I have found a few romance books recently that cover someone recovering from or dealing with PTSD (HERE). All For Anna, the first in the Letting Go series by Nicole Deese combines the hardships of surviving a devastating car accident with the knowledge that someone else didn’t and the need to find one’s faith and forgiveness. Forgiveness from the other survivor (necessary or not), from one’s self,  and from God. 

This is a story of recovery, of taking the steps to rebuild one’s heart and soul and regain a full life. Tori, a nurse, has survived a car accident where she could not save the child in the other car… could not save Anna. With a broken faith in God and a heart not mended she ran as far as she could to work at a distant hospital. 

Circumstances change over time and it is time to return to her home town to help her pregnant sister while her husband is out of country. It is here that Tori meets Kai the ambulance driver with his strong faith in God and his willingness to love and have patience while she works through her issues, insecurities and fear. 

The faith of others is there for Tori to observe and while she fears and avoids, over time her PTSD is healed, or at least improved by following their example and allowing love and acceptance of others into her heart. There are bumps in the road along with a revelation that could potentially shake all of Tori’s new foundations. 

What I loved about this story is that Tori is not a pathetic thing hiding in a corner… she is fighting (sometimes for the wrong reasons or in the wrong way) to come to grips with who she is and how she can accept that others COULD even partially understand and love her broken or not. You follow her in her journey and feel her pain, her sorrow and her love. Kai is a rock in troubled waters with an interesting history and culture that he shares with Tori as he also shares his faith. 

The Christian message is not subtle but neither is it overwhelming. You really do see how a belief in something greater than her helps heal the void in her heart in a situation where she did her ultimate best. All For Anna is a heart touching contemporary Christian romance and well worth the read. Be sure to read the Amazon blurb for the book (linked above).

All For Anna

Is  what I am told our loved ones had this year! And I lucked out, friends and family were willing to share their pictures!

My brother, my nephew and my Uncle together after Christmas building toys… thanks Holly!

The Bleau kids ready to open their presents on Christmas Day… So cute, thanks Sharon!

Jeff, Sean, Tedd and Darryl on New Years! Good memories of times like this! Thanks Sharon!

Though not pictured, Karyn sent me this picture from her time in Saskatchewan… this is her mom, her sister inlaw and her nephews!!! Oh and a puppy!

And a close up of the puppy, thanks Karyn

The parents to be Kristen and Fydo! Baby is due imminently

Not a picture but equally cool! Here is the video of Ted’s very own Christmas tree… very cool!

I really missed my time with our oldest god daughter and her family. Emanuel was also rather sad to not get his usual hugs and quality time with his god mommy. But I lucked out, the den Otters have a wonderful picture to share with us here! We miss you all so much!

Alex, Isabella and Izaac, thanks for the amazing picture Xinny!

It was super busy this Christmas for our other god daughter Anna… not only does she have a new baby sister but they also moved over the holiday. So here is the picture Ada was able to find for me. So cute! She is just 2 months older than Echo.

Miss Anna, thanks Ada

And of course we must include some images from the She Chris and He Chris Christmas. With Mae as well! You will remember them especially from their wedding!

Note the owl couple! I gave that to them last year

Miss Mae

The puppy

I want to thank everyone who send in their pictures! I am hoping to do this for other major holidays so PLEASE save those Easter pictures as well! 

With our move to Minnesota we put a huge amount of distance from our playdates, friends and family… one of the trade offs to saying good bye to all those amazing people has been the opportunity to be a part of the regular life of Andy, Darcy and their 4 boys. After years with our god daughters Isabella and Anna I feel so blessed to have the chance to be close to our god son as well. 

Echo and her Anthony

One of Anthony’s passions has to be soccer and so we have tried to make as many of his games as we could this summer/early fall. He is almost done his season and won’t be back playing until the spring. Ken played soccer in his youth until an injury at the end of high school had him kicking for football to get scholarships so he is really enjoying the chance to be a part of Anthony’s soccer experience. Saturday morning there was a home game and we had a free day so we joined them to watch him play. Of course this time I forgot my camera! Which leaves me feeling absolutely naked, thank goodness Darcy had hers for us to use. 

Go Anthony go!

Throwing in

Sadly they did NOT win though they ran hard and played their best. As usual, the other kids ran to the park that was just across the green and played the whole time. That left the 3 adults (Andy was in Vegas driving truck) and Echo to watch the game. It actually ended up hotter than we thought it would be and I am rather sure that some of the kids and myself got a little too much sun! 

Pretzel Baby

After the game we ran to Goodwill to look around and do a little shopping. The kids were not able to find anything to spend their 2.00 on that we would be sure was in full working order, all parts intact so we still need to head to the Dollar Tree to do some looking for that ever elusive perfect item. BUT I found 3 books to add to our collection, one about dinosaurs, a picture book version of a part of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House in the Big Woods, and a Halloween themed book that is a little beyond the boys’ reading ability but will be fun to read for Halloween as a family. at 99 cents a book definitely a good find! I just wish I could hunt down OUR dinosaur book I am rather sure came with us on our big move. 

Echo and Snoopy

After a nice afternoon of visiting and the kids running wild outside dinner became the next concern. Darcy and I went to Target and shopped for the meal. We got a rather special  treat – CAKE! There wasn’t too many options but we picked out a very cute OWL cake. Boy were the kids excited about that! Of course that meant PHOTO OP! Andrew was gone to scout camp so we were actually down to 8 kids instead of the usual 9! 

Kids and cake

Cake eaten, more video games and a semi cranky baby it was time to head home to bed. So while we did NOT get to our pumpkin pie on Saturday… well no one was complaining! And we have tentative plans (IF the day IS a school holiday that is) to get together for Columbus day. Not so much to celebrate but to spend more time socializing the kids and enjoying adult company! 

I had a few completions Saturday with the crochet projects… BOTH of the Christmas dishcloths are done and ready to be used when season dictates. So my first reading of a crochet pattern was a success.  The next was a pattern suggested by a learned Facebook friend as a great and relatively simple hat! You can find the instructions HERE. I am so happy with the way the variegation turned out and how it fits. I want to buy more of the same soft yarn and make more. I will have to take pictures later to share!

Sunday marked the end of our weekend and the return of Nana and Baba from their camping trip. We spent our morning ending our homeschooling project of making pumpkin pie from scratch. Trinity and Emanuel were our chief supervisors charged with being sure Daddy put the lid on the blender BEFORE it went into the oven. All in all a DELICIOUS experiment as usual! Now Monday we start our pumpkin unit. I got an awesome combo of notebooking and lapbooking in the form of a Currclick file – you can find it HERE. 

Supervisors at work

And into the oven, I would have finished pictures but it was eaten up too quickly!!

They brought geodes with them, so we all got to enjoy the experience of cracking them open!

Uncle Joe at work

Some of the results

Later, while Ken was working on the stump removal we came upon ANOTHER toad! The kids thought it was well worth some excitement. 

Toad NOT in a hole

My big goal for the beginning of the week after school work and the same old same old is the completion of our Halloween costume to do list. The twins are so not cemented on what they want to be.

So proud of our godson!