Fortner Family: November 2008

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Thankful!!

I have always loved the holiday's for as long as I can remember!! We celebrated Thanksgiving with my family on Sunday and we of course had a great time. James and I had to run to Wal-mart and we were walking through the bakery...oh my this is just one of many reasons I love the holiday's...FOOD!! So I must say that this Thanksgiving I have a lot to be thankful for. I am thankful for my wonderful husband, James. What an amazing man of God I have! A wonderful family and wonderful friends. Being with my entire family does not happen very often so when we get together we don't really want to leave each other. Every spouse that is married into this family is such a great blessing, LaJuana, James and Lance. Thanks for choosing to be a part of our family. We love you guys very much and can not imagine you not being apart of the Caroland clan!! For so long James and I have both prayed for good Christan friends and wow God has been really faithful to both of us!! So this Thanksgiving really give thanks. So here are some family pics from Thanksgiving with my family.

To end the celebration we celebrated James' birthday as well. We will be in Europe for his birthday so we thought what a great time to celebrate when my entire family is in town. Happy birthday James!!

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Stressed!!!

I don't even know where to begin!! We are leaving next week for Europe and I have so many things to get done and not enough time. We were told last night that we would be speaking about "Hearing the Voice of God". What a great topic. I think it finally hit me though that they want ME to speak as well. I'm really freaking out about this. I'm great about James speaking but not me. Last night when we got home I started reading the teaching manuals and there is so much info. Give me someone one on one and I love it, but not 75-100 people. Also to add to the stress...we won't have any down time when we arrive in Poland. Usually we are able to eat something and go to bed and start classes the next day, not this year. We fly for a full 24hours, step off the plane and two hours later we start teaching the classes that night. I know that God is stretching me and I know when stretching happens it's for a great change in me. Another stress is we have no clothes. Poland is VERY cold and Lubbock does not sell any real winter clothes. So my goal this weekend is to find real winter clothes. And we were also told last night that we can only take a 22inch suitcase a piece with a 30pound limit for two weeks!!! I'm really stressed about that. If anyone has any packing ideas I could really use your help. Thanks to Abby for letting us borrow your space bags for packing. Did I mention this also includes our toiletries and linens as well as clothes and coats!! Ok Father...calm me down...This is all for You and your glory not mine!!! Remind me of this everyday!! James and I both have a ton of work and I know that James will be working late every night to get everything done. He has all kinds of reports, budget meetings and payroll all before we leave. So I guess the best way to pray for us right now is for good quality time and great time management. We also need prayer for the trip. We usually start getting attacked by the enemy before we go and they are on full blast right now!! So pray for health, supernatural strength and peace of mind. Thanks for your prayer's and support. I will let you know before we go if we need anything else prayed for.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Blood and Guts or Poop??

I love my husband VERY much but sometimes you just have to make fun of them! So James please please please let us have fun at your expense. I know that you have threatened me that if I did this post you would delete it. Please don't make me change my password and not tell you!! So there are not many things that freak my husband out. He can kill bugs and snakes and never flinch. I on the other hand will freak out at just about anything. Especially if a bug wants to fly around my head. I promise you do not want to be near me when that happens. It can be dangerous!! So back to James. He can gut a deer and never get sick. I asked him last night how old was he when he gutted his first deer. He said that He was around 10 or 11years old. So I know that deer guts smell but what I don't understand is if he can handle blood and guts why can't he handle throw-up and poop? Just talking about it wants to make him hurl! But the funny part is that every time we go to church we sit around a mom who wants to breastfeed right in front of him!! The mom won't cover up and the child is usually to old to be doing this! There was a mom feeding a two year old once and James was so grossed out. So now it has become comic relief for me. This last Sunday we didn't have a breastfeedrer but we did have a mom lay the baby down and check for a dirty diaper and the dirty was on her finger. I of course have to point this out to James and he just looks at me and turns bright red and wants to gag!! And another time was when, I think it was my nephew Brincent, had just had a bottle and turned around and throw up all over Shawna. James had to high tail it to the other end of the house to keep himself from throwing up. I thought about Madison on Monday night. She did this very same thing to Kelsey. I went home and was telling James about poor Madison and he stops me in the middle of my story and says..."I really don't want to hear about Madison's puking. I think she is adorable but I don't' want to hear what color and texture it was." Ok...Sorry. I just can't wait to see him change his first dirty diaper with our children!! He keeps telling me that he won't ever be on diaper duty but I know that I will have to go to the store one day and James will have to do it!! This makes me laugh that my big strong tough husband can handle blood and guts but can't handle a little poop! Love you babe!!

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Truth or Lies??

Just a warning this is going to be a rambling blogg. So most of you know that James and I have tried for years to have children and have come close a couple of times. I know that one glorious day God will give me the deepest desire of my heart. We have lost two babies in nine months and all I can say is what a blessing!! At the time it sure did not feel like a blessig but it was. There are so many times through the week when I see children that sometimes my heart just aches so badley and other times it's great birth control. That makes me laugh! I learned a long time ago to never say my child will never...that comes back and bites you in the butt!! So anyways, there are many times that I ask God to just send someone to encourage me and everytime I ask He does. And even when I don't ask He sends someone. Like this morning at church. During the song "Break Free" Fred Watson came up to me and really blessed my heart. He is the sweetest old man you will ever meet. All Fred said was that a verse of that song says "We are holding on, holding on to your (God's) love." Fred said that the Lord told him to tell me to keep holding on to God's love and not to give up. And that I had started to believe that my womb was barron. And God is telling me that my womb is NOT barron but infact VERY fruitful!! So stop saying that we can't have children and get ready for them to come. What an amazing encouraging word. It always blesses my heart when I feel so desperate that I feel my God right next to me, but when I "feel" fine and not at a low moment He is still encouraging me. So needless to say I feel it in my heart and my soul that my children are coming very soon!! I just can't wait to see what kind of men and women of God these kidos will be. So enough rambling for me and sorry if this makes no sense for you but it makes perfect sense to me!!

Monday, November 3, 2008

Go Tech!!!!

Wow what an awesome football game. I had the privilege of taking my nephew, Lucas to the game with me. Lucas is a HUGE Texas fan so we had a great time together. It was so loud and we stood almost the entire time so I think Lucas got tired of standing and all the noise was bothering him but he did have a great time. We have this tradition between the two of us. Who's ever team wins the game for the year the "loser" has to wear the winning teams shirt at Christmas. So last year I had to wear the stupid Texas shirt and this year Lucas gets to wear the Tech shirt. I can't wait for Lucas to put on that Tech shirt. I can already picture him putting up is horns sign. Oh how I love rivalry!! Thanks Lucas for being my date to the most amazing game ever!! The second best part of the night was that I got to see Matthew McConaughey!!! Man is he hot or what!!