Love Never Failes: Love, kisses and affection

(THIS BLOG WILL COVER AUGUST 17 - SEPTEMBER 17... Yes, I know that I am trying to catch up) Since August 17, we have had some very busy times in our household...( anniversary celebrations, the start of school, the start of school year activities). Here is an update on each of us: David is keeping busy at church doing a GREAT job as a Teaching Pastor as well as being in charge of Outreach and Hospitality.

I am still teaching ASL at Wright State University and am excited to teach my students to learn this beautiful language. I also am privileged to care for my niece once a week. She has a disease called MPS. ( http://mpssociety.org/) And in my spare time, I am also a substitute teacher for Beavercreek City Schools.

Bethany turns 20 on September 28 (more of that on the next blog) and is a Junior at Wright State studying Studio Art. She works at Chick Fil A.

Luke is a Senior this year and also works at the same Chick Fil A. He just purchased his first car.
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Cassidy started Middle School and is in the 6th grade. Yes, I have 2 kids in the youth group at church again. She decided to learn how to play the trumpet in the school band.

Toby started Preschool again and is enjoying school.

Let me start first with our anniversary celebrations. On July 29th, David and I celebrated 25 years of marriage. It was such a joyous time to reach such a milestone in our marriage. It is so hard to believe that we have been together for so long, but at the same time, it just seemed like yesterday that we started dating. Our children wanted to do something for our anniversary so we had a couple of celebrations. We had one at our church where many friends came to congratulate us. It was such a blessing! We also had another party up in Cleveland where the majority of my family live. It was SO beautiful and made us so happy! We are so thankful to all that participated and blessed us with their presence. We were so touched by so much love that was given to us! Someone asked me why we wanted to celebrate so much for this occasion.. I guess that question made me think about how many couples actually get to 25 years together. I know that it is even more rare to get to 50, but we were so excited to celebrate this great event in our lives. Unfortunately, there are more divorce court dates today than 25th anniversary parties. It has not always been easy, but David and I are committed to each other. With God being in the center of our marriage, we have been able to get through our issues and love each other no matter what. So if you hit a big anniversary... Celebrate BIG! I am so glad we did this year! \

Let me update you on Toby... He has been such an affectionate and caring little boy this summer. His random kisses and hugs just thrill my heart. Many of our quiet times are right before bedtime. He still has a hard time going to sleep at night either because he is so wired that he can't sleep or that he is afraid to be alone. I usually lay down with him and we just wind down together. At that time, he tells me on his own.. "Toby loves you". After seeing him tell that to me, it makes the frustrations go away. I see the transformation in his life as he is trusting and actually expressing love. It is the best feeling! Toby has come a long way in this area. However, we could still use prayers for some of his behavior issues. He still can be mischievous and destructive on purpose. That is very hard at times on me because as much as he loves me, he will act out with me the most. So I am praying for patience and understanding during these times as it is not easy to clean up messes constantly or have to have our "talks" about his behavior. I think some of this has escalated too because during the summer, he was home so much, but now that he is going back to school he is out of sync a bit. Praying for a solid routine so that Toby will adjust once again. (:

We had a lot of activities this past month. We went to the Beavercreek Popcorn Festival and had a blast. Toby loved the kettle corn! We also got to celebrate Cassidy's birthday and my birthday as well. I introduced Toby to Polish culture by taking him to a Polish festival up in Cleveland. He loved dancing the polka. (:

We are so blessed by our little boy!