About Grace...

Every year I say I will be healthier, I will work out more, eat less, drink more water. This year I am not saying those things. This year I am setting a spiritual goal because one thing I know is when my spirit is healthy the rest follows.

Something struck me on Christmas day as we learned of a young women passing on just before the service started. Our Pastor's wife asked us to pray and as we finished praying my young daughter Grace was on her knees. My six year old daughter was on her knees before God with blind faith. What a testimony. I asked her after the service was over why she was on her knees. She said "just praying". How God used her in my life. What an example to me of crying out to God. What a testimony of where I need to be before God. What a reminder of Mark 10:13:16

13 One day some parents brought their children to Jesus so he could touch and bless them. But the disciples scolded the parents for bothering him.

14 When Jesus saw what was happening, he was angry with his disciples. He said to them, “Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children. 15 I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.” 16 Then he took the children in his arms and placed his hands on their heads and blessed them.

New Living Translation.

Grace has told us that one night in October she asked Jesus to be her Savior. Just like she quietly got on her knees, in the quiet of her bed just her and her God she came to him asking to be saved, receiving her free gift of salvation. We've seen her grow coming out of school and exclaiming "I want to tell everyone about Jesus!" and in her attitude towards her siblings. I do not know what God has in store for her life. My one and only prayer is that she will continue to walk with abandon with her savior and continue to be a light to not only myself but the rest of the world.

Happy New Year from All of Us!

If there were any picture to capture us in our true fashion this is IT!

I hope it brings a smile to your face because it sure brings some smiles to mine.

You might wonder...

Why I haven't been posting much except for pictures. The short answer is I haven't felt like it. The past few months my family has been dealing with so much and I felt God telling me that I needed to rest in him. It has been a difficult road, my sister who is 17 is dealing with fainting spells, my brother who is also young has been in and out of the hospital with different infections that cause him to have seizures, a woman dear to my heart has been dealing with strokes and on Christmas day we found out during Church service that a young man who we taught(Eric and myself) lost his wife. She was in her early 20's and gave birth to a baby a week prior to passing on. Needless to say my heart has been heavy, my burdens hard to carry, and the silence of my savior has been deafening. It is a struggle to trust and yet I know if I did not rely totally on the faith that my God has everything in his hand I wouldn't be able to bear the circumstances.

So if you've been wondering, I am here behind the scenes on my knees clinging to my life verse.

Psalms 119:49-50

49 Remember your word to your servant,
for you have given me hope.
50 My comfort in my suffering is this:
Your promise preserves my life.

5 Blessings...

Our Christmas Letter...

The Fulkerson's top 10 memories of 2011 to make you smile, giggle, and maybe giggle so much you wiggle while you giggle.

No particular Order just great memories!

Jonah and our conversations. This is the boy who told me last year "Mom, I love you, but only on Tuesday, Thursday, and Fridays". His questions normally come as I am tucking him into bed. "Mom" he'll say "I love everybody." I laugh on the inside and ask him "Jonah do you love even mad guys?(also known as bad guys)"
"I don't know" he'll reply thinking "Jesus loves mad guys."
"Yes Jesus loves mad guys" I reply "Jesus tells us to love mad guys too."
"Mom some mad guys are scary but Jesus loves them too. I love everybody. I'm like Jesus." I am not sure a memory gets any better than that one!

Kerith being escorted off the stage at the end of the year Mother's Day Out program. Apparently she isn't a big fan of singing in front of people!

Grace Starting 1st grade. Of course she requested that her WHOLE family escort her on her first day and of course three of her siblings had to be escorted out the door so the rest of the class could concentrate!

Campfire s'mores and star gazing. The kids enjoyed roasting hotdogs and marshmallows. The parents enjoyed easy cleanup!

Seeing Grace be the flower girl in my younger sisters wedding. She did a marvelous job and asked right away when she could be a princess again.

During our stay in Texas we got to take the kids to Sea world for the first time! They all enjoyed the day despite it being 120 degrees. Ok maybe not that hot but close!

