Family and love would be fitting words for April. We were able to spend some good quality time as a family and couple this month. We started off the month with a friends birthday party for Cordelia. She was showered with love and presents from all her friends. Tim took his final two weeks of baby-bonding time. We had some professional family photos taken. We got to enjoy our anniversary weekend while the kids enjoyed a weekend at Grandparents Powers.
Over this month God has shown us in amazing ways his guidance and provision for our family. We had been praying for the past two months for God to direct our family’s future. We felt called to spend more time with our children. To that end we had decided that Alicia would quit her job but this was not an easy decision and was going to require several sacrifices. In the course of about one week, we went from Alicia quitting and homeschooling the older two kids, to Alicia being offered to stay on part time, Anthony’s teachers telling us he had been too fidgety at school, and Cordelia being offered a scholarship to stay at school. This laid out what seemed like a pretty clear course, which was in line with what we had been feeling God wanted us to do. We are so thankful for God’s direction and provision for our family. During the month April, we received more and more confirmations that this was the path God wants us to follow for the upcoming 22-23 school year.
Cordelia had a great time at her birthday party. She had some challenging weeks at school but overall she’s enjoying school. She continues to improve at her piano. It’s fun to hear some of the songs she’s play, one of her new ones is Ode to Joy. She’s also doing good in swimming too, working on her breast and butterfly stroke. She’s been working on navigating her emotions and not letting them get the best of her. In the midst of the struggles we can see her loving heart and her spirit to listen to God’s convictions. She has been expressing interest in basketball, so we signed her up for a basketball summer camp
Anthony has been doing better in school this month. He’s been having fun with the other boys in is class and they’ve made a “Bro-team” group. Sometimes he does well with his piano and other days he’s grumpy about playing. Anthony also continues to improve in swimming, his teacher is introducing him to the breast stroke. He’s also been enjoying his Royal Rangers time with Tim.
Lydia is a mix of sweet and sour. Sometimes she is playing well and has been really sweet to Natalie. But her attitude can also be pretty unpleasant with lots of yelling screaming and disobedience. We’re doing our best to correct her behavior and guide her on proper behavior. Most of her days she’s stuck at home with Natalie and with the construction work in the backyard, she’s had less opportunities to get out of the house.
Natalie is scooting and crawling and pulling herself to a stand. She’s been joining us at dinner time for some baby finger food. While she’s still mostly happy, she’s starting to get more aware. Which means she doesn’t like being left alone and has opinions about who she wants holding her. She’s starting to crawl after us and pull herself up on our legs.
Alicia has been handling two specific items at work. She went on her first work trip to visit a supplier’s site. Her work has been gracious enough to allow her to go to a part-time flex hour schedule starting in June when the kids get out of school and our au pair, Maria, leaves. This has been more than she expected and Alicia is excited to be able to keep a foot in the workforce while not having to sacrifice the important role of being available for the kids. On the home front, Alicia has enjoyed the extra quality time this month. She took a day off for our family photo shoot and fun day. This was followed by our anniversary weekend of quality time with Tim. While there’s a lot to juggle on the home front, she knows that God is continuing to guide and provide. And in the midst of different challenges she’s been trying to listen closely to God’s leading. Awana is starting to come to a close and the time commitments will be increasing in May as the club year wrap up occurs.
Tim had quite an eventful and emotionally taxing month. He decided to apply for some other jobs in mid-Feb and that turned into phone interviews in March. In April Tim had two formal interviews with the same company in different groups. Then during his baby-bonding time off he was offered either job. So starting in May Tim will be switching companies. It was a tough for him to give notice to his boss and co-workers. He’s been spending the last two weeks wrapping up and documenting all his work. At home while on baby-bonding leave Tim got to spend some extra quality time with Lydia and Natalie. He rearranged our office in preparation for summer and Anthony being homeschooled next school year. He also has been designing what our front yard should look like once the concrete work is finished. The older kids had Spring break for the second week of leave. Tim was going to take the older three kids camping but the weather turned cold, so they backyard camped instead. Tim also enjoyed the quality time with Alicia on our anniversary weekend.
This month has been very eventful, taxing, encouraging, and all sorts of emotions. As we continue into May, we know God will continue to guide and provide for us in every way. As Tim transitions into his new job, we will be adjusting to new family routines. We pray for encouragement and patience with each other as we enter this transition period.
