Operation: Asa Joy

I am so sorry about not posting in a while. We are deep in the process of packing up our 2200 sq. ft. house and moving what we absolutely need into our new 308 sq. ft. We have moved all the clothes and necessary items into the camper already. In fact, we are all sleeping in it at this very moment and have been for several nights. Our neighbors must wonder what those crazy Trautman's are up to now. Currently, we have a 36 ft. camper in our driveway. We also have a utility trailer that we borrowed from some wonderful friends to transfer things to the dump, storage unit, or the be donated. We also have my in laws Suburban parked out front. They very graciously drove down from Maryland to help out for a few days. They are going to watch the kids and cook food for the next couple days while Carl and I finish the final push of moving. As of right now, we plan to be completely moved out by the weekend. The final walk through for the new owners is scheduled for January 6 and we close on ...

Here are the promised pictures that prove that we are not crazy. The first was taken at the dealer before we even left the parking lot. The next three are of the hitch assembly and the damage that was done. The last is of the hitch attached properly with the hitch pin. We took that one yesterday afternoon after the fact to see if we could compare the pictures. We wanted to prove to the dealer that they forgot to put the pin in.    This is what the hitch assembly looked like when we left the dealership. If you look closely you can see the receiver, hitch, and chains but NO PIN! It should be right there by where the chain is attached to the receiver. This is a picture of the hitch assembly. You can clearly see that it is cracked all the way across. Pretty scary.  This is another view of the hitch assembly. You can see that the top portion is cracked all the way through.  A side view of the hitch assembly. You can see the crack going up the side of i...

This post is not the one I had originally planned. We have had an interesting two weeks here at the Trautman household. We got a contract on our house (which I will write about later) and bought a new camper (more information and pictures on that later too). Things are falling into place for us to really begin our journey in January. What I want to write about today is something that happened this morning and has rocked me to the core and proves that God still does miracles. I have seen times in my life where God did something amazing. Most Christians can point to a time where they saw God working in an answer to a prayer or in some mighty way. I can recall many times whether it is four women waking up in the middle of the night to pray for a soldier under fire at that moment in time or a prayer for an anxious child waiting for an iv to be calm that was answered immediately. God is good all the time and we often take that for granted. We do not know all the ways that he is p...

Where to begin? My heart is so full. This year- a year of so much change. A year of so much testing and trials. A year full of plans changing and going ways I never thought. A year that should have, in the world's eyes, made me bitter and angry. A year where God has taught me more about joy than in all the years I have been on the earth combined. A year for which I am the most thankful in my 41 years walking this earth. I have learned more and cried more. I have prayed more and read my Bible more. I have shared more and gained friendships with some of the most wonderful, encouraging, awesome ladies in the whole world. They have prayed with me and for me. They have fed me when I could not get out of bed due to overwhelming sorrow and physical pain. They have cried with me and grieved the loss of our precious Asa. They have shared with me their stories of victory and also their insecurities. I have cried with them at the waywardness of one of their children. I have p...

Every year since we have moved down to North Carolina we have traveled to Maryland for Thanksgiving. My mother-in-law loves Thanksgiving, as in it is her favorite holiday. Last year we went up for over a week because Carl had just lost his job. This week we were planning the same thing. We were planning on leaving Monday morning. That was until Alex had his post op appointment. The doctor told us absolutely not. He would be at risk for blood clot and infection and injury if he moved around that much and sat in the car for 6-8 hours. WE had a feeling that was going to be the case but we were hopeful. Alex's foot looks great but the doctor said for us not to be deceived into thinking he can be up and moving yet. It was discouraging for Alex to hear. He has two more weeks of laying around with his foot elevated and icing all day. The actual surgery sites look good. You can tell from the x-rays just how much better his foot is. He actually has a little bit of an arch now. I could t...

The surgery was a success. Alex is doing very, very well. I am actually a little surprised at how well he is doing but then I remember how big my God is and that he can do anything. We got to the surgery center at 9:30 and got all checked in. Alex had no problem getting into the hospital gown. Previously that has been an area of anxiety for him. The nurse talked to him about what was going to happen and then she started to bring out the stuff for the iv. He did not freak out but outright refused to allow her to put it in. I sent out a quick Facebook post asking for prayer. They came in a little later with some medicine to calm him down. We were told that if he did not take the medicine and get the iv in that they would cancel his surgery. My stress level went from a 5 to about an 11. We talked about it and he finally took the medicine. We waited for the medicine to take effect and Alex and I had a conversation about consequences and blessings. Let us just say that when the nurse came...

