing, though, of planning and delivering a marriage retreat for the town of Dickinson, ND. We had a wonderful committee of people backing us, and the retreat was inspiring to us. Another sweet baby girl entered our family in ND. And then, while visiting Houston for Dave's job one cold January, we heard God's call on our lives to be back in Houston. Plans of having another retreat slipped away, and again, we waited.

Having a sense of familiarity in returning to Houston was refreshing. We came back to Houston's first looking for a spot to land. We had the blessing of reuniting with friends from before. We had the blessing of seeing family members more often than we had the opportunity of in North Dakota. We had promises fulfilled, we had a son. We felt the father's love like never before. Dave decided to press in to Jesus in a new way. He fasted, he prayed. And God revealed to us that his will for us is to work towards opening a (marriage) retreat center in Bartlesville OK. What does that look like? We aren't entirely sure. We are taking steps in obedience. But, what we do know is it's exactly what all of this journey has been pointing to. God igniting our hearts in thinking, dreaming, envisioning and praying for this (marriage) retreat is what we've been waiting for.

Praising the King

Psalms 145:16

The Lord is trustworthy in all he promises and faithful in all he does. The Lord upholds all who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look to you and in you give them their food at the proper time. You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.

Bravo Psalmist. Bravo! You captured the longings of my heart and the way God responds with distinct acuteness.

I need these words like I need breath. God is working in our sweet family. He is fulfilling desires and working a new, great work in us. He is speaking to Dave, and in the process, he is lifting both of us up. Time spent in God's word, and with the Holy Spirit will not return to any of us void. For that, I am all praise today.

This blog has been quiet for some time. I was feeling at a loss for words after someone wrote crude, crude comments about my lovely little ladies in the comments. But with God's help, I hope to come on here from time to time and fire up the old computer and kill my writer's block.

Our life has so many blessings. Julia, Lydia, Saige and I are apart of Houston's First Baptist Christmas performance called Celebration. This means that Christmas has fallen upon us even in October. I LOVE this. Yesterday, Evie sat at the breakfast table singing, "Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas!" I took a video and sent it to our cast coordinator. I couldn't help it. I've already started thinking and planning Christmas gifts, and we are practicing dances regularly.


We continue to homeschool and be a part of an amazing community of Classical Conversations peeps. I am loving learning and my daughters are too. We are studying Ancient Rome, Greece, and Egypt. I am helping Julia learn Latin. Dave is teaching math, and Evie colors on everything.

I'd like to introduce a very important member of our family to this blog. He is a beautiful blessing, a gift from on high. He changed our world. His name is Malachi.

 4 Beautiful Girls and a Handsome Boy. 

#StewartSeven

Malachi Davidson Stewart

He was a little scared of Evie at first. 

Saige and Chi

Malachi is a little over 8 months old now. He is precious and smiley. He has had a rough bout of congestion lately as he works on getting his first tooth to break through. He loves his sisters, and is happiest when people are talking to him. He is a good sleeper and can't wait to start solid foods. He loves to watch people eat.

Evie thinks his name is literally, "Boy". We mostly call him Chi (Pronounced Ky) or Chi Guy, but she doesn't seem to know the difference. Julia, Lydia and Saige help take care of Chi a lot and love on him everyday. He will never know a life with out sisters falling all over him. He is mightily blessed. 

The Lord healed us from a stomach bug that attacked our home last week, and we are all on the mend. Everyone took a turn of not feeling good, but some felt it more than others. 

We are reuniting friendships with Houston friends and making new ones. We are not ready to move away, but still don't feel at home here in H-town. But through it all, God is mysteriously weaving the beautiful tapestry of our lives and we are so very richly blessed. For all of this, we praise our King!

Our Fourth of July Weekend

So, I will start out by saying that one this particular weekend that none of us were hurt. We took our new-old RV out for a camping trip and we come back unscathed....at least physically. Some of us were hurting emotionally by the end, (probably only me) but we survived and I am living to tell you that none of us were hit when:

1.We hit a deer within an hour of beginning our drive

Because we traveling in such a huge beast, the death wishing deer only left us with a few small exterior cracks and some blood on our RV. Dave was hoping a souvenir antler would be stuck in the grill...but no such luck.

