I haven't updated much on our move and house search, I know. Part of it has been due to the illnesses and craziness that comes with that. But a bigger part is due to the uncertainty of it all. I started composing a post about our nbew house, but never finished it. Now I am glad I didn't. We had a house we loved, and through a series of events and much prayer, we put a purchase on what I have called My Dream House for the past 5 yrs! What's not to be excited about right!??? Well, I did talk about it and dream about the spaces, ect, but I always felt inwardly that I needed to gaurd my heart until all the paperwork was finished and we closed on the set date of Dec 1st. I couldn't imagine that anything would go worng. I mean, it seemed that God was lining everything up and this was the house He has set apart for us. So, what's to worry about? This past Tues we had the inspection and decided to do a Radon test, much to our realtors dismay (which we thought was weird). We recieved the results, which at first seemed great. But, then, that's when we got the worst news we could have ever recieved. The radon test. The radon levels are 20 times the legal limit!!! This is big, I mean, HUGE!! This is not like a leaky pipe or an electrical outlet that needs to be fixed or even a crack in the tile flooring. We are talking about the long term health of our children and our family! Come-on, I don't even let the children drink milk due to the hormones and antibiotics, you think I will allow them to be in a house that needs 4 (yes, you read that right, 4) mitigation systems!? Right, NO!!! I mean, this is cancer causing stuff! Being radioactive is not one of those things that you want to brag about these days. So, as you can imagine, we decided not to go through with the purchase of the house. Three weeks before we are due to fly out, we have no house. I am okay with it, really. At first I was really upset, not about losing my house, but about the uncertainty of it all. Where will we go, do we buy or build, having to rent and move again in 6-9 mo. etc. But, I talked it out with Steve and my dad extensively and prayed alot and am doing much better now. Steve left for the states this morning. He will see a few building sites and a house that's in the final stages of building. Hopefully we will have a better idea of what God has for us. The best news is God is still in control!!

Transitions

As most of you know, we are moving back to the U.S.! The news came quite gradually, over the month of August, now confirmed, with a departure date around the first week of December. I am beyond thrilled to be going home, to my family, my friends, my native climate, to be there for Christmas. I feel as if my body has been in a dormant state living here, in this hot, humid climate, for 4 yrs without a break. Yes, there are things I will miss, but for now I am focusing on the things to come. This will get me through a transition period, which everyone knows is always difficult. Whenever I hear the word "transition" I automatically think of labor (mom, are you proud or what?!) Having had 4 children completely natural with no drug intervention, transition was a word both glorious and terrifying to hear! This meant that it was almsot over, but, the worst is yet to come. It is still an uphill battle, but the end is in sight. So many details to be decided, things to be sorted, friends to spend time with, children to reassure that this will be great despite the sadness of saying goodbye. We still don't know where we will live, and I think this is the single hardest thing at the moment. Ask me in a few weeks when we are living in the midst of boxes and not sleeping due to our minds racing and the insecurities of Caitlyn because of all the change, and saying goodbye to the friends I have also called family for the past 4 years. But, for now, I am really struggling with not knowing where "home" will be next. I want to invision the spaces and how I will set them up. What things I can give away here and what I must keep. Where I will homeschool the boys and how the room will look, and how I will set things up for Caitlyn during school hours. How I will decorate the spaces I was blessed with, the colors and decor, the furniture in which places. I am a Home Maker, and right now, I dont have a home to make. The decision will come soon enough, but it doesn't feel that way right now. Each day that passes Steve and I talk over the same spaces of the same 4 houses I chose 2 weeks ago, trying to decide which one is right for our family. May God guide us to the place He has for us in this next season! I need to choose to dwell in His peace and grace that His timing is perfect, and not my own. I guess I ended up focusing more on the difficult things rather than the things to come this time. My next post will be filled with anticipation of our new home and what life will look like back in our home town! The sights, the smells, the seasons, I can't wait!

Change

I decided, as I have exactly twice in my life, to change my hair. I still cannot figure out what possess me to do this, I love long hair! It seems as if when change is imminent, I need to control this change and do something drastic. ??? I did this when Ethan was born and again now. ??? I don't know either.

The cool thing is I actually like it this time! Yeah! Here's me and Cate this morning modeling my new haircut.

My Nature Lovers

Julie has taken to showing Catilyn and Aaron, my nature lovers, any bug or insect she can find. Yesterday, she found this HUGE caterpiller! Does anyone know what kind this is? I have never seen one so huge before.

Ryan has also been deiscovering frogs in the most piculiar of places, his sneakers! Twice now he has tried to put his shoes on before school only to find it previously occupied by a frog! He is not quite so excited by this as Aaron is. Needless to say, he keeps his shoes inside now.

Ethan and Megan, best buds

Happy Birthday Aaron!!!

August 30th, 2000, God blesses us with another son, Aaron Michael Wilson . I can't believe my little man is getting so big! He really wanted a party this year, so we decided he could have 8 friends. Well, it ended up being more like 13 children not including our boys! Ohmigoodness! But, it's okay, we planned an outdoor party. Well, it had been raining all week, and we just kept praying that Saturday would be nice and sunny, cause God knows I would not make it with that many children in our house. Awesome, Saturday morning greeted us with beautiful sunshine and hot weather, perfect for a soccer and swim party. Wel, around 3pm, the clouds rolled in, to stay. I was getting a bit nervous, but Steve assured me, repeatedly, that it would be ok, he had it under control. My husband is awesome! It rained for the whole party, and he occupied them with games galore! At 5:30, even though it was still sprinkling, we sent them all out to eat Aaron's choice of KFC for dinner followed by cake. They finally got to swim after that. The party was suppossed to end at 6:30, but most of them stayed until 7:30!

