I wrote a few days ago about some of the "personal" things that have been going on in our lives. I see it as a season of reflection, but also a sort of "fire" where all the "dross" is getting burned away. Although it is a painful process, it is also a necessary process so that we can be more like Him! For that, I thank God!

This morning we experienced the "Flood". We received a call this morning from the roofers who were working on the church building saying that they needed access to the inside of the building to check the roof out. We were not expecting anything traumatic! However, we walked into a MAJOR mess. It BREAKS my heart! I told Danny that I feel like I could of "handled" it a little better if it had been our own home. We take the ministry of the church so personal, after all we are dealing with people's souls! Christmas is typically a time of year where you have more people come into the church and it is such an important time for the body of Christ! 

Please keep us in prayer over the next couple of days as the repairs are being done to the building. Also, that their insurance, etc. won't drag their feet concerning the replacement of our chairs and the Splash Kids' (brand new) projector and stereo system. (Our sweet Kelsey who does that ministry with her whole heart was pretty upset about the damage.)

It has been confirmed over and over this week to both Pastor & I that we are doing EXACTLY what God has called us to do at Oasis Church!!! This is just another tactic of the devil to thwart that plan. All I have to say is..........the devil better watch out!

Thank you for your love, prayers and support! Blessings to you my friends!

I have been wanting to blog for SO long, but have had so many things going on. Wow! I honestly don't know where all the time goes. I have been missing you my friends.

I love the "holiday season" ~ it is my favorite time of year. For me, it's a chance to spend time with family and to reflect on all the goodness of the Lord that we have seen come to pass over the last year. We have experienced LOTS of goodness, grace and mercy over this past year and for that, I am so very thankful!

However, we have also had some very challenging things happen over the last year and even these from just the past couple of months. From Danny losing his job unexplained, to the unexpected death of a cousin who hadn't even had a chance to really experience life yet, to the "home going" of a young man whose life was cut short by cancer, to family members that walk out of our lives for reasons that we cannot explain or understand and to the unexpected challenges that have faced us with the pregnancy..........but yet, we TRUST him! There are times over the past few months that I have had my ups and downs. I have to chose to focus on the "goodness" of each situation, if I did not...at times, I felt as if I would lose my mind. So, at this "most wonderful" time of year, I chose to do just that. Although Danny losing his job was definitely not part of "our" plan and in spite of the financial challenges, I am thankful that hat he has been at home to help me. He has pretty much taken over every area of the household duties, etc. For me, that has been a HUGE blessing, but has also been very hard on a mom to relinquish "control". He has done everything from picking up & dropping off kids, to laundry, to cooking, taking care of me and making sure I have every opportunity to rest. For that and for him, I am so blessed and thankful. (By the way, he is a FABULOUS cook!) Sometimes, I don't understand death, especially when it happens to young people. In the case of my cousin, through her death, I have already seen how her death has affected some family members to move toward making positive changes in their life. I also believe that through the life giving words of Jesus Christ spoken at her funeral, there will be those who come to or have already come to know the saving grace of Jesus Christ. In the case of the other young man, it is amazing to me how much "life" he lived out in his 30 short years. I feel SO very blessed to have known him. He was the kindest person you could ever meet and had the most contagious, infectious smile. He had a zest for life and had a way of making everyone around him feel special. I believe that he fulfilled his purpose that God had for him. We had the special pleasure of reading a book that one of his friends put together for him for his birthday. The words that everyone wrote explained how much of an impact that this young man had made on their lives. It was amazing!. I can't wait to get to heaven and see all those that are in heaven because of the impact that Kevin made on their life. We love his family and they are so courageous. We rejoiced with them in his "home going", but we are so sad that he is not here with us. Please keep his family in your prayers. In the face of difficult family situations, our hope and prayer is that regardless of the situation that they will only see Him in our lives. They might not understand or be able to explain why we do things in the manner which we do, but to us it's all because of the transforming love of Jesus Christ. We strive to not only live our lives in honor of him but also to be His arms extended to our children. We want to honor him in all that we do and we try to instill those same values in our children. There's a great song that we sing at church that says it like this: I want more of you, I want more of you, though it costs me EVERYTHING, to the cross my life I bring. Cause I want more of you Jesus, I want more.....so have ALL of me, so I might see more of your life in me. It is painful to walk through the "abandonment" of family members, but we know that God has a plan. My heart's cry is that all they see is more of Him in our family. This pregnancy has been quite a challenge for me physically. I am not used to having to slow down to a turtle's pace. But, it has given me PLENTY of time to reflect on Him and the things that He has for me. From an early hospital visit to the ever constant threat of complete bed rest........I am monitoring my contractions twice a day for an hour each time and am still getting my weekly (ouch!) shots. I feel as big as a house and thank God for my husband's sense of humor that helps me laugh off some of the not so fun moments.  We have 7 more weeks to go and can't wait for Jillian Hope's arrival.