2. We were stalled on the side of a mountain no less than three times.

Parked for a While

George

Viewing Mount Rushmore While the RV was Stalled

Lunch 

Happy and Sweating

Evelyn and Saige with "Her Fishing Hat"

So, the first time the RV stalled, it was uncomfortable. It was hot outside and the overheated engine took about 2 hours to cool off. But, we were safe and very near a Mount Rushmore viewing site. After the RV was rolled out of traffic, and parked on the side of the road, the girls and I went and got some pictures of George Washington and then we had lunch in the RV. When the dang thing still wouldn't start, we tried to make the best of our delay and hiked around the side of the mountain we were parked by. Thankfully the RV started again, and we were headed to our previously decided on fishing destination.

After Hiking

Celebrating When the RV Started

Happy Dance/Over Celebration

That is until the RV stalled again. This time it was much scarier. We were on the side of a mountain in Custer State Park. A very narrow, steep mountain with a lot of traffic. Jesus was with us. I was ready for him to come back.

We found out later, that we shouldn't even have gone the way we did when we went to Sylvan lake. We had gone on the recommendation of a person who worked at the campground. They said this way was the best for our RV and that it had no small tunnels like if we took Needles highway. They were wrong. It was a horrible way to go, it was scary to climb tiny mountain roads in the beast and there was mountain chiseled out tunnel that we barely passed through. When we got back to the campground, we told them that we took a different much safer in our RV way back. They said it was  couple minutes shorter to go the way they recommended....um...no.

The last stall of the day was at the parking lot of Sylvan lake. Praise the Lord we had reached our destination! (Several hours late, but still!) Dave had the task of getting the RV into a spot while the girls and I got out and walked around to stretch our legs. We couldn't just leave the RV in the middle of the steep parking lot (no matter how we were tempted to.) Once Dave got the RV parked, the girls and I headed back to help him unload fishing gear. Only one more hiccup though. It started sprinkling. That was fine though. I could see the other side of the cloud. It would be over soon, and fish usually bite well when it's sprinkling. Except the sprinkling turned into thunder and lightening. And then hail. So, we ate pistachios and waited out the storm in our RV. When the storm passed, we hopped out of the RV, grabbed our gear and got to start fishing around 4:00 that day. The heat of the day had been whisked away with storm, but we grabbed our jackets, poles and tackle box and headed to the lake.

Waiting to Fish at Sylvan Lake

Cuties

Hail From the RV Window

Playing in the Pea-sized Hail

3. We went fishing and caught zero fish

Fishing was not all the girls, Dave and I hoped it would be. We didn't catch anything for several hours. The people next to us were catching trout, so we changed it up. We were using what the guy in Cabela's recommended: spin bait. But they were using live worms with bobbers. So we used live worms with bobbers. Then they were catching fish on pieces of marshmallow. So we ran to the RV and tried using pieces of marshmallow. None of us reeled in a single fish.

4. The A/C didn't work while driving

The funny thing about RVs is that they have different systems for different times. The plug it in A/C doesn't work the same as the propane A/C which doesn't work when we are driving A/C. Does any of this stuff make sense to me? No. I just want a cool (in temperature) and cute (in appearance) RV.

5. It took us 10 hours to drive back home on the Fourth of July. It should only take 4.5 hours.

We had to miss a small group function because of this. Dave, Julia, Lydia, Saige and I are all extroverts. And we were very saddened by this.

6. A tire blew while we were driving

So the tires were in good condition, but they were old. When Dave hit the deer, he probably ran over something like a piece of bone that weakened the tire. It was a back tire, the one closest to the interior of our RV. So, when it blew, we all heard and saw some pieces of our RV wall go flying. That was scary for all of us except Evelyn.

We waited 45 minutes for the repair man to come switch out our blown tire for our spare tire. Then, we waited in some tall grass while he jacked our RV up and repaired it. It was a hot day, and with all the warmth, the waiting and grass itching my daughters legs and feet, I was surrounded by a bunch of whiners! Even my dog whined. Evelyn slept in her car seat and Dave was helping the tire guy. But everyone else whined.

