Tree Climber

Christian is about to turn four in just a couple of weeks. So I've been on this kick about teaching him certain things before he goes to preschool next fall. I've been working on teaching him to spell his name. It's a doosey but so far we've got C-H-R and then he usually adds a 3 on to the end of that because including your age is very important you know. We've been diligently working on getting over our fear of our bike and the next thing on my list was tree climbing.

We've got the perfect tree in our front yard with very low branches. It's the kind of tree every four year old should be in, so with a little encouragement Christian has begun to conquer the "climbing tree."

He even got brave and decided to jump out of it...changed his mind a split second later and ended up hanging there...his feet just inches from the ground. I refused to "save" him and he finally let go and dropped to the ground.

But then we had to go inside.
See that little boo boo he got (The itty bitty white spot on his finger that didn't even involve any blood) . It almost ruined the tree climbing experience. Good grief. Thankfully that boo boo nonsense lasted for only a few moments and when daddy came home from work he found a boy in a tree :)

There's nothing better...

than having a husband who loves me just because!

Special Visitors

Our friends Laurie and Caitlin came down to visit us all the way from Massachusetts. Laurie and Caitlin go to Amy's old church in Mass and they have been an incredible support to her and me too. I remember Laurie spending hours helping Amy pack up her house. She has sent the most amazing packages and leaves the sweetest comments on our blogs! Laurie is always a huge encouragement to both Amy and I and we LOVE it when she and Caitlin visit!!

They walked with us for Olivia at Relay for Life.

Much to the sheer delight of our children Laurie and Caitlin never show up empty handed. They brought each child a sand bucket filled with special things. No spill bubbles, jump ropes, beach towels...just tons of fun stuff! My favorite thing has become the cups with their names on them. They all ended up at my house and I'm loving the fact that one one mixes up their cups anymore. No more wasting juice because we can't remember who's cup it is. You know, it's the simple things in life :)

Nate thought it was funny to blow bubbles right on Caitlin! She was a good sport!

And Caitlin took about a hundred pictures! I hope I get to see some of them. You should see some of the pictures Caitlin captured during her semester in Rome!

Thanks for coming to see us Laurie and Caitlin. We had a blast!!

Help

Is anyone having trouble viewing my blog? I can't see it when I log on using Internet Explorer, so I've been using Foxfire. I guess you wouldn't really be able to leave me a comment telling me you can't see it, if you can't see it. Hmmmm....I don't know what to do. Any suggestions?

You probably already know what this is about...

Of course, it's about Olivia. I can't get her off my mind today. She has been slipping into my thoughts non-stop since about 11:30pm last night. Ryan and I laid in bed last night and held hands and just prayed God's will for her life. I want so bad to just pray "Jesus heal her now," because of course he could do that, but I keep thinking of what 1 John 4:18 says. It's a random little verse. Just a tiny tidbit of God's word that I've read over a million times. Is says "Perfect love casts out fear." God's love for each of us is the only truly perfect love. Our human love always falls short. I don't love my kids or my husband perfectly. I might love them perfectly for a moment, but then my selfishness and sin gets in the way and things get messed up. But God's love is perfect. God's love for Olivia is perfect. He loves her more than anyone and when I begin to get my mind around that...when I begin to understand how deeply He loves her and that his love is perfect, then I begin to relax a little. The fear begins to subside. As much as my heart aches, as much as my spirit feels broken, I know that God has Olivia's best interests in mind. I know that His love for her is incomprehensible and that I can trust Him because He loves her so much. Does all that make sense? I hope so because it brought me such comfort.

A few weeks ago our Pastor did a sermon on Heaven (click here to download and listen to it. It's the sermon dated March 29th) and I was sitting there hearing things about Heaven that I had never heard before. I found myself wondering how I had lived for 31 years and didn't know this stuff. So after hearing that sermon I started reading the book "Heaven" by Randy Alcorn. It is soooo good. It's definitely NOT light reading. It's 100% based on scripture, so there is a lot of scripture references in it. It's sort of like a textbook on Heaven. I'm not much of a non-fiction reader so I haven't finished it and if you ask me in a month if I've finished it the answer will probably be "no." BUT I have learned so much. So many good things. God has revealed so much to us in His word about what life will be like in Heaven, I've just never paid much attention.