It truly is  the "most wonderful" time of year. I thank God for this "season" that He has given me to reflect and am SO looking forward to all the great things he has in store for us in 2010! These are some of the ones that I am most thankful for.......my sweet family. I am SO BLESSED!

The Williams Family 2009 (Jon, Abby, Danny, Me & Jillian, Kylie & Kelsey)

I enjoy blogging and will try to be better about it, and also promise that it won't be so "heavy". I just needed to pour out my heart, I guess. For that my friends, thank you for letting me be me and for loving me. With much love and blessings!

I LOVE Fall!!!!!! It is my favorite. Football season is in full swing, cooler temperatures are on the way and the holidays are right around the corner! I love the colors of fall, although, we don't really see much of it around here!


This is one of my favorite fall pics!

We started this month out with a bang! We had our fall revival and it was AWESOME! We had a great time Saturday night at Marshall & Vickie's house. It not only rained down literally, but also spiritually. It was a great evening! Sunday morning service was great as Danny brought the Word again! Sunday night, my Pawpaw preached and it was so great to have him with us!  I can't wait for the next revival - how about you? I am SO excited about what God is doing at Oasis! We have had some WONDERFUL people come and join us! I'm looking forward to us getting in our own building  when God opens the door.

I keep saying that I will be better about blogging....oops! I REALLY WILL TRY HARDER!!! We stay so busy and I guess now we are back into our "normal" school routine, so I have no excuses!

SO much has happened since the last blog..... I am now 22 weeks into the pregnancy. We found out 2 weeks ago that we are having another GIRL!!! We are SO excited and feel so very blessed!!!! When we had the sonogram, they gave us 2 3D pictures of the baby's face, it is so amazing!!!! Our little "Jillian Hope" will be here before we know it. Danny has been SUCH a big help to me as well as Kelsey & Jon ~ the Dr. told me that I need to slow it down a little. I am so blessed to have such a WONDERFUL husband who takes such good care of me!

I can't wait to hear from you my friends ~ I've missed you! Love & Blessings, Cheryl

Here we are at the end of summer.....it has been great; but, sadly it has come to an end. Abby started school today and Kylie starts tomorrow. I always dread this time of year with sending them back to school. We have so much fun during the summer and get to spend so much time together. We spent a lot of time indoors this summer, more than we wanted and much more than we normally do for this time of year. However, due to the extreme temperatures, it was not much fun to be outside, even to go swimming. We did get to visit with some family over the summer (including both sets of my grandparents) and that is always nice!

I'm not looking forward to dropping Kylie off at school in the morning, of course, I never am. However, over the past two years we have been blessed to have wonderful teachers and I am believing that this year will be no different. As much as I will try to be brave, I'm sure that by the time I make it back to the car, there will be tears shed. It's so hard to watch your "baby" grow up. As I take Kylie to school tomorrow, it will be the last year that she goes to school as the "baby" of the family. Abby has her cousin and her aunt at her school to keep her company and watch over her, so that makes it easier on us. Tonight when we talked to Abby, she said that she really liked her teacher today. She was really looking forward to seeing all of her friends!

As we say goodbye to summer, we look forward to the fall. We are anxiously awaiting cooler temperatures and football! We love the fall. I always look forward to the colors of the fall with the leaves changing, pumpkins, etc.

