He makes all things beautiful...In His Time

Five years ago today, the most amazing man in the whole world asked me if I was willing for him to court me. Of course!! I had had a crush on this guy for six years. Most of you know the story of our courtship and marriage, so I want to share something else that I haven't shared before. When I said "yes" to him, I knew I was ready to fall head over heels in love with this man,but what I did not know was that it was the beginning of the most beautiful and difficult road of my life. You know those gorgeous pictures you see on calendars of majestic mountain tops and glorious wildlife? Those photos aren't taken without a lot of pain and hard work. I've learned it's the same way with marriage. The most important thing I have learned in the last five years of my life is, if you want something to be beautiful, you are going to have to work for it. I love my man like crazy, but love isn't all it takes to have a beautiful marriage. It takes forgiveness, trust, obedience, and the willingness to work side by side with your man through every trial and temptation. Being a virtuous woman means being strong, valiant, and mighty. Virtue isn't just about purity of mind and body, its about being a hero (or heroine) of the faith. When this guy talked to me that night about why he wanted to court me, he told me that he had seen that I was a virtuous woman. You don't know how many times those words have pricked me and convicted me. I know that's not what he meant them for, but the memory of that night and those words remind me when I am no longer being a virtuous woman. And this is not something that I have learned my lesson, received a passing grade for, and moved on. No, this lesson plan is one that will never be finished until the Lord takes me home. Two nights ago even, I had a very hard lesson to learn in this area. I have to admit, it hurt. A lot. But the mercies of God are new every morning, and all praise to the Father, I am striving once again to be that virtuous woman that my man fell in love with. Every time I start thinking, "Oh, I've got this marriage and mommy thing down, no problem", God does one of those loving smacks on the head to remind me that I will never ever have it down. God must be REALLY patient! I am so grateful to God that I am not in control of my life, because I would have it totally messed up and turned inside out by now! He truly is a merciful Lord. With each anniversary that goes by, I realize more and more of how much I have yet to learn. I remember thinking when I was a little kid, "Life will be so easy when I grow up 'cause I'll know everything." Umm, yeah right! The older I get, God shows me just how much I have left to learn, and it's a bunch. But I will strive to continue to learn because I want to have a beautiful marriage. I love my man a bunch, but I love my Jesus more. And because of that I will persevere to finish the race that He has set before me. Right now that race track is being a wife and mother. I want my life to look like those gorgeous pictures of mountains and animals. I want others to see a beautiful creation of the Master. I know that if I am faithful to fight the fight and run the race, I will hear my Savior say, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." Then will I know that I am a beautiful creation: virtuous, valiant, and strong. And I know that my husband will be right there beside me, loving me even more than ever before.

In His time, In His time,

He makes all things beautiful in His time.

Lord, please show me every day,

As You're teaching me Your way,

That You do just what You say,

In Your time.

~Tyana~

Settling in

Wow, the last five weeks have been soooo busy. We are almost completely unpacked and settled into our new home! My favorite thing about moving is having new spaces to work furniture around in, and new ways to decorate the walls. This house is so cute! And the more decorated I get it the better it gets. The bedrooms are so huge that I can do so much with them. This is actually the most unpacked Joshua and I have ever been since we got married. Our bedroom is big enough that Joshua built me a bookshelf to organize all my craft stuff on! I feel like I can actually accomplish some of my projects now. :) The kids had almost no problem adjusting to the new place, which was a real blessing. The yard is so nice for them to run around and play in! We bought them a kiddie pool and sprinkler and they absolutely love it! Eilis asks almost every day, "Please we go outside and get wet?" Eilis' personality has really started to show itself alot in the last few weeks. Her drawing and coloring are getting so much better, she almost has the whole alphabet memorized, she loves taking care of her brother and sister, and loves to help me with the laundry and cleaning. She's becoming a real help with picking up toys and books and keeping Elaina happy when she plays on the floor. Edward has actually started talking more now too!!! Its so cute when he just decides to say something! Elaina is trying to get up on her hands and knees so she can crawl, and she's almost there. :( I can't believe how fast she is growing up. She is five and a half months already. She weighs 16 pounds and eats all the time! LOL She enjoys to play on the floor with her brother and sister. It is so cute to see how gentle and soft the older two are with her. I am so thankful that the majority of the time the children are so loving and kind to each other. Of course, sometimes they have their little sibling rivalries, but most of the time their love for each other shows itself too strong for fights.
This past week we had the blessing of visiting with my Mom and Dad and little brother who had flown up from Arizona! It was so nice to get to see all of them again. While they were here my mother-in-law did a baby blessing for Elaina. It was a wonderful time of praying for our baby girl. I was so blessed to hear all of the moms and girls pray specifically for Elaina and her life. And it was an extra special blessing for my mother to be here for it too!
Well, there are little voices calling and letting me know that I have been sitting on the computer too long, so the rest will have to wait until later. I need to fix dinner anyway!
God bless you all. Til next time ~Tyana

New house and Fourth of July

A lot has happened in the last week for us. Biggest thing being that we are now decided on where we are moving! We have rented a little white farmhouse about 10 minutes north of Springfield. 

