This morning I was helping Gabe get ready for school when he asked me to tie his shoes . I told him it was time he learned how to do it for himself . For the past few years we 've taken the easy way out and just bought him Velcro time and again . I figured we finally needed to tackle this issue . After all , he 's in second grade now . As you probably know , awhile back Zechariah broke his arm and had it in a cast for several weeks . Every day we prayed that the cast would come off and he would be healed . So of course , when it really did come off , we were celebrating ! In the mornings I spend time with my children writing in our prayer journals , and then we each read our prayers aloud . Zechariah likes to participate in this time also . For several days after the cast came off , Zech would always pray , " Thank you , Jesus , my red arm . " This meant , in his own simple language , " Thanks for healing my arm . " This morning , Zechariah hurt his arm on something and needed me to pray over him . I prayed our normal prayer to Jesus , and it wasn 't enough this time . Zech requested , " Now to the God one . " He wanted to make sure all his bases were covered ! If there was ever a child who reminded me more of Jesus ' healing power , it 's Zechariah . Time and again , God has protected him from harm . What the devil meant for bad , God turned it around for the best . Just yesterday God showed me again , He has promised a long full life to Zechariah . We spent the last few days with my husband 's grandparents who live in Wichita . The kids love going to Grandma & Granddad Power 's house . They talk about it all year long , literally . As we were all sitting down to breakfast , Zechariah thought he spotted a piece of broken candy corn on the table . Before we could react , or even know what he 'd done , he popped it into his mouth . As soon as it happened , I remembered seeing a pill in the middle of the table , and I realized he had just eaten it . We couldn 't get him to spit it out . It gave him a horrible taste in his mouth , but he still continued to chew it up and swallow it . He was crying the whole time . It was too late . In just a few seconds he had eaten the 250 milligram prescription vitamin that was intended for Granddad . Within 5 minutes he had a heat flash . His skin became bright red like a tomato and he had intense itching . He described it like bugs biting him all over his body . We called the pharmacist to make sure the vitamin wouldn 't harm him . During those ten minutes of waiting for the pharmacy to open , I could only describe it as pure torture . I had the feeling of panic and wanted to run my child to the hospital , and then I was reminded that God has promised him a long full life . I knew He was in control and we just needed to wait . It was a scary ten minutes , but he was completely fine . I thank God for the life of my son . Every day that I have with him is a precious gift . As we were grocery shopping today , we first stopped at the bank to cash his check . He was so excited to have the lady hand him back a real ten dollar bill . He told her about the things he wanted . The new Mario movie , some candy corn , and even some flowers . We had to pick up a few items , and the suspense was killing him . He wanted to run to the movies and choose his favorite one . When the time finally came for him to make his choice , he found a toy Mater car that talks when you shake it , and the wheels turn sending it flying across the room . To a four year old boy , this was close to heaven . He loved it , and continued to shake it all throughout the rest of Wal - Mart . When we got to the register , I took out his new ten dollar bill and he very proudly handed it over to the cashier . The man joked with him and asked if Zechariah was buying the toy for him . ( As if an old man really needed a Cars toy . ) Zech very stingily told him , " NO . It 's for me ! " As we made our way outside to our car , Zech requested that he get to hold Mater on the drive home . We were just pulling out of our parking spot when Zech asked in a very panicked voice , " Where is my money ? I lost it . " He was referring to his $ 10 in cash . I reminded him again . " Zech , you spent it . You handed it to the man and he gave you back Mater . " I tried to tell him we turned his paper money , into real money at the bank . Didn 't he remember that nice lady ? I told him his money was all gone , and now he gets to play with Mater . He wouldn 't be able to leave the store with his toy if he didn 't give them money . I asked him , " Aren 't you happy you get to keep Mater ? " When I explained to him that he could give the store back Mater , and then they would give him his money back , I expected him to get upset about the loss of his gift . However , he didn 't . In fact , he was overjoyed to find that he could give the toy back and get his money again . I can relate to the feeling . So often I just want to hold onto my money . I probably do it for a different reason then Zech , but still at the core it 's the same thing . I 'm afraid of what might happen if I run out . On way too many occasions I find myself worrying and thinking about money , or a lack of it . What 's really sad is that we aren 't even close to running out of money , yet , I fear that it could happen . I 'm trusting in the dollar to get me something , rather than God . There has never been a time in my life where I 've been without . Yet , so often I see money leaving my hand , and I feel that same panicked feeling as Zechariah . I want my money back . I just want to hold onto it so I know that it 's there . It sounds really funny when I say it , but I 'm sure there are times that God is blessing me , and I 'm