When Your Day Takes a Turn...

do you ever have days that take a completely different turn than you had planned?
of course you do. we all do.

well, today i was planning on a flurry of watching some extra littles and trying to pull life together to head out of dodge with my man for the weekend...

and then i got the call.

we have some students we have been working with for the past several months.
these students are faced with more struggles in their 16 or so years than most of us have experienced in 30+.

i have a few teen moms that have stolen my heart. i am so very proud of the choices they have made in their lives. for one, they chose life. LIFE. and by doing so, they knew that their own would become more complicated. they also are choosing to finish high school. even though the demands on their life make it almost impossible.

so. proud.

but it wears on them. the pressures...

and today those pressures seemed like too much to one of them.

kevin called me to let me know that one of the girls was in the hospital. i won't share her details, but she felt alone and without options. thankfully, she was given a moment of clarity in her chaos and called someone who brought her to the hospital.

on the way to the hospital i prayed for wisdom...for His presence to be felt. actually...I don't know that i know what i prayed for...but i prayed.

and walking into her room...i was overcome with compassion.

she talked. i listened. i talked. she listened. we prayed. we listened to this song.

i had already been listening to it all morning. being completely blessed by the Lord's words to me...and to her.

He knew what He was getting into when chose us. He is not shocked by our weakness or sin or brokenness. He still wants us. He is the only One who can see the end from the beginning. Only He can see where this is going. He sees in us the seeds of love and strength.

when all we can see is the moment that we are hurting and aching...He sees more. He sees beyond. i needed to hear that. she needed to hear that.

if you think of her...please pray for her. she is a young mama with so much stacked against her. pray that she will not give up. that she will place her and her baby's lives in His hands...and that she will trust and know that it is going to be alright...that with Him, it is going to be okay.

God's Wonderful Surprise

from the Jesus Storybook Bible:

(go to Amazon right now and order this book...seriously...do it now...)

The Resurrection

from Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24, John 20

pg. 310

Jesus' friends were sad. They would never see their best friend again. How could this happen? Wasn't Jesus the Rescuer? The King God had promise? It wasn't supposed to end like this.

Yes, but whoever said anything about the end?

Just before sunrise, on the third day, God sent an earthquake - and an angel from heaven. When the guards saw the angel, they fell down with fright. The angel rolled the huge stone away, sat on top of it, and waited.

At the first glimmer of dawn, Mary Magdalene and other women headed to the tomb to wash Jesus' body. The early morning sun slanted through the ancient olive trees, drops of dew glittering on leaves and grasses - little tears everywhere. The friends walked quietly along the hilly path, through the olive groves, until they reached the tomb. And immediately noticed something odd - it was wide open.

They peered through the opening into the dark tomb. But wait. Jesus' body was gone! And something else: a shining man was there, with clothes made from lightning.

"Don't be scared," the angel said.

But (they couldn't help it) they screamed anyway.

The angel asked them, "What are you doing here? This is a tomb and tombs are for dead people."

The women couldn't speak.

"Jesus isn't dead anymore!" he said.

"He's alive again!"

And their hearts leapt. And then the angel laughed with such gladness that they felt, for a moment, as if they had woken from a nightmare.

The other women rushed home, but Mary stayed behind. How could it be true? Jesus was definitely dead - how could he be alive?

Just then Mary heard someone else in the garden.

Perhaps it's the gardener, she thought. He'll know where Jesus' body is.

"I don't know where Jesus is!" Mary said urgently. "I can't find him."

But it was all right. Jesus knew where she was. And he had found her.

"Mary!"

Only one person said her name like that. She could hear her heart thumping. She turned around. She could just make out the figure. She shaded her eyes to see...and thought she was dreaming. But she wasn't dreaming. She was seeing.

"Jesus!"

Mary fell to the ground. Sudden tears filled her eyes and great sobs shook her whole body, and all she wanted in that moment was to cling to Jesus and never let him go.

"You'll be able to hold on to me later, Mary," Jesus said gently, "and always be close to me. But now, go and tell the others that I'm alive!"

...Was God really making everything sad come untrue? Was he making even death come untrue? She couldn't wait to tell Jesus' friends...

____________________________________________________________

I love so many things about this version of the Resurrection story.

I love that Mary recognized Jesus by the way He said her name...she knew what He sounded like...

I love how it says "But she wasn't dreaming. She was seeing." I can only imagine moments where dreaming and seeing get blurry...but this seems like the perfect moment for them to blur.

I love the last few phrases, "Was God really making everything sad come untrue? Was he making even death come untrue?"

Making things come 'untrue'...like how they were...before sin and death...untrue. I like it.

Today, I am in awe of the empty tomb.

JESUS IS ALIVE!!!

and that changes everything.

It's that time of year again...

...and I ain't complainin' (really)...
the 74 degrees and perfect I will take...anyday.
the flip flop wearing for over a month now...love.
sleeping with the window open...sigh.
booming thunder and pounding rain while I sleep...yum.

but the yellow haze that covers every cotton-pickin' thing...aaachoo.
that makes my nose run and eyes water...sniff.
that causes me to attempt to scratch my itching throat with my tongue and contort my jaw in the doing...yuck.

yes, there is a medication I can take to help alleviate the down side...
I am on it...
and so is our dog.
seriously.
our 90 pound Golden Retriever is on the same allergy medicine regime as me.
he is conked out at my feet as I type...snoring away...snore.

didn't know I was that kind of dog person...geesh.

