He Is Risen!

Have a Blessed Easter everyone!

Blogdom Voidom

Ok, it's not that I've fallen off the planet or deliberately avoided blogging (well, maybe I have) but it just seems that since Christmas life has been doing double time around here! Even now I don't want to be too verbose in all the goings on but it is a little overwhelming when I actually sit down for a minute and think about all of this. So, let me just say that at the moment (and for the past few months), Neil and I (honestly, more I than Neil since I'm the one now at home) have been getting our house ready to sell, putting a contract on another house, as well as preparing to go on a 3 week missions trip to Uganda the end of May (that's me without Neil- he has to fend for himself while I'm away). Our goal is to sell our house and close on the new one by May 1st and move in (before I leave for Uganda). Then once I return from Uganda at the end of June, the other big piece of this is to then go to Pensacola and help my mom get her house ready to sell (in which she's lived for over 60 years!) and move her to PC to live with us in the 900 square foot, 4 room mother-in-law suite attached to the back of our new house. That's probably going to be the hardest part of this whole process, however, mother realizes that this is inevitable and for her best interest since I am her only child, she's not married and all of her family is here and not there and she's missing out on all of the events happening with her grand and great-grandchildren. We all want her here with us.

There's no way that any of this could be happening without the orchestration, direction and guidance from God Almighty. It's to Him I find myself continually praying to for help and strength particularly for the particulars and the timing of all the parts and pieces. I know that He has someone out there who wants to buy our house since we can't buy the other one without first selling ours, so it's like a domino effect, "a" has to happen before "b" then "c" will be able to take place and so on. Like I said, this is all God and His timing is perfect.

I will post some before/after pictures of our house soon as well as recent grandkids' pictures. In the meantime, you can check out both Emily and Kristie's blogs for family updates since Christmas.

I'll keep you posted...promise!

Kristie's Birthday Day

Happy Birthday Kristie! Today our family and the Georgiadis and Hayes family joined forces to help celebrate Kristie's birthday. You couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day! The temperature was 74 degrees and the good ol' Florida sun was just a shining. It's hard to believe that we're having gorgeous weather like this 8 days before Christmas! After church this morning, we all headed to Oakland Terrace Park for a picnic lunch and delicious birthday cake that Cindy, Kristie's mom baked for her. It was a great place for the kids to play as well as the grownups. Took a few pix of our day...got some shots of all the grandkids. Seventeen month old Ethan thoroughly enjoyed playing ball with the big boys!

Another "Grand" Gift from God!

Today we welcomed our third grandchild and second granddaughter into this world. Caroline Grace was born at 3:19PM weighing 8 lbs.15oz and was 20.5 inches long. Brian, Emily, and 16 month old Ethan are all doing well! She's another beautiful baby and looks so much like both Ethan and Karina when they were born. To prove my point, the next 2 pix to the right are the birth pix of the other 2 grandkids, Ethan and Karina.



It's true that the family genes are definitely strong :) Here are a few of the pix we took at the hospital right after this blessed event. Trust me, there'll be plenty more to come! Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

A Beautiful Day at the Beach

Today was another gorgeous sunny day here in PC...really amazing weather for mid-November! What better way to spend it than at St. Andrews State Park? Took the cameras and the kids and then took some pictures. Enjoy!

Courageous Dad and Son Team

It's been awhile since I last posted. I'm trying my hand at uploading Youtube video. This is an incredibly beautiful story of a Dad's truly neverending and unconditional love for his son...have your kleenix handy.

Welcome Baby Karina!

Finally...she arrived! Her great aunt, Joanie, said that Karina must have known all along she was a Delmar, since she apparently was on "Delmar time"... an inside family joke about punctuality or lack thereof of it :) Neil and I were awakened around 3:30AM by the " we're headed to the hospital" phone call from Jeff. I then called Emily, so she too trekked up to the hospital to wait with us in the wee hours of the morning. Interestingly enough, once we arrived, our pastor's daughter, Carrie, and her husband Freddie were there as well waiting for Carrie to be induced with their third child. Kristie and Carrie ended up in labor and delivery rooms side by side. Kristie did a great job staying focused during her labor and delivered Karina Marie (a la natural) at 12:24PM today. Karina weighed 8lbs, 4oz and was 20.5 inches long. Jeff was a great labor coach and Cindy, Kristie's mom, served as her labor support Doula (a role she's taken on with several of the pregnant women in our church) throughout Kristie's entire labor and delivery. Mom, dad and baby are all doing great and looking forward to going home tomorrow. Carrie delivered a little boy, Brian Robert, one hour later after Kristie and she too heads home tomorrow as well. Here are a few pictures of our family's first little granddaughter...enjoy!
PS> Emily will be posting more pictures on her blog...tenlittletoes.blogspot.com if you want to check them out as well.