So, as I close...I will post one last picture from summer of the girls at the beach. I will be thinking of all the moms tomorrow...may the peace of God rule your hearts as you leave those "babies" at school. I will be looking forward to celebrating the triumphs of the year as our children learn and grow together.


Kelsey, Abby & Kylie at the beach

I'm looking forward to hearing from you my friends, all of us "moms" have to stick together. Love & Blessings, Cheryl

I can't believe that it has been 2 months since I have blogged. Let me tell you, a lot has happened in that two month time span!

The last blog I wrote about how we had gotten moved. And no, all the boxes are not unpacked. The garage is still full of boxes. We are still getting adjusted to the house. We have a lot of things that we want to do, but of course, those will all come over time. It is so nice to have our own place and what a blessing it was that we were finally able to buy a house. Our house payment is cheaper than the rent that we were paying, that is one of the biggest blessings! Hopefully, we will get those boxes unpacked very soon!

A couple of weeks after we moved........WE FOUND OUT THAT I AM PREGNANT!!!! WOW!!!! That was the biggest news ever!!! What a shock!!! (I was wondering why I was so tired!!!) Danny had been asking for about the last 2 years about another baby and I said that I thought we were done! Well, did I ever get a surprise! The kids are excited and we are looking forward to celebrating yet another February birthday when our bundle of joy is expected to arrive around February 10, 2010. I am 13 weeks today. We had another sonogram today and Danny practically begged the technician to tell us the baby's sex - but she said it was still too early. Hopefully, in about 7 or 8 weeks we will be able to share that good news! What a blessing! I have not been feeling well, but it will all be worth it. I have been living in a constant state of nausea and heartburn. I have also been VERY tired - thus, the reason for no blog for 2 months. I promise to be better! With starting the second trimester next week, hopefully, some of this feeling yucky will ease up!


Happy Father's Day to Danny! (Kelsey, Kylie, Abby & Jon on Father's Day weekend!)

In July, we went to Galveston / Houston area thanks to my cousin Linda letting us come and hang out at her place for a few days. We took the kids to the beach and they loved it. Abby & Kylie had a great time "rescuing" about 12 hermit crabs and playing out in the ocean with dad. We collected lots of sea shells. We all got sunburned, but still had a great time. While we were down there, we also went to NASA with my cousin Clay & his sweet family.


Danny & the kids playing in the ocean. Abby is on the left, she swims like a mermaid. She just kept diving in. Kylie is on the right of Danny, she only weighs around 40 pounds. Danny had to hang onto her, the waves kept knocking her over. And of course, Jon and Kelsey having a great time!


Abby & Kylie at the Kemah boardwalk.


Kylie & Abby at NASA in front of a Star Wars exhibit. (I don't think we can ever get Jon & Kelsey to pose for a picture!)

On Monday, our sweet Kelsey turned 16! I cannot believe it - where does the time go? She is growing into a beautiful young lady and we are so VERY proud of her! She loves her sisters and is so sweet to them. She does the children's church and is doing a GREAT job! We managed to pull off a surprise party for her over the weekend. She was so excited, she screamed & cried. We had it at our friends (Jay & Gail's) house. Thank you Jay & Gail! The girls had a great time swimming in their pool! It was so much fun!


Kelsey & Dad!

A friend of mine makes cakes and she did a great job on Kelsey's cake.



We have also been busy this summer with our Oasis family. It's so exciting to see what God is doing and I can't wait to see what He has in store for us next!

And that brings us to Wednesday....wow! A lot of catching up to do. I'll try to post more summer pictures over the next few weeks. It's hard to believe that it's almost over. We love the summer and getting to spend time with the kids. There has been record breaking heat almost everyday in Austin, so we are definitely looking forward to the fall and cooler temperatures. Plus, (those of you who know us will not be shocked by this next statement!) we are looking forward to FOOTBALL!!!! Praise the Lord ~ our six month drought is almost over!

I hope all of you are doing well. Thank you to all of you for your thoughts and prayers, it means so much. I can't wait to hear your thoughts. Love & Blessings, Cheryl

We closed on our new house on Friday Morning. My dad came and along with a army of people from the church we got it all moved by Saturday evening. WHAT A BLESSING!!!!! We appreciate everyone's help so very much. We had people moving out of the rent house and others cleaning at the same time. We feel so blessed and loved by our wonderful church family. A sincere thank you to all of you that helped, you will never know how much we appreciate and love you!!!

