Spiritual Buffet...

I got a chance this last weekend to attend the "Deeper Still" Christian women's conference in Atlanta with my mom! Wow!! It was amazing and just what God had ordered for me. It was hosted by 3 spectacular women, Kay Arthur, Beth Moore and Priscilla Shirer (daughter of Pastor Tony Evans). Just picture 20,000 women filling virtually every seat in Phillips Arena downtown Atlanta and imagine the energy, enthusiasm and anticipation of what God had prepared for each of us. One of my daily prayers is for God to open my heart and ears to what it is He wants me to hear and that I may use it to glorify Him, well I am going to share with you just a glimpse of what I believe I heard and hope that it may fill your heart with a new passion and understanding of what our precious and loving God wants for each of us. The weekend started out with an amazing 2 hours from Priscila Shirer and she brought a message that I REALLY needed to hear. The entire message was about "The Wilderness" and our ability to recognize each of our own "wildernesses" as a blessing and to be able to "camp" in whatever season of life God has you in at the moment. Sometimes these messages are hard for me to listen to, because quite honestly I don't like being in the "wilderness" to much literally or figuratively. Most of the time I want OUT and I want OUT NOW. I have come to realize that not only are my "wildernesses" sometimes hurtful, painful and quite miserable at times, I always am delivered from it with a deeper understanding of why I was there in the first place and a clearer mind as to how I can use that time to hopefully help others. For example: Over the last 13 months, I have been tested and at times felt like I was in a deep dark forest. Most of you know that Rob and I were blessed to have our youngest, Kate 13 months ago, just on the tails of our beautiful son Sam who is 26 months old. Yes, two children 13 months apart...enough said right?? I often would ask myself, why would God pick me to raise up two babies so close together? I am in no way equipped to handle such responsibility emotionally, spiritually or physically. Women do this everyday and the survival rate I hear is high, but I have thought on many occasions that I wouldn't see the light ever again. It has truly been the most difficult "wilderness" yet. There have been moments when I would just cry out to the Lord for strength and supernatural stamina and he always came through, maybe not right in the moment, but he let me experience just enough in just the right amount to teach me whatever life lesson I needed to learn. There have been amazing and wonderful stretches and I grateful for both. With this small glimpse into my wilderness season, I share it with you to let you know that God has placed in my life women who are going through similar wilderness seasons and has allowed me to hopefully in some small way show them "light" in their darkness.

Sharing this weekend with my mom was such a blessing and meant so much to me. I appreciate my mom so much more now that I am a mom, but have a better understanding what kind of seasons she must have endured with me....mom, I am sorry:) She did always tell me that one day I would understand and experience the tremendous love you have for your children and she was right!! Imagine that?

The rest of the weekend was equally as amazing, filled with uplifting worship from Travis Cottrell and his worship team as well as messages from both Kay Arthur and Beth Moore. I am in awe of the passion these women have for our Lord and pray that I will continue to grow spiritually and be able to have just an inkling of what these women possess (spiritually). I highly recommend attending one of their conferences if at all possible.

All in all, I believe I was placed right there in that huge auditorium for a reason along with all of the other women and would ask you, "are you listening to what God is teaching you in your wilderness?"

Milestones and More...

I just realized this morning as I was driving Sam to Summer Camp (one day a week from 9-1, more on that in a minute) that there has been a whole lot of "milestones" being met in the DeFoor house these last few weeks. It has all happened at once and blew by me like a tornado and I haven't had much time to digest it...but here goes an attempt at covering all our goings on.

1. Kate is showing off all 12 of her teeth...that's right we have been cutting all 4 molars at once and when I say all at once I am not exaggerating. It was like she woke up with them one morning or something. She is also chewing food like a champ. She had her first bites of chicken recently and LOVED IT!!

2. Kate has also been learning to "rough house" with daddy and big brother very well lately. As a matter of fact, she is often the instigator. She is for sure going to be our more adventurous child. She really has no fear and loves to go fast in just about anything. Kind of scary.

3. Sam is off to "Bible School" as he affectionately calls it. It is a summer camp program at one of the local churches one day a week from 9am-1. Let me just tell you what a BIG deal this was for ME....I almost lost it last week when I dropped him off. He did EXCELLENT and I of course had a pit in my stomach the size of Texas until I went to pick him up at 1pm. This is his first time away at any kind of "mother's morning out" or anything other than Sunday nursery. He is growing up so much and I am not sure I am ready for that. He was so proud of himself and the smile on his face when he talked about the experience was priceless and precious.

