For the Love of Bowties

January 19, 2018 Michelle Cuthrell

It started on his fourth birthday.

The niece I’ve known and loved since she was 10 years old was marrying the man of her dreams (and ours for her!) in our hometown, and our crew had traveled to Ohio to participate in the big day.

As a New Year’s Eve baby, Superhero 4 was already going to experience quite the celebration for his first birthday at home. (I mean, not everyone gets sparklers and midnight toasts on their birthday every year!) But with a wedding AND a holiday on the same day as his first birthday inside the fams, the celebration this year skyrocketed to a whole new level. (Someone please tell my child that he will not be indulging in a three-layer professionally baked and decorated cake he assumed was “his birthday cake” every year. Nor will he be dancing until midnight. Dear Jesus, please lower his expectations and undo everything we just ruined by letting him think this 200-person party was for him. Amen.)

We held an extended family pajama and pancake breakfast for our little man the day before the big event, and our team of six took Superhero 4 out to a Mexican lunch before we headed to the hotel to get dressed up for the big day. (He now knows all the English words to “Happy Birthday,” which he happily sang to himself when our server brought him his very own birthday flan.)

But the real fun began when his brothers began getting dressed.

The Adventure of Surrender

January 10, 2018 Michelle Cuthrell

For 2017, our family’s word was “surrender.”

For so long, we’d been living a life that was all about us.

Our plans.

Our dreams.

Our vision of what family and future should look like.

Our time, energy and finances were mostly used to fulfill our own desires, and although we gave some time and some money and some thoughts to the needs of others (mostly people we knew and loved), most of our most precious investments were inward.

And then God asked us to surrender it all.

December Respite

December 1, 2017 Michelle Cuthrell

Three Months That Changed Two Worlds

November 15, 2017 Michelle Cuthrell

It doesn’t seem possible that it was only three months ago yesterday.

That day that our five-person family walked IN through the doors of an empty Civil Affairs office in Wuhan City China, with nervous hands and eager hearts … and walked OUT as a giddy-nearly-exploding team of SIX.

It feels like years ago.

Or an eternity.

Because after three months with the most hilarious and spunky little man on our hip — the one who mimics so well that we now have to watch what we say, because we hear 98 percent of our words come back to us later (dressed in a Chinese accent and some major attitude) — we truly can’t remember what life was like without him.

So Thankful We Didn't Miss This: National Adoption Month

November 1, 2017 Michelle Cuthrell

In this sometimes challenging life of capes and combat boots and crazy Super-Spouse work schedules and constant medical, emotional and therapy needs, our team is big on gratitude.

We learned long ago that it is the antidote to the greed, entitlement and straight-up selfishness that we, if we’re just being honest, all so easily fall into when we’re not intentional.

It’s the anchor that keeps us grounded, the perspective provider we all so desperately need.

And it’s the lesson that God has taught our team over and over and over again.

That no matter WHAT circumstances we face in this life, there is ALWAYS something to be grateful for — the biggest being a God who SEES, KNOWS and CARES.

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