there trying to tell him , " No , God . Not today . You know I have this bill coming up and I 'm going to need the money for that instead . " As if I would know better than Him . I 'm just like Zechariah . His grandma was trying to give him a gift , a blessing , and he wasn 't ready to accept it . He wanted to just hold onto the money , the piece of paper , and not appreciate what the money could actually buy for him . Money is a tool , meant to be used , not collected and stored up . God has given me SO MUCH . I want to accept His blessings in my life , not hoard them for a later date . I must learn to trust God and depend on Him and His understanding , not my own . I don 't know if this is for anyone else , but God has really been hammering it into my head . Trust me . Trust me . Trust me . This applies to so much more than just money . It took a little , almost 4 year old boy , to bring home the point . God wants to bless me , but do I want to let Him ? Gabe wasn 't feeling good this morning , so I kept him home from school for a little while to rest . He had an upset stomach . When he finally was ready to head to school , he replied to my question , " I feel much better . . . except there is a man inside my head and he won 't stop kicking my brain . " September has been a very busy , but very fun month . I 'm not sure when things will quiet down ; probably after Zech 's birthday has passed . I love to stay busy . The only downside is that I don 't have time to keep up on my blog . I feel like I keep saying this , but it 's so true . Unfortunately , that 's always the first thing I let go . Zechariah 's birthday is coming up next week , which means a big party , of course . I love to plan all the details and make sure that it will be a big success . I can 't wait to share pictures with you of his Cars party . It 's going to be SO much FUN ! Zech shares his birth month with his aunt Stefanie , my little sister . Stefanie has just recently moved to Colorado Springs to be a part of the DLA ( Desperation Leadership Academy ) for the next year . It 's a very intense and challenging school that I am proud of Stefanie for joining . She is in for a long , but I 'm certain fulfilling year of growing closer to God . I 'm excited to hear all of her stories about what God is doing in and through her . Our days were packed with church , site seeing , church , eating , sleeping and driving ! I 'm really glad we went . It 's always nice to be there , and see everything . Now when I talk to Stefanie I can picture what she 'll be doing , and know the places she 's at . Our birthday dinner and then dessert later . . . While Stefanie is living in Colorado , she is staying with a host family . They are so wonderful ! Gabe also has already taken a trip there when Stefanie first moved in , and came back with great esteem for the family . If you 're wondering about this picture , my sister can NEVER blow out all her candles . She always finds it too funny ! We had a wonderful time , and it went by too quickly . We were very sad to say goodbye again to Stefanie . I 'll miss her lots , but at least we know she 's only a 9 hour car ride away . . . If you 've kept up with my blog , you 've probably read over the past two months my different posts Lost and Found . I was searching for something very precious to me that I had lost . It wasn 't your typical treasure you might want to get back ; this was a person , who was worth far more to me than any ordinary treasure . God placed her on my mind and in my heart for these past 6 weeks . I cannot believe it 's only been 6 weeks ! It feels like so much longer . When your heart hurts , time can pass by so slowly and seem to last forever . I told you last time , I would never stop searching for Birgit , and I never did . Every day when I left my house , I would check the sidewalks for her bike . I would glance at every person to see if they were the same size and shape as my friend . I would always be prepared to run after her or stop my car to talk with anyone I might think was Birgit . The last time I wrote , I was deeply saddened by the loss and the fact that she did not seem to want to be found . It seemed like God had oriented another meeting with Birgit , through a friend of a friend . But it didn 't work out . I never want to appear inauthentic on here , so I always strive to write exactly how I feel . I don 't think anyone can benefit from lies or acts we put on wishing we were something we 're not . I always want to tell the absolute truth , the way it really happens . From a very young age I have been a painfully honest person . I say painfully because my honesty has gotten me into trouble a time or two . There have been opportunities that I could have hidden things , but I always feel the need to confess . I cannot portray myself as anything but the truth . I must have a clear conscience . I say all that , to tell you the days following the rejection I felt from not getting a call , I was depressed . I didn 't want to do anything , or see anyone . I just laid around my house doing practically nothing . I took care of my family , I made sure my children got to school , but I felt so lost myself . My heart ached so much that I think I brought sickness upon myself . I never miss church for anything , but I couldn 't bring myself to go . I was so upset at God . People kept telling me I should be happy that at least I was given the opportunity to reconnect with her . That 's not how I felt . In fact , it was just the opposite . I complained to God that He never should have brought about the chance . I could handle that it wasn 't meant to be , but not that she chose to not see me . That hurt too much . I was moving on , but still felt