I was off of work yesterday and the kids and I managed to get the kitchen organized & I even cooked dinner last night. It will take a little bit to get everything done, but it is all coming together nicely.

We are so thrilled to have our own place and we give ALL the glory to God! Thank you again to all of our supportive friends - we love you so much. I'll post some pictures soon!

On another note, I am so excited about what God is doing at Oasis Church. We have seen God do some powerful things in our midst and we are believing him for even greater things. I'm looking forward to a great Wednesday evening service. How about you?

What a weekend this has been! I attended a wedding last night at the University of Texas Golf Club and it was so beautiful. The bride was beautiful as was her mother. Her mother walked her down the aisle and yes, I got choked up. The minister spoke of the bride and groom's love for the Lord and it was a beautiful ceremony. A cord of 3 is not easily broken! Congratulations to Mallorie and Aaron!

Today was a great day at Oasis Church! This morning's service was AWESOME!!!!! The presence of the Lord was in that place!!!! This evening we had our 2nd membership class and it was wonderful. It's so amazing to see the people that God has brought to us!! We are so thankful for you!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!! We are so glad you are here. A special thanks to everyone that helped serve our new members!

In honor of Memorial Day, Danny put together a video that honored all those that had served in the military from Oasis. It was wonderful. I am so proud of all of those that served and want to say thank you for serving our country. We love you and thank God for you and your families for the sacrifices that you have made. Danny was in the Marine Corp and I am so proud of him!!!!


Danny

I also want to say a big thank you to everyone who has brought us boxes, I have not had to go "box hunting" and for that I am so thankful. A special thank you to Gail for coming over and helping us take pictures off the walls and filling the holes, what a blessing!!!!! Also, a BIG thank you to everyone that has offered to help us move next weekend. Only 5 more days!!! Praise the Lord!!!!

I hope you all have a great holiday tomorrow. I LOVE you my friends and can't wait to hear your thoughts! Love & Blessings, Cheryl

Today we went over to office of the home builder and spoke to the consultants. They are so nice and so helpful. They had great news that all the paperwork is on time going through the process and closing will be on time. PRAISE JESUS!!!

We were so excited when we went over to the house to find that they had begun the "clean up" process. They also put the microwave, stove and dishwasher in today. They also put in the blinds! It is so exciting to see everything come together!

Thank you to everyone that has offered to help, what a blessing! Also, to all of you who have brought us boxes, thank you, thank you!!!!
We are so excited about what the Lord has done!

We had a great service at Oasis yesterday and I'm looking forward to a GREAT week! I can't wait to hear from you my friends. Love & Blessings, Cheryl

The Williams family is proud to announce that we now have a author in the family. Kylie has written her first book and we celebrated with an Author's Tea at her school on Friday as the children presented their published books. She not only wrote the book, but she also illustrated the book. Her book is titled "Our Family Vacation To Sea World". We are so proud of her. Ms. Gail & Ms. June also joined us at the Author's Tea and we all had a great time.



Last week we went to Abby's Field Day and she came home with a whole handful of ribbons. It's so hard to believe that we are at the end of another school year. Abby has one more week left and Kylie has 12 more days. All of the end of the year events only remind me of how quickly they are growing and how fast time flies. However, we are ALL ready for summer and can't wait to get into the pool!!!

On another note, I am so excited about service at Oasis tomorrow. I can't wait to see what God has in store. I have heard some fascinating stories of what God is doing in the lives of some of our Oasis family and I'm so amazed! Please continue to pray for the Watkins family, Kevin is supposed to have his next round of chemo this week. Also, please pray for Wayne & Sharon to sell their house! We are preparing to move in the next couple of weeks. Our closing is scheduling for the end of the month, please pray that all goes smoothly. We are so excited!!! 

I hope that wherever you are for church tomorrow that you experience the power of God. I'm expecting great things! How about you? I can't wait to hear from you my friends. Love & Blessings, Cheryl