Our Easter Was Grass-Tastic!

 

Lead Me to the Cross

This is where it all began...the fall of man. My cousin, Joel Smith, molded Adam out of clay, the tree is pierced through his torso, and one shiny, tempting, red apple depicts the forbidden fruit. I wish my camera could have fit under his face. Joel even molded complete angst upon the face. Can you see the anguish and depth of devastation in this one picture? Joel is amazingly talented and his work has been in many places that blow us all away. Yet what blew me away as I looked at this piece was not only the beauty of it, but the depths from which we have come. This taste that separated us from our Creator also sent us hurtling towards reconcilliation to our Father. It is as if the entire Word flashed before my eyes and kept going, on until He comes back for us. Can you see it? Adam's anguish is my anguish. His one taste is very fresh upon my own lips. He is crying out for reconcilliation to his Father, and so am I. Jesus is alive, but let's not forget He is coming to rip that tree of life out of our hearts and replace it with Him alone. Completely and totally reconciled. The blood red apple to the red blood of Jesus. Come quickly, Lord.

Lovin' the Land

We had so much fun today at "The Land" with the family. Of course it was cool...really it was cold...but it was beautiful out there. We love being able to breathe the air with no dust and just play together outside. Make some wonderful memories with your families this weekend! Jesus is alive and coming back for his Bride!

Frustrating Frustrations

Alright. As a disclaimer, I just need to get some things off my chest. Once they are off, I am better, so don't go freaking out on me thinking I am freaking out permanently.
Today we had yet ANOTHER ultrasound. Have I mentioned this was our 4th? Does anyone remember we are SELF PAY?? Obviously not. I swear I am making a t-shirt that I wear to every appointment saying we do not have maternity insurance. (This all goes back to the owning your own business, never do it, thing.) We completely understand that we have to pay butt-loads of money for certain required tests, etc. This ultrasound was deemed neccessary by the last sonographer/sono dr to measure my scar from the c-section with Tracen. So, I reluctantly went. After all the measurements with various instrumentation that I will not name, though Stephanie has a hilarious nickname for one of them...you should ask her, the sono dr comes in. He explains all sorts of things which are all great, so we breathe a sigh of relief and get ready to go. At this point he informs us that, oh, by the way, the best and only time to really determine scar length and thickness is 2 weeks before I am due. SO WHAT HE SAID IS THAT THIS $1000.00 PROCEDURE MUST ALL BE REPEATED AGAIN. 5th time's a charm, anyone? Just do the math, and you might have some things to get off your chest, too. Feels all better now...grrrrr.

It's Not Tough Being a Woman with Ladies Like These!

I just had to share what my wonderful group of Bible Study ladies did for me on Wednesday night. I have always gone to the Tuesday morning study with some of my friends and many ladies that I know. Most of us started back in 2001 and have loved it since. Because I was working on Tuesday mornings this year, I decided to change to the study on Wednesday nights. I really did not know many at all, and I was a bit nervous about coming. Of course it has been so wonderful! Last semester it was amazing to see how many...pretty much all...of our prayer requests were answered. If these ladies start praying, things start happening! They had all prayed that if God wanted me to, I would be able to get pregnant after the miscarriage and all the months after. It was just wonderful to be able to tell them that I was pregnant! We were all just crying and happy. There have been many stories just like that through the year. This semester we did Esther by Beth Moore. The theme of each week was, "It's tough being a woman......" and listed various reasons why. (Man, we can come up with a million reasons, huh?) The study was great, we all learned so much, but it was over two weeks ago. This past Wednesday we were all planning on meeting at Gardski's for dinner. I come in and there are balloons on my chair that say, "It's a Girl!" I thought that was too cute of them. So I sat down and sweet Mary beside me asks if it really was a surprise for me. I thought she was talking about the balloons, so I said yes, you silly ladies did not have to do that! She said that the surprise was that it was my baby shower. WHAT? I was just blown away by their kindness and love! They had brought presents and even had cake. Wow, God. I have no pictures of their sweet faces since I didn't know i would be needing a camera, but here are the wonderful gifts they gave me. I love all of them and am forever grateful for their sweet surprise!