THE BEST day of my life!!!

Today was hands down the best day of my life....

Siah has been asking me about heaven lately. He doesn't want to go there because he'll miss his friends too much and on top of that he has informed me several times that he is NOT Jesus' friend. He doesn't want to be his friend because he thinks that by being his friend he will have to die and leave everyone and go be with Jesus in heaven. We have clarified this misunderstanding of his countless times... and this week I believe with my whole heart that the truth about Jesus is starting to sink in.

Today at lunch Siah brought up heaven and hell again and in his very "Siah way" he informed me that he now wants to be Jesus' friend and that tonight at bedtime he was going to ask Jesus to come into his heart.

Each night before the kids go to bed Joey reads them the Bible and prays with them. I had told Joey about the conversation that I had had earlier with Siah just to give him a heads up. So we put Reesie to bed and sat on the couch with the two older kids. We read through Romans 3 with them and asked them questions about Jesus and sin and forgiveness and God's great love for them. And before we even had a chance to ask them if they wanted to ask Jesus into their hearts sweet little HALEE breaks out in prayer... Completely on her own and in her own sweet words... "Jesus I want you to come into my heart? Will you be my friend. I believe you die on the cross for my sins. I love you forever!"

Of course tears started streaming down my face...

Then little Siah..

We asked him if he wanted to ask Jesus into his heart... we told him he didn't have to... we told him he should only ask Jesus into his heart if HE really wanted to... He said, "Yeah, I want Jesus to be my friend and to live in my heart." So Joey led him in a short little prayer. They were both so excited and ran to tell Adam and Tara that Jesus now lived in their hearts.

I was a bit overwhelmed with my own joy and emotion that I realized that I hadn't really told the kids that today just happened to be the best day of my life. SO after they had already gone to bed I went into their room and told them how excited I was that Jesus was in their hearts and that there were angels rejoicing in heaven because of their decision to be Jesus' friend. And my deep-thinking Siah asks, "Do those angels who are singing and clapping for us live in California? I don't think so, cuz I can't hear them." :)

To me it seems unfathomable that their little three and four year old minds can even grasp what it means to believe in Jesus and give their lives to Him. But tonight I had a thought that they might even get it more than I do. They want Jesus to live inside of them and they aren't afraid to ask five minutes after the fact, if his angels live in California. Isn't true that we often think we have to have it all together and have all the answers before we can even present ourselves to God? But God just wants us to confess with our mouths that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised him from the dead. That's it... confess and believe!! Nothing more... nothing less! I think that's exactly what Jesus loves about children.

Yipee! Hooray! WOOOHOOO!!! THis really was the absolute best day of my entire life!!!

Welcome to the Kingdom my most precious treasures!!!! :)

My Top Ten

A friend of mine gave me a book last month, Choosing Gratitude. Not surprisingly it seemed to have come at the perfect time. I read through the entire book in less than a week. At the end of the book there is a 30 day gratitude challenge that I have been doing since the beginning of the year. Part of the challenge is to start each morning by writing out five things that I'm grateful for.

It never ceases to amaze me when I take time to be mindful of things in my life that are gratitude worthy, how much weight is lifted from me, how much the things I fear dissipate, how much hope replaces my doubt...

There is a lot going on in our life right now.... a lot of unknown. I can't tell you a single detail about our move. Not because it's some big secret but because I don't know any details.

Where are we going to live? I don't know...
What part of town? I don't know...
Is Siah gonna go to public school there? I don't know...
Have you ever been there before? No...
Then how do you know if you're gonna like it? I don't...
When exactly are you moving? Not sure...
Where are you going to have the baby? Don't know...
Know any good doctors out there? No... Do you???

I've never done anything so unplanned in my life... and I've never been so joyfully expectant of what GOd has up his sleeve for me and my little family.

I really think that this gratitude challenge has come into my life at the perfect time. The other morning I came up with my top ten. They're the top ten things that absolutely exceed my greatest expectations. They are the things in my life that I can hardly find the words to express how invaluable they are to me, how impossible my life would be without them..

In no particular order...
1. God's graciousness in allowing me to even know him at all.
2. The knowledge and wisdom of God that He has given me and continues to give me each and every time that I ask for it.
3. The Purpose for this life that I have in knowing God.
4. God's grace in giving me Joey to go through this life with.
5. God's grace in giving me three small treasures (and maybe even four). :)
6.God's grace in giving me friendships with people who are so in love with their Savior and who encourage me and exhort me towards him.
7. God's grace in giving me all the years with my mom that he did give, and the closeness that her and I experienced during those years.
8. God's grace in placing wise women in my path who are a bit ahead of me and who are willing to share their wisdom with me, and giving me a humble enough heart to receive that wisdom, even when it's sometimes hard to take in.
9. God's extravagant, undeserved love that he lavishes on me each and EVERYDAY!
10.Grace... plain and simple... God constantly giving me everything that I never deserved in the first place.

