A boy and his dog...

So, when I was pregnant we had to put our 12 year old lab to sleep.  That was one of the hardest day we faced but we quickly figured out this house would not last without a  4 legged friend.  The unfortunate thing was, the one we wanted would not be ready to come home until...a month before we brought home a new baby.  Being the CRAZY kids we are we decided to go for it.  Why not right?  You are up with a baby why not take a puppy out too.  Well there is not a day that goes by that I regret that decision because this little boy LOVES his puppy.  He loves to play with her, feed her and just be with her.

First Trip to the Beach

Well I must admit for many months I have pondered the idea of taking Aaron to the beach (since it is only an hour away) but have been terrified of the thought that he would shove all the NASTY sand in his mouth.  So last weekend when Jon brought it up I ponder on what the chances were that we could make it without eating a fist full of sand.  Needless to say it was a success.  We decided to take both of the "kids" to the beach for the first time.  I tell you....that was just like taking two human children to the beach.  Each parent had to watch a kid and there was NO WAY that one could watch both.  We happen to have a human child that wants to be independent and do what he wants.  We also have a dog who LOVES people.  At one point Jon attempted to walk toward the car for something and everything went haywire, I quickly call him back for help.  Then at one point I decided while holding the leash I would take some pictures while Jon and Aaron were out in the water.  Well, Luna wanted to join them so out I run with expensive camera in hand and dog pulling full force.  I had to call Jon to come in and let me set the camera down so I could take her in the water.  Overall, it was a fun adventure and every one had fun.

Life is always a changin'

I have truly enjoyed the summer time I have had so far with my little man.  We have spent many hours, playing, running errands, swimming and just hanging out.  I feel like he is at the age that every day he changes so much, does that ever stop?!?  He has turned into a true walker and really doesn't crawl very often.  The only times I see him crawl are when he is afraid you are leaving him and he can't get there fast enough walking or when he is really tired.  This has been fun to watch him learn how to do.  I am afraid that before school starts we will also mast the running part too (my oh my).  In addition to walking, we have cut 4 teeth and are working on another 4 simultaneously (eekkk).  And, my baby has decided he is done with the bottle.  We are in the process of switching over to whole milk, but he only drinks out of a sippy cup now.  Mommy has been evaluating the "baby" gear and packing some of it away since he has outgrown it.

Not only have we had a busy summer watching our little one grow but we have had lots of company and other things going on.  We haven't done any traveling yet, that comes in a few weeks.  We will be traveling to Spokane for my cousins wedding and then headed to Breckenridge with Jon's family.  As we do every time, we are starting to prepare ourselves for Aaron's reaction to the plane and sleeping somewhere other than his own crib.  This will be the first time since he was 3 months old that we will all share a room and that is sure to be a great experience as well.  Lots of prayers that this is a relaxing time for our family and not a stressful time being away from home, we shall see.

So the hardest part about this update is my work status.  It has changed two times since we last talked ;).  At the beginning of the summer we had put this situation in God's hands and said we would wait to see what he had planned.  Originally the plan was never for me to stay home at this point but we knew I needed to be closer to home.  With that we decided I would go ahead and resign from my current position and see what doors God led us to.  At the end of the year we started scrambling a little bit because Cy-Fair had not contacted me and so we began to set our sights on something else.  We knew when I resigned that we had to prepare to no have any income but hope that it would come around.  Well as time went on and it appeared to be less likely that I would find a job we started talking about other things.  A friend of mine from college who is a director at a preschool had a job opening that she let me know about in early June.  I was so excited and loved the idea of this job.  I would be working in the preschool M-W-F from 9:00-2:00 and Aaron would go to the Mother's Day Out program at the same place.  This to me was IDEAL.  I could get him, and myself, some socialization a few days a week but I still had time to tend to "family affairs".  I accepted the position, signed him up to attend, and even took CPR for the job.  Then, life changed again :(.  The day of Aaron's party I got an email from a principal asking if I had found a job yet in Cy-Fair.  This principal was an assistant principal at my first school before she became principal.  I mentioned to Jon that I was going to let her know I had found another job but I wasn't going to worry about it until Monday because we were about to have the world over to celebrate our baby boy.  We had a great party and life went on.  Then next day the topic came up again because they wanted me to come in and interview if I was interested on Monday.  Wait what?!?!?!? so soon.  Jon convinced me to look at some numbers and money and he reminded me that the original plan was not for me to stay home now but maybe later on.  So after lots of praying and soul searching I am mending my heart from the disappointment of not working at the preschool.  From Saturday to Tuesday I had been  contacted, interviewed and offered the job.  So................................I will be teaching third grade next year at Warner Elementary in Cy-Fair.  Don't get me wrong I think this will be an amazing teaching opportunity and totally different than any I have had so far.  The school is great and I am hoping to have a wonderful team.  But, I am trying to overcome the disappointment that I have about not spending more time with my little man.  So, remember that LONG vacation I told you about... yeah I start work the day after we get back!

A blessed weekend

We knew that opening our house to the Matsiko World Orphan Choir would be a life changing experience but we didn't know what to expect.  Jon was a little nervous about bringing kids in because he didn't know what we would do with kids that age.  It turned out we have 3 girls all about 12 years old, stay with us and one female chaperon.  The group arrived Friday evening and we spent some time up at the church, letting the kids play in the game room and build their own pizzas.  As soon as they announced the housing assignments, the girls took right to Aaron.

We then headed home and got everyone settled into their beds.  The girls were so sweet.  Two of our girls were from Peru and just started learning English when they got to the US in January, they were great speakers.  The third girl was from Liberia and English was her primary language.  The group as a whole had 

and even split of children from these two countries.

