Camping Fun

 Last weekend we went camping for the first time...ever.  It was fun!  And I was blessed to have so many people help me out that I actually became so spoiled, that I'm not sure I can call it camping on my own with 3 kids!  I'm so thankful for friends & family!!  Tyler caught tons of fish.  And there were so many helpful people around to take the fish off the hooks for him so I didn't have to (even though I don't know how either)

 Chloe loves green onions from the garden.  She went to the camper for a snack.  Onions dipped in ranch & salt.  Yummy.  And she eats all of it - the green part is her favorite.  She is also known for going out to the garden and just taking bites off the tops once in awhile.  Who needs bunnies when you have Chloe to eat off your garden!

 A fight over the bread to feed the fish.  Not really a fight, but it looks like it!

Friends :)

It was a great time and we can't wait to go and do it again sometime!  We also pray for the day when daddy will come with us.  It is a fun time, but also bittersweet because the kids & I all recognize that he is missing and that he would absolutely love it out at the shack.  He would fit right in.  

Praying & waiting yet living & loving life in all of God's goodness & grace.

Chloes Kapitz is 4!

 Last week we celebrated Chloe turning 4.  I can not believe that she is 4 already!  We got her a real bike this year.  We hid it in the neighbor's shed for a week, and Kelsey brought it over bright & early for us.  She loves it.  And we have only had 1 scraped knee so far.

 The birthday girl being all smiles for the camera.

 A brother & sisters picture.  They all have the same smile!

 I love how she has to stand up and blow the candles out from the top.  Although this is the second round.  Tyler & Hannah couldn't stop themselves from "helping" her the first time so we had to re-light them and do it again.

And then the next night we went to Happy Joe's to celebrate again.  

Chloe is an amazing gift from God.  He has entrusted His precious gift of Chloe to me and Jon to raise. I'm grateful beyond words that He would give her to us.  By His grace alone may Jon & I raise her to follow the greatest gift of all - His Son.  Chloe is a bundle of energy and happiness and love. She is the family clown.  She is the troublemaker and she is super bossy yet we love her to pieces.  She always has interesting things to say such as... "and you are welcome for the thank you that you should say".  She melts my heart when she says things like "mommy, you are so beautiful today".  She thinks her sister walks on water, she copies everything she does and always greets us when we pick her up with a huge hug.  She loves to get her big brother into trouble.  She always takes notice of fashion - shoes & dresses in particular.  Although she lacks a sense of her own fashion! She is a perfectionist - things always need to be lined up perfectly in a certain order.  She loves to sing & dance.  And she can write her name!  She loves Jesus and her family.  Her prayers for her daddy and others that she loves are heartfelt and touching.  May we all come to our Heavenly Father as children - from the mouths of babes.  My cup overflows Clo-Clo, sweet pea, green bean, coco puff.  No wonder she needs to declare "My name is Chloe Kapitz."  We love you!!!!

The Rodeo

 We went to the rodeo last weekend.  The kid always love it.  The girls ate the whole bag of cotton candy in about 5 minutes.  And they wanted more.  

 

 I loved this picture with Chloe sitting so close to Hannah.  She really sticks close to her all of the time.

 She thought she was so so funny when she was wearing two hats.  What a crazy kid.

 Here was our best shot at a picture of us.  I was missing Lisa's cowboy boots though!

Chloe didn't make it to the end.  She feel asleep on my lap.  I laid her down while packing up and it didn't even phase her.  The next day we told her she fell asleep and she didn't believe us.  I showed her the picture and she said "Oh Mom, I was just pretending."  Sure you were Chloe.

Bonfires, kites & picnics

 We've been having some bonfires with neighbors lately.  Our group is growing and more neighbors are coming to join us!  Yeah!  It involves some big games of football & kickball.  The neighborhood dads are good at teaching Tyler some football pointers while they practice "skills". And it has even evolved into water balloon fights with drive by on a golf cart water balloon bombing.  Be careful next time you drive around the neighborhood, you never know what's coming your way!  And you can't cook supper over the campfire without ending it with some smores.

 Which of course make a huge mess!  But isn't that the point?!  Eating over a camp fire is new to me, I didn't do it as kid, and didn't want to do it as an adult, but I've learned to be more easy going and just enjoy life a little more.We are excited to take my parents camper this summer and do some camping with the neighbors this summer.  Camping hasn't been something that I've ever been super thrilled about either, but I'm ready to do it.  Bring on the fun!

 There have also been some great days to fly some kites.  The girls love to run around and get them really high.  Tyler gets too worried about losing his so he keeps it low and then puts it away.

 But losing it is a problem.  Chloe thinks it's so funny to let go of it so us adults have to run after it before it gets away.  She stands there and laughs.  Until it got away and ended up wrapped over the top of the neighbors 2 story house.  We had to crawl up & around to unwind the string from the beams of their porch.  Who am I kidding - she still laughed about it.

And who doesn't love a picnic!  Have I mentioned how much we all love our neighbor girls?

The Bee & the Birthday

 Last week was Hannah's 7th birthday!  We had an awesome weekend celebrating God's awesome gift of Hannah!  We are so blessed that He choose us to be Hannah's parents.  Hannah is a loving, generous girl.  It is often the case where Hannah steps up and offers something kind to her brother or sister.  She gives up her stuff out of love for others.  She is always drawing me a picture or making me a project.  Her growth in her journey with her Savior has been amazing to watch this year.  Her prayers are open & honest & refreshing.  It is an honor to raise her for the Lord.