Daddy and Little Dude Day

Kevin and Eli headed to Atlanta a few weekends ago for a Boys' Day Out at the Atlanta Car Show. (I think it may have had a more official name than that...but I am a girl... and did not go...so 'Atlanta Car Show' it is...) :) They had a great time in between the occasional whining and feet dragging...that was Kevin. Contrary to this post, we are not really car people...well, REAL car people...Eli LOVES Matchbox and Lightening McQueen...which was the inspiration for this day out.

Eli's favorite was a pick up truck...the big one... with a Hemmie engine.

(It's hemmie, right? Is that how you spell 'hemmie'????)

Lisa let me know that it is actually 'HEMI'...but I am going to leave it...thanks, Lis! :)

The 2012 Corvette

This one could be yours for a mere $100,000.

Daddy's favorite car at the show

2012 Camaro

For Mommy.

If I had been there, this would have been my favorite car...

It is ALWAYS my favorite car.

Such tough guys.

Breakfast Of Champions...

Nutella with Cap'n Crunch Crumbs

on WHOLE WHEAT toast...

I give Kevin full credit for this amazingly nutritious breakfast.

(and our apologies to Mrs. Todd for the extra 'energy'

that accompanied our daughter on this particular day...

and possibly our dentist...)

Fear of Rejection...

*I have tried to fix this post...to make it not one huge paragraph...but blogworld is not cooperating...so I apologize for the very long stream of thought...do you still love me?? (that will be funnier after you read this post...) :) Sitting at the lunch table with Eli today, I started asking him questions. "What is your very favorite thing to play" Hand on his chin, eyes gazing left... "Ummmm...cars." "What is your very favorite song?" "Ummmmm. I think Jesus." "Yes, we love to sing songs to Jesus." "Ummmm... the one you sing to me at bedtime. Nada se, da na a se... I love that one." swoon. I transition into a question about his day at church yesterday. "So, yesterday in class, you did not want to do the craft. What did you do while the rest of your class did the craft?" "I played by myself." "What did you play?" "Cars. I played cars by myself. I did not ask anyone to play with me." (we had encouraged him to find one little boy and ask him if he wanted to play with him on the way to church.) "Why didn't you ask someone to play?" "Well...they were girls. and I am shy around girls." (so. sweet.) "There weren't any boys in your class?" "Yes...but, ummmmm, I was afraid they would say no." "You were afraid they would say no?" "Yes." "You are a very nice person and you are a good sharer. I am sure they would say yes!" "But what if they didn't?" "You would say, 'Okay!' And go ask another person to play." "Hm." It was a very grown up conversation for us...and it gave me a peek into my little man's heart and mind as he learns to navigate friendships and social networks (a.k.a. Sunday School)...at the age of 3. His honesty shows me that our fears of rejection start very young. It makes my heart sad for him. I look at him and think: 'YOU ARE AMAZING!' 'YOU ARE SO FUN!' 'OF COURSE, EVERYONE WANTS TO PLAY WITH YOU! 'CAUSE YOU ARE THE COOLEST KID EVER!!' 'You SHARE, you have GREAT IDEAS, you are TENDER and COMPASSIONATE.' 'You are a best friend waiting to happen!' And God feels the same way about him, and me and you... But the enemy wants to sneak himself into our minds and cause us to fear man...to fear rejection...to stay to ourselves and not reach out to others...

So...today, I am praying for my son. I am praying that this little seed called fear of rejection will be smothered and snuffed out...and that he will walk in CONFIDENCE and COURAGE, knowing that he is LOVED and ACCEPTED by his Savior, his family and his friends.

Sick Littles

C and E both got the crud...

What was meant to be a fun weekend for them with Granna and Zeke turned into a fever and puking fest...bum. er.

Kevin and I used their weekend away as a time to work on the house...no fun for us or them.

I headed down to G and Z's on Sunday night to find my sweets floppy and dazed on the couch...thank you, Lord, for sweet grandparents and 24/7 Nick Jr.

Fever persisted for C until mid-day on Monday and came back late evening...

E is still suffering. He keeps telling me which body part is hurting..."Mama, my chin hurts...Mama, my armpit hurts...my leg, hand, head, tummy, elbow"....it ALL hurts. Poor. Him.

Today Chloe is feeling mucho better...her NON-STOP talking is indisputable evidence.
Eli has even noticed her chattiness...he asked her to "stop talking" on the way home this afternoon. (That hurt her feelings...which is unfortunate, but I did have a little chuckle in my head when he said it.)

Granna put these on Chloe's fingers in attempt to keep her quiet while E and I rested.

OH! DO WE FEEL BIG!!!

A few things she has concluded about these nails:

- They will help her stop a couple of her "bad habits."

- Picking her nose is nearly impossible...unless she uses her 'flexibility' to flare her nostrils...then her pinkie nail fits inside her nose. (trial and error in full effect I am sure.)

- Eating her 'treasures' = undesirable. The glue tastes bad.

- chewing her nails is impossible...so if she leaves them alone...when the fake ones fall off she will have long nails underneath. (Brilliant.)

Other things I learned on the 1.5 hour drive from my parent's house to ours:

"Air 'monicules' are what keep a tissue from falling quickly. If you leave the tissue unscrunched, it falls more slowly, because the air 'monicules' have more space on the tissue to slow it down. but when you scrunch the tissue up, it falls more quickly because there is less space on the tissue for the air 'monicules' to touch...and therefore slow it down. Gravity...no, wait....yes, gravity is what pulls the tissue down...and GRAVITY ALWAYS WINS!"

Whoa. Guess who was paying attention in Science class??

*it should be noted that as soon as I took the picture of her nails and Daddy was able to see them, she wanted them off. Very short lived benefits of said nails.