We got bad news

hi guys welcome back to another video today is going to be a huge update video I have good things to share and I have hard things bad things to share but first of all a really big thanks to Rocket money for sponsoring today's video we really appreciate you guys all right so I got to find some light here it's been a minute since I um vlogged I skipped a video this week we lost our baby we just went to an ultrasound and found that the baby had grown by a couple weeks it had been a couple weeks since the previous ultrasound where we heard a heartbeat and um baby had grown really well but heart was his his or her heart was not beating and it was hard it was super hard news I I have a lot of experience with miscarriages I've had six before um but they were all at 6 weeks exactly uh this is nine weeks I was over nine weeks um baby was measuring at 8 and 1 half weeks so it's hard um yesterday there were a lot of tears off and on but listen guys I'm going to tell you the real part of the story is that we are leaving for Kenya with our whole family for a month in one week a week from tomorrow now and we have so much to do like the timing couldn't be harder but I know that the Lord knows um I haven't actually had the miscarriage yet if I haven't by the end of the week my doctor's going to give me some side attch to help that along because it is um it's something that I can't do while traveling and I don't want to do while there so that's the gist of it basically I had an update video that was going to go up a couple days ago but um I I had already had it filmed and edited just about the whole first month and the ups and downs we've had we have had a few unusual things about this pregnancy uh but it's hard to hide when you have a lot of kids it's hard to hide um when we tell them it's hard for them to hide the news and a lot of my kids have been around for a lot of babies so they know when I'm pregnant so basically there's a lot that has to happen in the next week and this is now one of the other things that has to happen um I came home yesterday and uh we had to tell the kids that was awful [Music] but you know I I just realized okay I can lay in bed or I can just start working and I just decided I better start on my list cuz I don't really know what the the week will bring we have a huge list for oh there's an ant we have a huge list just for the homestead we we're not used to having the homestead when we're leaving we have a wonderful couple from church that we trust and love staying here um the whole month so thankful for them um they but we want to just like have things clean and in order our lawnmower has been in the shop for weeks our property we've had a lot of rain our property like exploded with grass and weeds and everything everywhere um we finally got that back yesterday so we've been trying to mow like crazy there's just a lot of things we wanted to get done we want to have everything ready for the animal so it's as easy as possible the homestead list itself is extensive then there's all these things that we have to do for our trip there's still some details on the other side for this month coming that we haven't finalized like some of the places we're staying so there's some stress there I'm trying not to be stressed visas uh that need to be gotten for a couple of us there's just so many details so many details I went to pull out the strollers yesterday from the van um because I wanted to make sure they're in good working order we almost never use a stroller but we're going to need to especially cting car seats through the airport and realize that the van is in the shop right now with the strollers which is not helpful to me and it might be there for a week and I this is like one of my last days to order stuff on Amazon it's just insane so yesterday I threw myself in a packing our dryer is like not working very well so just getting through the laundry has been an issue the last week or two um and our laundry is kind of piling up which makes it harder to pack but we're getting there I have two kids totally packed after yesterday to pack I had to switch out the summer and winter clothes was which was just another task on the list um which is hard when you're behind on laundry here's my list I I really have like one thing completed and I just did it now I packed up all the winter Coates our hallways never looked so clean actually it wasn't since last fall that it looked this clean this was lined with coats and um this was lined with coats and snow stuff uh we have more room in our pantry now cuz we had a big basket of gloves and and hats I don't even know how they used to fit in there but they did and we just packed them up as I was packing up I realized that the next time we have to bring all that stuff out we will be in our new house with a mud room that has room for all of that stuff and I just can't wait that made me happy so try to focus on the good things definitely letting myself mourn all of us um but it's hardest on me I'm sure um when it I love myself more when I need to and then I am also I have so much to distract me and keep me busy so it's actually very helpful I have to show you the house today too because there has been so much done since the last time you guys saw it and when we get back from Kenya it's