The Lord has been good to us and provided what we wanted in a place to live at a price that was affordable. The landlord is including the electric, propane, and lawnmowing in our rent payment! And its still extremely close to everything we need and do. We are really excited about it and looking forward to the big rooms and the huge yard! Kiddie pool and sprinkler are a couple of the top priority buys :) We don't have an exact moving date yet but sometime in the last two weeks of this month. I'll put a couple more pictures on here and then the rest will be on my facebook page. Here is the link to my July photo album. 

July 2011

 View from the side yard to the back yard

 My new kitchen :)

The master bedroom...by far the biggest bedroom I've ever had..LOL

Then, of course, this last weekend was the Fourth of July! It was a very relaxed year comparatively as our church didn't have a budget for a big celebration. But it was still a lot of fun. We had a big potluck dinner after church service on Sunday and hung out for a while playing and enjoying good fellowship. Then Sunday night we went out to Joshua's parents house and shot off firecrackers, smoke bombs, and sparklers. Oh, and we ate lots of yummy leftovers from lunch too! (Rachel's chocolate chip cookie bars were SOOOOOO good.)

Monday morning was the Marshfield parade. It was a blast! Lots of people passed out tracts before, during, and after the parade. The last number I heard was that we got about 2000 out, (if you're from Bethesda feel free to correct me in a comment..LOL) The kids loved the parade. Eilis thought the "horsies" were so pretty and big! Neddie waved through the whole thing! :D After the parade we all went back to church and ate pizza and drank soda. And that was the end of our weekend. Now its back the everyday work schedule except that now there is deep cleaning and packing on my agenda every day. It is going to be a busy month but a very exciting one! Here are some pictures of the weekend.

 Neddie wearing out at the parade :)

 SPARKLERS!!! LOL

Watching the parade.

'Til next time ~Tyana

Oil pressure, road work, and emergency room...

I want to share with everyone the many experiences of God's mercy and grace on the trip to Iowa this past weekend. First off, this is the first time that we have had money and time to get up to Iowa and it was on a big planned family get together so we got to see everybody, or almost everybody. So that in and of itself was a big praise. But then, about 30 minutes past Kansas City, the truck lost all oil pressure :( The gauge went back to normal after shutting the truck off. Weird! Praise the Lord, that we made it all the way to Iowa and then found out that it was slightly overfull on oil and just needed emptied out a little bit, and needed the filter replaced (thanks to brother-in-law Joel figuring out that we needed a filter and getting it for us). It drove perfectly all the way back home! Also on the way up there, we hit some road construction and sat and waited for twenty minutes for the flag man to let us through...argh. But God worked all the timing out for us. 

Then for the trip back.....

First off, we overslept our alarm by an hour so we were late getting on the road. Then we had gotten about forty minutes away when we got a phone call that we had left our double stroller at the conference center.....oops :_(  The thought crossed our minds of leaving it and having it shipped or just getting a different one. But, thirty dollars in gas is a lot cheaper than shipping something that heavy or a new stroller. So we turned around. That meant traveling the same span of road three times instead of once. Very frustrating. But we decided to thank the Lord and trust that He was working his perfect timing for us to get home. 