 We went out to eat for her birthday and had a great time.  We spent the weekend playing with friends & family doing a ton of things. 

 And then there is this bee.  On Thursday Tyler called me at work, from school.  He said, "Mom I won a bee" I said "huh?"  He told me that it was too big for the bus & I needed to come & pick it up.  ok.  So after school we went to get his bee without knowing what exactly I was picking up.  It was hard to get it in the van!

He can't wait to hang it from his ceiling.  Huh?  But honestly, I am so proud of him.  He won it for scoring 60 correct math problems in 90 seconds.  The first person in the class to accomplish this goal won the bee.  They have been working at it daily for a couple of weeks and he practiced & tried so hard.  He is proud of his accomplishment & so am I.  God has blessed our Tyler with the ability to do some math skills!  And with a giant bee...

A New Blog

Hello friends, family & fellow readers!

In answering God's leading, I have started a new blog called Seeing His Mercy in the Mess.  You can follow the link to go to it.  There I explain why I started a new blog.  I will still have this blog, but I hope to take this one back to more about my kids and our life and things that we are doing.  Mercy in the Mess will be specific to my journey and I pray that you will follow me on to the next step in that blog.

Have a blessed week!

Not For Me, But For His Holy Name

As we are approaching the 2 year mark on events that changed my life and my family's life forever I took some time today to read back some of my posts throughout the last year.  I tend to only post after I get through a "lesson" God has been taking me through.  Which I think may give a perspective that I am just doing awesome and staying strong.  I don't tend to write on here in my weakest moments.  And believe me, those times are there, a lot.  But I look back and see just how much God is growing me in so many ways!  I am in awe at His amazing grace & mercy in this trial. My God loves me enough to mold me more and more in to His image.  What a humbling realization.
While God has graciously changed me, there is one thing that while it has changed in how it looks and how it affects my daily life - the core of it remains solid.  God has called me to love my husband unconditionally and to wait patiently for the Lord to act while I stand firm for my marriage, not knowing how long it will take.  I know that many friends and family do not understand this, and I have had to make the choice between desiring the approval of man or following the leading of my Father.  To accept what I can physically see & know or to trust in God "who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think" (Eph.3:20). I have continued to make the choice to have faith.  "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." "And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him."  Hebrews 11:1 & 6
I have no promise from God that my husband will be coming home.  But I have faith to believe that God can do it.  It doesn't look like it from the outside.  And there is the long list of "why would I want that back?".  But that's a point - I don't want that back.  I want the marriage that God created me & my husband to have.  It is not God's will for him to be with anyone else, and that will be dealt with accordingly by Him who judges.  God allowed me & my husband to enter into a convent relationship that we will both be held to answer to on judgement day.  And no matter what, I firmly stand alongside my God while HE fights this earthly battle.  I will not falter because "reality" tells me something different.  I know the truth.
The truth is that God came to save the lost.  He died for me and He died for my husband.  My God, He is pursuing my husband's heart.  He is moving on the other side of this mountain in ways that I can't even begin to fathom.  I believe it.  I really resonated with a website  Rejoice Marriage Ministries.  On their home page they have a standers affirmation that I posted around my house to remind me to have faith in the only one that is able - God.  Jesus is the answer.  Which leads me to a change that has taken place.  This is God's work, and it is not mine.  My call is to stand for my marriage and to be in constant prayer & fasting for my husband and our marriage.
Have you ever prayed Ezekiel 36:22-38 for someone that you love who needs Jesus?  It has an amazingly powerful experience to get on your knees and pray scripture by personalizing it by inserting names into it. I pray that scripture for myself, my husband and our marriage everyday and I lay on the floor crying my eyes out as the Spirit moves while I pray.  You should try it, you will be blessed by it.  There are a couple of phrases and a theme that jumps out at me that is throughout the chapter. "It is not for your sake that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name" "I am the Lord" "I will..." (as in God, not me)  "Then  they will know that I am the Lord"  Obviously these are just excerpts taken from the chapter, so please go read it all.  But the point is that God WILL act and he WILL answer and he WILL deliver.  But not for me and not necessarily how I think it should look.  Not because I want it.  Not because my whole list of reasons why my husband should or needs to come home.  God will act because He is the Lord and everyone who has been even remotely observant, been touched or involved in this trial - they will know it was the Lord God who acted and there will be absolutely be no other possible explanation.  Whether that is an act of bringing my husband to Himself and then home to his family - or whether it is by holding me up on his right hand to stand for His truth in the face of heartbreak and sin.  Do you laugh?  Roll your eyes? Think, oh Kari, you are going to be so hurt when you figure out the truth?  Do you dismiss it?  Think I'm crazy?  I say think what you want because I know the truth of who my God is and what He can do.  And He can be your God too.  Whether you join me in my stand or not doesn't matter.  Whether Jon runs to his Father or not or whether he ever comes home or not is not the point.  I'm standing firm because of God's strength and grace.  And just wait and see...one day, you will know - as all the glory goes to Him.