going to be close to being done which is insane I mean maybe not back close but maybe not moving in yet but I think I'll show you that later this is our first picture of our baby and this was just this last one which it was a kind of a blurry picture I wasn't sure I wanted one at the last minute I said give it to me but this is a terrible picture cuz in real life it looked way more like um you could see body and head and little limbs much clearer so she just didn't snap a good one cuz of me I am in my kids messy room cuz we're packing it's a mess that's a messy process rather um but I wanted to tell you a story when we were getting the ultrasound done yesterday when the tech realized that there was no heartbeat she could see we were upset sad and she's like do you have any children and then it really helped break the ice a little cuz we're like yes we do we have a lot of children um we were excited about this one but we have a lot of children at home and she's like you do a lot how many and so we said 11 and she almost fell on the floor she was shocked 11 that was so funny so made us giggle a little amidst the tears but we are indeed very blessed but um we told her oh it's hard cuz our our kids knew and everything and she's like oh she was very understanding yeah it was a fun moment we are very blessed we have a lot of beautiful children and it really helps to come home and hug them and hold our baby we have a few like really big hard cover suitcases but Judah and Bell they're both in Asia right now and they each have two of them we didn't have that many I think we may have two more is all so I do like going to Walmart and getting these they have these cheap duffel bags they're pretty cheap they used to be 15 bucks last our last couple trips now they're 20 I think it was 28 everything's so more so much more expensive but they have wheels here and they fold up to nothing they fold up to this size here so it's really helpful if we um we're taking a lot of things that we're not bringing home things for other people that's where these things come in handy because we can fold them up to bring them home they only last about two trips in our experience although they do look a little better quality this time maybe that $28 reflect that but uh also we don't feel too bad if we just have to leave stuff for other people leave the suitcases as well um so that's kind of our solution for packing we try to pack as very light as possible but every time we go to Kenya we end up taking a lot of stuff for other people that's just how it is and of of course we have a lot of everybody gets two pieces of luggage no way on Earth we were using all that we wouldn't be able to transport it anyways but uh that's a lot of luggage they only had three of those yesterday but they had a little smaller one which is green and this was $20 I think so got that one too yeah it is cool we packed Noel's stuff already she's one of them that's packed she gets to go her in peace get to go I don't know about everybody else we haven't gotten anybody else packed but one thing I did pick up this time as as well is packing cubes I've haven't really ever done packing cubes before but I think it'll help a lot I ended up having to use all three but there's these packs of three I got for like just under $9 I think I didn't get it for everybody but for the young ones I had a couple packing cubes already that I used for pece and then I was able to get hers all in two and then Noel's in three and I think it will help because we can shove all of these in a big suitcase and keep it stuff organized so I got several sets of these for my younger children everyone will carry their own backpack except pce and I will share um this one I had to pick up for Seth and Eli needed one but everyone else had something I think that they can use which it really does help when they have their own things we make sure they have a pair of headphones for themselves always at least one change of clothes um if in case we get stuck somewhere or there's a big spill that's always helpful um carry their own water bottle and a few little activities we don't take too much but definitely I want him to be able to carry this on his own but you know got to have a few things traveling overseas as a large family Probably sounds insane some of you very expensive to some of you it is expensive and there are a lot of ways that we are saving money and that we work to save money those suitcases just being one of many things uh that we have figured out um to help us be able to go overseas one thing I Really Love solo and I have been using now for quite a while is rocket money rocket money is an app it's really helping us to meet our savings goals and our budget goals we are budgeters and maybe later on today I will sit down with him and tell you some ways um some other very practical ways that we are able to take our large family overseas while we're building a house it's just crazy I can't even believe it's happening but there's some very specific things we do and have done to make it happen rocket money has been a great asset in our lives we really like it um to help us meet our goals so if you haven't heard about it before rocket money is a a personal finance app that really can help you meet your goals manage your money well lower