What a week!!

Wow, we've had an interesting week! Monday, July 9th was Denzil's 30th birthday and I wanted to do something special for him. He already told me that he defintely did not want a surprise birthday party so I thought that I would call his mom and ask her to come up here and either offer to pay for the plane ticket or gas. She lives in Bon Wier, TX, which is on the LA line. We haven't seen her since Denzil's graduation in January of 2005, so she still hadn't met Phoebe or Eliott. She just couldn't ever get off work and we tried going down there but they are in the process of building a house of 55 acres and is just staying in a little trailor right now so there was no room for us. And there were no hotels around because they live in the middle of no where!! So anyways she said she would come up and so last week I was going crazy since I couldn't tell Denzil and I was being so sneaky. Plus I had to clean the house daily and make sure it was totally clean. And I had to get sheets, pillows and a matress pad for the sofa bed. So on Friday his mom and step dad drove up here and it totally shocked Denzil. He was very surprised and so we went out to dinner to celebrate his birthday. That was fun to get to see them and Phoebe & Eliott meet them. They left on Saturday and then on Sunday Denzil, Phoebe & Eliott and I got in the car and drove to Houston. Yeah, wow!! An 8 1/2 hour drive but we found out that the kids do great on road trips. We were really surprised how good they were, especially Eliott. Since he's still turned around in his seat and can't see us I figured he'd get grumpy fast but he did awesome! Then we drove back up here on Monday, so we weren't even in Houston for 24 hours. We drove for 17 hours between Sunday at 11 to Monday night at 2:00 am. The reason for all this was because Denzil's brother has gotten himself into some trouble and so we decided to go down there and offer some help. It turns out that he does want to turn his life around and so we offered him to come up here and stay with us until he can get back on his feet. So on Monday when we drove back I had to sit in between the 2 car seats and oh my gosh that was so uncomfortable and I'm still feeling it! So he's got to find a job but before he does that he's got to take some classes and do some community service. If you know of anywhere he could do community service, let me know. We're trying to find places now. But he's been a lot of help since he's been here. Denzil's had him do some stuff around the house..spray bug spray, change spark plugs, etc. Then Phoebe started ballet class and OH MY!!! How adorable!! But Uncle Dale watched Eliott in a little play room that they have so that was a huge help!! It's been cool having him here so far and it's so worth it to see him turning his life around. Denzil made a document in Word about 1 week, 2 week, 30 day, 90 day, 1 year, 5 year and 10 goals and gave it to him to fill out. He's been working on it. So just please pray that we give him the support he needs. Of course he'll be coming to church with us on Sunday and Denzil's been talking a little about the Saving Grace of Jesus.
Well got to go for now, just wanted to update everyone-
Rachel