In the weekend we spent with them we found out that this group of students were children who were considered at risk.  This means that they do have a family, of sorts, that they live with but their families are on the verge of not being able to support them.  The organization that they are associated with is similar to Compassion International and World Vision except their main focus is education.  They feel that the chance at an education through the university level will set these kids free and put them at a level above the average. We heard so wonderful testimonies about how much this program had help kids.  Two of the leaders who were on the trip were recipients of the money and have come back to help support the program.  These children will spend the year traveling through the US performing the most energetic show I have seen and studying.  At the end of the year they will return home and continue their education and help groom the next group of students.

Saturday we took them to the zoo and they had the opportunity to see many animals.  They had been to a zoo in another city but did not see all of the same animals.  They mentioned a few times how much they enjoyed the zoo.  As we were getting ready to leave the house, the girls became very interested in some of Aaron's toys that say the ABC's.  This was a wonderful opportunity for them to practice learning the language.

Jon and I had offered for the whole group to come over that afternoon to grill and swim.  This was a hit.  We had never had that many people in our backyard but it was wonderful.

Sunday was a day full of performances for them.  They performed at both church services and then at a local retirement home.  They were such wonderful guests, and helped with all of the meals/dishes.  It was fun to talk to these girls and learn a little about their lives and what life was like for them.  They were so appreciative and thankful.  Every morning they would give you a hug when they came down and said thank you for EVERYTHING you did.  We said our final goodbyes, Monday morning.

Both Aaron and Luna had a great time with the extra bodies in our house.  It was a little strange when I got home Monday from dropping them at the church, our house suddenly seemed very quiet.

The Opportunities God Provides

Some of you might of heard us talking about this, and some of you perhaps not.

You all know that Jon and I are pretty big advocates of James 1:27 - "religion that our God and Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress..."

We actually plan to adopt siblings in the future, but thats then, this is now.  So when we were sent an email from Copperfield Church about needing host familes for the Matsiko Orphan Choir when they are in town, we were intrigued, and also knew that we really had no choice but to volunteer.  I know that makes it sound like being forced into it, but it was more of, well we both know the discussions of whether we should do this not are just a formality...

So we volunteered, and then decided to youtube this choir to see what I could find.  For whatever reason, Jon was thinking a uniformed orderly boys choir or something kind of like this  http://www.singers.com/~singers/groupimages2/SofiaBoysChoirWeb.jpg

what I discovered was somethign mroe like this  http://media.redding.com/media/img/photos/2013/03/19/359145_t607.JPG

and this...




If you didnt click the links - to me it looks like a bunch of kids from peru and africa who were just given Large Pixi sticks (thaks Paul!) and then given free roam of Disney Land...

as I discovered this, Jon looked at me and asked "what have we done?!"  to which I said..."oh thats it?  thats nothing...we got this. try teaching for a bit."

Anyway, we got an email last night confirming that they want to use us as a host family for up to 3 kids and a chaperone from Friday evening June 21st - early Monday June 24th).  We also volunteered our back yard for the whole choir to come over and swim, eat hotdogs , be kids..whatever...sooooooooo....we might not be very 'available' that weekend.

We really dont know what to expect, and we are simply asking for prayer for these kids, and our ability to make them feel loved and appreciated during their few days romping aroudn the Prebish Casa.

We are excited and we fully expect some kind of blessing and many stories out of this ("cause stories is what its all about!  right?!  right?  no?  ok...."  -Jon)

also - if you get a phone call from Jon that weekend...it might be in a slight panic desperate for help - "I got kids coming out of the rafters, the dog is chasing them, Aaron is just laughing and hitting them with the spatula as they run by...what have I done?!"...just putting you on notice.

"Religion that our God and Father accepts as pure and faultless (and maybe a bit chaotic!)"

Jon and Courtney.

http://www.icnchildren.net/world-orpans-choir-icn

Newest Happenings of the Prebish Clan

Well it has been awhile since I have actually had time to sit down and do any of this kind of stuff but summer is here.  I am hoping to start updating this more for our friends and family near and far.  I do not have pictures this time, just words but I will give a quick update of what is going on in our crazy house.

Today was our last day of school and I have never been so excited to have the year come to an end.  This year was challenging for so many reasons.  One of the largest reasons was that there were many days where my sweet boy was at day care for 10+ hours and it broke my heart.  As the year began to wrap up, Jon and I started talking about next year and the future.  I knew I wanted to move closer to home so I applied in Cy-Fair, the district we live in, and didn't have much luck.  As that appeared to be a dry river, we started looking at "what next".  After much discussion we decided that I needed to resign from my current school and we would put things in God's hands.  I would not say that the plan is totally for me to stay home with Aaron in the fall, but the hope is that I can have a closer and less demanding something.  We have several things that sound like a great way to have a little bit of extra money but still allow me to spend time around the house and taking care of our family needs.  Of course these sound great to us, but none of them are anything that can be done without God opening doors.  As the summer goes on we are anxious to see where this path takes us.  I am going to enjoy my time catching up from a busy year and loving on my baby.

I hope to update this regularly so stay tuned, we have missed a lot.

It's been awhile

It has been awhile since I have updated here, time has gotten away from me.  Work has been super busy and the moving little man has made life even more eventful.  I will try to do a quick catch up on what we have been up to.  These were some of his first school pictures, mommy fell in love (daddy thought they were overpriced).

This is the sweet face I see many mornings when I go to wake him up, what a great way to start the day.

Now that he is on the move it has changed the name of the game...he is into EVERYTHING!

Including playing with Luna's toys and chasing her around.

We are moving out of the cold months but I had to share his cute winter outfit.

We have started swim lessons and he loves them.  Thankfully we were able to move them to Saturdays, it is much better for the whole family.

We dress for the holidays.  And, he made mommy her fist valentine at school.