Whew! What a week it has been!!! There is the obvious: keeping up with the demands of this not-so-normal family and our show airing on TLC Tuesday night (that part tends to fill your email inbox pretty quickly). Then there is the not-so-obvious: being stuck in rotation on the mindless carousel that is the City of Austin’s construction permitting process, trying to put the wraps on a major project for my MBA program, and pursuing new project leads that have come in recently. All of this adds up to ONE…CRAZY…WEEK!! Aside from the permitting thing, it’s been a whole heckuva lotta crazy fun though, so we’re all smiles over here!!
I’ll start this little recap with the obvious. The show airing and the response to it has been phenomenal (if not in TV world, certainly in Jones world)! First, just to see your family on such a big network and to see all of the things they did to promote the show was so awesome! Really, they surprised us with the big push to the point that the attention was a little discomforting, in a good sort of way…it’s kind of strange to hear a voice-over say, “fall in love with the Joneses” and know that they are referring to your family. It’s also kind of strange to have your name thrown around with the Gosselin’s and the Duggar’s…scary…very, very scary, my friends!!
And the other obvious? You know, that family of ours. Well, it’s been quite a week for them as well. While Eliot ran off to play with the grandparents this week for Spring Break, Casey Ann and I held it down with the Fab Five. And they decided that this was their week to show off some new-found skills! As of this week, we now have five walkers (Jack and Lila decided it was finally time to join the others in the toddler class), five kinda talkers (Britton especially is all about the b’s – baby, bottle, bye-bye, and bubbles!), two future WWE wrestlers (Britton and Jack have perfected the log roll!), one yoga master (Brooklyn does a mean downward facing dog!), and one circus performer (or performer of some kind as Ryan demands your attention…all of the time…with all of her new tricks!). Oh, and we also have five growlers as they have all decided to be angry, little baby bears with a mean and menacing growl…Brooklyn has the scariest growl of all! Just wait until Eliot gets back into this crrrraaaaazzzyy mix!
As for the not-so-obvious, life outside of baby world is crazy busy as well, but part of the craziness is quickly coming to a close, thank God! My MBA program will be complete in a little over a month which will of course free up lots and lots of time. And, thankfully as well, 2010 looks to be much better on the business front as leads have been picking up since mid-January…being crazy busy on that front is a problem I am very much looking forward to having!
We would like to thank everyone for their support, words of advice, words of admonishment (ok, hard to be thankful for those, but we’ll take the bad with the good), inspiring stories, and words of encouragement! We have heard from so many wonderful people who have their own story to tell or have found inspiration in hearing our story…the words “overwhelmed,” “gratified,” “humbled,” and “vindicated” immediately come to mind. At this point, we do not know if our show will be picked up as a series or not, but we are hopeful that it will. Let me repeat: we are hopeful that our show will become a series! Yes, despite the threat of impending doom to our marriage, our morals, and our maternity ward, we believe that people’s lives (ours included) have been, can be, and will continue to be positively impacted through a TV show and hopefully through our TV show (there, I said it, I meant it, and I’m not ashamed of it!). To those who do not believe that this is possible and to the cynics who have found comfort in their too-bitter worldview, I say this: read the comments posted to the entries on this blog and read them with an open heart and tell me how it could be otherwise. Better yet, forget about how you think God would and would not work in the lives of others and forget about trying to predict how the future of our family will take shape and simply accept events as they unfold, one day at a time…live and let live, for your sake and mine.
All kidding aside, we are very grateful for this opportunity, very mindful of the pitfalls that are sure to challenge us, and very accepting of your prayers for us in that regard. We entered into this adventure with caution and it is with this same level of prayerful consideration that we will take each new step. And make no mistake, we need your prayers just as we did when Casey was pregnant and your conversations with Christ carried us through to the day of the babies’ birth and beyond! I’m not just giving lip service to this, I really mean it. We believe in the power of prayer and we believe in the power of community (even an on-line community at that!). And when you combine these two powers, amazing things can happen in your life and in mine! We have witnessed it, we have experienced it, and we continue to thirst for it. So join us in this pursuit: harnessing the power of prayer and the power of this community and allowing God to work in your life and mine to the betterment of all!!