your bills cancel subscriptions it's a great way to do all of that and grow your savings all in one place we really love it for the budgeting features and the smart savings we can either one of us can just see at a quick glance exactly where we're at and how we're doing um even if we're not at the same place it helps keep us on the same page which really helps us meet our goals rocket money has over 5 million users so it's very popular not only in our household but with a lot of people so if you're trying to meet some big goals like we are you want to get a hold of your budget whatever your financial needs are I encourage you to get started for free by clicking in the link in my description box or going to www. rocket.com our tribe of many I haven't decided yet if I'll do snacks um all together or I'll I'll carry them or I'll have them each carry some snacks I'm not sure but one thing we are doing for sure is we are buddying up actually Katie is going with us I don't know if I told you that guys that yet I don't think I did Katie is judah's girlfriend we're so excited she's going with us we're meeting Judah and Bel there they're both coming from Sri Lanka Judah leaves in a couple days to go see Bell in Sri Lanka spend a few days with her and then they'll fly together to Kenya to meet us so Katie and Judah will be reunited in Kenya um all of us will be reunited but Katie is going to help us and so one thing we are doing is a buddy system we never used you probably heard of a buddy system before some big families talk about it we never use it in real life except when we are traveling we do because it really does help um who's your buddy Katie Oh Katie is your buddy so Katie's willing to be a buddy Luca and Eli are together Micah has hope I kind of match them up with who they just really get along with well um which whoever the the little kids will listen to some big kids better than others so whoever they listen to very well Tori and Destiny are together dad and peace no dad and Seth and me and peace think I got everybody so we're buddied up like that at least for the way there which will help so like Katie and her will try to sit together she'll Katie will help make sure she remembers her backpack gets everything back in it and because we are buddying up I think it'll probably be fine to like put snacks in their bags cuz their buddy will help them you don't need too much help do you no I don't even need help oh you don't at least we'll make sure you don't get lost so one other thing we're doing today is finally doing Destiny's birthday lunch a few days ago she turned six so exciting I love six it's got to be one of my favorite AG does it six a favorite age is it a cool age you like being six she wanted us to surprise her with sushi or one other choice and so we surprised her with sushi oh man are you excited yeah what did you order um I it's going to be good and we got to meet Dad in the middle of the day and have us a wonderful day in Jesus name amen lots of good sushi being eatting here yeah so good I ran a bunch of errands with Destiny picking up animal food and things for When We're Gone came back to make some decisions at the house with the builders um things are going so fast so fast and now we're working to clean up the yard spring is no joke on the farm those guys are picking up trash we putting these rocks back where they go did you get hurt a little while you were picking up rocks on your leg I'm so sorry ouch mhm she was picking up Rock so good throwing him in the driveway do you like to work hard mhm okay you rest for a second okay Sol's home using a small mower around here the big one can't do some of those pots and those kids are trash hunting it's the Big Spring Cleanup that's taking us weeks after a long winter with dogs and children all over the yard and mud everywhere it's a lot of work all right we're down here to look at the progress I haven't actually come in in a couple days it's a precarious little Bridge here trying to stay out of the mud okay let's go grab my hand grab my hand and get on get on get on on we're walking in a garage door here the garage floor they I think they have to soak it down before they cement it they add more dirt and soaking and I don't know at all see all the trees out there so pretty and let's go in the garage I mean in from the garage see our beautiful mud room we added a pass through window I don't remember if I showed you guys that wow so much Plumbing has been done really yeah Mommy please keep there's a little bathroom M room with some lockers storage closet laundry room behind it wow we got some windows everywhere I haven't seen this door in the door has some film on it but you can see solo walk out there it's a long way down but wow what a view there's some guys out there removing some trees [Music] today yeah oh I love these high doors so glad we went with the taller doors I don't know if I showed you this but they did fill in that wall that I was hoping would be open this is our Island the counter we'll be able to see like 10 or 11 around it which is so cool you know we'll use that a lot this dining room we could literally put two tables two 12T tables our table is 12T so we could put two of them if we wanted to put card tables or be able to move it around so we're not doing a chandelier