I’m going to attempt to capture a few things about each of the precious men that God has blessed us with just by way of introduction.  Andrew and Isaac, if you’re reading this, I’m sorry.  I know you’re not thrilled with your old mom bragging on you in such a public way, but you just have to deal…I feel like some of the people reading this blog don’t really know us well, so here goes:

 

Andrew James: My firstborn.  I’m tearing up just thinking about this amazing kid growing up.  People say that childhood goes by in a flash and to “enjoy every moment” – and for most moms in the midst of the craziness of just survival mode of each stage as it is, it’s largely unhelpful to hear but oh SO very true.  Like it was yesterday I remember seeing two lines on a stick and being shocked that I was actually pregnant, telling my parents with a Grandpa and Grandma sign, buying the first Winnie the Pooh outfit, the scariness of the health issues surrounding his birth and how it caused me to cling even tighter to the promises of Jesus, his first moments, first everythings and how in awe I was with this “tiny” thing I was entrusted with. First birthdays, first steps, school, and a million other insignificant and amazingly significant moments in between.  I can not believe this little boy of mine is almost 18.  But I digress….this was supposed to be about Andrew….

Andrew is the most mature 17 year old I have ever met, truly a dream teenager.  He is respectful, willing to go the extra mile to bless me, determined and a dreamer.  Oh and yes, he’s a giant.  Towering over Ryan and I at 6’5″ he is taller than most everyone he meets, but is completely comfortable in his own skin.  And no, he doesn’t play competitive sports (the first thing many people ask tall people).  He wrestles rough and rowdy with his little sibs, which drives me crazy a lot of the time but I’m sure that’s just what they need since they have softy me for a mom.  He can be really blunt – you will never wonder how he feels about you or any situation….he got his strong opinions from me, I’m sure.  He loves being outside, tinkering on machines, and anything having to do with high adventure camp life.  He spent the last two summers working for Expeditions Unlimited and I can’t say enough great things about what God has done in his life as a result of that camp.  He has been accepted to Gateway Technical College for next year to pursue his Diesel Mechanic degree/certification and we are so excited and proud of him.  This part of parenting is hard….no one talks about it, but more about that in the future I’m sure.   Moving along….

Isaac John: My aptly named second son is a ray of sunshine and laughter to this house.  He is quiet and sensitive, sweet and sassy….really a great balance of Ryan and I!  He is 15….my roly poly baby boy has grown into a young man I am so proud to call my son.  He’s generally soft spoken and reserved, but when you get to know him he is very “punny”.  He cracks me up on the regular.  He’s my first kid to volunteer to help and I can always count on him to do whatever I ask without complaining, even if it’s a gross job that he doesn’t want to do.  He just got a job at Culvers and is excited about starting that.  He also was just accepted into a selective club at his technical school, the SMV (super milage vehicle) Club, where they are actually building cars!  He loves robotics, engineering and all that kind of stuff that goes over the head of this wordsmith mom of his.   He enjoys archery for fun, is beginning to enjoy strategic card type games with friends, and working with Andrew at a farm owned by a couple of friends of ours.

This guy,  my baby Bubba, is growing too stinking fast for my liking – catching up with his big bro in height, I think he’s just about taller than Ryan and I and still has several years of good growing left too.  Yikes.  He is so very sweet with the little kids, a willing babysitter, and has the most discerning heart of all my kids so far.

Samuel Joshua: Ohhhhh this amazing 8 year old kid.  He pushes every one of my buttons, but then flashes that giant dimpled smile and man, I’m wrecked.  Sam is our first adopted kiddo – he came to us after 18 months of short term fostering and a six-month span with no foster calls at all.  I know God was preparing us for having him.  He was a 32 week preemie who was born with a host of issues including being born addicted to a number of substances (I’m not going to be specific since it’s a public venue, but am happy to talk about it if anyone wants to contact me directly via facebook PM) and was the tiniest baby I had ever held at 4lb.  When we were offered his placement, the social workers were fairly sure he would be an adoptive placement and we were over the moon from the start.  He was a really, really difficult baby – significant reflux made him sad and in pain a lot, but once we made it through those difficult months this smiley guy emerged.

Sam is a passionate little guy.  He runs through life feeling deeply and widely.  He is impulsive and sweet, snuggly and wild….he is a whirlwind of fun and activity and love.  He tells us just what he feels about things and is a tireless source of energy.  He plays soccer, is on the archery team, and would love to play just about any other sport.  He never, ever takes a bad picture.  He is the sunniest boy and we love him deeply – and are exasperated by him just as frequently – we know God has something big for his big personality.

And rounding out the quad-pack of my lovely sons is Jonah Levi: I’m still in awe of all that God has done in this little guy’s life.  He will be 8 this week….the baby that was a tiny 5lb at six weeks old when he came to us after a string of very serious and terrifying medical issues.  His little life has been SUCH a testimony to God’s ability to heal….a brain bleed, blood clots, seizures, prenatal drug exposure, cerebral palsy, failure to thrive….this little man should not be able to run and play, climb, swim, ride a bike, eat normal food, or anything.  Honestly the fact that he’s seriously so stinking smart (a super fast learner and advanced reader) just goes to show that God has a sense of humor after all the neurology appointments and trauma to his brain, the fact that he’s ridiculously smart is just miraculous to me.