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So here's one little tidbit of what I learned.
Heaven will be familiar.
Basically what that means is that Heaven will not feel like some out of body, floating on clouds, angels playing harps experience. In Heaven there is no fear, no tears, no pain, no anxiety, no worry, no uneasiness, no bad anything. When we get to Heaven it will be as familiar to us as our own home. It will feel like coming home. Jesus told his disciples before he went up to Heaven that he was going to prepare a place for them. Jesus is preparing a place for those who believe in him right now. So when I get to Heaven I will see people I know, I will recognize Jesus, I will know my way around, I won't have any fear or wants or worries. I will be comfortable in the place that God created just for me. I don't understand how it all works, but I do know that those who have gone before us are having the time of their lives. They don't want to come back here. They aren't longing for us here on earth, they just can't wait for us to join them in Heaven.

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So whether Olivia gets to experience Heaven in 2 days, 2 years, 2 decades or even longer, I know that she will be thrilled to be there. I know that she will be just fine. And those of us left behind will miss her and long for her everyday of our lives until we get to join her for eternity. I wish with all my heart that Zac and Julie didn't have to walk this road. I hate it. It stinks. But God is still good. And He loves Olivia.

Forgot

We just spent a beautiful morning at the park with our friends. It was perfect! Gorgeous weather, lots of great bike riding, wonderful fellowship, just so much fun! But when we got there I realized that I FORGOT my camera. I was seriously almost in a panic and for a second I thought about going home to get it. Now to put this in perspective, I lose my cell phone all the time. I just found it under the seat in my car and it had been missing for three days. People text me or leave messages that I check days later when the info. is no longer relevant. My cell phone just isn't that important to me. But my camera is a totally different story. When did I become so addicted to taking pictures? I'm serious. I don't think the word 'addicted' is an exaggeration. I'll blame it on the blog!

Field Trip with Emma.

Last Friday I got to go to the Cumberland Valley Life Festival with Emma's class. Our friends Laurie and Caitlin were visiting from Massachusetts and they got to my house at 9:30am to watch my kiddos so I could go be with Emma. It was sooo sweet of them and they even brought Christian a new Thomas movie so he would feel comfortable staying with them. That trick worked and he's been talking about them ever since. And I should mention that it was also "wacky day" so that explains the green and pink hair you will see in these pictures.This is the gang I got to hang out with for the morning.

(Bailey, Emma, Jack, Austin ((I think that's his name)), Brayden)
The middle schoolers put this festival on for the primary and elementary kids. They set up stations with different colonial trades. This was the apple press and they made real apple cider from scratch for each of the kids.

The candle making station.

Here's the snake on top of the compost pile that was the main attraction there for awhile. Then he disappeared and I started watching my feet :)

Our girl who is going to be a third grader before we know it!

The tavern. Nice huh? They had root beer and cookies.

The undertaker.

See that kettle? They sliced potatoes and were making kettle potato chips. Tasty!!

And these were just a few of the stations! It was quite the event and I'm so glad I got to have that special time with Em and her very well behaved friends. (I do love great behavior, especially out of a kid who shows up with green hair :)

The Accident

It involved this car....

And this driver....

And this little girl who climbed in the car by herself and was not buckled...

And this is what happened....

And a little while later it looked like this...

And just for effect....here it is again...

And by 8:00pm last night it was looking even worse and I was actually starting to second guess myself, wondering if I should have had her checked out.

But today it's looking much better and she doesn't even seem to notice...

P.S. Just so you know, Nate did not get in trouble for this little mishap. I don't even think he realized that he had anything to do with McKenna getting hurt. In his mind it's her fault b/c she was standing up in her car. I just told him it was my fault b/c I wasn't watching McKenna like I should have been, and that's the truth. Although we are going to make up some new rules on Monday for when we are playing with McKenna outside. Everyone has gotten a little too wild with her when we're outside. They love to do the "under dog" with her in the swing and they love to have races with her in the driveway. None of that seems like such a good idea anymore.