A Link Post and a few Summery updates.

His little pointer finger gets me every time.  photo cred: Joy

Baby rolls are delicious. photo cred: Joy

Link was three months old on 9.23.19 photo cred: Joy

Hello there!

Long time, no blog, huh?

Do people even blog these days?

Well, I do. Twice a year. haha.

On June 23, 2019, we welcomed our second grandson, Lincoln Phoenix. He was, amazingly, but of no surprise to God, born on his big brother, Oliver Franklin's second birthday. How cool is that?

To this day....October 8, 2019...I still just cannot believe that Link was born 2 years to the day of his big brother.  Joy had a very successful VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) and it was simply amazing to witness. She is a superstar! I've love love loved watching Will & Joy raise this sweet boy! 

The whole pregnancy was a beautiful event...still pinching ourselves that this little treasure has gotten to stay. 

A friend, Rachel F. , told us today that we should get Link's Fan Club shirts. It is rather amusing that when any of us stop by their house, since it is stationed at our YFF shop, or see him in our coming and going, we all fawn and coo over this wonder boy. He may always think that he is a superstar (and he is!) and that every person he meets should fawn over him. How could they not? He is adorable, special and amazing! 

Aunt Mo got Lincoln to sleep, surprisingly, at Brickhouse Coffee.

baby thighs are thee best. photo cred: Joy

every little boy needs a shark bathrobe. This one is special because it was Oliver's.
photo cred: Joy

I love their relationship. Joylily is an EXCELLENT momma.

Link n Pops. photo cred: Joy

Mutual Admiration Society! photo cred: Joy?

Aunt Mel and Lolli love you, Link! photo cred: Joy

This guy has my heart! #biggestfan

My sister, Beck, is helping us sell our house. A very bittersweet adventure, but I can't imagine a better and more helpful person to do this with us.

Baby feets Photo Cred, as with most of these, goes to Joylily.

These two are parenting this little person SO well. photo cred: Joy

Working at the down town Indy Turnverein with Ethan!

Our trip to my MI hometown in August. These beauties by my Gma Greenhill's lake, which is now my Aunt Nan and Uncle Frank's lovely home.

So, yeah, I've been a horrible blogger again, as per usual. Keeping up with anything seems to be super challenging to me these days. Think....Stretch Armstrong...

With the arrival of the cutest baby in the world, keeping up with our family business and the comings and goings of our crazy life...I'm doing well to get a shower. Haha. just kidding. 

mostly.

In September, we decided to put our house on the market with my sister's real estate company, Plat Collective, here in Indy. 

So far, three showing, two open houses and no sale. But we will not be shaken. 

We have felt the Lord's prompting to move closer to Indy, our business location and most of the work we do (Interstate highways and such), so we shall see what comes of this adventure! Its such a bittersweet adventure, though we love our house, all the memories we have here...it is still just a house and we will make new memories wherever we go...

(trying to convince myself of this!)

Hope you've enjoyed this little peek into life around here.

Drop me a line if you have a prayer request, an offer on our house, or a comment.

I love hearing from you.

A very June update

Hello there!
Just dropping by for a quick update, minus pics, as I still do not know how to upload pix from my phone to this stinkin' Dell computer. I'd blog on my Apple laptop but it's on its last leg....sad.

We are in the last four weeks of anxiously (or is it eagerly) awaiting the arrival of our precious second grandson. You just can't even know how excited we are. but admittedly, nervous. I know that whatever the outcome, the Lord will be glorified. That is key. 

We will all endure crappy, hard, less than amazing situations in our lives. (and I've found that even those situations can be beautiful!!) That is a guarantee. What are you going to do with it? Did your spouse leave, or cheat, did you get treated badly somewhere? Did your child die? 

I don't disagree, those are all really freakin' hard things to live through. But I can assure you, you WILL be ok. Your story will be different than you'd imagined and any control you thought you may have had will be gone...but that's OK! I'm here to tell you that the sooner you give up control, the better. So many people around me want to KEEP control...and we just can't wait to give it up every single day. Give it up to Jesus. He is a much better writer of stories than us. Seriously. 