Titus started walking before he turned one! He thinks he is pretty cool now because he can walk while drinking a bottle. He is really a happy kid and loves to play with his brothers and sisters.

Micah and Kerith turned 3! It is hard to believe that the tiny babies are so big now! They had their first birthday party and enjoyed having friends over for cake and pizza.

The paid for family vacation to Washington D.C. Ok really it was a business trip for Eric's work and we decided since it was a paid for trip to take everyone. We got a little more than we bargained for. first a ruined cell phone, than our van being towed while we walked the national mall, than an earthquake, and lastly outrunning a hurricane. I would say we will never do it again but really it IS quite funny to tell the story now and one thing is for sure we will NEVER EVER forget our trip to Washington.

Um, did we mention our trip to Washington D.C?

Jonah turns 5!

Jonah turned five earlier this week. We had another cake and small celebration. The big party was on Saturday a long with Micah and Kerith. They are still young enough that they don't care if their parties are together.

All throughout the day he kept asking Mom am I bigger? as in taller. It was very hard to answer but of course I told him he was a lot taller than last year. That really wasn't enough to satisfy him so he finally told me he was ALMOST as all as me. Oh that IS coming, thankfully it is still a few years away. After all we have to get through Kindergarten first...

Happy Birthday Micah and Kerith!

It was three years ago today that my life changed forever. Micah and Kerith entered this world at 35 weeks premature and perfectly healthy. Doctors told me I would always need help to get pregnant and God decided to prove that he is in control of every detail of my life including my fertility or lack there of. Not one but two babies conceived without medication. They are my daily reminders that God's ways are higher than my own and his ways are perfect. They also remind me that when men say it is impossible with God ANYTHING is possible.

2 weeks old.

Today three years old

Happy Birthday guys!

Thanksgiving

This from 150 years ago seems very relevant today.

"We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that [the gifts of God] should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged with one heart and one voice by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow citizens . . . to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens."

Abraham Lincoln calling for a day of fasting and prayer.

Christmas Card Shutterfly

Photo Card

View the entire collection of cards.

Happy Birthday Titus!

The Impromptu photo shoot

Soaps...Yes

Apple Cider

Cinnamon Roll

Fresh Cut Christmas Tree

Alien on earth

***this is a brutally honest post***

One Wednesday morning after dropping off the kids at school a song by Building 429 came on the radio called Where I belong the words of the first verse struck me hard.

Sometimes it feels like i'm watching from the outside Sometimes it feels like i'm breathing but am I alive I will keep searching for answers that aren't here to find

All I know is I'm not home yet
This is not where I belong
Take this world and give me Jesus
This is not where I belong

How many times in my life have I felt that I don't belong. Way to many. How many times have I felt recently that I don't belong? WAY to many. You see I hold rather strong convictions about certain things such as drinking alcohol. Often times even in the midst of Christian friends who love Christ as much as I do my convictions leave me feeling like an outsider, like I don't belong. It makes me sad that my convictions on drinking which in short are not to partake or be around alcohol period seem to be much more of an issue amongst my Christian friends. How often am I told drinking is not wrong. How often do I have to defend a conviction God has GIVEN ME. If he has not given you the same conviction I have no issue but for me and my personal walk with Christ alcohol is a stumbling block. It's temptation. It's scary. It's terrifying.

Why is it all those things? In short I have never seen alcohol used in a manner but destruction. Alcoholism runs rabid in my family line from Uncles to Grandparents. Time has yet to erase the memories of extended family members getting liquored up and rubbing their sexually aroused bodies against my own body in what was called a family embrace. Memories like that one arouse anger within me and most people will never know WHY. They are quick to judge, quick to tell me what the Bible says about drinking and quick to never find out why I feel the way I do. How many times have I been called a hypocrite and quoted Matthew 7:3-5

3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

Why is it SO terribly hard for Christians to respect a fellow believers conviction? Oh no doubt I am the worst hypocrite and a heathen and oh so thankfully saved by the blood of Christ Jesus. I am no better than anyone and do not claim to be. It could be that Christ has given me this conviction to keep me feeling like an outsider, like I don't belong because I am NOT home YET.