This is the Countryside Where Our Tire was Fixed

We have already spent a very pretty penny having all 7 tires (this includes the spare) on the RV replaced. It's still at the tire shop now.

The overheating engine and tire blowing was what slowed us down.  Thankfully we know now why the engine was overheating. We get to fix that next.

7. The driver's side mirror fell off

This was probably partly because of the deer. (Dave saw his antler fly by his window after he hit it) and partly because the screws on the mirror of our 1988 RV were already stripped. Either way...it really stunk.

You can't switch lanes safely in an RV with out a side mirror. I had to be Dave's eyes every time he switched lanes. This means I had to run to the back of the RV and check for oncoming traffic. But like I said above, no one was hurt. Not physically.

We have already purchased a replacement mirror at a salvaged RV shop in Rapid City. We just get to get that thing put on before we go out in the beast again. (We should have asked the shop if they'd buy the RV from us too.)

8. We got mouse poop all over our RV carpet.

When Dave was fixing the engine the first time, her pulled off part of the inside of the RV to get to the engine. (This is normal RV procedure.) When he did so, he found out that there was once a family or two of mice that lived in that engine place. So, the nest fell out and spread mouse droppings all over our RV carpet. The shabby blue carpet will be ripped out as early as possible.

9. We got pulled over for our tail lights being out.

Add it to the list of repairs. No ticket. Just a warning.

10, The latch that held our microwave in place kept flying open and threatening to drop a microwave on our heads.

Dave fixed this issue one of the times were stalled out.

***

Is there anything else not fun that happened on our two and half day weekend. I think so. Can I mentally handle writing about it right now? No.

On the way home, I was ready to throw in the towel and cut our losses. I wanted to put a for sale sign in the RV's window and cancel our future DC trip. But, Dave is convinced that all of the RV issues can be fixed. And that this sort of thing won't happen again. So, I guess my coral, turquoise and gray color scheme with a Happy Campers decal put on the back spare tire cover will still be done. But, not today. I think I'll put it off til I've forgiven the RV and can look it in the eyes again. Maybe I'll start back at it in a few days.

I know what you are thinking...that's what you get for buying such an old RV. Well, yes and no. A lot of these things were just freak occurrences. We had several RV specialists, an electrician, a mechanic and friends look at our RV and tell us we made a wise purchase. We also prayed about and over the beast a lot. For some reason, we were meant to experience adversity with this stinkin' thing. And God will be glorified in it all. We got back to our North Dakota home just in time to run out and see our town's fireworks. Which. were. amazing. And for this year, they were best part of our Fourth of July.

Thanks for reading this post. It's a long story that I will enjoy reading someday. And by the way there were happy moments...like when we saw my sis and her family for a minute and ate lunch with them on Saturday. And s'mores.  I hope your Fourth was supremely blessed. Ours was because we were together as a family.

Finger-lickin', Plate-lickin' Good

Dave teaching the Girls to Toast the Mallows

Yum!

Thanks so much, Amber

Our Big Weekend

My parents were here last weekend. We had a great time hanging out while they got to meet Evelyn! While they were here, Dave and I did some research on RV's and by the end of the week, in a whirlwind type fashion, Dave and I bought an old 1988 Sunview RV.  My Dad was very helpful in getting our RV looked over and checked out for the best quality old RV we could find. We've had this 28 foot monstrosity for only a few days, and Dave has already spent hours tinkering on it! The engine is sound, the upholstery is old, and the ideas in my head for updating it are swarming.

Part of the reason we purchased this RV is for summer fun, but we are also looking forward to taking it on a long, awesome, home school type road trip in the fall. We plan to travel North Dakota, to Minneapolis, to Chicago, to Cleveland, through Pennsylvania, to D.C., up to New York, and back through the great lakes, stopping at Niagara Falls on the way back. While we travel plan to follow the map of our trip, do school, play games, and NOT stop for bathroom and snack breaks on the way! We also plan to try Chicago style pizza, see the Great Lakes, learn more about the Amish communities in Pennsylvania,  see the National Monument, White House and other D.C. sights, eat a philly steak and cheese sandwich in Philadelphia, and visit Lady Liberty. I am so excited for this adventure!

