Abigail celebrates her 5th Birthday!!!!

To my sweet, sweet Abigail, (my sweet, sweet Petunia)
Wow! I can't believe you are already five!!!! These past five years have flown by so quickly...and you have grown into such a beautiful young girl. I thank God everyday for you Abby! You make me laugh, you make me smile, you challenge me daily with wondering questions about the world and you love God so much at your young age. What an amazing girl you are. I pray that I can be the mom that God designed me to be even on the hard days. I pray that you will continue to share you heart, your voice, your love, your creativity, your God & your mind with others so that they can see how wonderful you are and be blessed the way your family is to have you in our lives! I am so proud of you in so many ways...I love you Abigail Rose...Happy Birthday!!!!

prayers of a child

Sometimes as a parent you wonder if anything you do or say ever really gets into your kids heads. Well the other night when Cancun, Mexico was hit by the hurricane...Abby and I were surfing the net together. We came across pictures of the storm...I looked over at her and she said,"Mom, I just feel so sad about all of our friends in Cancun(we visit there a lot and have made several lasting relationships) I just feel like I need to pray."

I was taken back. We try to pray as often as we can with the girls, not just at meals or before bed, but about life too throughout the day, but wow...she got it...she felt sad, and wanted to take her heavy heart before God. How amazingly beautiful is that?

She then knelt down in prayer for our friends, by name who were going thru the storm...

Several days later we received a call from a friend that needed prayer. We were having dinner at the time the request came in and right away Abby said, "Can I be excused for just a minute please?" She walked away from the table, went right over to the couch and knelt again before her Heavenly Father to pray for our friend....

They watch and hear our every move. We have to be doing our best to live holy, blameless lives not only because God calls us to, but also because there are little people in our homes modeling their lives after ours... scary thought but it helps to keep us on our toes...I think I'm in trouble with this one, I have a feeling she is going to call me out on a lot of things as she gets older...

Thank you Lord, for giving me such a special little girl...may she grow to love and serve you with her whole heart...

Alive in His care

Majesty, Majesty. Your grace has found me just as I am. Empty handed but alive in your care. I love this song. I think it's one of my favorites now. As we were singing this at church sunday nite my soul began to weep. He takes care of me, no matter what is going on in my life.

We talked about the fall of man & how Adam & Eve were just "hanging out" around the tree of good & evil. They could go anywhere in the entire garden & there they were. They wanted to "take things into their own hands" to see if they could "be like God" to have the knowledge of Him. So what do they do? They hang out right next to the temptation. I desire to run from the temptations in life. I don't only want to RUN, but I want to run towards something amazing. I not only want to RUN into the arms of Christ but I want to BE like Christ. I want holiness. I want a holy, blameless life that is constantly running & doing my job here on earth. I desire to reach people to love people, to truely embrace the lost. That's the ultimate goal for my life. The goal that Christ himself asked of us. That's it. To love, to be one. To reach out. To run from evil & temptations. But here we are, like Adam & Eve, wanting more. Desiring more. Climbing the tree to just see if there is more. Then we are tempted. We fall. We leave the plan of God. We are ashamed. We run. We hide.
I'm learning more & more the importance of our brothers & sisters in Christ. They are not just there to hang out with. They are there to support us, to lift us up when we are tempted. So when you struggle, don't hide, don't run away in shame. Run towards someone(a brother or sister in Christ) and allow them to carry your burdens. It's much easier to bare when someone is right there beside you lifting you up. How awesome that God made us one & desires us to be one so that we can do this for one another. Not only do we have God to lift us up & to make us "alive in His care" but He also gave us friends. Come on brothers & sisters, let's embrace this whole "oneness" thing & be honest with one another. Life here on earth wouldnt seem quite so bad then...

Aqua-what?

So for our anniversary I planned a night out to the Melting P0t(a fondue restaurant)and after a concert at the House of Blues to see Aqualung. I know what most of you are thinking...Aqua-who? Well, I heard this group from a movie & I fell in love with their sound so I thought hey, I'm gonna check them out. They were playing on the date that we were going out so I thought"why not?" Matt & Emmy joined us for the concert & it was...well, it was interesting. It was not the normal environment that the four of us find ourselves in, but the music was okay. The funny thing is we listened to two groups before Aqualung came on & by the time they came on it was 11:30 and we were all smoked out(everyone was smoking & we stank!) But we did hear a couple songs from them...and I enjoyed those at least. Check them out...aqualung.com...my favorite song is" Brighter than sunshine"

11 years !

Well, 11 years have past since David & I became husband & wife...amazing! Our anniversary was on October 8th but it has been a whirlwind of a week already(and it's only Wednesday).
It was a beautiful, sunny October day. The leaves had just started to change colors. I was running late(as usual). I quickly dressed & got my hair done and looked in the mirror. Wow, I'm getting married...to the man of my dreams, to the Godly man that I prayed for. To the man that I never thought I'd ever have. To David. I didnt feel the normal gitters that a bride feels. I was just excited. I wanted to get the show on the road! Come on, just let me run down the aisle to him! But I waited until the right moment...when the photographer told me to & when my dad took my hand. Then I saw him. Pale as ever but he was standing at least. He looked ready too. We both talked about this moment for months now. Now the time had come. We were to be husband & wife.
After a beautiful ceremony of love, tears & some laughter(I almost caught my dress on fire from the unity candle-but David, already my hero came to my rescue & stopped the candle from falling from my hand) we said those magic words,"I do". And the rest is history!
Now 11 years later & I'm still learning how to love him the way God has designed me to. This past year has been the most rewarding & the most challenging...but God has gotten us thru. In fact, this past week we experienced something that we've never had to encounter-a wedge that we never imagined would enter our marriage, but God had victory! It's amazing how two truely become one & you feel the others heart. The way that God intended...it is so beautiful. I know that we have a long way to go but I also know that we have already come so far. God has revealed some holes in our marriage that we have begun to repair...holes that I didnt even think exsisted, but He is in control & David & I will grow even closer because of them. I look forward to another 11 years with this amazing man & many, many more...