Sometimes it feels like i'm watching from the outside Sometimes it feels like i'm breathing but am I alive I will keep searching for answers that aren't here to find

All I know is I'm not home yet
This is not where I belong
Take this world and give me Jesus
This is not where I belong

Disclaimer: If you hold the view that drinking is ok please do not take offense. This is MY view.

My car rides

I have been doing a lot of thinking lately. My deep thinking usually happens two days a week on the drive to and from the kids school. In that time usually God speaks to me or it's me speaking to him in the form of crying out to him. I have grown to treasure this drive. So in the next few weeks as we enter a time of busy, a time of celebration and holiday traditions, I am going to be writing about what God is teaching me. Good and bad. Honest and heartfelt. I hope you will read and I hope God will maybe use whatever I write to help you on your journey to be like him.

Day six and seven...

I have been a blogging slacker! I need to finish blogging about our trip. So the last day in the midst of the Hurricane Irene hoopla we visited George Washington's House Mt. Vernon. What a fun filled day. The kids loved it and one of the park guides who was giving us a tour of Mr. Washington's house told us our kids were the best behaved kids she'd seen in a long time. We like those type of compliments. On the ride from Falls Church to Mt. Vernon our route took us through downtown Alexandria. What a beautiful city! I think if it weren't in the midst of like a zillion people I'd be in love. I LOVE the colonial era.

Can't you see a future Stone Street Soaps someplace like this?

The kids with their treasure maps. I love when historical sites have things to help my kids enjoy the experience. This made their day.

Road trip day 5 and 6

Well after the exciting events the previous day. We decided just to chill at the hotel and the kids spent some time with Eric in the pool.

Day 6 was all about watching the weather. There was a hurricane in the Atlantic that had the area on edge. We decided that we may do the Baltimore Aquarium BUT after spending nearly 45 minutes in traffic and only going a half of a mile we nixed that plan and made our way near Dulles Airport to check out the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center Air and Space Museum. We were not disappointed. One it was huge, two it wasn't crowded so the kids could walk and had space to look at all the airplanes.

On the way back to the Hotel we passed a Mall and spotted a Cheesecake Factory so we decided to treat the family!

and of course I forgot to take a picture of cheesecake.

Road trip day 4

Let's just say after Monday's events we didn't think anything could top it. WRONG...There I was with the kids visiting with a friend from Parenting After Infertility and her kids when all of the sudden the world started to shake. At first it sounded like a large truck roaring by but then the shaking got worse and stronger and I knew it was an earthquake. Thankfully I had experienced one before otherwise I might of totally freaked out more than I was.

After the quake my friend and her family kindly took us to their neck of the woods because the whole DC area was shut down. We got to see some of the History of where George Washington had his surveyors office. Cool huh? The rest of the pictures are from Winchester Virginia.

Road trip day 3

Monday this glorious Monday. The Lord gave us awesome weather for our first trip in to DC. We decided to take the kids to the National Mall. Parking didn't seem to be an issue. If only we could see into the future. We loved our walk. We saw the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, World War Two memorial, and from a distance saw the White House and Capital building. We should of known something would happen it was to perfect of a day.

You see that little red sign. Yeah it should of been our warning.

You see the white SUV in the middle bottom of the picture? To the right down a ways was where our van was parked. We walked down over the hill just after the picture was taken to find our van gone. Lovely huh? Apparently the FREE Parking 9-4 Mon-Friday should of been followed by a sign tow away zone 4 to ? because that is what happened to our van followed by a $100 ticket on the windshield. We finally found our van parked in a construction zone across the street. Would of been nice if someone would of pointed out that we'd get towed if we weren't back by a certain time I mean there were only two dozen security people around and obviously our Illinois license plate and packed car would make you realize we were tourists but I guess that is the point. SO BE AWARE don't park where it says free parking even when it says free parking you never know what might happen.