So use the gory parts of your story, where it just didn't end up looking like you thought it would, and give it back to Him. And if you don't believe in Him, or you're mad at Him...let me encourage you to seek Him. Jesus Christ is the same Yesterday, to day and FOREVER. 

I want to encourage you while you care for your parents, or your kids, or while you struggle through trying to get a grip on why your spouse left, or why you can't have children, or you find yourself dealing with rebellious children...whatever...to turn and give it back to Him and let Him write your story and guide your days. 

ok then...I'll jump off that soap box now...I just have a hard time dealing with the idea of being mad at God when things don't go according to YOUR plans....

Will and Joy are doing really well and so so excited to meet Oliver's little brother. The Young Band hosted a home show in April, which was awesome, and Joy has been doing some traveling as a second shooter in weddings, and other amazing photographic opps for her thriving business, Joylily Photography.  She's about to welcome her very own photo subject!! Thank you for praying for them. I know they are grateful.

Ethan is a social guy, and that's been fun to see. He's loving being on his own at his beautiful apartment. We actually utilized his pool and clubhouse today. He never ceases to amaze me with his hunger to learn new things. I know he'd appreciate your prayers.

Melanie. Ahh sweet Mel. She just turned 21, the day before she sent her German friend, Kevin, back home. He was here for 18 days and we all miss him more than we thought possible. what? 
She's back at work, working on getting a passport, gearing up for these exciting adventures in life! Pray for this amazingly sweet girl, with me.

Levi is awesome and cool and helpful and I love watching him grow into the young man he is becoming. He's growing every day and so tender. He's my cheerleader. He continues to strive for his Indiana Learner's permit but it evades. Test taking is not his strong suit.

Molly....ahhh Molly. She will greet her 12th year this summer and her doggie, Ruby's, first birthday on June 9th. Hard to believe we've been dog peeps for almost a year. Moo is excited to get her ears pierced once she turns 12. Rites of passage. She's pretty spunky and cool...it's fun to watch her blossom into a lovely young lady. She's all about make up, earrings, and emotions. ahhh. 

David Young. Oh, David. you never ever ever cease to amaze me, fella. Thank you for being the picture of diligence (that i need to see soo so badly) and faithfulness. You are such a good leader, imperfect but open, redirectable, always listening to the voice of God. 

There are so many exciting things on the horizon...check back, ya know, every six months, in the off chance that I get on here to blog. And if anyone has any suggestions on how to import pix from my phone to this here computer, well, then...I'm open to hearing them. 

I have so much more I could blog about, but it's a weird place to be ya know? the mom of adults, young pre-adults, pre-teens...it's not like I can just blab about this stuff anymore, ya know?  Helping David run this business, manage a home, manage emotions and kids, encourage the adult kids...man. I'm thankful for this beautiful life and I do not take it lightly...but I can't do it without the encouragement of other fellow believers, friends that are in the so called trenches of life...and I'm ever so grateful for each of you. Any encouragement you can offer, dish out, give, is so appreciated. And we will pay it forward. Overflowing. Ever-praising God for these gifts. 

To my friends with young kids, keep pointing them to the Lord. He is in the everyday. He is in the mundane. He is in the glorious places. 

See you soon.

It has been too long...

Guys. I'm so sorry. I've been a horrible blogger.

I am on a Dell laptop (barf!!!) and so I have no pictures and no clue as to how to get pictures on to this stupid non-Apple laptop....

Could I be a lousier blogger? probably not.

But I CAN use the power of words and update you on a few important factors:

1. Will and Joy are expecting their second baby this summer. July 2 to be specific. Oliver will have a little brother and although Ollie is not here with us physically, we know we will find him in the little intricacies of his little brother, Lincoln (aka Link). Admittedly, I've had a hard time wrapping my head and heart around this new little person. I know once he's here, we will be soooooo excited and we won't miss a beat...but I know also that there will be tears aplenty and comparisons. Already, I imagine how Link will not get to grow up with his big brother, as Ethan got to grow up with Will. How is this even a real thing?? 

