Can you hear the anegels sing....

Last night Nathan began to cry soft, quiet tears. When I held him in my arms, I asked him to tell me why he was so sad. Very softly, between quietly suppressed sobs he told me, "Mommy, I am so sad because I can no longer hear the angels singing."

Guess who got a ticket for the first time in 10 years?

Blog Soup

For those of you who could and did make it to Nathan's party, I just wanted you to know that it means so very, very, very much to me that you came. I appreciate it a lot, a lot, a lot. We are working on Thank You Notes this week. Nathan is very wiggly, so it may take a while, but I wanted you all to know how much I appreciate you being there. All of your gifts were Nathan's favorites. We've spent hours/days playing with them.

Poll answer- Steve has only taught for 4 years, not six. You should ask him about speaking in the foreign country, it's quite a tale involving a lot of chocolates and a big tummy ache. His daddy won nationals in model rocketry. NASA allows him and all of his friends compete in their area and I think hosts the events themselves.

Friends, I have quite a tale to share involving Nathans fish, a pair of chopsticks, the garbage disposal, and most disgustingly, my hand. It's super late, but check around Friday night and I'll blog about it.

Praise, Praise, Praise

I was really worried about baking Nathan's b-day cakes today because it makes the house unbearably hot, but God must have known what I was up to because He kept it nice and cool outside the entire morning!!

I went to pick up Nathan's meds. this afternoon and our non-existant insurance covered two out of the three meds we needed. I think it was God. We are still working on trying to get the third, but we are so very, very, very thankful for the two we got!!!

What Makes the Grass Grow?

In some weird co-in-sa-dence we keep ending up at parks right as they start mowing the grass. It happened everyday last week. Nathan, being my allergy child, is allergic to grass. It's the oddest thing that a child of mine would be allergic to grass. It's like being allergic to air or water. Usually Nathan doesn't have any problems but when the grass is getting cut, it brings out a new wave of impulses to his brain that tells his allergy censors to strart freaking out.
Last Saturday morning, we were at a park super early in the morning and our new friends, The Mowers, were out as well. After being 'spider hunters' on the playground, we venured out to the lake to say 'hi' to the ducks and to play 'Sink or Float' with the sticks and leaves around the pond. As we were crossing the freshly cut grass, Nathan began to itch. "Mom," he started breaking the morning's silence, "I have those bugs in my hair." When I asked him to explain, he told me that they are kind of like fleas, but you have to wash them out. The itching continued down his arms and to the tops of his legs as I led him to the areas with no grass. This is when his nose kicked in. He started itching it and wiggling the small thing back and forth with his index finger. I asked him if he had tickles in his nose, and without a pause, he told me very matter of factly, "NO MOM, that's where the fleas live."

Prayer Request- We found out today that we currently have no health insurance!!!!! Nathan needs his meds filled NOW. I am going to go to HEB tomorrow and pick up what we can afford, but we're going to need some help from God to get the other two. Please pray that we will somehow be able to get the others.
The praise part of this situation is that Steve found out about BISD cutting off our health insurance today, so he called MISD and today was the very last day that he could sign up to start getting health insurance on September 1st. So we are all signed up and will be getting medical coverage in about two weeks. Thank God!

Heavenly Treasures

We got an offer on the house and on the exact same day, Steve found what he exclaimed to me over the phone, "the perfect house!!!!!" The problem? The offer was way low, and the 'perfect house' is $93,000. This may not seem like a lot to pretty much all of you, but with Steve being a teacher, we've never been approved for a loan over $75,000. Although nothing is impossible with God, we aren't sure that Steve's new raise will bear much more fruit on the home loan lending tree....and we're ok with that. We are great with that because we know that God will give us what we need when we need it. On the flip side, however, Nathan has seen pictures of the house and heard us talking about money, loans, and all of the things grownups talk about. He WANTS the house. He loves the house. He is our tiny polar bear in the backseat of the car, and yesterday, he finally said it....."Mom, I wish we were rich...."
I know longing. I longed for things for at least 20 years of my life before I realized that Jesus is all I need. Hearing Nathan long for money sent my mind spinning. What do we tell him? Do we say that God has chosen us to be poor? No, even that depresses me. Do I tell him that being poor has allowed us to see the true sufficiency of God's grace? No, because how do you explain that to a soon to be six year old? My mind raced as fast as the cars were passing us on Hwy 10, and then God gave it too me. The green eyed answer. The 'what's in it for me' answer. The Truth. Before my mind caught up with my mouth, I began explaining to Nathan about the riches that God has stored up for him in Heaven. I told him what Isaiah tells us about the priceless rubies, and what Revelations says about the mansions. Before I knew it, I had painted Nathan a detailed picture of what Heaven would be like, and he was not only satisfied with my answer, but I have no doubt that I planned a precious seed in his heart so that one day, he will accept Jesus as his own, and that made my heart glad. We many not get that perfect house, but there is an even better one for us in Heaven.