It took me maybe five minutes to come up with my top ten. But it was a very important five minutes for me. Because as I re-read the ten things listed above over and over again throughout the past few days, I have become completely convinced that no matter where we live, what our next house looks like, where our next treasure is born, or how much I like or dislike Colorado Springs... I will never cease to have extravagant things to be thankful for.

Is It Seriously January?

It has been absolutely gorgeous here in San Diego! It seriously feels like summer. This past weekend we went to the beach with Peeks. I even got a little tan. Yippee! :)

The sun was in their eyes...


Isn't she beautiful?

Our girls are so different, but both are beautiful inside and out...





Tara and I hung out with the littlest girls...








How blessed are we to spend our days in the warm sunshine in the middle of winter???? I'm soaking up the weather these last ten weeks in this lovely city! :)

Jumping In The Shower

A little preface...

Josiah is not a huge fan of water. He really doesn't even care for taking a bath... not because he doesn't want to be clean but because he's afraid of getting sprayed by the sprayer. (We have one of those removeable shower head things).

So I have been preparing Siah throughout the past year and telling him that when he is five years old we'll teach him how to take a shower by himself. He asked us why, cuz let's just say that he's not looking forward to it. And we just told him, because when people turn five years old they need to learn how to shower on their own. So now he thinks that everyone learns to take showers when their five.

Also, when I am going to take a shower I always tell the kids
"I am going to jump in the shower real quick so be kind to one another while I'm in there."
I don't want to have to get out of the shower to break up a fight.

All this to say...

Yesterday, at the beach, Siah was hanging out with Adam and he asked him,

Siah, "Why does AJ take a shower and he's only two and a half?"

Adam, "Because that's just what he does."

Siah, "Does he jump in the shower?"

Adam, "Umm, not usually."

Siah, "Oh, cuz my mom jumps in the shower all the time."

LOL :)

He totally thinks that when I say that "I am going to jump in the shower" that I LITTERALLY, jump in the shower.

Ok, maybe it's not that funny... but I thought it was hilarious. :)

Love this kid! :)

Here's To Another Ten...

It's kind of strange to think that this August my Joey and I will celebrate our tenth wedding anniversary. I can genuinely say that I have loved the road that the Lord has chosen for us. There has never been a dull season. The Lord saw it fit to throw us right into a whirlwind of trial, triumph and trust.

We got married two weeks before my senior year of college.
When we returned from our honeymoon, we opened our mailbox to $3000 worth of bills. We had $834 in our pocket from gifts that we had received from our wedding, just enough to cover our rent with$9 left over and $15 in our bank account. I vividly remember sitting on the curb after I had opened the last bill and just sobbing. Joey came out and sat next to me. I told him about all the bills and sobbed about how we weren't going to be able to pay for any of them and about how horrible it was that our marriage was starting off like this. And then in typical Joey fashion, he told me that everything was going to be just fine. He told me in complete confidence that the Lord would provide our every need, rarely a moment to soon, but never a moment to late. And then he prayed for us out on that curb. THree days later a check for $3000 showed up in our mailbox from a friend that had sold a few things for Joey a few months back.

And that's how our marriage began.

And the best news is... not much has changed. Believe it or not, ten years later, we still find ourselves trusting the Lord to provide. Sometimes He provides in abundance and we do not cease to thank him for that. And sometimes, He provides at the last minute, nor do we cease to thank him for that.

Our marriage has given us ample opportunity to learn to trust in the Lord and equally as much opportunity to learn to trust in each other. We've had times when we've had to ask difficult things of one another. Things that might be easy for one of us, but challenging for the other. A couple days after I graduated from college we found out that my mom was very sick with stage 4 lung cancer. I remember as clear as day, the day I walked into Joey's office and told him, not asked him, but told him, that we needed to move into my mom's house to help out with what ever she needed. And the most amazing thing happened. He wrapped his arms around me and said, "Okay, we'll move our stuff in tonight when I get off work." He didn't question me, or say that I was crazy. And I can only imagine that moving into the bedroom next door to your mother-in-law your first year of marriage would not be anybody's favorite thing. But he did it... for me... and the most amazing part is that he did it with joy. Not a single time that we lived with my mother did he ever make a single negative comment, or have a single complaint. He chose to look at the blessing it was that we were able to help my mom at that time.

Over the years Joey has done several things for me that I am confident weren't his favorite things, simply because he knew that at the time those were the things I needed to do. Some have been little, some have been big. He's helped me when I've been sick. He's sat with me In countless hospital rooms and held my hand when I lost my mom, when we lost our boys. He's given up weekends with his friends to help me with our kids. When money has been tight, he's found things in our garage to sell on craigslist, and taken me on some of our most memorable dates. Pretty much he's a professional at sacrificing for the team.