I can't even process this.  even almost two years later. ya know??

But watching my son, my firstborn, and his precious firstborn herself, wife, process this, move forward, make this whole darn process look like a cakewalk, has been cathartic and I'm completely blown away by their trust in God and sheer awesomeness.  Link is a blessed little dude to have these two as his parents.  Ethan, Mel, Levi, Molly, Amy, as his aunts and uncles and all the rest of you that will play a significant role in his life...and there will be many. 

I can't wait to meet him. I want him to be a different looking boy from his brother but in all honestly, if he's Ollie's clone, that'll be a-ok with this Lolli. I want to sniff him, nuzzle him, baby sit him, read to him, feed him fruit snacks, love him, check out his bum, all the good stuff that I've been waiting to do since June of 2017. Hope deferred makes the heart sick. A grandma made to wait to love on her grandson is just.....hard. I thank the Lord for the trial and waiting but I am so hopeful that Link will get to be the boy we lavish all this love on to..( I mean honestly, I've had to do this on a dog, and while I love Rubes, I just wanna sniff and smell, love and squeeze a human lovey.)

Can't wait to meet you, Lincoln. We are apprehensively excited. does that make sense?

Anyway, we are days away from the 8th month celebration of Ruby June Young and her inclusion into this family. I'll admit, as not a dog person, that this has been a rough transition for me....but I feel we have turned a corner and Rubes has become a valuable member of our family. She's precious, honestly, and though she requires a bit more work than I'm willing to put in, we all come together and make it work. I can't imagine life without her now and it'll only get better as she grows out of the puppy phase (when is that again???). 

Will and Joy are doing so well and I'm so excited for them to get to parent Ollie's little brother. Their musical endeavors continue to move forward, and they keep pretty busy with that and working for Young Final Finish. They're pretty awesome, if you haven't had a chance to meet them yet.

Ethan moved out of our home in Nov of 2018. It was quite an adjustment but he's doing SO well, hosts events and siblings regularly, keeps his place SO neat, and is thriving in his own environment. As much as a momma wants to keep her babies close, it's so amazing to watch them fly and thrive. 

Melanie is doing so well with her doula apprenticeship. She works with Ana at Indy Birth Services. She will be doula-ing for Will and Joy at Link's upcoming birth. Pray for this whole situation, if you think of it. 

She also has a friend coming to visit from Germany from May 13-June 1. Stay tuned. They are simply "friends" but we are excited to meet and host Kevin during his first visit to the US of A. 

Levi is a champ. that is all. I mean, seriously. he had 4 wisdom teeth pulled a few weeks ago. He made it seem so easy. No dry sockets, no splinters, he only took 1/2 of one of his pain pills...seriously kid? High pain tolerance much? He is our resident car man...keeps all of our cars clean and ready to go. He is our encourager and right hand man. He's started going on jobs with his dad more also. He is attempting to take his driving test to get his driver's permit. So far, we've taken it twice and no permit but that's ok also!!! You can't rush perfection!

Molly Moo had FOUR teeth pulled today. Our dentist is very competent and makes this whole dental process so much more enjoyable (is that even a word to use in the same sentence as DENTAL work? yeah, it is...here, in this instance) Dr. J and his crew are the coolest. We love them all! Anyways, she has handled this extraction like a champ and we can begin to make way for her extensive dental work in the next year or two. Some of our kids have decent teeth, some of them are janky. hahahahah, Molly is blossoming into quite the lovely young lady, loves make up, her pup, soccer, which starts again this Saturday. I haven't blogged since her little "brother" Elijah was taken in a tragic car accident on November 25, 2018. Just can't even process this loss yet, I don't think. Continued prayers for Elijah's precious Momma, Taylor and precious Dad, Aaron, would be greatly appreciated.  Molly loves her little pal and the loss is great. As Taylor stated, "it seems like he's just at his dad's for the weekend..."  when will we fully process this loss...which isn't a loss for Elijah...he's more whole than ever and what a little Christ follower he was...