Settling In

So we've started our new chapter in our lives. It seems to be going great. We went from 10 children down to only 6. I know you are thinking, ONLY 6, ARE YOU NUTS!!! Yes we are, but it's a good nuts. We are back home and close to family and friends.

My new job is in the developmental stages at this point, but it's keeping me busy. The children started their new school and seem to be enjoying it. Noah started Kindergarten and is doing awesome. I thought it would be harder than it was watching him leave. I was home with him for the last 2 1/2 years and so I felt very close to him. We made it!

Christie goes back to school next week and she is crazy nervous. I know she'll do great. I'm soooooooo proud of her!!!! If she gets these classes under her belt she will be eligible to attend a 14 month nursing program through the U of A in June. The best part of it is, it will all be FREE. All she owes is two to three years of servitude when she graduates, but she would need a job after graduated anyway right. Till we meet again . . .

Heard this today

I heard this today and it struck me. Satin may not be able to make you bad, but he sure can make you busy. In this day in age we are a microwave society, I want it now. With all that free time, wink, wink, we fill it. If we don't make time for God, like quiet time, or prayer time, we are going to fill it with something else.

The Move

We are officially official. The move has happened and boy are we tired. We decided to make our first day in our house a complete work day. That hurt! We couldn't get to half our rooms, so it was necessary. Today is our fun day! Outings and having a good time with the children.

We arrived Sunday night, later then we had planned, but our friends showed amazing support. Even people that could not be there in person, had written amazing comments and we there in spirit. THANK YOU ALL.

Happy Anniversary

I have been married to the most incredible woman for 10 YEARS!!! Today is our anniversary. Our anniversary is not going how we had planned, but that is life. We are moving, taking in 2 more children, starting new jobs, etc... We imagined renewing our vows at a ceremony in the park and have a BBQ after. Small, quaint, FUN!!! Our first wedding was a production, not what we wanted, but it was beautiful. I've been married a decade. WOW!!! Here's to 50 more.

Breaks your heart

The children that we are leaving behind are bummed. They have made posters that say that they are on strike, make our background on our computer say please don't leave, we'll miss you, we love you, etc... Last night 2 of our older girls stayed awake till 3 in the morning cleaning the house for us, because we are working hard to make it dirty with trash and boxes. Part of the moving process. We are going to miss these ladies! I knew that saying goodbye would be hard, but they are not making any better.

New Counter

Check out the new counter.->
Got it from the agent. Thanks man.

Shock and Awwwww Baby

So Christie and I have decided to embark on this insane adventure, but now we are dragging 4 children along with us. I hope they know what they are getting into. In order to pull this off, I needed to get a job outside our current position and start about the same time as we leave. So I apply with an organization in Tucson and I don't hear back. I'm felling a bit down and to make things worse I get a letter from them in the mail declining the need of my services. But the good news is that the wished me luck in my career search. What an insult. Just say we didn't pick you, so now your sad and have to start looking again, sorry bout that.

That night I maybe sleep 3 hours wondering what to do now, we only have 2 weeks till kick off and I still have no income. The following morning I get an e-mail from my current administration asking if I got the job, because they want me to start a new program with them. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!!! At what point in time am I going to stop doubting God and realize that he has a bigger plan.

Back in the saddle again!!!!

So it's been a while. A lot has happened and I have even been publicly admonished and even removed by others, but a great relief has been removed from my shoulders. My wife and I have decided to adopt 4 children that we have had in our care for over 2 1/2 years. We made this decision back in January, but could not tell the children till last weekend. What a difficult time. The children were shocked at first. It took them about 10 minutes to realize what was going to be happening. Then the questions were flying. It was great!

We are scheduled to leave our current house parenting role on the 3rd of Aug. This is a great loss, because of the children we are leaving behind. There are 4 children that we have grown very attached to and will have to say goodbye to. It is a loss financially as well. Another blog entirely. I say thank you to all that prayed and all that stayed.

These Guys Are Not In Collage Anymore !!!

