I'm back

So, it's been forever since I've been on here ... I'll try to see if I can do some catching up. Jeff (hubby) is now working nights, which truly sucks big time! He starts at 4:30 and I get off work at 5, so I'm home with everyone by myself every night. My family has been incredibely amazing at helping out and helping to keep me around adults when I'm off of work. I end up spending a lot of time at my mom's house or at my brother's. Jeff working nights has definitely put a strain on our relationship, but we're trying everything in our power to keep it together. We both knew that it was a sacrifice we had to make to help us pay our bills, so here we are.

The kids are currently on summer break, so the whole family is trying to keep them occupied so they don't call me every 5 minutes. McKenna just turned 10 last Friday, so we had her birthday party this last weekend. Caya turned 8 in April and is still as cute and feisty as ever. Trevor is still just a really great kid and so easy to take care of. Chase is currently sporting a red cast due to a little mishap on his skateboard 2 weeks ago that broke his foot in 2 places. He hates being on crutches, but he's hangin in there. Miranda ............ where do I begin with her??? The last week of school, we found out she had been drinking AT school and at home. She had a couple "friends" that thought it would be a good idea to try to get away with drinking at school ... they got caught. We're working with her on that on top of trying to deal with the fact that her dad's girlfriend has a son Miranda's age that decided to touch her inappropriately while she was sleeping at the house. Good grief!!! What a mess!! We've gotten her really involved with the youth group at church and she's even going to church camp next week.

It's been a rough ride lately but we've got a lot of family and friends praying for us and offering help and advice.

The miracle of family!!!

Today the most amazing thing happened!!! My husband and I were talking thru text about how my son Chase was starting back in on his major attitude and back talking now that school has started and how we needed to find a way to come up with the extra money to take him back to counseling. Chase is an amazingly bright and sweet little boy, but has a temper that you would not EVEN believe!! He did really well over the summer, but now that school has started again, it seems to be flaring back up. Anyway, we were discussing the situation when I suddenly got an email at work from my mom that went to both of my brothers and their wives. The email contained a prayer request for my son. Of course, I immediately started crying right at my desk because it just shocked me so much but it touched me too. In it she asked that they pray for our financial situation and for Chase to be able to get the help he needs to help him control his temper and maintain some respect. I'm not a super religious person, but I do believe in God and the things that he can do, but WOW!!!! I haven't even talked to my mom about Chase's recent flare-ups AT ALL and here she is saying that God had laid it on her heart to send out the request to my family for prayer and for possibly some help financially so we can take him to his counseling sessions. He's only gone to one session, but I think with continued help, his counselor could make a world of difference for him. Just through that initial session, she brought a condition to my attention called Oppositional Defiance Disorder. This disorder has 8 primary symptoms or signs and my son fits 6 of them to a TEE!!! As I said before, he's a super sweet kid ... he's funny, bright, caring, sensitive and very compassionate. The problem though is that he doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut. He doesn't know when to drop the subject and instead, he continues until he gets more and more trouble. Once that happens, there's almost no stopping him. Once he gets past a certain point, he cannot and will not stop. It's gotten so bad that I was going to call the cops because he hit me on the arm and tried to bite my hand because I was holding both of his arms. Once the word police was out of my mouth, he immediately snapped out of it and started crying saying that he was sorry and that he didn't want to go to jail. This is a 12 year old little boy here, so my heart was absolutely broken and I was a total mess. He's had a temper problem all his life, but not to this extent.

My mom just now sent me another email while I was writing this that said, "Tonya, you are to set up an appt. for him and pray and stand on faith that the money will be there some how. God can do anything, and money is not beyond His reach." So, I'm going to call and try to set up and appointment for him and just hope that the money will indeed be there. Wish me luck and keep me in your prayers!!!