Wow...that's about all I can say to title this post

I hadn't realized that I've not written anything on here since Sept. 10th! A lot has been going on around here in the past few weeks, mostly all pertaining to Nathan's job situation...here we go! :)

Nathan was offered the job in Laurel, Mississippi a couple weeks ago. He has accepted it and is supposed to start on Oct. 13th with trainings. It is a good offer and we were looking forward to being 10 hours closer to our family! Although at the same time we were really heartbroken to leave our friends and church family here. We just wanted God's will in the situation most of all. And at this time, we felt this is what he wanted us to do.

So we started the process of getting our house ready to put on the market. Since 2005, when we moved here and bought our house, the value of our home has decreased by an astronomical amount. You wouldn't believe it if I told you what it appraised for then and what it will sell for now. It's truly mind boggling! We had two different realtors come to visit us last week and both had about the same news for us..."It's not good!" So Nathan spoke with our mortgage holder to discuss with them our options when we sell...also NOT GOOD! They basically told him that he'd have to quit paying his mortgage payment and let the house go into foreclosure or do something similar which also affects your credit and is not good but isn't quite as bad on your history as a foreclosure. So needless to say, we've been just a little stressed about this but at the same time, we've been trusting God that He will work it out for us. We know that He sent this job opportunity to Nathan for a reason and so we were just putting our faith in Him to work out all these other seemingly hopeless details. We've been literally on our knees for a week straight asking Him to help us out with this situation!

"Ask and ye shall receive..."

So far, this catches you up to this past Tuesday. On Tuesday night about 8:00 Nathan got a call from the president of another company with another job offer. Ironically, it's the same company that just laid him off! Dumbfounded? Us too! Brunswick owns Mercury, the engine company that Nathan used to work for but they also own a boat company too that sells boats. The man he spoke with is the president of the boat side of the company. Anyway, he offered Nathan a job, same salary and benefits that he had before and his territory that he would cover is here in Florida. We wouldn't have to sell our house and move.

So we've been asking ourselves and God, is this how He is answering our prayers? By sending Nathan another opportunity that lets us stay in our house longer? -or is it to give Nathan peace about letting the MS people know what's going on with our house and possibly offer options to help in some way. (He now knows that he has another job option if they can't offer him any options...he knows that now he doesn't HAVE to take their job and move so it gives him a little leverage in the situation.)

So, the first thing he did on Wednesday morning was to call the "Brunswick" man back and ask that the offer be sent to him in writing before he calls and tells the MS people anything. They had the offer emailed to him to sign by that afternoon. He called and spoke with the MS people and told them the situation with selling our house. He was worried about calling them and about what they might say. We prayed that they would be understanding about it all. They were very nice about it and told him that they would never ask him to sell his house and move under those conditions. They told him they wanted to talk about it and see what they could come up with for him. Just the answer we were hoping for. Now, he is just waiting to hear back from them to see what they might offer him. We are still praying that God will continue to work in the situation but more than that we are praising Him and thanking Him for what he has done with everything already.

As of right now, we pretty much have our minds made up on staying here and Nathan taking the Brunswick job. Even though job security is much greater with the other company and even though it's a possibility that we may be in this same situation a year from now (no job), considering the economy and it's a recreational industry, at least it will give us time to work on getting out from under this house and hopefully the market will rebound somewhat as well or the government will get something in place to help people out in this situation. But we're still waiting to hear back from MS and we're not closed to that possibility yet.

No matter what happens, we know that God is good and he "works all things to the good of those that love him." We just have to keep praying, believing Him and watching what He does for us. It has been amazing to see Him work over the past few weeks! And how perfect His timing has been...not always what we think is perfect while we're in the middle of it but after coming through it we can fully appreciate it. So that's what is going on with all of that!

Another blessing...on Monday I had my (now weekly) doctor's appointment. Emma went with me. It was an "exam" day (Ugh!!!) so I was a little concerned about what she would do or say since she had to be in the room with me. Luckily, my doctor was talented enough to carry on a complete conversation with her the whole time he was "examining" and I don't think she ever knew what was going on. Or at least she didn't mention it to me. Now, there's no telling what her preschool teachers heard the next day, but as long as I don't know about it, I can still greet them with my dignity in tact. Ignorance is bliss sometimes.

While in the doctor's office I told him that I had noticed a significant decrease in the baby's movement the day before and that morning. I had hardly felt her move at all on Sunday. He hooked me to a fetal heart & movement monitor and after 20 minutes he came to check the read out and he said that her heart rate and movement were pretty "flat" (there weren't enough "peaks" on the graph, it was just a straight line) and that he wanted to check it again and if it was not better, he was sending me to the hospital.

Emma in the mean time is letting everyone know that she is "Weady to go home! Wite now, Mama! Take dat sting off of you and wets go home!" All the while laying half way out of her chair and turning her body upside down and around again. I am laying there trying to quiet her down, all the while praying that everything was okay with Addison and planning out in my head what I was going to do with Emma if he did send me to the hospital.

He came to check to print out again and there were more "peaks" on the graph. He said she must have "woken up" now but for me to keep a close eye on it and if she stops moving again, to come back in as soon as I notice it. She seems to be doing better and is moving a little more now. Please say a prayer for her too that she is okay and growing and developing normally.

Whew...you thought you were clicking on here to read some humorous, witty comments about the Holland household! Instead you were bombarded with some heavy "junk"!! ;-) Well, here's something to lighten the mood a little before you go...

Tonight the girls were supposed to be cleaning their room up before they went to bed. You've heard me speak before about Emma's aversion to cleaning up...she's still afflicted! And now, when she and Taylor have to clean up something together, it wears on Taylor's nerves and she starts to act up and whine. By the time they finished, I was yelling and not pleasant at all...to say the least. I had HAD IT with both of them by this point and I can't even remember everything that I swore to take away from them for giving me such a hard time tonight. The last thing I took away was them getting to go to a movie tomorrow night-something they've been looking forward to all week. I told them they'd have to "EARN IT BACK!!" So, I am tucking Emma in her bed, not so gently, kissing her goodnight with a snarl still on my face, and she smiles at me and in a soft sweet voice says "Mama, you ahh so sweet and so nice. I tink you ahh bein so nice tonight." ha! It took all that I had to keep the snarl on my face until I could get out of their room and laugh.

When I've had a night like tonight, I always look forward to going into their room later after they're asleep and pulling the covers up around them and giving them another kiss before going to bed. Sometimes they're so much sweeter when they're sleeping...and quiet...and still...and not whining, not defying...just lying there off in dreamland. It fills my "love tank" back up and I can go to bed peacefully and then get up and do it all again tomorrow.