All in all, Aaron has a great time, and that's what is most important.

Happy Birthday my son!

Camelot Olympics 08

We all know how Steve loves to come up with games, he is so great at it! Well, what started out as family fitness night, turned into a full Olymic event. Each evening we have anywhere from 2-6 boys knocking on our door wondering if the Olymopics is on!

They start out warming up, and then move to sprints and swimming, and they all beg to do shotput. On the days they are not doing individual sports, they are having soccer matches.

I am so blessed that the boys have so much fun with thier dad!

Bobby and Tyler are some other friends from Camelot the boys often hang out with, they are 4 1/2 and 6. Mark, thier father went to school with Steve for the MBA.

Two Peas in a Pod

This is Aaron, and Erin. Erin's family just moved into Camelot last week, and these 2 have hit it off incredibly. Unfortunately, they are of the same personality, so you never know what they will get into, or come up with! Erin loves nature and bugs and animals, just like Aaron does, he is so excited to share this with someone. They are inseperable most days.

Erin has 2 brothers, Elliot, who is Ethan's age and Ilan, who is Ryans age. All 6 of them play quite well together.

First day of school

School is here once again. They donned thier uniforms, got thier backpacks ready with thier list of school supplies, packed thier lunches and off they went. It was so easy this yr to get everyone inot routine, what a blessing.

The banner they have hanging on the school is based on 2 John 1:1-6. This is there school theme! What a blessing we have in the ability to teach our children God's Word, at school, in S.E. Asia! God is so good.

Cate and I have missed them throughout the day, but we are relishing the quiet time we have together, for they are now numbered!

I didn't even get teary at seeing the little ones (mostly Ethan) going off to school. That is, until I took him to the bus when Steve had to go in to work early one morning. Seeing Ethan board the bus, blow kisses out the window and waving feverishly at me for fear I might miss him, it broke my heart! It was so precious to see, these days are gone in an instant, may it serve as a reminder that I need to cherish each moment I have with my precious children and never to take advantage of the time we have.

Underwater World

While John and Jake were here we took them to Sentosa Island and visited the aquarium. It's pretty cool there's a "touch tank" where you can litterally touch the stingrays and other fish. Aaron, as you can inagine, is loving this! After the aquarium, we headed to the Dolphin Lagoon for a dolphin show.

P.S. John, I am working on getting your pics on the cd and out to you, really I am! Sorry, I have been a bit distracted lately, can you blame me?

Daddy's little girl

He came, He saw, He conquered

SINGAPORE 360

Jacob was super excited to see a knee boearding place to try on his visit to S.E. Asia, so each morning we assessed the days possible activities along with the weather, trying to determine the best day to go. Alas, the day finally came and he was so excited, although Jake is somewhat reserved in nature so it's kindof hard to tell what eh's thinking. ;-)

He watched pensively for a while and decided to take the plunge. Literally. The boys were so proud of thier cousin being able to do such a cool thing, and all wanted to try. You only have to be 7, so the bargaining began, on how and when we should come back so they could give it a try. Ethan was fine with not being old enough, he's a bit more cautious than the older two.

After many attempts and observing others, Jake made it the whole 360 degrees!

Way To Go Jake!

Okay, so if she weren't biting her fingernails, this would be a great shot! I guess it's a mom thing, I love all the pics of Cate!

Special Time with Uncle John

Steve's brother John and his son Jacob have come to Singapore to visit. We love having family here, showing them life in Singapore is so fun! The boys just love having an Uncle to do all sorts of fun stuff with, they especially love snuggling down for a good book, or even "2o winks", which is the Wilson word for a NAP!

Cate tries to play twister

3 Things

There are 3 things in life I have always proclaimed as being aweful. 1.Mornings 2.Running 3.Cockroaches I can't believe I am saying this, but I actually prefer to get up early in the morning now. My health is better than it has been in 15yrs or more, I sleep wonderfully and wake without pain! I actually have so much more time in the day to accomplish things, and taking a midafternoon nap is still okay because I have already been awake for so long! Now, Cate has been up since 4am the last 2 days due to good ol' jetlag, but I think this is a bit excessive. The sun won't rise for another 3 hrs. I now view being greeted by the morning sun as a pleasant way to rise! And running. Slow torturue I would call it. There was no worse way to "exercise", between being totally out of breathe, killing my knees and hips, and not to mention it's incredibly boring. Again, I can't believe I am saying this, but, I am running now! No big distances yet, but I am running about 2 miles every other day, or at last that's my goal now that we are back home. I would like to join a 10k race in the end of August, but we shall see. Oh, Cockroaches. Well, I still think they are among the most grotesque things on earth! We have encountered 2 very large ones since being home. I am normally quite against chemicals such as insect sprays and the like, but for cockroaches, I must do whatever necassary to get them out of my house!

Two Peas in a Pod