I f you are reading this and attend our church then I am sorry for the repeat. It was just easier for me to copy and paste the information. There is more at the bottom. Oh my. What a week. We have all been busy preparing for Alex to have foot surgery tomorrow. You don't think about all that goes into having surgery until you have to get prescriptions, buy cast covers for the shower, buy extra pillows to prop up his leg, pack a bag for him and for me, and a multitude of other things.  So here is the deal. Alex is having his right foot and lower leg operated on tomorrow morning around 11:30. We have to be there around 8:30. They are fixing his very severe flat foot. The doctor is making an incision several inches below his knee to do some work and then they will work on his heel and foot where they will have to do bone grafts.  We will be at the Rex Outpatient Center in Cary most of the day. His surgery is a 3-4 hour long procedure. He has always been anxious about any m...

Do you ever have those times in your life where you are so sure of the way you think the Lord is leading you and you think He is just going to fling open the doors for everything to fall into place? Then, he doesn't. Yeah, those times lead to a choice. A choice to wait on the Lord and learn the lessons He wants you to learn in the waiting with joy and thanksgiving or to dwell on the negatives and get frustrated. Well, this week I have been impatient. I thought we were going to sell the house the first week and be on our way to greater things. Well, that is not what the Lord has planned for us. It seems that He has some lessons for us to learn in the waiting period, I think mainly for me. Is anyone else a person that has to learn lessons the hard way? There has to be someone else out there like that. I think He is trying to teach me about how important prayer is. I am having to go to him in prayer multiple times a day when the impatience and frustration arises in my heart. Prayers ...

These people! The Lord has chosen fit to bless me greatly with 9 children and a wonderful husband. Asa is in heaven waiting for us but he is just as much my child as the 8 who I have had the wonderful privilege of holding and nursing and hugging. Today I thank God for my children and my dear husband who is on this journey towards joy with me. I thank God for the hope that one day we will finally meet our Asa Rend. I look forward to that day with great anticipation. Praise the Lord. Very funny, William. He is just like his father.

As we go into the month of November I wanted to reflect on some lessons I have learned in the past few weeks. The first thing is that I actually like my family, especially my husband. For the past month or two Carl and I have been able to spend LOTS of time together. I have enjoyed it so much. It is nice planning field trips together and taking our kids out to learn things. We went to the Ft. Fisher Aquarium this past Monday and then to the Museum of Natural Sciences on Wednesday. It was great tag teaming between the little kids and the big ones. Everyone worked together and we had a great time. Carl has had Army duty since Thursday and honestly, I miss him. We had a showing both days and it was quite hard trying to get the house in order with 8 kids running around. I finally resorted to buckling the little ones in their car seats in the van while the older kids and I rushed around getting the house ready.  We have been learning team work as it really does take all of us to get th...

I had an appointment with the podiatrist today. I have been having problems with my right foot lately. I got a steroid injection 11 days ago and also started physical therapy, which really means pain and torture. Today I received a second injection and got more medicine put on a stubborn wart on the ball of my foot. I then went directly to physical therapy for an hour. All of that to say that I am now home with my foot propped up on several pillows. I am done for the night so I finally have some time to update my blog. It has been a busy couple of weeks. The Monday after we put the house on the market we made sure the house was clean, packed up the pop up and headed to Stone Mountain State Park in the mountains of our beautiful state. Carl had Army duty the weekend before so I braved church on my own. It did not go well. The kids were...rambucious. The younger four anyway. I ended up leaving during the worship time. I did get to hear some of the message in between finding coloring pag...

My, it has been a whirlwind the past few weeks. The photographer was supposed to come Monday October 6th. We knew we would not be ready so we pushed every thing back a week. We knew it would be tough. We still had the entire house to paint and stage. I prayed hard that we would be able to get it all done. Sunday I did not think it was possible. I had the upstairs mostly done but the downstairs looked like a bomb had exploded. Not one room was ready for me to stage. Paint supplies were everywhere to the point that we could not move. It was a mess. I was very discouraged. Sunday night we did not even have the front garden planted and the driveway had a big pile of mulch in it. My wonderful husband planted the garden by a light we plugged in. He also pulled an all nighter and painted the entire downstairs. He graciously allowed me to sleep a few hours. I woke up at 7:00 and began to stage what I could. He still had not painted any of the trim. The realtor came about 9:30 and I was fluster...