over it so that we can have a lot of Versatility so I'm excited about that but lots of new changes with plumbing sink stuff solo decided at the last minute we should have a pot filler over the stove and he said it's a long walk from the sink to the big stove you still got to walk back to drain that pot that was my opinion but whatever anyway this is our pantry looks good our front door is not in yet and that one window I think it arrived broken so that's why that one's not in yet but there's another patio door back there I don't know when all the film comes off the windows and doors but I'm so excited for it uh one decision we did make is to get rid of the he around it was such a hard decision we have these L-shaped couches I don't know if they'll still fit here like for a regular basis but with the Hearth they really don't you can't walk around both sides they're huge couches we really wanted to be able to have them both here so when we went with the Hearth we weren't thinking about that size we thought there was plenty of space still for it and when we got in here measured it we realized oh we need to make a decision so we decided to go without the Hearth it will just buy us a little more space cuz it's like it was a foot and a half all the way around and hopefully we don't regret it you got to do the best with what you know you know you know you can only do the best with what you know I haven't taken you upstairs yet this is the first when you go walk like this one thing I love is these huge windows on the upper level oh yeah oh you're going to sing a song up there this is their stage believe me there you go right there okay do it there so we come up here there's more windows all those trees there are coming down today so that we have a view of the water better it's kind of sad but we also have so many new baby trees everywhere so not too worried oh there's a bathtub in there this is last shower this is not a shower this is for a about wow I knew it because Dad told me oh we have a couple of these bathrooms where where we have a sink on either side and then um pocket door that locks with the toilet and shower so that we can get maximum use out of our bathrooms this loft is so huge this turned out bigger than I thought it would be I'm not an architect so seeing the numbers and the drawing I had a pretty good idea we're the ones that kind of designed what we wanted but to actually see it in person The Loft is over the kitchen and dining room so it is really huge it will be a great SP space to keep homeschool stuff and have toys we have a couple storage closets up here that are pretty large where we can store our toys um we may eventually have some built-ins here I'm not sure if we'll do it right away or not looking at the budget but um it will be great I've even thought about putting the grand baby grand piano up here and it might be a really good solution for us cuz it would save us more space in that living room down there for seating um but also we could hear it down there which would be nice and it's car going to be carpet up here I'm sure the piano movers would not enjoy bringing it up the steps but it is possible to have it up here so it's just something we're considering I don't want it to be like right under a window for wreck light all the time it's not good for the finish of it so lots to consider this will be a good railing up here that looks over the house so when the kids are playing up here they won't feel like they're separated completely from the rest of us I can listen in on his conversations from anywhere our Builder works with an interior designer sometimes or most of the time so he asked us if we'd like to work with her and we said yes for sure when I see what I like I know right away so I can make very quick decisions I would say that solo and I have made a lot of very very quick decisions in fact we've had to speed it up because of this trip to Kenya we're gone for a month like in a very critical time so we made a lot of decisions that would normally wait and we've had to just keep like meeting with her and making a ton of decisions and she kind of figured out our style pretty quick which has been very helpful um to make it go faster and she just brings step and we're like yes yes yes no yes yes yes we're just like flying through so we've decided I think everything but lighting and paint and um some of our hand handles like what do you call that not fixtures but um you know some of the hardware not the word I'm looking for some of the hardware on cabinets for bathrooms and kitchen I don't think we finalized that but we've decided so much um it's just those couple end things so uh they they told us it looks like we might be drywalling when you get home and then a week later they're like it looks like we might be putting cabinets in and woodwork trim and stuff when you get home that's crazy it's amazing it's going so so fast we could not be more thankful for that too so I dropped off some of our middle kids at our old neighborhood cuz there's a neighborhood play every year and our kids are usually a part of it and they couldn't be in it this year because the performance is happening while we're in Kenya but they're having some dress rehearsals so they invited our kids over to come see the play they're so excited so