A glance back

Where to begin...
Well, welcome to our family blog. Hopefully I will be able to keep everyone a little more updated this way. Life this year has been crazy and the girls are getting bigger everday!

2005 was a big year for our family. After serving his country for 10 years Jim felt God calling him to take his life and family in a new direction. After a lot of prayer and sleepless nights we took the first step by applying to get out. After only 2 weeks of deliberation the AF came back and told us we were approved to get out and our last day would be Feb 11-06. It was bittersweet news. We really felt like God was calling Jim to open up his own business in real estate investing, but we had spend 10 wonderful years in the Air Force and were going to miss the comfort and lifestyle the Air Force offered.

Soon after the news came I gave birth to our third daughter, Madelyn Faith, but not without a little drama. Madelyn arrived almost 4 weeks ealy, which is not a huge concern in itself, but she came out not breathing well so she was taken from me immediately. The hospital staff quickly realized that she had premature lungs and was going to have to be taken to the nursery for oxygen and observation. During her time in the nursery I started losing a lot of blood and my blood pressure bottomed out. I was given a variety of drugs as quickly as they could push them and held onto my mom's hand as my body weakened. Jim was called from the nursery only to find that not only was his newborn struggling to live, but his wife was in trouble. After a short time my doctor had been able to stop my bleeding and I began to regain strength. Meanwhile the staff had made a heart wrenching decision that Maddie would have to be taken from the hospital I was at, to a major hospital in Boston. We were devastated, to say the least!! She was intubated and had 3 IV's going when I was able to be wheeled down to say goodbye. It was the hardest thing I have ever had to do but I knew that God loved her even more than we did and would be with her when we couldn't. I was released the next day and went and stayed at the hospital in Boston with Maddie. After a week in intensive care Maddie recovered from her pneumonia and prematurity and was able to come home.

Two weeks later, Emily turned 3 years old. It was just yesterday that she was my little baby. On Jan.16th 2006 Emily asked Jesus into her heart. It was one of the best days of our life! Serenity turned 2 in Febuary and is now really close to being potty trained, yeah!!!

At the end of November we started to pack up for our big move to Florida. We drove from Massachusettes to Florida in early December, taking time along the way to see Jim's family at his sister's house. We had a great time and were able to celebrated Christmas with them early. We then visited our good friend Sarah Shine and finished our journey to Florida.

Upon our arrival we were anxious to see the house that we had purchased. I know, we are crazy, but our grandparents down here had looked at it for us and we had seen a lot of pictures. We are very happy with the house and LOVE the weather!! It is so nice for the girls to play outside everyday.

Now we are busy keeping up with 3 little girls, all 3 and under and getting a new business going.
Jim is doing wonderful and has build some wonderful working relationships with people he does business with. God has really blessed the business and brings us more deals than we can possible do. He has repeatedly shown us that it is His will for us to be here, doing what we are doing. We love the flexibility our new life offers and love being together as a family!!

I promise not all of our blogs will be this long, I just thought I would give you a quick update on our lives. God is awesome and he reveals himself to us in new ways everyday!! We pray for all of our friends and family and ask that you would keep us in your prayers also!!

God Bless You today and always- Kristie, Jim, Emily, Serenity, and Madelyn

PS- This picture was taken in Feb.