Yesterday my sweet Esther girl and I had a little bit of an issue in the morning. She had fixed her cereal and Tirzah's  and sat down at the kitchen table. She told me she was going to pray for her and Tirzah. I told her just to wait a second and then pray for everyone. This began a 45 minute ordeal that ended up with both of us in tears and one REALLY soggy bowl of cereal. She absolutely refused to pray for the whole table. This is something we have been working on with the kids. We want all of them to feel comfortable praying in public. This is something I struggle with too so we are really trying to start early with the kids. They all take turns praying before meals. Esther was defiant in her attitude and very disrespectful in her prayer. I told her that she was not allowed to eat her cereal until she prayed with respect. We had a conversation about how holy God is and how he demands and deserves our respect when we speak with him. She refused. She sat the entire time during fa...

Today, seven years ago, I gave birth to our 6th child. The 5th boy of 6. I remember being in labor with him and praying the pitocin would work this time. I have long labors. He was born in the evening. I remember because Jeopardy was on. One of the things I remember from hi birth is that he got stuck. I was pushing and I remember my husband and midwife getting very concerned and they were telling me to push as hard as I could. What I did not realize was that he was turning blue. When I did finally did deliver him, he was very blue. He recovered quickly snuggled next to me. He had no other complications other than a broken collar bone from the traumatic delivery. We found that out later. He was my biggest baby weighing in at 9lbs. 11oz. He has grown into a wonderful 7 year old. He loves to sing. His favorite song is Newsboys Restart. This Sunday at church he made me cry because he was singing at the top of his lungs. It made me so proud. He has a beautiful smile and gives the bes...

I have done close to nothing on the house the past two days. Do I feel guilty? Not one bit. I have spent the past two weeks working so hard to clear out the house. I am almost done the first purge of the whole house. The kitchen is left and a little work in the master bedroom. I think that I really just burnt myself out. I was so tired that I was falling asleep at 8:30 at night only to woken up by children an hour later. I got just enough sleep that it took me a while to fall back to sleep again. Not that I minded my children coming in and telling me that they love me, including my almost 16 year old son. It is worth it losing a little sleep to have my three biggest boys come in and tell me that they love me, every night. I want them to always be able to come to me and talk. Right now I am listening to the sounds of the bigs and my husband prep the upstairs for painting. Progress is being made. Hallelujah!!! I am excited. I even went to pick up the first of the paint at Lowe's tod...

To be honest, I am frustrated. For anyone who has ever watched Mom's Night Out, I am stress paralyzed. Yes, that scene in the movie. Yes, that is where I am. I am surrounded by stuff. Stuff I do not want anymore. Stuff I cannot seem to get rid of. Stuff that is taking over everything and stealing my … JOY. Oh, it makes me sad. I say all of this to remind myself that this is actually a good thing. It is a good thing to de clutter and to purge our possessions. It is a good thing to live with less. It is a good thing to donate things to people who are in need. It is a good thing to get our focus off of ourselves and onto others. It is just…HARD in the midst of the purging. I am one of those many people who get nervous and anxious when my house gets out of order. I do not like it. I try to fix it. Right now though I am trying to go through each room and purge A LOT. There is only so much that can fit in a travel trailer. Going from 10 years of stuff accumulated by 10 people in a 2200 ...

We have spent the last month calling this idea just "the idea". We knew we had to come up with a name for this journey we are embarking on. We told the kids to start thinking of some ideas. I was sitting in church last Sunday listening to our elder once again say things that reaffirmed our decision. The name Asa Joy just popped into my head. The name is special for several reasons. First - Asa is the name of the child we recently lost. We were not able to determine the sex of the baby but in my heart I believe it is a boy. Joy was the middle name of the girl name we had chosen for the new baby. Second- Our whole family has always struggled with the issue of joy. It is something we have been working on for a while. While I was sitting in the service I was thinking about Asa and how it stands for Always Seeking After Joy. That is a reminder for me to always focus on where our joy comes from and that is from Jesus. Third- Our family has struggled a lot and some of the relatio...

I sit here and I wonder how to start this post. How do you explain to people a crazy idea that is completely, absolutely turning your life upside down and inside out? How do tell people this crazy idea that the Lord has placed on the heart of our family?  M y name is Kimberly Trautman and my wonderful husband is Carl. He is in the Army Reserves and I am so proud of him. We have 9 children. Eight are here with us on this earth and we have one precious blessing waiting in heaven for us. We homeschool our children and go to a family integrated church. We live your typical American life with a house, two cars, and lots and lots of stuff. That is all about to change for our family.     I guess a little back story is necessary. When Carl and I got married we always knew that we wanted to eventually end up is some kind of Christian ministry. We talked about it but always said we should wait until we were ready. We wanted to be a little bit more mature in our faith. We wanted ...