Getting the RV now has turned out to be a good idea. (Thank you, Lord.) Dave needs time to get used to driving it, and it takes a while to figure out how all the parts and pieces of how one of these things works. Plus, we plan to camp one or a few times in it before we leave so that we can see just what we will need when we take it on a two-week extravaganza!

Those Curtains are Already Down

 Please excuse my jacket, baby blanket pile that looks like a cat perching on the couch.

Pull-Down Bed over Cabin

Main Living Space

Here are few inside pics of this slightly stinky, class A motor home. I kinda love it! My RV Pinterest board is growing by the minute!!!!!

Thanks for reading! Love, Amber

Evelyn Claire Stewart

----I started this blog a week and a half ago, but after I was almost done, I lost most of my work. I couldn't get back to it with family in town for a week. So, I am finally finishing.----

In case you haven't heard, we had our 4th sweet daughter on May 5, 2016. And now that I have my computer back from the repair shop, I can write about it on my blog.

Evelyn is a sweet and beautiful blessing. She is well-loved, and very much fought over by her sisters. She is 2.5 weeks old, and the honeymoon has totally not worn off for any of us yet. But, her umbilical cord piece has! Yay!

Evelyn loves to look at lights, look at me, her dad and her sisters. She is going between 3 and 4 hours to eat, and loves to be held. She will take a pacifier sometimes, but doesn't always need one to sleep. We are hoping she doesn't get as attached to her pacifier as Julia and Lydia did, and didn't want her sucking her thumb like Saige does.

Julia meeting and holding Evelyn

Lydia holding and meeting Evelyn

Sweet Sisters

Saige and Her Baby Sister

Evelyn - May 5, 2016

 Evelyn weighed 8 lbs, 1 oz when she was born. She ended up being much bigger at birth than my other three girls. The nurses in Labor and Delivery told me that Evelyn was 21.5 inches long. However, at her first doctor's appointment, the nurse told us that Evelyn was 20.25 inches long. There is no way that Evelyn shrank over an inch in a week! Plus, even at 20 inches, Evelyn is in the 88% for height--which is especially tall for our family. So, I think the measurement of her height at the hospital may have been a bit off. Either way, she will more than likely end up being our tallest girl.

Swaddled and Cute

Beautiful Babe

Grandma Christie and Our Girls

 Christie came and spent a few days with us before Evelyn was born, and got to stay until a couple of days afterward. She was an amazing blessing to us. She took great care of the girls while I was in Labor and Delivery and did a ton of cooking, cleaning and even grocery shopping.

Awake at the Hospital

 Evelyn was about 7 lbs 4 oz when we left the hospital. But she doesn't look teeny tiny in the hospital pics. Even though she was.

Being Discharged

 Evelyn already looks so different since leaving the hospital.

Sweet Girl

 Evelyn didn't want to take pictures. She just wanted to go home and be done with all the fluffy stuff.

 Evelyn is a very strong baby. She lifted her head regularly in the hospital and has been smiling at us from the very beginning. She had a small heart murmur when she was born, but at her 2nd follow-up appointment, our amazing pediatrician told us that she no longer has one. Yay!

2.5 Weeks Old

Evelyn is a super sweet baby. I feel like the two pictures above show just how much this little one changed in just 2.5 weeks. --And now she's 4.5 weeks old, and has grown up all over again. She is getting closer to sleeping through the night, and even rolled over from front to back on Sunday, May 29th. 

A couple days after Christie left, my sister was able to come and take care of us for almost a week. Aubrey was another huge blessing to us. She also cooked, cleaned, went to the grocery and took care of our big girls. Dave and I even snuck out for a date night while she was here. We brought Evelyn with us, but we enjoyed celebrating her birth, our 14th anniversary and Mother's Day all at once. :)

We are loving having our beautiful 6th member of our family with us. She has 10 beautiful and long fingers, and 10 super long toes. She is growing as she should. She is as perfect as they come and she is well-loved! We are thankful!