And then when we were still about four hours from home, I was falling asleep while Joshua drove and Elaina erupted into terrible crying (the closest to screaming I've ever heard from her). I turned around and started searching all over her trying to figure out what was wrong. I finally discovered a baby bumblebee sitting dazed on her clothes. I was instantly sick to my stomach. Joshua pulled over into a driveway so we could find out if she had actually been stung or if it had maybe just fallen in the window and hit her in the face or something. After undressing her and going over her carefully we finally noticed that one of her fingers was swelling up. I was panicking! (I have never actually been stung but I reacted terribly to bug bites as a girl and Joshua gets bad baseball size welts from bee stings.) We had no idea how far from the next town we were and I had no benadryl to give her. We did have some ice in the cooler so I got that on her right away. I also gave her a bottle of milk, even though it wasn't time for it yet. But it helped calm her down so I could actually watch her hand. Joshua was pretty scared about something happening when he didn't know where anything was at, so he hit the gas. I must say that I was glad there weren't any cops on patrol! Praise the Lord, that the next town we hit was big enough for a Walmart and a hospital! By the time, we got to Walmart to get benadryl it had already been twenty minutes since she'd been stung and her whole hand and all of her fingers were swollen and red. Joshua made a pharmacist show him where the children's benadryl was and said that everyone looked at him like he was a crazy man running through Walmart. From the time we parked to the time she was getting medicine in her was about 3 minutes! We were both really worried about her so we drove to the hospital so we'd be there in case she started having problems. We got there, packed the kids in the stroller (which we wouldn't have had if we'd decided to leave it), and went in the emergency room waiting room. Joshua told them that our baby had been stung and we were just sitting there to monitor her so that if something went wrong help was readily available. After a couple minutes one of the nurses came out to look at her anyway. She sat with us and watched her hand and got more ice to put on it. We sat there for about thirty minutes and praise God her hand swelling started going down. Thankfully, the benadryl took care of the allergic reaction and we didn't have to admit her. Today, her hand looks perfectly normal and she is her happy, chubby self. Praise the Lord for His protection of her.

We hit road work once again on the rest of the trip, but we were able to find a side road that cut out that section of the highway and get around it. It probably didn't save us much, but moving constantly when your truck doesn't have air conditioning is way better than sitting still. And it felt like we were getting there faster. :P

Then Joshua's parents invited us to stop at their house for dinner before going home. It was so nice to not have to worry about finding something to fix for dinner and making that much more mess. Especially after all the extra ordeals on top of the seven hour drive. My brain was not functioning for any more problem solving..LOL.

Even with all the trials of the trip, we had a great visit with family while we were there. We got to see my great Grandma T and visit with her for a couple of hours. The Miller family reunion Sunday was fun too! This was a first time meeting a lot of the family for Joshua and the kids. And Joshua's boss let him change his work schedule so that we could stay an extra night and drive back on Monday instead of driving home at midnight. My sister's family and us were all staying at the conference center Sunday night. So after all the kids fell asleep, we all got to have a late night get together, playing ping pong, snacking, and talking. It was really nice.

In summary, it was a very long, interesting, stressful, fun, busy weekend for the Joshua Burks family. We are happy to be home and having a normal week....or at least there's nothing major planned yet! LOL

Praising God for His bountiful love and goodness ~Tyana

Fun and Busy

This month has turned into a crazy month, but very fun! We started out the month with Joshua's 25th birthday! I had bought him a half-price one night stay at a bed and breakfast in Branson that we plan on using later in the year as our birthdays and anniversary celebrations combined. We haven't left the babies for an all night out yet..so that will be interesting :P 

Joshua's Mom and Dad got him a Bass Pro gift card for his birthday, so we went out to breakfast and shopping on his birthday. Bass Pro was a favorite of the kids already, so it was a fun way to get out for his birthday shopping. He started out wanting lawn chairs, so he got two big lawn chairs and then he found miniature chairs for the kids that he couldn't pass up..LOL :) Then he asked me how crazy I was willing to be for his birthday celebration. A couple hours later, and much poorer than when we entered the store, there was  everything we needed to go on a family camping trip! So, this last weekend we went on our first of many  family camping trips! I don't have all the pics organized and edited yet so I'll post the details and pics of that later..LOL. 

This next weekend we are taking a road trip to Iowa for the Miller family reunion. We are happy that this opportunity has come up and, so far, everything is working out for us to go. We have been trying to get up to Iowa since we got married. Most of the family has never met Joshua, let alone the children. So it will be nice to finally get up there.

July is going to be very busy too as we are moving at the end of the month. We're not exactly sure where to yet, but we are resting in God working out His perfect timing and will. So, to end my post here are some pictures from the last week or two :)

 Reading books together and sitting on the diaper order that had arrived :D

My sweet baby Elaina :)

 Cute kiddies <3

Pretty little girl getting so big 

That's all for now ~Tyana

Precious Moments

"Cleaning and scrubbing can wait til tomorrow,

For babies grow up, we've learned to our sorrow.

So quiet down cobwebs, dust go to sleep.

I'm rocking my baby, and babies don't keep."

