Heartbroken

My heart is so heavy today for our state.  We had devastating tornadoes come through the area Wednesday night.  The limited reports of loss that came in before we went to bed Wednesday night paled in comparison to the reality this state woke up to this morning.  Completely overwhelmed and heartbroken does even begin to describe the feelings that have come over all of us here in Alabama. 





Our family is safe and sound and it seems as though our little community has weathered the storm pretty well considering what has happened in communities all around us.  I have never seen anything like this in my life.  I know for a fact that parents are without children and children are without parents, so many lives lost.


While I have not lost a child or a loved one in such a way, I do know deep deep grief.  As I awoke this morning to the reports around our state, I could not help but be moved...to tears and to prayer.  The sun shining so brightly in the beautiful blue sky puts the gray eerily warm weather from yesterday in stark contrast.  I remember days like that after Sophie Kate was born.


How is the world still continuing on when my world has been devastated?  How can it be so beautiful outside with the dark sadness in my heart?  How dare the sun shine and days move on when I am frozen at this moment in time and the pain is so great.  


Father, bring us to You, gather the hurting in your arms.  May we be a people not just of words, but of actions as well...showing Your love to our neighbors and surrounding communities.  


Pray for Alabama, the loss of life and the destruction in our state is truly overwhelming.


Jeremiah 31:13 "I will turn their mourning into gladness;  I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow."

Easter

Our group Easter morning...

Don't they look so compliant, I wish I could tell you that they are like this all the time and that I didn't have to threaten them within an inch of their Easter candy, but I can't tell you that, ha ha.

The boys, before I threatened their Easter candy...

Some sweet moments I don't want to forget...


-My 5 year old referring to the Chris Tomlin song "Our God" as his song.  "Mama, can you play my song."


-Jacob asking me if he could worship with us in "big church" on Easter Sunday (1-4 graders usually attend children's worship).


-Cooper teaching his brothers and sisters about the Resurrection of Christ using our Resurrection Eggs, each egg has something in it that tells the story of our Savior's death, burial and Resurrection.

Yes, he wore the boots.  I couldn't hardly get him to wear them all winter long, but Easter Sunday is going to be the day he decides to take a stand with the boots, thanks G.

The brothers always made sure that SK had eggs in her basket, they are so sweet with her.  I hope she always feels like she's a part of everything we do.

It was a beautiful weekend here, so thrilled to spend it with these 4 and their dad.


Thanks for checking in on us.

Beautiful

"He has made everything beautiful in its time.  He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end." Ecclesiastes 3:11


This verse was one of several that our Pastor used in his message a couple of weeks ago.  As I have since thought about this verse, there have been many things that have come to mind.  


"He has made everything beautiful in its time."  There is no doubt in my mind that Satan intended everything we have been through with Sophie Kate to harm us...to harm our family, to harm our relationship with Christ, and to harm our witness.  Satan intended these circumstances to cause a huge distance between us and God thereby damaging our witness as followers of Christ.  Instead, God has and is continuing to make all things beautiful...not only is our relationship with Christ stronger but our marriage is stronger.  Also,  in the years since SK has been born the hearts of our boys have been tendered toward God.  Two of our three boys have accepted Christ as their Savior...that is a beautiful thing to God and us!  These things didn't happen immediately, they all occurred over time, God's time.


"He has made everything beautiful in its time."  He has made all of us beautiful to Him.  We were once separated from God b/c of our sin, but through His Son Jesus we have been given the gift of forgiveness of sin and eternal life in Heaven with our Creator.  If we have recognized and confessed our sinful nature, accepted His forgiveness of sin through the death and resurrection of His Son and accepted Him into our heart and life, then we have been made beautiful and blameless before a Holy God.  


"He has made everything beautiful in its time."  How could our Redeemer being beaten beyond recognition b/c of our sin be beautiful?  How could the death of our Savior on the cross be beautiful?  We don't typically associate those events with the word beautiful...it is the love behind it that is beautiful to us as believers.  It is the most beautiful picture of love that there has ever been, love that cannot be described by the limited words we have in our vocabulary.  God's love displayed for us...beautiful. 

Happy Easter!    

Baseball Boys

This is how we are spending our Saturdays and a few days in between...

Cooper pitching.

So proud of himself after he got on base...

Jacob catching...

Grey and Sophie Kate hangin' out watching the brothers play ball...

Baseball buddies...

Cooper got his first home run this week.  It was an in the park home run, but a home run none the less.  

Not to be out done, Grey had to get in on the action with his game ball too...

We went out for shakes to celebrate Cooper's home run.  

Now what major leaguer wouldn't want a chili cheese coney and a snickers sonic blast after a home run?