Thanks for reading about my Evelyn today. I appreciate you stopping by!

Still Pregnant

So, sometimes it shocks me, but I'm still pregnant. With Baby # 4. And Dave and I still have no girl name chosen in case the Lord blesses us with another walking drama mama.

Last week- 28 weeks pregnant

I honestly hate sharing pics of myself, but I guess this blog is more about documenting a time in the life of my family than it is about hiding some vain insecurity issues I deal with. I can almost hear people thinking, "how does she still have 10-11 week left? She looks ready to pop." And I know that before long I won't have to know people are thinking it because they'll go right ahead and say it out loud. At least one person already has, and they did with my other three pregnancies. :/

People keep asking me if this pregnancy seems different than my last three. The answer is a resounding yes. But, then, Saige's pregnancy felt very very different than my first two pregnancies. We still have almost 3 months until this baby arrives and announces their gender, and I will be here....waiting very impatiently.

Since I haven't written in months, I'd like to catch you all up on what's going on with us. Life in the Bakkan has been so different than any life Dave and I ever could have imagined for ourselves. Jobs and real estate and the oil economy are more unpredictable than ever. We find ourselves helping friends move, mourning with friends who are laid-off, missing family, and enjoying close and quickly found relationships with friends who know exactly how we are feeling and what we are going through. It's an unstable time.

This winter has not been "bad" as North Dakota winters go, and we barely have any snow left on the ground. We expect highs in the 50's tomorrow, and our North Dakotan friends are excited and gearing up for an early Spring.

Our girls are still loving homeschool. It's been a little harder for me to be motivated to teach as my belly has grown and I've become increasingly tired, but I am so thankful for the joy the girls and I get out of it as we work through history, geography, language, reading, Spanish, handwriting and gym class together. 

Julia is having a hard time allowing us to convince her that she is NOT a third parent. She is very mature and sweet, and understands a lot for her age. Lydia is still super spunky, witty and interested in having a good time (all the time), and Saige is a sneaky, strong-willed little sweetie pie.  We tease her that she loves sugar because she was born in Sugar Land, TX. For a while there though, I think she tried to use this as an excuse for her lack of discipline when it came to sneaking in a corner and eating candy. What's a parent to do?

Making Valentine Cards

I have been working with some real estate clients lately, and am generally just trying to help people make the best of such a crazy Bakken situation. This market is night and day different than Houston's, and learning the ropes is tedious but rewarding.

We have no idea what God has in store for our Stewart family next. Dave and I often try to put in our two cents, but we mostly just know that nothing is up to us. We try and live by the verse found in Matthew 10:39. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 

Hope to get back on here soon. Blessings! -Amber

Our (Almost) Winter Day!

Today was a great, (almost) winter day! We started out with the 5 (+ baby) of us at co-op.  There were only 3 co-op families, so we had a smaller group which made making gingerbread houses relatively easy! We made the easy houses out of crackers, icing and candy, and the kids had a blast!

Julia and her house

Lydia and her house

Saigie and her house

Three gorgeous girls

All the houses from co-op

 All the kids at co-op did such a great job on their houses. One little boy made a mail box and a trampoline with a bench. One little boy made a garden out of kit kats. One little girl had a bathroom in the roof. Our girls made cute doors and chimneys. So fun! My favorite part was Saige telling me how much fun it was to build her house.

After lunch and co-op, I finished some outdoor Christmas decorations, and Dave and the girls started building a snowman.

My late Grandpa made the Rudolf

My front door decorations

Dave and our girls building the snowman

More snowman building

Our finished snowman

My cuties with their man:

 The girls each posed behind the snowman with their arms up, just like their snow friend.

Lydia and Snow

Saige and Snow

After snowman building, we came in and had some hot chocolate. I have borscht on the stove, and my stomach is growling. We plan on watching a Christmas movie later. Days like these are few and far between. They are also days made in heaven! 

I loved today. I hope you loved your Friday too! Happy (almost) winter and Merry Christmas!

Sincerely, Amber