distant . I want to point out ; this was my own feelings , not the truth of the situation . God had not moved , or done me wrong , I was the one who began to hold a grudge . Last Sunday , my pastor was talking about Experiencing God . His number one point was " Be Open to Supernatural Moments . " I actually felt like this was a cruel joke . I love to hear from God in a supernatural moment ; however this past time I felt like I had been done wrong . We had Friendship Group that night , and I found I couldn 't participate in the discussion . There were still things me and God needed to deal with , and honestly I didn 't feel like even trying . By Wednesday things were getting much better , and I was starting to get back to my normal self . Daily , my children and I have prayer journal time together before school , and often God shares things with me there . He sends me promises and reminds me of all that He 's brought me through . I think sometimes we just have to allow time to pass , and slowly God will mend our broken hearts . I don 't think it 's a switch that can just be flipped , especially if the hurt goes deep down inside of us . This girl lies at the very core of my being . I have never felt such a connection to a person before . I don 't understand it , but I am connected somehow , and I cannot change that fact . On Wednesday night , my pastor was talking again about Experiencing God , and he had people share different experiences . I finally could see what God had done , and not factor in my feelings to the equation . It made it from just lip service down to my heart . I was at peace . All this time it was my own agenda . I wanted it . I didn 't really care if God wanted it , I was certain it was supposed to happen because I wanted it so badly . I figured God wouldn 't give me this desire if it wasn 't supposed to be . I never really asked Him what He wanted to happen . I think there are lots of times that we get in the way . We think because it 's a really good thing that it must be a God thing . So I finally had peace about the situation . I was going to move on , and just be thankful that I had the opportunity that first time to talk with my friend . It obviously made a huge impact on me ; maybe it did something for her too . Sometimes we just never know . The strangest thing happened to me that night . I had a dream about Birgit . She found me , and came to my house . I knew she was making deliveries now , and in my dream she forgot I didn 't buy something from her , and she made a delivery to me anyways . I woke up broken again . I cried with my husband , and told him it just wasn 't fair . During the day I would think about her once or twice , I would look on the sidewalks while I drove around , but I wasn 't going to go out of my way anymore . If God wanted something to happen , He was going to have to do it Himself . I would go to bed each night thinking about something totally different , and I would dream about Birgit . She would come to my house . She would find me in the dream . I woke up so distraught , but I would deal with it . I was not going to make myself crazy anymore . My agenda was done . On Saturday afternoon , I was sewing some bean bags for Zechariah 's 3rd birthday that is coming up in a couple of weeks . My daughter yelled to me that Grandma was here with her new car . I told her , " Well , open the door then . " I wasn 't going to get up if it was my mom . She could just let herself in . I ran to the door ! I thought surely , she must be wrong . But it was ! It was Birgit at my house ! She found me , just like in my dreams . It was God 's agenda this time . It was not me . She said she was in the neighborhood making deliveries and she remembered that I wanted her to call me . I could have hugged her I was so happy , and I 'm not the hugging type . I have not been able to stop smiling since . I got to spend an hour talking with her . I got her email address and I even got my picture taken with her . It was exactly as I wanted it to be . God is so WOW ! This was such a supernatural moment and I experienced God in a way I never have before . When we pray , He really does hear us . Don 't ever doubt that . " My steps have stayed on your path ; I have not wavered from following you . I am praying to you because I know you will answer , O God . Bend down and listen as I pray . Show me your unfailing love in wonderful ways . " Psalm 17 : 5 - 7 Tonight our church had our annual Baptismal picnic at Shawnee Lake . The food there is always fantastic ! As soon as we got home , all three kids were complaining about how hungry they were . I didn 't feel the least bit sorry for them , as they had plenty of opportunity to fill their bellies . They preferred playing to eating . Gabe corrected me when I said all he ate was a couple of desserts . He had in fact had " some turkey and a patty . " I thought this was kinda funny since it was actually chicken and hamburgers that were served . I have never referred to a hamburger as a patty before , but apparently someone around my child has . I 'm just glad he 's graduated from calling them " circle meat thingy 's " . In the past year we 've tried to feed our children " normal " food so they don 't miss out on the good things in life . Ariel heard this conversation , and told me in her know it all voice , " yeah , I agree with Dad . It was a very well rounded meal . " She then proceeded to describe the shape of the chicken as being very circular , and the hamburger was also round . I thought this was especially hilarious since we had just been having a conversation on the drive home from the lake about how much she had to learn in life , and how Titus and I have finally reached the point where we realize