Locks for Love

 

Today Katie and Francesca had their first real hair cuts.

(Don’t mention it to their daddy, he’s bound to cry a little)

 

 

 

 

 

My baby is reading!

Frankie, my baby, read Snug House Bug House to her big sister yesterday. The whole book. By herself. She sure makes her mama proud!

Apple Picking!

   

Word-Filled Wednesday: Psalm 37:4

We’re doing a Priscilla Shirer bible study on Jonah at church right now. As we were watching the video a couple of weeks ago, I looked down at my book and saw this verse:

“Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart.”

I  tapped my friend and pointed at the verse. I thought I had it all figured out.

You see, God is in the middle of blessing me with one of the biggest desires of my heart. Biggest. I thought that verse was telling me He was rewarding me for my faithfulness to His call on my life.

And then I listened to what Priscilla was saying about it on the video, and I realized how clueless I really was.

She explains this verse to mean that when you delight in the Lord, He will change the desires of your heart so that they align with His desires for your life.

Simply put, He can make it so that you want what He wants for you.

I’m not proud to admit this, but I have some people in my life that are difficult for me to deal with. So difficult that I’ve consciously decided to limit my interactions with them. Even though they’re all people I should love and forgive, I’ve found reasons to justify my distance. As I started to think about these people during bible study, Priscilla said something that really spoke to my heart. She said “People don’t need to see ‘Christians’, they need to see you redeemed and changed by the power of the Holy Spirit”

Lord, help me forgive. Help me to love as You loved. Help me to shine the love of Christ into their lives.

I will delight myself in my Lord, and He will give me the desires of my heart.

Amen.

My soccer playing girl!

A Baptism

My two oldest girls love Jesus and have asked Him to be their savior. On September 11, 2011 they publicly declared their desire to love Him and follow Him all of their lives.

  

  

 

  

  

When Pastor Mark asked Katie if she wanted to share anything, she excitedly recited John 3:16 in Spanish. Ever since returning from Ecuador, my husband has been working on his Spanish, which includes nightly lessons with the girls. What a blessing that man is to me. I was so proud of them that day!

“Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved…”-Mark 16:16

What we did this summer…finally

I’ve been putting this post off forever in hopes that my missing jump drive, which contains half  of my summer pictures, would come out of hiding. Since that doesn’t appear to be happening anytime soon, and since it’s, you know, October and not even remotely summer anymore I’ve decided to just post what I have. So here’s our summer recap-Fall edition.

This summer my husband stepped way out of his comfort zone and answered the Lord’s call to travel to Ecuador on a mission trip with 15 others. It was a time of growth and tremendous blessing for us all, and a life changing event for my husband.

     

Let’s just be real, nobody looks good at 4:30 in the morning…

While he was away bringing the gospel of the Lord to people in the jungle, my bff and her husband took great care of us; keeping us busy so we didn’t dwell on missing him too much. (And let me tell you, miss him we did! It was the longest week of my life!!) We had a fun time visiting a great children’s museum with some of our favorite people in the world:

    

We celebrated the birthdays of our little love bugs…

    

         

  

We had a blast at Vacation Bible School…

    

We got to witness a beautiful wedding ceremony joining two lives…

    

Sam and her friend participated in, and won, a talent show…

The little girls went on their very first sleepover…

And we got to spend time with, and bond with, some wonderful friends so dear to us that they’re like family now…

   

It was during on of those times that Katie swam on her own for the very first time! (Lots of firsts this summer!)

At the end of the summer, we were very blessed to be able to spend a week in a beautiful house on a lake. The time we spent there; hanging out and lovin’ on each other, playing and laughing and having fun together…we made memories that week that will last us a lifetime. We were able to have that time together all because of the generosity of some very special people. People that have accepted us into their lives and their hearts- unconditionally loving us just for who we are. I’m looking forward to many years of making new memories with these amazing people.

And there you have it. Our summer. Or at least the parts I have pictures of…my sage wisdom of the day? Cutting and pasting the only copy of your pictures? Not such a good idea. :)