Tor Eli and Noel are over there having a good time the big boys have been doing school all day it's school day for them like where they go to a school so we're just home with some little kids now I promised that I would share some Finance tips you know we had a message the other day come through like a comment um she said I just I feel so overwhelmed what's the secret to affording all of this stuff on a pastor's income I felt bad for her that she thought that because um we are not doing all of this on a pastor Sal salary we actually I wrote her back we have several businesses and we're entrepreneurs as well so um that really helps us but we have definitely lived on a lot of different incomes and somehow we've still managed to get to Kenya yeah by the by the grace of God I that is for sure that's for sure Solo's tired can you tell I'm tired guys yeah I want to take a nap I'm making you talk so how we can afford to go to Kenya even on so many different income levels is um it has been it's just been a huge priority for us we determined when we got married that we would make sure our kids know their culture um even the one we we thought we'd be living in Kenya guys so we thought we would have to make sure that they're knowing American culture turns out we lived in America so far all this time and so we've had to make a point to take them to know their Kenyan culture and that's been very important to us not only their culture their family we have so much family there solo has four siblings there his mother's there she hasn't been able to visit for a while but we we've wanted our kids to know their cousins there and I tell you FaceTime is wonderful and we're appreciative of appreciative of it but nothing is like being with your family in person yeah um even if you're across the country your relationship goes so much farther when you're in a room with somebody when you spend a week in their house or in a house together there's just nothing like it personally I have always just determined that I'm going to make sure it's enough it's as much of a priority as it would would be to me if I was the one living in Kenya so I would want my kids to get home to see my family spend time with them to know my culture too and so um I try to make it that much of a priority in my own heart so uh throughout the years like if we have sold an asset sold a house we'll take some money and just put it right away toward Kenya because we are entrepreneurs or we have our own businesses our income fluctuates a lot so if our business is suddenly doing well and we've been used to living on it doing not so well before our living expenses adjust to a better income we right away take money and just put it aside for trip to Kenya we've mostly only gone as a whole family every 5 years or even less yeah so there was a stretch of time that we were kind of busy our kids were little and um you know we're doing okay we're doing well financially I think based on the our lifestyle at the time but it was the time taking time that much time off we didn't want to just want to go for 2 weeks or or less than 3 weeks so it was kind of like a gamble do we go for 3 weeks cuz that maxes out all the vacation I had yeah and um but so we went for a stretch where I only went in between a window of time twice but nobody else went and then it was in that time before we could go my dad passed unexpectedly uh the timing and that just was awful and we just decided decided that changed everything that just changed everything you know the life is just so too short mhm to keep postponing these opportunities and so even though it was always our desire and our priority yeah we kind of we felt like we either didn't have time or we didn't have enough money but really we could have we could have done even if it was just even if it was two weeks we could have done 2 weeks we're always hoping that we could go longer than that you know and some of those decisions led to maybe really pushing into stepping out of a job and starting doing self-employment so you can control your own time and so that was about that you know some of those things you're like okay I'm done with this yeah so there are obviously it is very expensive we have a number in our mind like a nice even round number that we basically need in order to go to Kenya with our big family and so we kind of have that number all the time in mind when we're thinking when can we do the next trip last year we thought we were going to do a trip and we didn't um ways we're saving money and making it happen this year is um we are driving to Chicago because take a couple hundred cheaper on a ticket you wouldn't just drive to Chicago take a couple hundred cheaper on a ticket and multiply it by 12 it was more than that this time it was 300 even two I would have considered doing without trust it was over 300 a ticket so you multiply that times a lot and you end up driving [Music] to multiplication we're driving to Chicago so we have an 8 hour drive to Chicago which that is always a bit nerve-wracking because the old nothing can go wrong old that I get the more Navas I get with that idea yeah things can go wrong in cars you know when you young you're like you can give give me anything and I'm realizing I'm starting to think like I I've lost more hair and I'm like am I is