Softball Season!!

Last Thursday evening was the start of our church softball league. David has played the last five summers and it is such a fun time for our family.

There are always plenty of uncles, aunties or friends to play with and beg drinks from.

Even Havi started out having lots of fun!

The girls are great cheerleaders and usually learn everyone's name by the end of the season.

The game went a little long for Havilah's taste and she got pretty grumpy by the end!

Who me?

Grumpy girl #2

Just kidding!

She'd like us to believe it!

Every now and then

I love the "every now and then" times. Like when we all pack up and go to the drive-in for late night of fun, tired kids ( and parents), blankets and pretending we're teenagers. Or when we decide to just take off for the coast because there's nothing we can think of that sounds better. Growing up for our family it was running in to Arctic Circle after church. Not very often, just "every now and then".

Last week we were able to have one of those special times. And were did we end up? Arctic Circle!! We had such a fun time ( even though our server seemed half awake and after clarifying our order three times she still got it wrong!). Bethany decided that she liked fry sauce and Havilah learned how to drink from a straw.

Afterwards we went to the park. The girls loved running around and climbing everywhere. They are generally pretty cautious but Lydia especially is stretching herself and even climbed the big rock wall!

Not to take away from my daughter's adorableness, I must tell you about the sweetest thing I saw that evening. A couple was there with their about five month old twins and they had them in one of the baby swings ( above) with one facing each way. It was SOOO cute! I badly wanted to take a picture but refrained for fear of creeping them out!

It was such a special evening and Bethany still thanks God for "going to the restaurant and the park" when she prays at night. I'm thankful that we don't have all the money in the world to do, go or eat whatever we want whenever we want. I'm thankful that we can appreciate $1.00 burgers and fries and playing in the park. I love these precious times with my family!

A beautiful love story!

I am so excited these days and couldn't help but share an incredibly special story with you all. First of all I need to introduce you to my beautiful sister Mary.



Mary is next down in age from me and has always been such an amazing person. I respect and admire her as much as anyone I know. Her genuine heart for the Lord is so evident in all that she does and she is such a servant, in the home as much as in public. Mary strives to honor the Lord in every aspect of her life, and one of the ways that she has chosen to do that is to reject the world's formula for finding a spouse and trust that the Lord would bring her a husband in His time and His way. She has been living at home and serving our family by greatly contributing to my parent's ministries and teaching at the school they run. She also teaches many piano lessons and directed the children's home school choir. On top of all that, she babysits for me weekly so that I can participate in our youth ministry and she is there whenever I need her.

While the Lord has been greatly using her, she still had a great longing to be married. Enter Peter. Peter started attending our church and Bible study a few years ago. He watched Mary for a long time, seeing and appreciating what a beautiful woman of God she was. He finally decided to go and talk to Mary's ( and my!) father. Dad and Peter both took some time praying and getting to know each other, all the while Mary never even knowing any of this. The men finally came to the conclusion that it would have to be a "no" because Mary's heart had been called to missions and Peter owns a large farm and feels very called to that. A few months passed however and Peter still felt like the Lord was leading him to Mary. He re approached the subject to my dad and they decided to all (Dad, Mom, Mary and Peter) spend a few months praying about it. Now I should add at this point, Mary and Peter really hardly knew each other and this was not at all what Mary had pictured for her life. Honestly it was not a very appealing thought to her. She says that she prayed for quite awhile, " Lord, change my heart if you want to, but please don't!". At the end of the allotted time Mary's heart had not changed and so a "no" was given again.

Months passed. Several months! Then slowly and in His perfect timing, the Lord began to move.
Mary started seeing things in Peter that she had never noticed before. Certain traits she had always wanted in a husband. The Lord started to change her heart towards long term missions and even her thinking about formal ministry. God was starting to put all the pieces together, not only in her heart but in my parent's as well. Finally everything came together, they all shared where they were at and they decided to talk with Peter.

Now this had been about eight months since the final "no" and they had no idea what had been going on for Peter. Dad went and found him on his farm and they had a long talk. Not only had the Lord not changed Peter's heart but He had been growing it stronger towards Mary. So much so that the poor guy was really tormented about what he should do, having already been told no twice! He was happy! Or maybe I should say is happy. I've never seen a guy smile so much!

So now they are embarking on a courtship journey, knowing the Lord brought them perfectly together. It is so amazing to see all the little ways that they are so perfect for each other! I can't wait to see all that the Lord has planned for them!







P.S. Now I get to be distantly related to Kelly and Alysun since my future brother-in-law's sister-in-law is their sister-in-law too!

WATCH OUT!!!

If you're planning on driving through Dallas these days, there's a hot new reserve officer roaming the streets with a badge, a gun and a desire to serve justice. So be good!


David graduated from the police reserve academy last Saturday night. Not only did he complete his six months of training with flying colors, he also received the "Top Shooter" award. Yes that was the top shooter award! His graduating class had 37.


Being sworn in by the Dallas Chief of Police, who is also an amazing man of God and a friend.

For those of you who are wondering, this is still a volunteer position. Right now he is third on the hiring list at Dallas, so we will just continue waiting patiently. We are so excited to see what God has planned for us!

I'm so proud of my man!!!

For those of you who missed my original post about how the Lord has been directing us this way, here's the link: http://graceisblessedbygod.blogspot.com/2008/09/proud-to-be-his-wife.html

Happy Birthday Lydia!

Lydia celebrated her fourth birthday last week. I'm finding this harder and harder to do! I could write a book about my sweet little girl and still not feel like I've given you an accurate portrayal of her! Nevertheless I will attempt to do my best.

I got pregnant with Lydia after being married for two months. I was so excited! I have wanted to be a mom all of my life! My husband, David, comes from a family of eight boys and one girl so I naturally assumed that we would have a houseful of boys too. We were positive we were having a boy and actually called her a "him" the duration of my pregnancy, but the Lord was working on my heart! I remember getting a bag of hand me down clothes, looking at the girl clothes and actually crying while praying " Lord, please give me a girl someday!". Maybe I need to reverse my prayer now!

My labor was incredibly long with her, lasting 49 1/2 hours, but finally Lydia Grace was born. I couldn't believe she was a girl. We were both overjoyed even though we both would have said previously that we wanted a boy.

Lydia has been a joy and a blessing every moment of her life. I am so amazed at God's blessing towards me in giving her to me. She is such a little mommy and loves taking care of her sisters. She talks about getting married all the time. She also loves to sing and always has a song in her heart. A few months ago she let us know that she wanted to pray to ask Jesus to come in her heart and she loves being a child of God and finding out all of the brothers and sisters in Christ she has!

I am so excited to see all that the Lord has in store for her. I also tremble at the thought of being responsible for raising her in a way that honors the Lord. What a challenge that is! It is so rewarding though to see the fruit in such a little life. I love you Baby Girl!

I'm behind again!!!

Well, once again I've found myself woefully behind on keeping you all updated with what's going on in my life. Awhile back I might have figured that it didn't really matter, seeing as how I only get about 1-2 comments per post ( thank you Alysun!), but then I found the live traffic feed post! I can't even begin to tell you how much that has brightened my world of blogging! To see how many people at least give my blog a glance has renewed my fire. Now I just have to figure out how to get you all to at least admit that you stopped by! Even a brief " I'm came by" would brighten my day. Even if you don't have a blog you can post "anonymously".

I will now try to catch up on the big things in life and hopefully remain up to date on what is going on for us!