Short Little Updates

Some of you have been asking how things are going with the house and the girls, so I thought I'd let everyone know:

Hannah & Kate-their bowel issues are all cleared up. In fact they cleared up so well that we are now back to having our normal bowel issues with Kate. I took her off the Miralax while she was sick but I put her back on it and hopefully it should clear up her problem. She does have a bit of a runny nose. Not sure if it's allergies or a cold though. One of the reasons I know they are feeling much better is because they are back to eating really well. Hannah scarfs down almost anything put in front of her and Kate ate lunch twice yesterday.

George-he's doing good. He's still dealing with some back pain, but at least has some pain pills for that. We went out to the Greenfest at UT this past weekend with my parents and sister and had a great time. Ever since George started his lawn care business, he has become increasingly interested in plants and trees. I made a deal with him that he can landscape the outside of the house however he wanted if I can decorate the inside of the house however I want.

Lauren-I have good days and bad days. It kind of depends on how busy I keep myself. Don't really want to get into too much more.

The House-Thank you for continuing to pray. We actually came up a little bit on the price, which we thought was fair. Once that was communicated, we found out that there was at least one other "off the books offer" that is higher than ours, but also involved concessions (asking the seller to pay closing costs). There is also a 2nd showing of the house today to another person and they are waiting to see what comes from that. Our frustration with all of this is that we thought with offering a higher price we'd finally be able to move forward, but we're still waiting. It seems like things get within our reach, but then snatched away. We're both disappointed, but trying to remind each other that we are putting our hope in GOD and not some house.

I guess that's it for now!

An Update-Kind of

We got a call from our realtor saying that he received a call from the seller's realtor and she would probably come down $6500. It was not an official counteroffer or anything. Her realtor is keeping in constant contact with our realtor, so I guess that is a good sign. Just $3500 more.

I really appreciate those of you who left encouraging comments & those who didn't but are still praying. We love you guys!

Homesick

This is one of those posts where I'm going to get down and dirty with you. I'll tell you what's been on my heart lately & there's a lot. If you could describe me in one word right now, it would be homesick. Do I have a house to live in? Yes. Do I feel like it's home? No. Am I grateful beyond words that my parents would welcome the Lantz circus into their home? Yes! One of the reasons that I failed to post anything for about a week was because of the funk that I was in. I was really struggling last week and still find myself struggling this week, but not as much. Have you ever gone on a vacation for longer than a week? Usually by the end of that week, you are itching to get home. That's how I feel, just on a more amplified level. My parents' house is not supposed to be our permanant living space. You are supposed to go over to visit the grandparents and then go back home. We're not supposed to share a room with our girls. (We do sleep in different rooms. Their cribs for naptime are in our room and their pack n' plays are in the next room for nighttime sleep.) I want to go home.

George and I looked at houses yesterday and before we even started I just felt so tired. We both commented yesterday about how tired of this process we are. The house that we still really want is available. The seller has come down $10,000 in price from the asking price of when we put in an offer. However, we need her to come down at least another $10,000. She had an open house with no luck. She's even advertised that she can close in 30 days! This would be perfect. It just seems so far out of reach though. Every house seems to these days. Can you tell that I'm a little discouraged at this point? We've been at this for about 5 months now. It's emotionally draining.

Bear with me as I continue on in my pity party. As I was putting the girls into their cribs for a nap today, I just started crying. Hannah was reaching for her crib because she was tired and all I could think was, "I'm sorry honey. I wish so badly that you could sleep every sleep in your crib." I want our furniture back. I want our privacy back. I don't mean privacy from my parents. I mean from the girls. My parents are wonderful! If they weren't, we wouldn't be staying here. Last week, I had a two hour sobfest. I thought once I had that out of my system that I would be okay, but I'm still struggling.

I'm the type of person that needs stability. I need organization. Not only do I feel like all of our stuff is disorganized, but that I'm living in a constant state of disorganization. Not a good feeling for a neat freak. It's overwhelming.

I know that many of you have been praying for us to find a house. Those prayers are so appreciated! Can I ask you to pray for something very specific? Can you pray that God would move the heart and mind of the seller of the house to come down $10,000? I'm asking for that specific amount because when God answers it (in whatever way he sees fit to), we will clearly know what God's answer was.

I appreciate you bearing through my honesty. A lot of times people comment on the fact that they don't know how I do it everyday with twins. I think that sometimes people think that I have it more together than I really do. This last couple of weeks though, I've just been barely scraping by it seems. So if my honesty makes you feel a little bit better about your own disorganized life, then mission accomplished. I don't want to pretend to be someone I'm not.

Thank God that He is a constant rock and a firm foundation throughout trials. I can stand firmly on His faithfulness because He has delivered us before and He will deliver us again!

Calling All Prayer Warriors

I believe that I have some of the best prayer warriors out there. My girls are shining examples of that. However, this time I'm not here to ask for prayer for our family. I have two people that I'd like you to pray for, even if it's just a quick simple prayer.

Olivia Cooper-this is a precious little girl that was born premature and small, like Hannah and Kate. The amazing thing is that I have never met this family, but connected with her mom through the twins website that I am a part of. She is a sweet sister in Christ and has two beautiful little growing girls. Olivia was born with some heart problems and is facing a possible open heart surgery or a heart cath. Her mom gives a little more detail on their blog. It's just to the right.

Baby Simon-this is a precious little preemie boy in Brandon's NICU. He received one of our gift bags this month. I don't know much about him other than he was born 1 lb. 15 oz. and at 28 weeks. I am thrilled beyond words to be able to pray for this little boy & his family by name.

Would you please join me in praying for these families facing difficult challenges for their children? THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart!

California-The Sequel

If you remember, our trip to California last August was a lot of fun...minus one very obvious aspect. Hannah and Kate had some bowel issues. I mean exploding bowel issues. Well, it's back. I was so proud of us for being at church for the 3rd or 4th week in a row. I guess I shouldn't have gotten ahead of myself. They haven't been eating well the last week or so but I just attributed it to being a picky toddler. Let's hope this passes soon though. I don't know if I can put up with this for a month like we did last time. The only way it got better was by antibiotics, which the doctors seemed to just think was a fluke anyway.

Despite being overloaded with...well, I'll spare you the details, the girls have a new favorite thing to do. They love to climb in the stroller and just sit there. Kate screams if I try to unstrap her and get her out. She also LOVES the slide at the park. She goes up the stairs and down the slide...the BIG slide. Hannah LOVES to explore at the park. They are one in the same, yet very different. This makes it a little difficult for me to supervise them, but I do the best I can, even if I do get some "whose child is that wandering out the gate" looks. George has the rest of the week off and we plan on doing some house hunting tomorrow. He also cannot wait to take them to the park. He hates that he has yet to see them go down the slide.

Watching Mommy make dinner

Maybe this is how she got sick