this really smart to do this cuz the last time we drove to Chicago just a few months ago yeah we had an accident on the road like we had a isue yeah we did we nothing can happen this time yeah with a with a new car newer car you know new newer to US Car newer to us well it wasn't newer too the car is only like 3 years four years old you know and so then you start thinking boy you know the tolerance is very I'm must started think we should drive halfway through to see the Rapids where we have good friends and uh spend the night there and just have a shter drive you know uhhuh anyway instead we have an 8 hour drive okay we'll be getting up like well when did we decide we're leaving in the morning we haven't decided but we know it's going to be 4:00 a.m. I think it's 4:00 a.m. because our flight's at 5: p.m. and we want to make sure we have plenty of time for the travel and plenty of time for check in with our massive amount of luggage then we have so 8 hour drive there that's not with stops and then two 8 Hour flights to get to Kenya that is a long trip so then when we come home we get a hotel room because of the jet lag we don't want to just get right on the road I feel like that would be very dangerous and then when we wake up sometime in the middle of the night with jet lag when everybody wakes up like 2:00 or 3: in the morning this is what we did last time too we just got in the car and drove home um because we wanted to get home before that jet lag tiredness hits again so it is a long journey and it's longer because of our need to make it fit in our budget um when we're in Kenya we stay with friends and family as much as possible family I we have been known to sleep on floor somewhere we'll just do whatever we can so we try to do that as much as possible how else do we save money when we go yeah we stay with people that's huge we we so far we've been able to borrow Vehicles that's huge borrow car from family yeah borrowing CS from it's harder it's getting harder cuz uh there's there's more of us and so there are not many people some family members that would happily give us cars but they're not big enough yes it's getting it is getting harder the bigger the bigger we are a few other ways that we save big time by when we're traveling with this huge group is that um we eat at home a lot and we're not like eating at restaurants we tried to eat at restaurants if a few times because there are some really good restaurants in Kenya like the the Indian food there is out of this world the Ethiopian food is obviously neighboring Ethiopia best I've ever had so we will eat out a couple times but um eating at home mostly the food is actually when you're buying food to cook it at home very affordable um also when we're doing some experiences that are more touristy safaris different and things like that are so much cheaper for residents solo is a Kenyan citizen he's a dual Citizen and all our children are dual citizens so they all get in on the Kenyon prices mine probably costs the same as all of theirs combined although and I'm argued with them guys over there I said if my wife was from Nigeria and she looked like I do you would even be asking to see if she's a or not and they'll admit yeah yeah but now sometimes he does get me in for he tries every time let me tell you but they've gotten harder they used to be more lenient before understanding but now they're like oh yeah your wife will pay more yeah so most of us travel around there um with the cheap rate on things so that really does help a lot too so those are just some of the things we do to make it more affordable more Within Reach this plane tickets are definitely the expense of the century and both of us by the way have jobs that we work still while we're there that we work online um not the church the church is well taken care of while we're gone um by our team here but we just keep the the businesses rolling while we're over there guys if you like to hear how we save money in different things um let us know cuz we could do a video I was thinking about how we save money building a house I think we have enough things that we have come up with creatively there's a lot of things that we've come up with that have helped us save um from the conventional way so we could do that video if you're interested let us know if you are wanting to get a hold of your finances and make some changes or just get ahead don't forget to check out rocket money in my link in the description box below or you can go to www. rocket.com our tribe of Mone we will talk to you again in the next video hopefully I will have a lot more than two kids packed when I come back to talk I need to focus I'll talk to you in the next video bye this house is so weird when we only have little kids it's way too quiet it's the big ones making all the noise realiz mess yeah that was the big ones too and the little ones [Music] a

Channel: Our Tribe of Many

Views: 197,280

Keywords: large family, large family vlogs, large family homeschool, homeschoolers, lincoln vloggers, nebraska vloggers, family vloggers, interracial couple, interracial family, interracial kids, international family, international couple, international kids, feeding a large family, prolife

Id: rTd0QPRNZrU

Length: 34min 30sec (2070 seconds)

Published: Thu May 09 2024