Update

So life lately has been pretty crazy, but with a lot of blessings in the midst of the storm. On December 9th Steven was laid off his job. Very, very unexpected. He was doing really well and was making a profit for NAPA but they decided to make some unexpected changes. Steven has been working as the stay at home dad for the past month and a half. He has been doing great. Our girls are happy and clean, fed, etc. The house may not be as clean as what I want it to be, but that is part of my learning also. I have been able to pick up more hours at work which has been a huge blessing. Very hard, but a large blessing. Steven has been aviding looking for a job while watching the girls full time. He will be starting with another NAPA manager job on Feb 7th but will continue to look for another job that will point him in the direction he is looking for. More money number one, number two something that is HR/Marketing/Management oriented. We will continue praying and hoping that something will come up, but we are grateful that this NAPA job has come up with another owner.

We had a wonderful Christmas. It was very different this year. I was very glad that I got 99% of the shopping done before Steven was laid off. The way that we looked at the gifts, we were so grateful for what we had. Presents all of a sudden didn't mean so much as what the true meaning of Christmas meant. It was great. This was Kenzie's first year to really understand what was going on with Santa and all. I was talking to her one day and talking to her about how Santa is here to remind us of Jesus' birth. That Jesus wants us to get presents instead of him for His birthday so that is what Santa does. She then began to state that Santa and Jesus live in Heaven and then Jesus and Santa live at the North Pole. She couldn't get that they live in different places. It was pretty funny. Also we had "elf" here in our house who did silly things each morning like hide somewhere. Kenzie would come down the stairs each morning asking where "Buddy" was. Each night he would fly to the North Pole to let Santa know how well Kenzie and Aubree were behaving. It really worked and helped us out a lot with helping her to be good. It was a lot of fun have Buddy the Elf in our house for a month.
During the month of December we received so many gifts/money/support I can't even believe how much we were blessed and continue to be blessed. We received several anymous gift cards on our door step. They have helped so much and I am so grateful for people's sacrifice to help us make it through these last few months. One great thing that we have learned during this trial has been how much more we want to give when we are able to. Now having been the receiver it has been really hard to except it even though I am very gratefu, it has been humbling and hard to accept. We have received so much emotional support from friends and family. The little hugs, encouraging words, and thoughtful cards have meant a lot to us and have helped out a lot. We love you all soo much and appreciate you.