When It Rains.....

Our family has had an extremely hard past two weeks. Greg's grandfather was hospitalized, and passed away on Friday after spending two weeks in the hospital. In the midst of his sickness, his wife, was put into an Alzheimer's home on Tuesday. Needless to say, this has just been a very difficult time for the Adkins family. They live here in Knoxville, and Greg has always been close to them. We always spent the holidays with them, and this year will just not be the same.

Greg was supposed to be in Las Vegas for work Friday through Monday. He switched planes in Atlanta and found out on the runway that his Papaw wasn't going to make it through the day. He had to fly all the way to Vegas and then turn around and fly back yesterday. He finally made it home late last night. The receiving of friends is tonight and the burial is tomorrow. Please pray for everyone during this difficult time.

It seems so minor to mention in regards to death, but I have spent the past couple of weeks living in the doctors office. I have been in chronic pain for the past two months, and it had gotten to the point where I was unable to sleep at night. I had been having extremely bad leg pain and constant headaches and migraines. I finally began physical therapy on Wednesday and I already feel like a different person. I am still on some anti-inflammatory medication, but I was at the point where I was taking two to three hydrocodone a day and was still in pain and a complete zombie. I am so glad to be off of that now! I had a headache on Thursday, I guess from the soreness that therapy caused, but I haven't had one since. It is such a blessing!

We leave for Taiwan in just seven weeks and are beginning the process of gathering supplies for the orphanage. I have been reading a very interesting Tawian travel book called, "Taiwan: Culture Shock" and learning a lot about its history, culture, and things that I want to do and see. I am so excited about the trip, just not flying for 20 hours!

Connor is doing great. He had a very fun Halloween as you can see from the pictures below. He's had a great Fall filled with lots of fun family adventures. Yesterday we went to Disney on Ice, and he loved it! It was no substitute for our annual Disney trip but at least we got in some Disney this Fall! He's getting so big, and I cannot believe he is able to read and write. He is obsessed with books and Legos right now. He's always building and reading. Five years have passed way too quickly! However, I feel very confident that he is socially and academically ready to go into Kindergarten next year. I am so glad that his birthday is in January, because it will really be to his advantage to be one of the older kids. As well as he's doing however, he's so ready for his little sister! He talks about her all the time, and we're all ready for another little one to join our family. Although we know that day is still many months away, we still pray for her to join us sooner than we expected. We still have peace knowing everything is in His perfect timing, and despite the hardships of the past couple of weeks, still know that He is in control and will carry us through.