we will never know enough . That 's not somewhere you get to easily . I remember being her age and feeling like I knew everything there was to know in the world . . . A couple weeks ago , Ariel celebrated her 10th birthday . We felt it was a pretty big deal , and wanted to have a huge birthday bash . We 're talking ; I 've been planning and getting ready for it for over 6 months ! She was especially pleased to finally be able to say that she is now a decade old ! I can remember that feeling of accomplishment when I was her age . It really was something to say that you made it into the double digits . If you 're not familiar with Kit Kittredge , she is the American Girl from the Great Depression . She also celebrates her 10th birthday , so this seemed to be the perfect choice for Ariel to pick . Last year during her gifted classes , they spent several weeks learning about this time period . She was very fascinated by it , and read all the Kit books . I found a new love for her too , as I was researching for Ariel 's party . I actually checked out every Kit book from the public library and took thorough notes so our party could be very accurate . I wanted to gather as much information as possible , and put it into action . Kit has a love for writing , and enjoys making her own family newspaper . Each day she would write articles about what went on in the home that day , and printed it special for her father to read when he walked in the front door . I thought it would be fun to have Ariel 's birthday invitation in the form of a newspaper . I tried to copy as much from Kit as I could . I even considered making the same mistakes that Kit 's typewriter made , but figured nobody else would even understand . They would probably just figure I was bad at typing . Something I always enjoy doing is working on a costume for the birthday kid to wear . Since we don 't celebrate Halloween , I have to use all other opportunities to dress up my kids . There is so much fun in pretending to be something different . This project started out to be fun , and ended up frustrating me to no end . I found an old 1940 's dress pattern on EBay . I intended to alter it a little to make it just like Kit 's feed sack birthday dress . This was much easier said than done . I spent hours and hours with my mother pouring over that pattern . In the 40 's the sizes were very different than now , and they didn 't explain things as well either . We had to guess and do some trial and error several times . The end result was fabulous I thought , and gave me that nice sense of accomplishment . You would think after I spent the hours going over Ariel 's dress , it would be simple to duplicate it in a doll size . Maybe it would , but I didn 't even give it a second thought to try . I was running out of time , and I wanted the doll dress to be a surprise for her . When she came home from school on her party day , the doll was dressed waiting for her . I figured as long as they were made out of the same fabric , and a little similar , it would be great . I was right , she didn 't care and it saved me a lot of time . My favorite part of the party was coming up with a craft for the girls to do . I needed to find something that Kit might have been able to make . I know during the Depression things were limited and they would have to be very crafty to make their toys to play with . I love to be creative , and I couldn 't resist when I saw this idea in a Family Fun magazine . In fact , I actually saw the idea first in the magazine and then tried to come up with when I would be able to make it . I researched egg cartons and found they were invented in 1911 , so technically Kit could have made this doll house furniture . In one of the books her family gets some chickens to raise so they can sell the eggs to make a little extra money . Kit and her friend , Stirling , sell them door to door . However , Kit packaged her eggs in half dozen amounts wrapped in newspaper . We made doll houses with egg carton furniture . I had to purchase 50 boxes and cut them up , hot glue them , paint them , and carpet them , all before the party began . Originally I was going to have the girls make everything themselves , but after a trial run that took me an entire day , I figured I had a lot of prep work ahead of me . Fortunately , I am blessed with a wonderful mother who is always willing to lend a hand . We spent an entire afternoon building houses for the girls ! I thought building houses was difficult and painting them was very time consuming , however I was very wrong . Compared to cutting egg cartons , the houses were a cinch . I worked for days cutting out furniture . Ariel was allowed to have 10 friends since she was turning 10 , and that meant 10 sets of furniture . I believe I had 20 different pieces of furniture , so 200 items total . It was an adventure for sure ! I was completely wiped out by the time the party came around . I never could have done it without the help of my family and friends . I needed 50 egg cartons saved ! I am so grateful to everyone for all the help I was given . In fact , I was overwhelmed with egg cartons and touched that I had such good participation collecting them . I asked one question , and my friends came through for me . Thank you all ! ! ! Our furniture included : Beds ! Chairs ! Each girl received 4 chairs for her dining room table , and 1 computer chairToilets ! I loved designing the bathroom . They were given a toilet and bathtub . Kitchen sink complete with stove and burners ! A couch ! And they got a footstool ! Lamps ! Each girl was given two lamps , one for the bedroom and one for the living room . Ariel chose a tie - dyed blue carpet for everyone 's house . Here 's their almost