4. Ok...are you ready for this one...Sam is now in a Big Boy Bed!!! This one has left our entire family speechless. We have been talking and quite honestly fretting a little over this transition. Sam is very independent and loves to challenge us ALOT, so I was very nervous opf him getting out of the bed. He was doing fine in his crib, but I kind of felt like making the switch, so Idid just that and put him in there for nap one day and it was a MIRACLE. He laid down (which he never did in the crib) and let me cover him up (never happened before) and went straight to sleep like he has been doing it all along. It was almost as if he were at peace in a bed and finally could rest. He has been doing beautifully and calling us in the morning with the sweetest "Mama, Daddy, Up Please." you have ever heard. We are bursting with excitement for how well he has done. Yay Sam!! He is also staying up a little later (thanks to Julie for some advice) and waking at 7:30, where as before we were putting him to bed at 7pm and he was wide awake and ready to go at 6am...not a fun time to wake up at the DeFoor house:(

5. This past weekend, Sam got to "vacation" with us to Charleston without Kate. We thought it was going to be a nice chance for us to hang out with him and go to the beach and relax. Well, it didn't turn out that way and I want rehash the trip, because in short we came home early and were glad to be back...enough said, BUT in light of our not so fun trip we did have one snip it to share...Sam got to play in the fountain off East Bay Street downtown and had a blast. Here is some footage of the fun.

6. Sam has all 4 of his 4 year molars in now!! We weren't able to catch those beauties on film , but trust me they are there. Bless his little heart...because they have been a bear. His teeth take forever to come through and these have been especially fun:)

7. Kate has (for the most part) gotten over her fear of the nursery at church and lets mama stay in the service the entire time!! YAY!!

8. Kate is also creeping along on the furniture and has had a few "letting go" moments, which just lets me know that we will be walking soon! I am glad for this milestone, because it will be easier for the kids to play together. As of right now, Kate wants to keep up with Sam no matter where we are, the pavement & playground, and on all fours it makes for some scuffed up knees!

9. Sam had his first big time "Boo-Boo". In seconds, Sam grabbed the iron..OUCH!!! This was the last thing that happened in Charleston that sealed the deal on our early return. I know some of you are sayin "why was there an iron close enough for him to get to??" This is for sure OUR problem, but things happen people, so don't judge!!! We were out of our element on "vacation" and just got lax. He burned all five finger tip pads and the crease of his left hand. It was awful and he has blisters to show for it. After an hour or so of wailing, ice water and burn bandages, he settled down to sleep and the next morning we packed it up and came home!!

10. Rob and I have learned that even though our children our growing up every day and experiencing new things, that we LOVE being parents to TWO amazing children and that with God's neverending help and guidance we too will make it, even with a few bumps along the way!

Readers to the Rescue....

Hi all!! We are getting ready to revamp our blog page and we need some creative help! We are trying to think of a catchy and creative Blog Header, instead of The DeFoor Family Blog (BORING!!)

We welcome all ideas, so please help us out in reinventing our blog! You can email me or just leave a comment! My email is loran@myfinancialfoundation.com

thanks,
loran

All Before 8am...

Be Sure to Turn off the RealPlayer Music by pressing Pause before watching.

This morning we were laughing so hard watching Kate attempt to stroll Sam through the house in the baby stroller. She did great until she hit the hardwoods. It was a bit too slick to keep traction. We love watching them play and especially early in the morning:)

Where have we been??

It hasn't been quite a month since my last post, but almost...I don't think I have ever fallen off the blogging wagon this long before, but we have been busy!! I think the onset of summer has been keeping us busy along with a trip to DC and a few other happenings, but we're back at least until the next lag. Anyway, I am just going to post a few "catch you up" photos to get started again. Thanks to all our faithful readers for staying true and checking up on us again.

Our friend Boone turned 2 recently and we were guests at his choo-choo train party!! You can tell in this picture that Rob is aboard "George" the train with the kids and in the midst of saying "ALL ABOARD!!" So precious...what a great daddy.

Doesn't Sam look like an angel here sporting his red conductor bandana?

Here is shot of Kate & Madison (one of our best friends in Baltimore, MD)

Our Independent Kate on her first plane ride to Washington DC and Baltimore. Thank goodness for a not full flight...she got her own seat! She was a real champ!

Love those Cheeks!
Here are the 6 girls gathered for the ONE photo we got on the last day!
It's amazing how busy you can get with a
4 year old, 2 1/2 year old, 1 year old & 4 week old all under one roof!
This is my best friend who lives in Alexandria, VA.
She is a terrific mom with three beautiful girls.
We miss them terribly and wish we lived closer!

Kate and Bebe (Rob's mom) on the pontoon at the lake for Memorial Day! We had so much fun hanging with family and relaxing, even though both kids had the craziest summer cold ever!!

Sam found a hiding place in the cooler on the pontoon!

He was quite proud of this discovery!

The four of us soaking in the sunshine!!

Sam driving Kate's boat in the baby pool!

He doesn't look thrilled here, but he was actually having a lot of fun!

So, those of you still with me, We wish you all a wonderful June! It may be HOT, but be sure that when January is here I will be praying for Summer again. I love summer!!