I wonder if people will still have Super Bowl parties even though it’s the Cardinals vs. Steelers? That was a joke.
I’m sure no one would’ve taken that bet at the beginning of the year! Crazy. This is one of the reasons that I love the NFL. So much parity. Each year can be a new, unexpected team. Last year it was the Giants. This year the Cardinals. Next year the Bucs.
I love the NFL.
God’s provision comes in so many ways. Here’s a brief look at some of the things that have happened this month:
– We started off the month with just over $200 in our fundraising account and no guarantee for February’s salary. In the past two weeks, we have received $1,800 of donations to our salary. We’re not there yet, but God is bringing in the finances. He always provides.
– A family in our church gave us a $100 American Express gift card on Sunday. Little did they know that we needed that amount to get the double stroller that we had been looking at for our ever-growing family. (We are now officially that family that wanders the mall with TWO double strollers). That combined with another $110 that we had been given to Target and we had enough to finally get our stroller.
– We went to Target tonight to get our stroller (retail price of $169.99). It was on sale for $84.99! We used the extra money to buy Max, Mary and Jack new shoes and some miscellaneous things for the house that we have needed.
– I made $14 in tips today at Caribou 🙂
– Three weeks ago we were praying because we had no car seat. Two nights later a couple in our church showed up at our door with a brand new car seat.
– The day we brought Ben home from the hospital I prayed and asked God to give us a bassinet and an extra pack and play to keep downstairs so we didn’t have to go up and down the stairs. I kid you not, THAT AFTERNOON, a friend of the family came over with – you guessed it – a bassinet, a pack and play and other random baby things.
I told Dara the other day that I feel like God’s ear is right next to my voice. I have this overwhelming sensation that he is actually listening to my prayers. That he knows my needs. That he cares to hear my pray.
I believe. No one can convince me otherwise. Only God knows where the remainder of our income will come from for February. He has already blessed us from multiple unexpected angles. I have just learned to trust and believe.
What a month.
I want to say a big thank you to Jon Gruden for bringing the Super Bowl Championship Trophy to Tampa Bay in 2003. I would also like to thank the Glazer family for FINALLY moving in a new direction! Gruden did some great things in Tampa, but it’s time for a change, and I absolutely LOVE the hire of Raheem Morris as our new head coach.
I love the trend in the NFL right now of going with younger, unproven guys with new ideas and tons of passion. It may take a bit of time, but I think this is going to work out really, really well for the Bucs!
What a crazy emotinal roller coaster the last two weeks have been.
We welcomed Baby Ben on Tuesday morning, came home on Friday and then my grandfather, Bernard Docusen, passed away on Sunday afternoon. I headed up to Michigan on Tuesday night and spent a couple of days with my family celebrating the amazing life of my grandpa. More to come on grandpa in an upcoming blog. An amazing man that lived an incredible life. You can click on the link of his name if you want to read about him.
I just got in last night to Charlotte and immediately went and worked a closing shift at Caribou. I woke up this morning and picked up my mom from the airport and she’ll be here for two weeks! Now I’m locking myself away in my home office and trying to catch up on two weeks of madness.
You’d think that after having our fourth child that we’d have this all figured out. To prove that point further, the nurses in the hospital would actually come to our room for a “break” from all the new parents. One of our nurses even asked us to teach a “parents of newborns” class for the other parents in the hospital.
All of our expertise went out the window when we got home. We may have already successfully made it through the newborn stage 3 times, but we’ve never experienced THIS.
We got home yesterday and the floodgates opened. Max (5), Mary (almost 4) and Jack (almost 2) are absolutely wide open from morning to night, with a bit of a break during nap time. They were so excited to have their baby brother home, and that meant lots and lots of screaming.
They went to bed and then Ben, on cue, woke up. He stayed up till 4am. Say it with me – 4am.
I woke up this morning and looked into Jack’s eyes and I knew something wasn’t right. He has had a cough, but something was off. I took him to a walk-in clinic and it turned out that he has an ear infection in both ears.
In the midst of all of this, Dara is supposed to do all she can to stay off her feet and recover. Oh my WOW.
It’s all completely worth it. We have four amazing children that bring so much joy to our world. We are exhausted, but we are blessed. They say this all goes by really fast. Doesn’t really seem like it today, but I’m sure it’s true.
I love being a dad.
