And He said unto me, My grace is sufficiant for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I glory in mine infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 2 Cor. 12:9

Oh how grateful I am for the Grace of God, unto salvation yes, but also the grace he provides to those who rest in Him during their infirmities and trials. As my family has been attempting to rest in God through the current ' life storm' that we are currently going through, I have seen Gods grace evident in very real ways. And I have seen God working in lives even in the midst of adversity.

If you would have asked me back in August if I thought God would ever allow 2 of our men to die, and my dads business to be taken from in a time period of one week, I would have said "no, I don't think he would put us through that much at one time!", but he did allow it, and we are going through that much at one time, yet it doesn't feel like to much, because he has made Himself so very near to us, even circumstances seem against us.

On the last Friday of September, one of our more elderly clients fell and hit his head while coming in from the car, I'll spare the details, but it caused more than just a knot, and he passed away that night. His family took over the funeral planning, so thankfully we didn't have that to be doing, for on Sunday morning, another one of our residents went to church, fell, hit his head on a pew, and dad had to take him to the ER to get staples. As soon as he got home from that, we went to the viewing of our previous resident. Not more than 3 hours later Dad was back at the ER with another one of our more elderly men. Mike had been with us for 15 years, and was our very first resident, he was more or less a part of our family. Dad took him in for stomache pain, and strange behavior. By 4:30 am he was in ICU. Again I will spare the details, but we went to Hollis' funeral at 10:30 and by 6:00 we were already planning for another. Mikes heart just gave out on him, and wasn't able to deal with all of the many things his body was going through. We were all shocked, and very heartbroken. On Friday, we were all very surprised when Dad got a call saying that there was a chance that they would be taking our remaining five men out of our care, by 9:00 pm, Dad was driving them all to Snellville Ga to be placed in temporary homes, we were out of business. And we have been since that day. But God has been so good, he has given us so many wonderful friends who are lifting us up in prayer daily, he has supplies every need, and is teaching each one of us of our need for Him, and our complete inability to 'make things work'. His grace is beyond sufficiant, it is completely amazing, and overflowing! God is good, and very Faithful! 

So its been a long time!! Since March 27th a lot has happend!

As most people probably know, Autumn and Mark have a little one on the way!! YAY!! I am soo excited. Aunt Avie just has a nice ring to it :)

I have taken my first trip out of the United States on a Birthday Cruise with Mom, Ashley and Aunt Kim!! It was sooo much fun. A new experience that came with lots of wonderful memories, food, rain, and pictures:)

Yesterday I got the wonderful oppertunity to help slaughter, skin, clean, gut and package chicken at my Grandmothers house! Kelsey went down to Linclonton with me, and we got to help Vince ( like my cousin) and Jamie ( my cousin ) kill eight of my grandparents chickens and get them in the freezer! Fun times:) After cleaning up from slaughtering and lunch, Jamie, Jo and I, beat Vince, Kelsey and Cameron at a game of football.:) Maybe next time guys ;) Then we enjoyed a nice swim in the pool. It was so hot yesterday, that the pool water was almost uncomfortable because it could hardly refresh you it was so warm. But we still had fun. Kelsey and I headed to Hartwell lake to play for some Tuesday volleyball, we actually got Jamie, Vince, Jo and Angel to make the drive and come play with us! It was a ton of fun!! I wasn't doing so hot on the volleyball field, but it was fun. The Banister family has chalanged the Darbyshires to a volleyball game! Our response? Bring it On!!! It should be fun:)

Later!

My 19th birthday has come and gone, but I have memories from it to last my lifetime Most people have big "to-dos" with the 16th, 18th, 21st all of those 'special' birthdays, but not my family!!  I really didn't think that I was really doing anything for my birthday this year, Mom and Dad were going to be gone for the weekend, All of us had to work, and I really thought this was going to be one of those quiet kind of birthdays, was I wrong!

Friday morning as I am putting on my make up and getting ready for " a day with Autumn "  I am interrupted by three masked and armed " kidnappers" who took me away on a birthday kidnapping, that was a lot of fun! Then after being " released ", I come home to find Autumn, Mark, Austin, Andrew and another dear friend up in my room!! They had re-painted my room for me! I was thrilled! 

Mom had said that we were inviting people over on Sunday for some volleyball and dinner, so I asked her if we could turn it into a party for a friend whose birthday was the coming Friday since everyone was coming over anyway, all I would do different is a couple of decorations! She said that was fine and called Bethanys Mom and told her my thought. All day Saturday I was cleaning the house trying to get it ready for Sunday evening. The kids helped with a lot of it, and Austin and Andrew took care of the outside work. This was the first " get the house clean for guests" since Autumn has been married, so it brought a little more pressure knowing I had complete responsiblity to get every " mom approvable" :)

Sunday afternoon we left church a little late, and I was pushed for time. I tried decorating and was very close to giving up ( I despise putting up streamer! ) but a friend who got here early helped me out some:) Nothing was really working how I had hoped and I was wishing I had never tried to do anything for Bethanys birthday that day, I was thinking all or nothing, and it was right in the middle. It felt like I was saying " Bethany, we wanted to do something for you, and acknowledge you, but you weren't worth making it really GREAT! " Of course that was not what I was going for, but I was reassured by different family members that it was great, and she would love it:) So I decided to just enjoy the night.

After all of the 'Hi's, Hugs, Hello's, Handshakes etc." Most of the girls and moms were in the kitchen and I decided to tell Bethany that this was a party in her honor, and gave her a card. She looks at me with the strangest look and says, " no Avie, this is a birthday party for you!!" I said" no, I figured you would think that, but it is really for you, " That is when Mrs. Banister steps in and says, " Avie, I hate to tell you this, but this really is for you too!!"  All I could do was laugh! WE had both been given a " surprise " birthday party, and we both knew about it the whole time! ' Surprise ' has a whole new meaning now:)

It was actualy clever of my family, I mean, I  cleaned and decorated for my own party!!:)  Anyways, it was a lot of fun, and I had a great birthday! I felt extremely loved and very special by what everyone had done for me.