What Love Is

Love is when an unexpected package comes in the mail filled with gifts made by a bosom friend.

Love is what you feel when you see your little daughter looking out a sunlit window in a well loved flower girl dress.

Love is taking the time to laugh and play with your son all morning because the dishes will always be there but he won't.

Love is when your eight year old daughter is not ashamed to hold her daddy's hand and let him know that she is willing to move to the other side of the country if that meant spending more time together.

Love is gently bathing a little body brand new to the world, whose soul already flew to heaven...wrapping him with care and weeping with his mother while she cradles him for the first and last time.

Sweet Little Memories

Kaeleigh, my sweet neice, made an outfit for Abby Sue's doll, Kit. I love that these girls are so crafty and childlike.

Zibby and Ben were playing Knight andPrincess in backyard. After I pinned up the dress Zibby had on I realized that she had taken her diaper off. It was so funny watching her bounce around the yard or riding her tricycle catching little glimpses of bum cheeks. Down right adorable!

Abby Sue was at Mamo & Papo's all day yesterday learning how to cross-stitch. She is making a sampler of bugs. She even worked on it after she went to bed. She told me that she hopes to enter a sampler in the State Fair next year. The family tradition lives on!

Ben overheard that we may be going to the air show in Hillsboro this weekend with friends from church who know a Thunderbird pilot. He was so excited that he decided to build his own Thunderbird and dream of flying one someday too.

We are so blessed!

Bee Stings and Funny Things

Life is just hilarious sometimes. I have always had a very easy time laughing...(and in the process either peeing my pants or breaking a tooth). I have found in life that I tend to laugh much more than cry. I don't really know if that is a positive thing or not. I look up to people who can cry with others. Those who walk through the trials of life and really suffer with their friends. It's not that I don't cry, it's just easier for me to laugh. I even laugh when I'm nervous or overwhelmed. My poor mom had the hardest time understanding this part of me. She has the gift of crying with others. So, you can imagine growing up, how many times I found myself in the hot seat because of my natural response to trouble. I would be smiling, nervously, and she on the other hand would be weeping. As of late I find myself laughing a lot. This is most likely because of the trials going on around us. I realize that my heart finds so much comfort in laughing just as others find the same comfort in crying. So...when we were camping this weekend and Aaron accidently drank a yellow jacket that stung him a few times on his lip (making him look like Bubba Gump), and Ben cut open his heel and fell into a blackberry bush, and Abby Sue got her hair caught in the tent zipper in the middle of the night screaming bloddy murder, and Zibby was up throughout the night coughing and crying, and Otis had diarrhea and proceeded to poop all over the campsite while kids are running through it, and Zibby overflowed her diaper all over her car seat on the way home, I could not help but laugh.

Life can be sobering and I like anyone else need a good cry now and then...but for now I still believe that laughter is the best medicine!

Keeping my mind on Christ

I'm so tired. There I finally admitted it. This week I've been living on a steady diet of m&m's and worry..two things that are not good for body or soul. I'm trying to commit everything to Christ but when Aaron mentioned again to me the other day of the very real possibility of moving to thousands of miles away it has been hard to quiet my heart and mind on the subject. Since this blog is not really read by anyone but myself and a few close friends, (who I'm thankful will pray for us), I feel like talking to someone without really talking to anyone about it. I haven' mentioned it to anybody except for my mom a few weeks ago and before I even finished explaining the situation she was crying her eyes out.

I love it here. Life couldn't be better really. I don't take it for granted that we are blessed...beyond measure. Everything here is perfect...our home, church, family, schools, town, etc. So why would we even consider moving? Simply because we want to be open to His plans and purposes for our life and for the lives of our kids. We don't want to set anchor anywhere but in Christ alone. We don't want our plans and dreams to get in the way of His. So, we are praying about moving to the east coast. Aaron's company loves him and has offered him an amazing teaching position there that would suit him in so many ways. Could this be a part of God's plan for us? Does He want to use us somewhere else for His glory and for His good? What about the kids? How would they do that far away? Could we use this time to teach them about the sovereign plans of God and having a willing heart to serve Him no matter the cost?

Everyone around here is grumpy today...especially me. I take to the heart the words I read long ago..."wherever you are, be all there." That's really hard to put into practice when you feel like life is on the brink of being uprooted. "Peace I give to you..." "Come and follow Me.." "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.." "Plans for peace and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope." Amen.

Summer to Fall

Today the winds have changed and although we all expect one more burst of summer, fall is in the air. Something about the changing of the seasons makes me look back and forward all at the same time. I want to hang on to the past but peek around the corner and see what God has in store for the future.

Life around the house will be different in a lot of ways this fall. Both Abby Sue and Ben will be at school all day. It feels like a new chapter of their lives is beginning. They are leaving "little" behind. In fact while they were at summer camp last week, I decided to go through all of their toys and in doing so realized that they have moved beyond much of them. I felt sad and happy as I sorted through dress up boxes, blocks, coloring books, etc. So much of the past 8 years have been devoted to training them up within these four walls, and now I'm watching them take the tools we have given them and apply them to everyday life outside of their nest. In all of this I'm thankful for the blessing of Elizabeth. I look forward to our time together. It will be good to focus on her a bit more and treasure in my heart her preschool years. Soon enough she will be waiting for the bus in the fall with the other two...but hopefully time will take its time before then.

Looking back on this summer I'm overwhelmed with joy. Beginning with our amazing trip to Europe, playing with the kids in the Bahamas, camping with family and friends, The Fourth July under the grape arbor, running in the Cascade Lakes Relay, Abby Sue turning eight and having her first sleepover, Canyonview Camp, watching the kids ride their bikes up and down Pine street on their own, the list goes on and on. I actually feel like I finally grew up this summer too....well almost. Thank You Jesus for more than I can say...continue to give us the grace to live our lives as a testimony to Your love. Bless the work of Your hands in and around us as we commit each breath to You. Amen.