PRAISE THE LORD!!! FIRST 5K!!!

Today I am just so overwhelmed with emotion....I ran my first 5k. I was sooo nervous and have been putting it off forever, self doubt, fear, the unknown...I don't know why, just me.
I told the Lord that I wanted to do one for him. I didn't care how I finished, I just wanted to praise and bring glory to God for all he has done for me. A honor to Him for my life. I almost could have died last year.....I was told, absolutely NO more kids, No more running/ anything physically active. My heart was so heavy just a year ago....I was again, filled with fear, fear that I was going to die and leave behind my family. I didn't care about the running or activitiy, shoot wouldn't everyone want to be told they had to do nothing? :) No one knew what to do with me medically, I was an "unknown, medical mystery". Something I did NOT enjoy being. But, then it all went away.....By the grace of God, I am for the most part, a healthy 33 year old woman/mom/wife/sister/daughter. I live on Lovenox injections and that keeps me alive.
So today I ran. I ran as hard as I could and let me tell you....I thought I was going to die! For the past 3 weeks I have been sick with bronchitis. I signed up for my race and got sick the day after....Great! I sucked it up and kept running, but I never thought I was going to make it. The last mile, I just looked in the sky and prayed, "please Lord, fill me with your strength and help me finish this, I can do this and I want to do this for you, I cannot finish without you."
I finished.
I watched the awards handed out and then I heard: Lisa Jongsma!
What?
I finished 2nd! I got a medal for 2nd place out of 70 women my age!!! I finished 182nd out of 949 participants!! Did I just do this????????
I was so overwhelmed, so shocked, still am. To God be the Glory!
I got home and just bawled. Why? B/c HE helped me win. He filled me with strength and I know HE held my hand and he is celebrating with me! My Lord is so amazing and so wonderful, I never want to forget all that he has done for me. I want to live each and every day in remembrance of where I was last year, where I am today, and how the Lord held my hand each and every step!!! I wish everyone knew Him, and could see how truly blessed we are. HE did it! Thank you so much Lord, I can never say it enough. I praise and thank you for everything, THANK YOU for helping run in this race of life!!!

Karlie and Luke camping at Holland 2010

Day at the Zoo

Tulip time 2010

Been a long time!

Wow, where does the time go? For a few months we tried to sell our home by owner, we had a ton of showings, but no one could get approved....Guess it shows how bad our economy really is right now. We have been really busy. Moms health has been great! (well, except for this week but thats only b/c of a really bad cold!) Praise the Lord for health, you never realize how much it means until your set back....and trust me, its hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel when you don't feel good.

We went to Angies in June to celebrate Devons birthday for 3 days. We had a great time as a family, got a hotel with a pool, the kids had a blast. We went camping to Holland again for a week, everyone but dad got the flu for at least 2 days....Puking in a trailer is not fun. We still got to enjoy about 1/2 of the week ;) We've been to the zoo, millineum park, lamar park, and enjoyed the 4th of July in Grandville (always a tradition).

The kids are amazing and I just love being a mom. I get a set schedule in the fall, which will be nice, just 2 days a week. The perfect balance for this mom! I love my job and I love being a mom and wife too. Luke is talking like crazy, repeating everything, I absolutely LOVE the 2's!!! He is so funny! Karlie just started swimming alone, even underwater! She is so proud of herself and so are we! We swim all the time at mom and dads neighbors, at least once a week we spend the day by the pool.

Today our house goes up for sale by a realtor....Not sure how I feel about this whole selling business! It is stressful and I am not giving my house away like they would like us too. Its so sad to see us losing 20k already that we have put into it, but hey, I guess that is the economy and life so theirs nothing we can do about it. If we don't sell, we stay. Really we don't have to leave so praise the Lord for that one! Like the realtor said, we could have bought 7 years ago when we got married in a worse neighborhood and lost even more and been stuck in that place, then what we do? We got a nice house (shoot, its the best its ever looked!! New carpet/wood flooring/clean/ painted,) I love "most" of my neighbors :) and the location, although a busy road, is so convenient. The Lord only knows and I am so thankful that I don't get to decide. I put our lives in his hands b/c he knows best!

Better go for now, kids and I are staying in b/c mom is sick....They are probably bored but someday they will understand. Posting a few of my fav. pics so far this year....till next time. I promise it will be more frequent! :)