All is Well

We're home and all went well this morning with Carter's tubes. He was such a brave little champ! Thanks for praying for us!

Tubes - Finally!

Tomorrow morning I'll be leaving my house at 4:45 with a sleepy Carter in tow. Where are we going so early? To the hospital in Sioux Falls for tubes - FINALLY! He's been fighting a runny nose all week, so I'm praying that they will be able to do the surgery tomorrow. I'll update as soon as I can tomorrow to let you know how it goes. Thanks for praying for him (and me)!

Tractor Rides

Carter finally rode in a tractor!!!

A few weeks ago, we went out to the farm with Britney one day when he was going to be helping with harvest. Last year Carter fell in love with anything tractor/combine/John Deere related, but would not ride in any of them because he was afraid of the noise. This year, he was much more brave.

As soon as we got to the farm on this particular day, he jumped out of the car, ran over to the tractor, climbed right in and rode with his daddy for a couple of hours. At one point, he and Ashlyn traded off so that she was riding and he was playing at the farm with me. Ashlyn decided she was done riding, so Britney called me to come get her. Carter then decided he wanted to ride again, but the only way I could get him out to the tractor was for him to ride on the 4 wheeler with me. He was a little apprehensive at first (again, he was afraid of the noise), but once I assured him I would go slow and that it wasn't even as loud as the tractor, he climbed on and had another great time.

Ashlyn has long been a fan of the 4 wheeler. We can't go to the farm for even 5 minutes without her asking for a ride. Her only complaint when riding with me is that I don't go as fast as daddy :)

First Snow

We went from raking fall leaves and running around in capris and short sleeves to 3 inches of snow on the ground in the last 4 days. You would've thought it was Christmas this morning the way the kids jumped out of bed and ran downstairs. I don't think Ashlyn's gotten ready for school that quickly at all this year! They had a few minutes to go outside and play before school. Well, I should say Ashlyn had a few minutes. Carter has been outside since 6:30 this morning...In fact, he's outside right now shoveling the driveway :)

You know there some magic in the air when the principal of the elementary school comes around in the morning and lets you know he and his wife had a snowball fight this morning!

Back to the 21st Century!

My computer's hard drive crashed last week. Monday morning I had used it to check email, the weather, etc. Then I took Ashlyn to school, came back home, tried to check something else and...NOTHING! When my in-house IT department (aka Britney) came downstairs, I asked him to look at it. He gave me the bad news, followed by the good news that it was covered by Apple Care and we would just have to send it off for them to fix it.

All in all, it took them less than a week to fix it and send it back. Pretty impressive and I am SO GLAD not to be using the antique laptop that we just happened to have lying around.

And of course I had like 3 posts that I wanted to do last week, but without access to pictures, I figured it was pointless. I'll try to remember what they were about and catch you all up on what's happened here in the last week!

Finally Coming Home!

I just read Kristin's blog and God has been faithful! He worked a miracle for her today and I know her faith will be forever strengthened. She will be leaving Ghana tonight WITH her new children, Raymond and Delali. After countless holdups and run-arounds with her paperwork for visas for them, the visas were issued this morning. On a Friday. A day when they don't normally do exit interviews or issue visas. And they're also only open a half-day on Fridays.

Prayer really does work. Thank you to anyone who reads this blog that may have said a prayer for the Spittles. I know their hearts are full and overflowing and now the stress of the last 34 days perhaps was all worth it - for all NINE of them to be together again in a couple of days.

Kristin and the kids leave Ghana tonight!

16

Today is my nephew Chad's sixteenth birthday. I can't believe he's 16. I know his mom can't.

I was 16 when he was born. I remember that day really well. My mom missed him being born because she was with me at the doctor. I remember her crying in the waiting room because it happened - the birth of her first grandchild - and she wasn't there for it.

My mom and sister describe Chad as a "difficult" baby. I don't really remember much about it except that if he was asleep, you were not allowed to talk - at all. I do remember him being at our house and playing with my mom. They would have coffee by the front door and watch for the cats. They would play Scooby Doo and Mom was "Haggy" - that was how Chad said Shaggy.

I never thought that red-haired little boy would grow up to be such a nice young man. He is such a great kid and I'm sorry I didn't spend more time with him when he was younger. We got to spend a day with them while we were at Disney World this summer and it was probably one of the most fun days we had on our whole trip.

Chad is playing football this year, but since we live so far away, we won't get to see any of his games. That really makes me sad. He's also in ROTC and hopes to go to West Point one day. I can't believe he's growing up.

Happy Birthday, Chad! We hope you have a wonderful day!

And if you're in South Carolina, watch out because he's on the road driving!!!!!!!! Chad - in the words of Nana, Watch out! This is a curvy road!!