~Author Unknown

This poem has always hung either on my bedroom wall or in my bathroom since I was a small child.  One of my great aunts made it for me when I was born.  My sister even made up a lullaby melody to sing it to when I was little.  With every day that passes I become more aware of how true it really is. Our lives are as vapors (James 4:14), and the older I get the more I realize that.  My children are the most beautiful things in my life, and yet I find myself getting weighed down by the cares of this world.  God has been showing me over the last few weeks that sometimes I do just need to slow down and enjoy the precious moments.  

This afternoon, I was going along at 70 miles an hour trying to get everything ready for church tonight.  The kids were starting to get overwhelmed with me running around so I decided to sit down for a few minutes on the couch.  It was like the bees that find a good tasting flower....and I was the flower!  I was instantly swarmed with "mommy, I want you to do this", growls (Neddie's love talk :), and giggles of delight.  Sure my kitchen is messy and my hair is still all wrapped in a towel from washing it, but I got to spend some sweet time with my babies.

Thank you Lord for giving me precious moments ~Tyana

This is the second day..

in a  row that I have at least opened up blogger! LOL  I finally updated the header pictures and changed the background. It looks much more summery now :D
Today has been a hectic day so far, but with a lot of sweet moments mixed in. To start off with, the kids all got up at 6:30 before Joshua headed out the door for work.  That's not too early for them to get up but my brain was not prepared to handle all three children's needs that early in the morning today.  I was all geared to getting my devotions and some good work in before I had to worry about breakfast, diapers, bottles, potty, and organizing play time.  I had to totally switch wave lengths and my brain did not want to do that this morning.  I finally sat the kids down for a movie and was able to get my devotions in.  I had to choose to be thankful for the day not going right. I wrote down as many things as I could think of at that moment to be grateful for about my children.  Boy, did that help or what! I am so thankful for my children.  And even though I only did a whopping 14 files for work today, I have had some very special moments with my children.
So, today's lesson for me has been in gratefulness, even when things don't go according to my plan.  Once again, learning to apply the verse, "In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." ~1 Thessalonians 5:18
Blessings, Tyana

Ummmm.... :D

So, its been 4 months since I posted anything on my blog. I have come to the realization of the fact that I am NOT a blogger! LOL

I don't have time right now to write all about our life and the goings on but here are some pictures!

Of course, the biggest change over the last four months has been the addition of our beautiful Elaina Jael

She is three months old today! And just rolled over for the first time this afternoon.

Edward Uriah turned 18 months old this past weekend

And Eilis is 2 and 3/4 years the end of this month.

I can't believe how fast my children are growing up. I thank God for every day that He has given us with them and pray for many more to come. That's all for now. I have to figure something out for dinner :P

Have a blessed week ~Tyana

Pictures

 I don't really have anything to write about today, just wanted to post some cute pics from the other night. I am so thankful for the family that God has blessed me with and I pray that He continues to bless us. Have a blessed weekend. ~Tyana

 My little NedNed <3

 This is Eilis' own drawing of Neddie, complete with arms, hands, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and hair!

My cute little girlie

They love each other sooooo much!!!

Our new year

The holidays are over now and life is settling back into normal, although, I don't know how long that is going to last as there is so much uncertain about the next couple months! I just passed my 31 week mark yesterday which means that its okay to have baby at home in 5 weeks! NedNed was born at 37 weeks so I'm starting to get busy sorting through baby clothes and washing stuff up. We'll see what happens. I'm perfectly fine with going all the way to my due date but at the rate contractions are already happening I really don't think its going to happen. :) 

Joshua has still been without steady work the past month again, but praise the Lord he is at least getting a few good days in this week. The Lord has been so good to us and met all of our needs these last few months of little or no work, sometimes in very unexpected and unusual ways! We serve a mighty God. 

I made a batch of bread dough tonight and turned half of it into cinnamon rolls that just came out of the oven so I'm just going to post some pics up of the holidays and go eat one! :P

 Our white Christmas morning

 The kiddies waiting for Christmas dinner

Our Christmas tree

Eilis waiting to open presents :)

Neddie's stocking

 Cute little girlie in front of the tree!

 Eilis Rosie wearing the fuzzy sweater that Grandma Miller made her (complete with the "chinese" smile)

 NedNed and Daddy

 My 30-week pregnant belly

One of Eilis' amazing tower creations :) 

(notice the single block on the second level from the bottom, this tower lasted through another five minutes of playing Jenga)

I hope you all had a blessed Christmas and New Year! God Bless! ~Tyana