Jonah can play for hours with just a few little lego guys or a car or two – he is very independent, but is also a friend to everyone.  He’s sweet with his little sisters, a willing buddy to Sam and a great addition to our family.  He’s still tiny, but so spunky.  He is really just a lovely kid – easy going and fun to be around!  He loves to tell jokes and clown around, really enjoys reading books, and would spend all his time playing outside if he could.  Don’t let his shy smile fool you, there’s nothing shy about Jonah.  He really does balance out Sam’s high strung and wild nature.  The two boys are best friends most days being so close in age, we will see how that goes as they get older, but for now I love it that they have one another.

So there you have it, the skinny on the Nachtigal boys ladies and gentlemen….now to get these kiddos to bed.  On to the girls the next time I have ten minutes of quiet to reflect on each of these precious ladies I have been entrusted with.

I’m blown away by the sheer number of followers and feel so humbled with the response I have received.  I really figured I would be doing this blog mostly for myself as well as to update out of town family who aren’t on Facebook here and there with the goings on in my crazy house.  My life doesn’t feel interesting enough to read about, but several of you have suggested a write a book…yikes.  I don’t know about that, but I will start by trying to blog my feelings, life and struggles here over the next bit of time anyhow.

So where to start…considering I don’t have nearly as many friends as followers, I’m going to assume some of you don’t know me or my family.  So the next few blogs will be back stories about each of us and where we are at.  I’ll save myself for last since I’m the most complicated and at the moment I’m an emotional wreck  – maybe by the time I work my way through the rest of my lovely clan I’ll be in a better place.  If not, you’ll get raw emotional me….which is good too, I suppose.

So background – anyone who knows us well can just ignore the rest of this blog, it will be boring….

I’m a 40 year old mom of 8 forever kiddos, and a foster baby – we have four biological children and four that we have adopted through the state foster care program.  We are legally at the limit of children we can have in our home, but due to the massive need in our county, we have an exception to care for one additional child.  We were placed with a foster baby last February when she was 2 days old.  She’s nearly 10 months old now.  I can’t post publicly any identifying information about her or any photos, so this will likely be the only post that concerns any details about her until she is no longer in our home.  We have made some hard decisions about her case as well as our future with foster care, but more about that later.

I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, moved out when I went to college in Wisconsin, where I met my husband, came to know the Lord, got married, and settled here because we found a church family who we love and are joined to.  I can’t imagine living anywhere else.

My husband.

He is amazing – I don’t know where to start.  He loves me far more than I deserve, selflessly serves this family, is on board with all of my crazy ideas and is an adoring and attentive dad to all of the kiddos who have crossed the threshold of our home.  We met as immature baby believers in college and have grown up together over the years.  We will celebrate 19 years of marriage soon – it’s hard to believe I have lived with and loved him for almost half of my life.  I don’t deserve him.  He works hard to support and provide for us – too hard really – and I pray every day that God will make a miraculous way so that he can be home and present with us more.  He’s a public school, high school, math teacher.  His job is a direct answer to a full decade of relentless prayers, many tears, and the driest of desert seasons and we are still in awe and so thankful for it.  He also works a side job as a restaurant server on the weekends just to make ends meet. He took the second job “for a season” but this season has been much, much longer than we had hoped.  We hope that job will not be necessary soon.  He is in the process of transitioning the second job to a tutoring agency, but hopefully more on that soon.

What else can I say about my amazing husband?  He loves Jesus more than anything.  He serves the church, serves this family, and so many in his areas of influence.  He is a friend to so many but really doesn’t have any super close friends who he gets together with often – we hope that will soon change with his time at home and availability potentially being greater.  It’s hard to maintain friendships when you work 7 days a week. He longs to be a more present, hands-on dad.  He feels like he’s missed critical time with our teens – but I know God will bridge that gap in a miraculous way that only God can!  He is silly, makes me laugh all the time and truly, truly is my best friend.  God has done a work of knitting our hearts together and I don’t know what more to say…he is my other half, my sounding board, and the unfortunate object of all my bad attitudes and stress, which he takes with so much grace and way more kindness than I deserve.  I’m so fortunate to have a partner like him to walk through this life crazy life we are living with our “mega-family” with him by my side.

Next up, I’ll do a couple blogs about the kids….maybe one boys and one girls….as soon as I have another five minutes of silence.  Ha! 🙂

So I actually love to write.  It’s cathartic for me, and helps me “unpack” things in my life as I read and revise and edit and write and write and write….but somehow I haven’t jumped on the blog train yet.  This is my first blog ever…ever.  I have a degree in English that has been largely unused and dormant for the past 18 years.  I hope that will change someday, but in the meantime I feel the need to write.

The decision to start blogging sprang out of two things – one, I thought this might be a good way to update our friends and family from afar with a Christmas update blog instead of a long bragging letter.  And secondly, we are walking into a brand spanking new season of life, a giant change for me, and I have a lot of unexpected emotions bubbling to the surface about it.  I was thinking some of what I’m walking through might be helpful to others so blogging about it may make sense.  More about all of that later.

Maybe these posts will be more just for me, I really don’t know.  But for now, here it is.  The Nachtigal Family Blog. And just for kicks, a  recent family photo of the whole family. (photo cred: our good friend Liz Schanke)