Last Steam Locomotive Built for Union Pacific Railroad Visits South Texas for the First Time to Celebrate Railroad History and Heritage

Visiting THIS train is JMonster's and my plan for our Saturday afternoon.
A young boy's dream!
(We will post pictures later if we are able to get any.)

Thousands of people have lined the route as Union Pacific Railroad's No. 844, the last steam locomotive built for Union Pacific, travels to and from Texas to celebrate railroad history and heritage in the Rio Grande Valley.

"The crowds along the route have been tremendous and we sincerely appreciate those who have taken the time to come and experience a part of Union Pacific's heritage," said Joe Adams, vice president of public affairs for Union Pacific's Southern Region. "With this being the first time No. 844 has been south of Houston, we thought it only fitting to name the tour after a very popular Missouri Pacific passenger train, the Valley Eagle, which operated between Houston and Brownsville."

The Valley Eagle consisted of four cars: two coaches, a grill-coach and a mail car. The two coaches were unique in that one end of each passenger rail car had picture windows that allowed rear viewing as the train was pulled. When service started, the grill coach was placed between the two coaches so that the viewing windows of the coaches were at each end of the train. When the train reached Brownsville, the locomotive and mail car were simply switched to the head of the train without having to turn all the cars around for the trip back to Houston. The Valley Eagle began running in late1948 and was discontinued in June 1962. Missouri Pacific merged with Union Pacific in 1982.

No. 844, also known as Union Pacific's "Living Legend," returned to service in 2005 after one of the most extensive steam locomotive overhauls in the United States since the 1950s. The work began in 2000 and nearly every part was overhauled including its running gear, pumps, piping, valves and springs, along with replacement of its firebox and extensive boiler work. No. 844 was built and delivered to Union Pacific Railroad in 1944. A high-speed passenger engine, it pulled such widely known trains as the Overland Limited, Los Angeles Limited, Portland Rose and Challenger.

When diesel-electric locomotives took over all passenger train duties, No. 844 was placed in freight service in Nebraska between 1957 and 1959. It was saved from being scrapped in 1960 and held for special service.

ZOODLES

No, you don't need to bless me. I didn't sneeze.

I'm just talking about something GREAT we've just discovered in our house...

Zoodles Kid's Browser

"Our goal is to give kids a safe place to play and learn online. We knew that we couldn’t just give kids a typical browser and send them off to explore. Most sites today are way too complicated for young kids to navigate on their own, and they don’t provide enough safety from all the bad stuff lurking on the web.

So, we started from scratch. We built a FREE browser, especially for kids, that makes it simple for them to find lots of fun activities – all by themselves. By launching the icon on your desktop, your child will enter a full-screen mode of Zoodles that will keep them from exiting out and finding inappropriate content or accidentally deleting your important files."

Zoodles makes playing on the internet SAFE for kids AND for the COMPUTER! Kids can play age appropriate games, by themselves, while you don't have to fear them disturbing your files or computer content. They can't get to anything other than ZOODLES!


Don't they look like such big kids?

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for:

1. My family.
2. The cold front blowing away some of the pollen.
3. The beautiful wildflowers growing everywhere here in Texas.
4. The smell of pot roast coming from the slow cooker.
5. The Bible Study I joined yesterday. Love it!
6. ZOODLES! (More about this tomorrow!)

WHAT ARE YOU THANKFUL FOR?

Infertility, adoption, and kiddos (part 10)

If you'd like a refresher or just need to catch up, go HERE, HERE, HERE , HERE ,HERE , HERE , HERE , HERE and HERE.

A wonderful son, a miscarriage, and an ectopic pregnancy. All the makings of an infertility soap opera. Except one...

The next summer was the summer of 2008. I won't go into details in order to protect those who need protecting, but sometime in the spring we were informed of a young lady who was pregnant. We prayed for her for months and then found out she was looking to put the baby up for adoption.

We hurriedly went through the home study process.
(We didn't know this person! This was a leap of faith...)

We got our fingerprints done...I had mine done in booking at the county jail!

We sent her a letter introducing ourselves.
(It was a beautiful letter, heartfelt)...I just reread it...

We got the call. She was in labor.

And she wanted US to be her child's adoptive family.

I don't know how to share the emotions we all went through that summer. Adoption is a wonderful and messy process. It's imperfect and beautiful.

So I prayed. And prayed. And grew closer and closer to God...

And then the birth father showed up. And a legal battle ensued.

And just like that we weren't going to adopt this beautiful child.

Our call now was to pray for him and his life as he stayed with his birth mother and her family. And got sent back and forth to the birth father (who I won't share about since God loves him, but my feelings for him aren't quite what they should be).

And so now we are back to the beginning. We still have 2 frozen embryos. We still would love to adopt.

But pregnancy was horrible on my body. The Rev doesn't want me to go through it again. My mom brings me articles on surrogacy. And I've been through two miscarriages and we're more sure than not that these two embryos would have the same fate.

And in the end I just have to trust God. During the adoption summer, He kept telling me to wait. He reminded me of Noah and the trust he had for over 150 years that God would fulfill what He had told him.

So I wait. For a surrogate?
We can't afford one right now. (Um, they can cost up to $120,000!)

To adopt?
Same problem.

I just KNOW in the depths of my heart that there are children out there for our family. And that one day we will be blessed with them.

I don't know when.

I don't know how.

I don't know how many!

But I have faith.
And with faith, and maybe the help of a few friends, we will be blessed.

GO HERE FOR THE NEXT PORTION

Birthday Blessings

Today is my Mom's birthday.

I would tell you WHICH birthday, but she might shoot me.
So to stay alive, I will just say she is 2 times my age, -2. Good luck!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Perfect Pairings

On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them,

"Why do you look for the living among the dead?
He is not here; he has risen!

Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee:
'The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.' "

Then they remembered his words.

Luke 24:1-8

JMonster's 4th birthday in pics

We spent JMonster's birthday traveling around the local area. We visited a rose emporium, ate lunch at the Brenham airport where they have a 50's style diner, and then headed to the river and Washington on the Brazos. Many of the family were there (there were 15 of us total!)...and the kids were happy and exhausted at the end of the day. Enjoy the pics!

In the car, looking cool on the way to the Rose Emporium...

"Bottle Bush"...not to be confused with a Bottle Brush Bush, which is a real bush!

JMonster and Ry Ry running on the mazes

Jmonster and Jewels peeking in an old schoolhouse.

Trying to get 7 kiddos to smile...all at the same time!?!

JMonster had a BALL on the swing at the Emporium!


Flower


Watching the plane take off...A wanted everyone to know that JMonster is now FOUR!


A cool plane at the Brenham Airport. It was *that* close!

Cousins running at Washington on the Brazos.


Jewels and Ry Ry acting tough!


I absolutely ADORE this picture.

Aunt Bambi

Baby C


Swizz and The Rev


The Grandmas!

A

Bean telling me how to take the picture. Typical!

JMonster enjoying his birthday, monkey style.

My boys.