It's a Boy!!!!

I am so excited! We witnessed the birth of another Monarch butterfly this afternoon from our huge butterfly milkweed plant! We have actually been watching the green chrysalis for more than two weeks and to be honest, I was beginning to think that maybe it was a "dud". I don't remember seeing a chrysalis stay green for so long. Maybe it was sort of in hibernation due to the cold snaps in weather that we've had in recent weeks, but I thought our little cocoon wasn't going to make it. Then, yesterday Sierra came running in from outside and told me that the chrysalis was now black and she could see the Monarch butterfly inside of it! She was right! This morning, as we all left to go out for breakfast, we noticed that the chrysalis was very black and you could see through it at the same time. You could see the orange wings with the black lines. Upon returning from breakfast this morning and running an errand, the cocoon looked as if it were about to burst open. That's when we knew it was getting close to seeing the little butterfly hatch! So we clipped the branch off the plant and took it inside the house and placed in inside a mason jar. I was determined to actually watch the little butterfly hatch this time. Back in May, when we saw a chrysalis turn into a butterfly, we missed the actual process of seeing the butterfly come right out of the cocoon. It happened so fast and since we didn't know exactly what to look for or how long the whole process actually takes, we only got to see the butterfly right after it came out. But today, we sat and stared at that chrysalis for about 10 minutes while it was in the jar in our kitchen. Sure enough, we saw the chrysalis wiggle and then out popped the Monarch butterfly!! Yippee..we witnessed its official birth and the kids all got to see it, too! I was excited [and I still am] because it's such a unique process! This time, we were able to determine that our little butterfly is a BOY!!!! It has the thin black lines and the distinctive two little black marks or circles on the outside of its lower wings in the back. I had researched this after our last butterfly hatched. The previous one was a female with thick black lines and no distinctive small black circles on its outer wings. So, now I feel like we are experts on Monarch butterflies and we've now witnessed the birth of a girl and now a boy! They are truly one of God's many small works of art in this world!! They almost look like they are made of black velvet with their white dots painted ever-so-carefully along their black bodies and the tips of their wings.

P.S.- The picture above is NOT our butterfly. We don't have our digital camera at the moment (it's being borrowed), so we couldn't take photos of our little boy butterfly. But, the picture above is what a Monarch butterfly looks like.

Let's hear it for Chandler, the Tiger Cub Scout!

Here's a special tribute to my son, Chandler, since I am such a proud momma of him and he looks so darn cute in his new Tiger Cub Scouts uniform! We've been waiting for weeks to save up enough money to buy him the uniform and all the little stuff that goes with it...the belt, the neck scarf, the scarf ring/holder, the socks, the hat, the shirt, the shorts, as well as his patches to be applied to the uniform. This past Saturday, his Tiger Cub Scout Den visited the Lake Underhill Fire Dept. for a field trip and the entire family was able to come! As you can see, Chandler and Amanda had fun at the end when they let everyone try spraying the big fireman's hose full of water.

A new chapter for us...

Well, I have been waiting for the right time to blog about the newest development in the Williams household! Many of you who read my blog already know that Scott has recently taken a new position with a completely different company. But, for those of you who happen to stop by my blog that don't already know, Scott is starting a new chapter in his career. He has faithfully been employed with Nemours Children's Clinic for the past 10 years (almost to the day) as a Senior Web Developer. While it was a very good job for him and for us as a family in terms of all the benefits, it seems that God has opened a new door for Scott recently! He is now working for Wyndham Vacation Ownership...aka Wyndham Worldwide Resorts...aka Wyndham. You're probably already familiar with this particular resort hotel chain. What I didn't know before he took this new job was that the company is as huge as it really is. It includes many resorts such as Baymont Inns & Suites, Fairfield Resorts, and even Ramada. His new job title is User-Interface Software Engineer.

This unique job opportunity couldn't have come at a more perfect time in our lives! Scott's former boss at Nemours recently left to take a director's position at Wyndham. Just before he left Nemours, he called Scott out of the blue one day and told him that he wanted to bring Scott with him over to Wyndham. As a new director, his boss would have the authority to hire a whole new team of about 12 employees within the Wyndham IT department in Orlando! What a compliment it was to know that his former boss thought highly enough of Scott's skills that he would ask him to come over to Wyndham with him! Now, let me tell you that at first, we really didn't think that he would truly end up calling Scott back after he left Nemours. But, sure enough, after about 3 weeks of being gone from Nemours, his former boss called back and pitched the same offer to Scott. After several weeks of waiting and praying, and truly searching for God's desire in this matter, it became evident that God was opening this door wide for Scott to come over to Wyndham! In fact, the day the official job offer came to Scott over the phone, his former boss offered him even more in terms of salary than he had first discussed with Scott! We couldn't believe the blessing of it all! After several years of such dismal financial times for us, it is finally so refreshing to think that maybe...just maybe, we can begin to emerge from this deep, dark, hopeless hole we've been trapped in financially! Don't get me wrong, we're not out of the woods yet, but it certainly is nice to know that God is being faithful in terms of meeting our needs, albeit at the "11th hour"! I can't even begin to describe to you the constant struggles we've faced with always having negative balances in our checking account, the endless cycle of bank fees due to negative balances, and even the embarrassing cycle of bounced checks, and even MORE bank fees! It has literally become a way of life for us over the past 2 years and it has been "hell on earth" for us! No, I am NOT kidding. I have been so discouraged at how our attempts to adjust to a much different lifestyle and cutting back on everything possible have not even really been enough to keep our account balance with at least a zero balance consistently. It has been SO trying and hopeless! I had gotten past the point of giving up and throwing the towel in altogether over the whole mess. But, really, when you reach the end of your rope, where are you gonna' go from there? And, as anyone who knows what our family has been through in years past will tell you, suicide is NEVER the answer! There is nowhere else to go when all else fails you...except into the loving arms of Jesus! That's what I have learned and am still learning.


With that said, I am just so thankful to report that Scott had his first day at Wyndham on Monday this week and I am excited to see the possibilities that may await him in the future with his career there! Congratulations, honey, for being the hard-working provider that you are! I am really proud of you!!