complete set of furniture . The computer and footstool is not pictured . I thought it would be fun to give the girls their own ration cards . I had great difficulty deciding what I wanted to ration out for them to help them really understand what it was like . I ended up deciding to ration out candy . I know sugar was a big thing that was rationed , so I thought we would have a candy store , and I would give them some ration stamps . Each girl was given 18 birthday ration stamps . All of the candy was 4 stamps , and then gum was only 2 stamps . So each girl got 4 pieces of candy and 1 piece of gum by the end of the party . Once the stamps were gone , the candy was no longer available . I told them it must be saved for other people . This was difficult to understand for some , as there was TONS of candy leftover . It appeared to them they could continue to eat and eat . I found out so many fun facts about each candy bar . The most interesting to me was the Kit Kat . I thought already it seemed appropriate that we would have Kit Kats since this was a Kit Kittredge party . But even more interesting , the Kit Kat bar came out when Kit was 11 years old , and it was introduced to the public on August 29th , Ariel 's birthday . The girls were all encouraged to bring their own American girl dolls . Only one of Ariel 's friends had a doll . The rest belong to my family . As you all know , I bought Felicity when I was young , and what you may not know , I bought Molly for my sister as a Christmas gift one year . The dolls are very special to me . They are a thing of my past which makes me love them all the more . The girls were all assigned different characters and played along as we all solved the mystery . Kit 's mother 's necklace ends up missing and it 's up to Kit and her friends to find out what happened to it , and who took it . I loved how much the girls got into the game . You can 't see it in a photo , but they each took on the different rolls and even gave them accents . It was so much fun ! If you 're doing a Kit party , I would highly recommend this game ! Ariel did not want to have the cake that Kit had on her birthday , a chocolate roll cake , so I let her choose something else . She requested a watermelon cake that my sister was kind enough to help out and make for me . It was delicious ! The cake even looks like a watermelon on the inside , chocolate chip seeds and all . When the girls all arrived and set their presents down on the table , I tried to slyly insert Ariel 's " Kit doll " . She immediately found it , and ran excitedly to me yelling , " Mom ! There is a box that looks just like the size of an American girl doll . " I tried to talk her out of it , and said , " What friend do you think could afford to buy you a doll ? ? ? I mean , come on , they cost over a hundred dollars ! " It never worked . She was convinced ! It was so much fun to see her open the doll . It brought back good memories of my little sister opening hers years ago . We had to get another group picture now that Kit was out of her box and unwrapped . The time finally came . . . after hours of labor . It was painting time ! The girls enjoyed putting their own special touches on each piece of furniture . You could definitely tell by the end of the night who the artists were in the crowd . Ariel had one friend that I was simply amazed by her creativity . She did a phenomenal job and put such touches on her furniture . I never would have thought to accent things the way she did . I was a little disappointed that Ariel didn 't get into the painting a little more . She probably only stuck around for the first 45 minutes of painting . She quickly gave up and had her own playtime with a few other girls who quit early . The die hards of the group painted for over 2 hours until about 12 : 30am ! Here 's a photo of Ariel 's dolls together before getting into bed . Annette is on the right in her party pajamas I sewed for her . Kit is wearing Felicity 's nightgown . The dolls were tucked in for their own sleepover upstairs . I wonder how late they stayed up ? ? ? I think most of the girls lasted until about 4am . After Kit Kittredge was over , they put on Soul Surfer , a special request by one of Ariel 's friends . My mom was kind enough to stay the night with me , and we corralled all the girls together . They awoke to a delicious breakfast cooking on the stove . This was something I read about in one of Kit 's mystery books , fried apples with buttermilk biscuits dripping in sorghum molasses . It was a little heavy for me . I don 't think I would eat it very often , or even again . Ariel on the other hand , loved it ! Our last activity before the girls went home was our clothing swap . In one of the Kit books , she gives her winter coat to a homeless girl , after she has outgrown it . I thought it would be fun for the girls to bring old clothes of theirs to donate . But first , we made sure to have a clothing swap amongst the girls . Almost all of them went home with at least one item , Ariel chose several . The rest of the clothing was donated to Goodwill . For fun , we had the girls put on a Fashion show for us grownups . You could tell those who were a little uncomfortable from those who think they 're born to be models . My daughter thinks she 's in the model category . My last activity we didn 't end up having time for . If you remember awhile back we made a shadow puppet theater . I thought it would be fun at nighttime to let the girls put on some American girl skits . All in all , I think it was a very memorable party . We didn 't get much sleep that night , but we had lots of fun to make up for it . I hope it was a perfect day for my daughter . She deserves it ! I love her so much !