Thankful, Grateful, Joyful

THANKFUL right now for more than I can possibly write. We finally got a car, praise the Lord! We are all healthy, happy, safe, free, and provided for.

GRATEFUL for the opportunity to move to a new place this weekend! Laredo, Texas, will be home to us soon. I am excited to become a part of a new church body, make a new apartment our home, and experience a new part of the country. I only wish I was 100% fluent with my Spanish, but at leats I know enough to carry on a conversation with a child!

JOYFUL...I have learned something over these past few months. Joy is not the same thing as happiness. Being happy seems to be the goal these days, but happiness is so shaky because it depends on your circumstances, which change from day to day. Who knows if you will have enough money next month, or if you will have reasons to be "happy?" But joy, true joy, comes from the Lord. It's being content with what you have and trusting God, because even at my lowest point, God NEVER abandoned me. Even at my lowest point, God revealed to me my true wealth, and showed me that I am richer than most of the world just by having a safe place to sleep and food to eat. JOY:

J- Jesus first,
O- Others second,
Y- Yourself last

Jesus promised in John 16:22, "I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy."

Cabin Fever!

You guessed it, I am still without a car! This week Isaac and I have been on the hunt for a car we can afford to pay cash for, since nobody seems to want to loan us any money! I have reached the end of my no-car rope. I thought it was something I could live without, but not in this century. I need the freedom to go to the store or take my son to the park, anything to get out everyday! We get EXTREME CABIN FEVER. I am extremely grateful to God that this is my biggest problem in life right now. Even in the middle of my boredom and loneliness, the Lord still provides me each day with many, many, many blessings.

Phoenix is my little man, getting so big and so playful. But also very stubborn, just like his Daddy. I posted a picture of him from when he was a newborn, and then one of him today. He has changed so much! I love him more and more as time passes. He seems to love me more and more too, and shows it by throwing tantrums, throwing food at me, and chucking his toys onto the floor in protest each day. What a little lovebug!

Pool, Pool, Pool!

We spend A LOT of time at the pool! Phoenix loves the water now, it took a few times to get him used to it (even bath time is becoming fun for him now). Plus it's so hot outside and most days I feel our options are A) Play at home in our apartment, which is only fun for a while, or B) Go swimming! This week Isaac got to go to work later than usual so we took advantage of our RARE time together and took Phoenix for a shorty but very fun swim. It was the first time he got to play in the pool with Daddy and his first time in his turtle floatie!

Added bonus: we found a small frog in the water for Phoenix to play with. I expected him to be afraid, with all the jumping, but I guess he is a Smith boy, just like his Daddy. Although, truth be told, I had more fun with the frog than my son did. I let him sit on my shoulder or in my hand, and he seemed to enjoy that. I called him Mr. Frog. The Pool Cleaner Guy said to me, "It doesn't take much to amuse you, does it?" I replied, "No, that's why I married my husband!" Ha ha ha.

Fun in Georgetown

Georgetown, Texas, is a very beautiful, charming city. My parents and siblings are so blessed to live there. It is very family-oriented ,the people are nice, the houses are quaint and beautiful, and the scenery is awesome. I really enjoyed my visit, especially when we went to the Farmer's Market and also when we visited an antique store downtown. I found a new love: antique furniture. It is just my style, not too pricey, and usually great quality. Someday if God blesses us with a house to live in again, I would love to start adding antique furniture to the mix.

We spent a lot of time at the pool. The humidity in Texas and in Missouri is like...it's like...a sauna or a steam room! You walk outside to get the mail for 2 minutes and you come home sweating. But it's been nice for my curly hair!

Airplane Adventure!

The airport/airplane experience was quite interesting! It was really hard to watch my hubby walk away from me in the Springfield airport, and the airport security had to "pat" me down because I brought liquids for Phoenix to drink. I guess they thought I was smuggling some goods...

The first flight was weird because the airplane was tiny, tiny, tiny. Luckily Phoenix slept most of the flight, after he wrestled me and went down squirming! I was eager to get off that plane and get back on to the next one that would take us to Austin. ..BUT NO! We had a super long delay of almost 2 hours because of bad weather in New York, so Phoenix and I explored the Dallas airport. He loves to watch people pass by and flirt with anyone who will give him attention.

A few messy diapers and jars of baby food later, we finally got onto our final flight...only to hear the captain announce "It's going to be another 20 minutes before take-off, folks..." UGH! At this point Phoenix has missed his afternoon nap, wriggled in the airport for 2 whole hours, and we are squished between some very conservative people who didn't seem to enjoy my son's hands slapping their faces.

So we walled to the back of the airplane where- PRAISE GOD!- there was an entire row with nobody sitting there. So Phoenix had room to roll and grunt and play and it was wonderful. 32 minutes after take-off, we arrived to see Grandpa Ortiz! Let the fun begin!