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This Is A Real Sport

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Day 2 was a bit more busy than the day before, but for a theme park, it was dead. The weather continued to be amazing. The children saw the water rides on day one and were so bummed that we would not let them on. Day 2 we were ready, bring on the water rides. We packed a change of clothes for everyone. These were some wet kiddo's. They had a great time.

The Tiger show was fun. There is a section of the audience that the fence is labeled, caution you may get wet. Well, some of our girls were sitting in that section because you are right up next to the tigers. When the announcer came out he made it known that the section labeled caution wet is not for water. Tigers are very territorial and like to spray, hint, hint. On that note, my girls got up and ran. I was wondering how often that really happens. Sure enough, the white tiger strolls on out and lifts his tail and, grooooossssss. He did it like three times. It was nasty. I learned that the the tigers think whole milk is like ice cream to us. That is how they get them to do some tricks. I also learned that it takes about 2 years before a trainer can work one on one with a tiger. It takes that long to build the trust up. In the mean time the prospective trainer must work indirectly with the tiger. This is not the case if the tiger is a cub. That is a long time to decide if you trust someone.

Rides, rides and more rides. This is the end of day 2 and we are still not done seeing all the park. It was awesome.

Day one, Monday, has arrived. The park did not open till 10 and we had an hour drive from hotel to park, so we had a great leisurely morning. The car ride in was easy compared to the day before.

We arrived at the park and found the parking lot to be empty. We were concerned. come to find out it was just a slow morning. LOVE IT!!! We started off by doing the photo shoots, you know pose with this character, sit by , this fountain, etc... We decided to see a show first and went to the dolphin exhibit, the show was not for 45 min, so I took the older children with me and went on some rides. The first one was called Medusa. It was fast. They worn you to take all loose articles off, so I left my hat, some girls took off their sandals, the usual. As we are going up, and up, and up, I think this is sweet. We do the first drop and my glasses start to come off! We are flying, I think, this is crazy fast! So for the rest of this ride I've got my hand over my face to keep $400 attached to my face. That ride sucked, cause I couldn't see and my hand keep hitting me in the face.

Off to the dolphin show. This picture was taken by, Joleen. She is 9 and I told Christie, why aren't you or I taking these pictures? She said let her try. this is what we got. Way to go Jo!!! The older children were not excited at all about the show until it started. About half way through I look over and they are smiling, laughing, having a great time. It was awesome.

The entire day was about 70 degrees and all the rides were ones that we could walk right on to. We Had a great day!

We have delayed the inevitable for as long as we can. Like I said on day one, it would have taken about 20 hours from Tucson, To final destination. Well there is nothing to do between Vegas and San Fransisco, so the 9 hour drive on paper, begins.

We left Vegas on an overcast drizzly morning after doing all the hotels at about 11, and the first picture is of the mountains that are around Vegas. Picture number 2 is about an hour out of Vegas in CA. and we started to get snow. It was great watching the rain change to snow as we were driving. It was a great way to start out this long trip.

The children were great. We did the stop every 2 hours and rationed the water till about 20 min prior to pit stop. Great idea wife! As we were driving, we were not taking the I-10 so we used a lot of hwys and stuff. We were able to see a lot of the smaller towns. For people in Tucson, that green stuff grows on its own, and the cows in northern CA. are huge and fat. Not like those Tucson cows that you want to call the animal cruelty line because they are eating the " foliage" around them. I'm sure mesquite tastes great, ONCE! not to live on. All skin and bones. It was a long drive, but worth it. It was a beautiful drive. green hills, animals every few miles, sheep, goats, cows, horses. I was impressed.

We rolled into the hotel/timeshare at about 9:30-10 at night, so it was an, assign beds, and get to sleep kinda thing. Tomorrow, the PARK!!!! YES!!!

Egypt was our next stop. No not really. Our next stop was in Vegas. We arrived there about 3 hours later then we had planned because they are doing construction at the Hover Dam. So when we arrived the children were able to see Vegas at night as you come over "that hill". The city was gorgeous.