Lovin' our days at the ball park, fun times with a community of friends.  Thanks for checking in on us.

Short and Sweet

This one is going to be just that, short and sweet, just like our girl.  After a day full of check ups and appointments at Children's Hospital this week, SK and I had a day at the hair salon, and guess what...

The bob is back!

Then after I had been taking pictures too long, she did this...

too funny sister

Let's wrap this one up with a sweet face.  Hope y'all have a fun weekend.  Thanks for checking in on us.

Fun

Here is what happens to Princess Bear when Sophie Kate and I aren't watching...

 Do you see the light saber?  This is what SK has to put up with from her brothers.  Although, they claim that a friend of theirs did this nevertheless they thought is was quite funny and were totally in on it...only in a house full of boys.  Cinderella and Minnie Mouse better watch out, no one is safe.  I am just waiting for one of them to be packing a Nerf gun while waiting in ambush for me.

These next two pictures are Sophie Kate wrapped in her princess towel after her bath, I don't know, they just made me smile. 

  

I know these are a bit dark, my camera and I were not getting along, it still happens from time to time.  I tried to lighten them up some but alas my processing skills are seriously lacking.  I am trying to do better with my camera by reading up on some aperture and shutter speed stuff but it takes time that I don't have.  So don't hate me for my lack of camera skills. 

Daddy wraps her up tight and then SK starts wiggling around trying to get herself free.  It's a game they like to play.

It was warm hot here this weekend so after baseball games, the boys cooled down with water balloons, water guns and sprinklers.

Which is all fine and good with SK as long as they leave Princess Bear out of it, ha ha!

We had a fun weekend, thanks for checking in on us.

Purpose

I had a conversation with someone last week that has been sticking with me...I can't remember the exact phrasing but she said something like..."God has a purpose for our children's lives and it may or rather probably is different from our purpose for them."  Of course each of us know that our kids have a purpose here.  I don't think I have actually gotten what she said right, but something in the way she said it struck a chord with me and I have been turning it over in my mind ever since.


Could God's plan for my children and my plan (or what I think I'd like for them) be different?  I haven't really mulled that over before.  I want what's best for them or what I think is best for them and do I really think that God wouldn't have something far greater planned than what I can come up with?  Wow, I must think a lot of myself. How very arrogant of me to think that God wouldn't have a far better plan for them than I do.  Concerning Cooper, Jacob and Grey I would probably say "Go for it, God" whatever you have planned for them would certainly far surpass anything I could ever imagine. Again, I know how very arrogant of me, as if the God of the Universe would need any permission from me.  But then there's Sophie Kate...


Her purpose, her story, her lifesong if you will looks a lot different and that's where I think I know better.  When I think that I want the "best" for my kids it may be things like going to college, finding a career, falling in love with a Godly young woman/man, living a happy healthy comfortable life.  In fact God has not called any of us to any of those things except for the Godly spouse thing, He does desire that we not be unequally joined (i.e. a believer with a nonbeliever) but He has not called us to a happy healthy life.  He most certainly has not called us to live a comfortable life...in fact just the opposite.


He desires that we get out of our "comfort zones"  that instead of just being happy and content with the things and successes of this world that we actually have the joy of His love in us.  He wants us to seek and desire His purpose and plan for us, not because He has to use us to work out His plans but because He chooses to use us and work through us and that my friends is a gift and a privilege, until that plan and purpose starts to look different from our own, right?


That's where I'm at...I can say all the right things but do I really believe them?  His purpose for my baby girl looks really different from mine, like not even in the same universe and I really want to be consulted on this one b/c this just can't be right.  I have been challenged in my thinking this week...these children don't belong to me, they are not "mine."  God has entrusted me with their care and upbringing, which by the way scares me to death.  They belong to Him, they are His creation, His children and they have their own purpose separate from me...what, really?!?  


It is our responsibility to teach them and show them the ways and words of the Father.  It is our responsibility to encourage and support them as they seek the Father's purpose for their own lives even when that looks very different from what we had envisioned, again a bit scary.


This is just where I am and some real thoughts I've had about thinking I know better, challenging my prideful thoughts, changing my thinking to get in line with God's plan and purpose for me and my littles.


Jacob's life verse seems to fit in well here:  Jeremiah 29:11-13 "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."


Oh yes, good stuff, if we will call on Him, pray and seek Him, He promises that we will find Him and He will listen.


Thanks for checking in on us. 

Today

Today my girl is at school.

Today she gets to spend the morning with her sweet friends.

Today her hair is in french braids.

Today it is warm here and SK is wearing her spring clothes.

Today she is happy.

Today I am so thankful for her smile.

Thanks for checking in on us.