Prayer requests: Please, please, please pray that we will sell our house super fast. Steve will be for the most part moving out on Thursday. :o( Please pray that I can keep my head as a single mom. I don't do well alone at all, esp alone and trying to get our house sold. Please pray for our financial situation with the added expenses of Steve driving back and forth to Mansfield on the weekends and him having to eat out a lot. Please pray for our next Broker that we can get a good loan and find a good house. Please pray for our next church that it will at least be close to what we have now.

Another Polar Bear...

Woe is meeeee, for I am a Polar Bear who cannot swim...

Cute, Fluffy White Polar Bear from "Balto"

When I was 16, I fell suddenly ill with heart problems and spent some time at Cook Children's Hospital in Fort Worth having numerous, uncomfortable tests done on my heart. During the long tests, a doctor or nurse would turn on the TV where the movie "Balto" was most always playing.....ok not most always, ALWAYS playing. I had to have seen that movie at least 15 times. My favorite character was a small, fluffy polar bear who couldn't swim. He spent the entire movie saying in his cute, British accent, "woooeee is me, for I am a Polar Bear who cannot swim." When I met Steve some time later, I showed him the movie, and he quickly picked up the famously cute line. When one of us is down or feeling sorry for ourselves, we metamorphasize into that small, fluffy polar bear and focus on the bad. "Woe is me...." we begin to say. Being the funny guy that Steve is, he'll dramatically drape his arm across his forehead, whip out the 'I am a cute British Polar Bear accent' and say in a cute high pitched voice, "WOE is me, for I am a Polar Bear who cannot swim..." It makes me laugh every time and it reminds me that God has given us so much to be thankful for, that it probably hurts His heart when we turn into mornful baby polar bears who cannot swim.
We've had sort of a rocky week with this house selling business. First our garbage disposal died and then our air conditioning...to be honest I've probably spent about an hour or two in my polar bear outfit, feeling defeated/sad/frustrated about the entire situation, but then I remembered an important lesson that God has spent the last 28 years trying to teach me. God is in charge. He has a plan for all of this, and most importantly, He has a plan for me and my family. Without God, there is no hope. Nathan keeps asking me when God is going to sell our house (mostly because he is tired of cleaning his room and living at the mall playground), and I can look him in the eye and tell him that even though we don't know, God does, and God will take care of us. Even if we are polar bears who can't swim sometimes, at least we are polar bears and polar bears are pretty cute.

Lost Sharpie

....I lost my Sharpie while labeling boxes, and a few minutes later I found a blue baby... hummmmm......

On a less blue note, because our band tours and we have public exposure all over Texas, we do not feel safe putting pictures of our babies over the internet. This makes us sad because we really do want to share our lives and our family with those living far away. Due to our most recent adventure (our soon to be exodus into Mansfield), we decided to create a private myspace. Our new site will be www.myspace.com/saenzfamilyrawks . I know it will be some what confusing this site being thesaenzfamilyrawks and the other site lacking in the word 'the' but you can blame my hubby for that. I am going to Austin this weekend on a girls nite out event, but when I get back I will put all sorts of good photos on our new mypace!

One more thing, we had a 1 family look at our house so far, and I woke up that morning so positve that we would sell it that day.... anywho, we talked to the agent who showed the house and he said that the family loved the house but not the neighborhood. So close.....