We got to our hotel late and so we then tried to take the children to the strip. When we told people what we were doing they were appalled that we were taking children, let alone 10, to Vegas, but our thoughts were that it is a very visual stimulating town and people from Japan come to see it, so it is a great place to see.

We could not park our 15 passenger van and to valet it, that is expensive! so we called it a night and the children were able to see the strip a night, though it was through their window's. We decided to take the children Sunday early morning.

It worked. There were hardly any people on the strip or in the hotels. And the people that were there were getting a free show themselves. It's not very often that 10 children go walking through Vegas in one herd. The children were impressed. We had a great time.

Next stop Six Flags in Vallejo, CA.

So I made a challenge with a friend to try to keep up on the reading the bible in a year program, but I am here to confess that this is the second year I have tried to do this and have not been successful. There is a difference this year though. I am OK with admitting that I have failed this time. I am going to get back on the horse and start reading again. Is it going to be in the same format that I was reading before. No. I would like to read the stories and the lessons in their entirety this time and that is what I am going to do. Have a great night all, I have some reading to do.

This is day 0ne of the hart family vacation. I would discribe it as one of the best vacations I have ever been on. It was 9 days of excitement.

We started off going to flagstaff. Our final destination was 2 hours north of San Francisco, but that is a 17 hour drive without children. Once you throw tinkle trips into that, its a 23 hour venture, so we tried to brake it up a bit.

When we arrived at the Grand Canyon, the children were taken back by the beauty, but after walking the rim for about 15 min., the comments started comming of when are we going to leave. So after about an hour of walking around and taking some sweet pictures were back into the car.

Sharing Testamonies

I am reading Genisis 24 and Abrahm is not doing to well health wise and has asked his main servant " go to my country and my own relatives" to get a spouse for his son. Now the servant gets a bit worried and askes what if the woman that I find is unwilling to come with me. So at this point the servant is douting either his ability to convince a woman to follow him to another country or that the task is too great. I feel that the servant still wants to be obiedient, but needs to lay out all the options to Abrahm because he appernatly has overlooked the obvious. How often are we faced with a situation and say to God, either by words or by our actions, " now God, I know that you know what you are doing, but if I could offer a little advice or guidance that would be great." We are not douting God, but . . . I think we are douting God.



After reading Gen 24:1-5 let me know why you think the servant raised the issue about bringning the woman back.

Cold Days ? ? ?

I went to an event this morning with 4 of my children at their school. This event was donuts with dad day, where I go eat donuts with the children in their cafeteria. We had a great time. So about 10 minutes before the bell rang we were going to go to the playground. On our way the monitors, were telling the children to go into the hallway. I asked the monitor why this was and She said it was too cold for the children to be outside. WHAT!!! When I was in school, we were sliding on the grass that has ice on it, onto the frozen puddles and had a great time. What the heck is giong on. Who ever thought this idea up is not from anywhere it is cold. The low today was 34, that is not even freezing. This is a great idea, lets load the children up on donuts and juice then take them into the hallway, BRILLIANT!! So I drop them off in the hallway and am screaming at them to tell them good by. What a mess.

Super Duper Bowl

I admit that I didn't see this one coming. I thought the Patriots were going to wrought the Giants and I was going to be finding something else to do at half time. I was pleasently surprised and that was a GREAT game. We were all part of history either way. Patriots win, we see the best record in the NFL history. Giants win, we get to see the biggest upset in NFL history. What a great game.

Today's readings

My family and I went on our 5 week break this weekend, and I found myself without a computer. When I am with out a computer, I am with out a way to get my daily bible reading in. So with that said, I am successfully 24 days behind in my bible in a year goal. A friend and I are trying this, "reading a bible in a year thing", and she made the statement that I love. She said something to the effect of, " If I try to keep on track I am going to get behind and then get discouraged and give up, so I am just going to read and not get discouraged if I am behind." I LOVE IT. I am so far behind at this point and if I try to catch up I would be overwhelmed and not get out what I need. So I am going to just keep swimming and soaking in what God wants me to hear.