And this is the part of the story where I have to humbly admit that I have not always acted as graciously towards him when he's asked stuff of me that he's needed to do. I have foolishly dragged my feet, and allowed my heart to even sometimes harden towards him simply because I was not getting my way. I acted this way when we moved into this giant house on the hill. I said one thing with my mouth but had a completely different attitude in my heart.

But these past few weeks I have been reflecting on the numerous times that Joey has blessed me with joyfully going along with my desires.

Like with most things that I struggle with in my marriage the Lord seems to give me ample opportunities to learn how to change those things, how to overcome and defeat those things, and how to make a 180 degree turn from those things and purpose to choose a better way to handle those things.

We have an opportunity to make a major move in our lives right now. I'm normally up for an adventure, but ever since my little treasures have come along I have found myself just wanting to stay put. Several weeks ago Joey asked me if I would be willing to move to Colorado Springs. And I am completely embarrassed to admit that my first response was honestly, "HELL NO." (I know those words don't usually come out of mouth but on this particular day they totally did.) I felt mad... I didn't want to move away from family and friends... I didn't want to leave our church... we would be having our forth baby in a town where I knew a whopping ONE person... and the whole thing sounded just plain awful.

And now, I wish with all my heart that that had not been my first response. I wish with all my heart that I would have given Joey the same gift that he has given me so many times. The gift of joyfully joining him in the desires of his heart. Because, in marriage, there are seasons for everyone. Sometimes Joey will be called to relinquish his desires, his fears, his doubts... and sometimes I will be called to relinquish mine. We will both always be required to give a little and take a little.

On our drive back from Texas we officially decided to make the move to Colorado Springs. In one of our many, many conversations over the past few months about the move, Joey was very forward with me, (in a kind way of course, cuz that's just the kind of man he is) and told me, "I don't want to move out there and have you complaining and blaming me for making you do something that you don't want to do. I'd rather stay here and have you be happy than take you some place that you're going to choose to be miserable." You would think that I would be blessed by that statement but really when he said it, God used it as a mirror that made me brutally aware of my foolishness in the whole thing. You see, I wasn't giving Joey the same gifts that he had so graciously given me throughout the past ten years. Because it's one thing to say yes on the outside, but to be simultaneously kicking and screaming on the inside. It's not a gift, if it's not given with joy... and not fake joy... but true, trusting God more than you trust yourself and your own feelings kind of joy. I want my Joey to know how grateful I am, genuinely grateful, for all the times in our marriage that he has been an example to me of joyfully joining me in the things that I've needed to do. And now that it is my turn, I hope to give you the same gift that you have given me.

We have made it through so many seasons in our ten years of marriage and I have not a single doubt in my mind that there is nothing that we can't do together with Jesus in our hearts.

So,
Here's to Colorado..
Here's to marriage...
Here's to living life together...
Here's to a little give and take...
And
Here's to the another joy-filled 10 years with the man I love!

I Can Hardly Wait...

Last Friday Joey and I went to bed at 7:30... We were woken Saturday morning by a sweet little boy who came in at 5:15am and whispered, "Mama... Mama... Mama... I need to go poopoo." To which his Papa replied, "New Years resolution #1... Teach our almost five year old son to wipe his own bum." It totally made me laugh...

Siah went back to bed, Joey did his morning ritual of an hour long bath followed by a shower, then snuck out to get some Saturday morning donuts for everyone in the house. I spent some time in the Word and then made some oatmeal with blueberries for the kids (it was my attempt to make myself feel better about feeding the kids donuts for breakfast after already feeding them McDonlads one to many times on our trip to Texas.)

Any who, Saturday was absolutely gorgeous!!! It seriously felt like summer. Sweet Tara hung out with the kids all morning as I got to put away all the chaos from our trip.

We packed lunches and both our families walked to the park. The kids rode their new big wheels and played in the dirt. Tara, Adam and Joey took a stab at slack-lining. It was a real treat watching my Joey try to balance on a tightrope. :)
We all took a long afternoon nap, had some soup for dinner and went to bed early again. :)

***************

Yesterday we went to our friends home church. They've been in Joey and my life since we were twelve. And although we don't see each other nearly as often as we would like to, every time that we do get to be with them it's just so sweet. We had no intentions of staying all day but the hours just went by so fast and before we knew it it was 4 o clock in the afternoon and we were heading home. What a treasure life -long friends are. :)

I was just so grateful for the perfect weekend that made a perfect beginning to a new year. Maybe it's silly but I have this thought that the first couple days of the new year are a glimpse of what's to come throughout the year. If that's the case then this year shall surely be overflowing with laughter, sweet moments, deep precious friendships, lots of rest, and lots of joy....

I can hardly wait!