With all that said, I was reading today and I saw that in Matthew 5, Jesus is having a small group. Jesus is calling his leaders together and saying, "lets do some deep tissue spiritual messaging here." That is what I feel that I am missing in the lifestyle that my wife and I live. We are in a situation that is isolating. Going to a small group in the evening is challenging b/c you are in a situation that requires all our children to behave and there are 10 of them. The age ranging from 161/2 down to 5. Reading that reminded me that this is something that I do miss and that is something that I need to make a priority in my life.

A Little Stroll

Yesterday the family and I went for an outside adventure. Any time you take 10 children anywhere, it is and adventure, but this one was a planned adventure. We woke up and told the children we were going on a hike. They were pumped. Even our older children were excited, and that is always a good thing. We got this great idea from our friends who went on Sat., but we could not go, that was our crazy busy day. So the children were out of school, and we said what the heck.

The first place we decided to go was on the NW side of town by oracle and Magee. When we arrived there was not a single place to park. There were even cars double parked,crazy So we moved on. There was a sense of, oh no, now what. Christie and I had been to a place in Catlinia State park before. It was a bit more up Oracle and we had to pay to get in. We decided we could not allow these excited children to be in a car much longer so we did it.

We paid our dues and parked the car. The children were pumped. After about 1/2 mile in to the trail we hit a fork. One sign said, something pools 2.2 miles ahead. We were leery but decided to try it. That's a long way with 10 children. about .7 miles from that fork we hit another fork. Take the high road to the pools or the low road into the canyon. The children decided to go to the cayon.

These children are brilliant! The canyon was filled with water, and steeeeeeep canyon walls. Water falls all around and beauty that would take your breath away. I told all the children, at one spot, "The the first child into this water fall would get 5 dollars." They were not certain I was serious, until I pulled the 5 dollars from my wallet and layed it on the groud. Don't forget we are in January and this water is snow melt. Plus this place that I am asking them to jump into requires swimming once you are in to get to the edge and back out. After about 2 minutes of all the children giggling and looking at each other, you see Jordy flying through the air and Splash! She cam out of the water just as you would imagine a cat, shocked, wet and happy all at the same time. It was great!

We decided that it was time to go after 2 other children (David and Jyneen) decided to follow suit and get really wet. We had a great time and there was minimal teeth gnashing from the wet ones on the way back. It was great!!!

NOW !!!!!

So I'm reading through Gen. and I get to Chapter 8 where Noah has been in this ark for what I can gather is about 6 months. Plus or Minus. Keep in mind that this is probably one of those low times in his life. He is a farmer, not a sailor, then you throw every animal on earth in your boat and close the top. This is a valley in my book!

Anyway, Noah sends out a raven to see if the water has dried up. This bird keeps comming back and doing this for 40 days. How low can this valley get? After 40 days Noah sends out a dove and it comes back empty. What If we were Noah and the dove comes back empty? How do we react? I would be very angry and might start to doubt God. Does Noah go down this road? Nope, he waits a week and does it again. Sure enough the Dove comes back with a sign that this journey is about to end.

We keep hearing that we are a microwave society and that we want things done now and with out the wait. I am in that place where my life is at the cross roads and this message has brought it all back into perspective. I need to wait and be patient to what God has planned for me. Not NOW, but wait.

Falling Short

I made a pack with a friend to go through the bible in a year and blog about our experiences. I have to say, to this point, I have kept one day so far. I feel bad, not that I am not keeping up with the plan, but that I am robbing myself of such rich knowledge and wisdom that comes along with reading God's word. To spend time in the word of God is like having him sit next to you and whisper into your ear.

Our community has a blog, and one of the questions that was brought up was, what can you do to hear God better ( I am paraphrasing ). I would say spend more time with Him. If you are unfamiliar with someones voice and they tell you something you are not likely to listen. If your father asks you to do something, It could just be a whisper, you would be all over it. I think that is where spending the time in the presence of God can come in handy. Pray for me that I might get the strength to start back up again reading and get something out of it.