Fall - Part 2: Kelly and Will's Visit!

Stan's sister Kelly and our nephew Will came to visit last week! It was so fun to have them for a few days. Here are some pics from our time together.

We visited Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead south of KC. It's beautiful there all the time, but especially in the fall. Lots of fun was had by all. :) (I'm a poet.)

The other highlight of Kelly and Will's visit was definitely our evening at T-Rex Cafe. Isaac loves it there and it was so fun to share it with Will for the first time! Kelly treated us all to the amazingly chocolatey dessert pictured below: Chocolate Extinction! YUMMO.

Finally, a pic of Isaac and Will in their matching truck PJ's! :) Fun! It was so entertaining to watch the two of them together. They are gonna be buds in another year or so. :) I love that they're only a year apart in age.

fall: a thousand words

Hope you're all enjoying the beauty of this amazing season! It's my absolute FAVE. :)
Love to you, friends!

Praying for Tali this morning...

Lord, you know the hopes of the helpless.

Surely you will hear their cries and comfort them.

You will bring justice to the orphans and the oppressed,

so mere people can no longer terrify them.

~Psalm 10:17&18

No Matter What

Psalm 34:1-10

1 I will extol the LORD at all times;

his praise will always be on my lips.

2 My soul will boast in the LORD;

let the afflicted hear and rejoice.
3 Glorify the LORD with me;
let us exalt his name together.

4 I sought the LORD, and he answered me;
he delivered me from all my fears.
5 Those who look to him are radiant;
their faces are never covered with shame.
6 This poor man called, and the LORD heard him;
he saved him out of all his troubles.
7 The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him,
and he delivers them.

8 Taste and see that the LORD is good;
blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.
9 Fear the LORD, you his saints,
for those who fear him lack nothing.
10 The lions may grow weak and hungry,
but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.

Couldn't resist posting this this morning. Oh taste and see that the Lord is GOOD.

He is. No matter what.

Hoping, Waiting, Aching...

I will wait for you... with you. Believe that the longing of your heart is to rescue her. Believe that your heart is for her and your plans for her are GOOD.

Your plans for her are full of hope.

To prosper her and not to harm her.

You promised. In your heart, she is Talika Hope. In our hearts too.

What else can we do but wait? Wait, and not allow our hopes for her to die. It is tempting.... tempting to close our hearts, a lot, or just a little. Tempting to let go of hope...because hope is painful when it comes to matters like these. But hope is also sweet. Hope draws us, propels us, into the secret place. The place where we hear you, encounter your heart, learn to lean and trust and cry into your chest.

The ache of hopeful waiting draws us into you, and we share a little bit in the fellowship of your suffering.

Oh Father, let me steward this gift well. Help me, God. I'm afraid of my own desire for comfort. Waiting in hope is not comfortable. Sometimes the ache seems unbearable. In those moments, I am learning to press in close to your heart... learning to draw strength, peace, and joy from my Source, even as I hold this ache in my heart.

I can have these things in tandem.

The ache, and the joy.

The deep longing, and the deep peace.

The crying out, and the silent trusting.

The waiting, and being fully present in this moment.

The tears, and the laughter.

They are all from you. They are all gifts.

They are not mutually exclusive.

I am learning to live fully alive, freely, full of joy and peace. I am learning to live while carrying this ache. Teach me Father.

I trust in your heart, your perfect plans, your sovereignty. I trust in your power and desire to move mountains on her behalf. I press in deeper. Trust you ruthlessly, relentlessly, agonizingly. How long, O Lord?!

I wait in hope for you.....

Delight Yourself In The Lord....

Psalm 36:7-9

⁷ How priceless is your unfailing love, O God!
People take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
⁸ They feast on the abundance of your house;
you give them drink from your river of delights.
⁹ For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.

"God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him." ~John Piper - Desiring God

From Thesaurus.com:

Main Entry:	delight
Part of Speech:	noun
Definition:	enjoyment, happiness
Synonyms:	contentment, delectation, ecstasy, enchantment, felicity, fruition, gladness, glee,gratification, hilarity, jollity, joy, joyance, mirth, pleasure, rapture, relish, satisfaction, transport
Antonyms:	depression, disappointment, dismay, melancholy,misery, pain, sorrow, trouble,unhappiness

"If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and to earnestly hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I suggest that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling around with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased." ~C.S. Lewis - "The Weight of Glory"

Selah....

What's Been Hitting My Heart Lately...

So I don't necessarily agree with EVERYTHING Bill Johnson teaches... BUT... a LOT of what he says here really hits my heart hard these days. I'm loving this stuff. I'd love to hear your thoughts. :)

Moving Update....(and some random cuteness)

Hi friends,

We have been waiting to set a move date for sure because we weren't positive that the sellers of our new house would be moved into THEIR new house in time for us to close on time, thought we might have to extend the contract, etc. BUT.... We found out today that they are ALREADY in the process of moving out! Woohoo!! They plan to be out completely by our scheduled closing date of July 25, which means.... It looks like we will move Sunday afternoon/evening July 31st. YAY!!! So excited to have this season of limbo OVER with and to get into our new home, to paint and unpack and decorate and actually STAY there for a while. :) Haha. Thank you Lord!!

And THAT... is that. I'll leave you with some random cuteness. :)

(I always forget to turn the camera the right way at first when I video....)

Dino-Fun!

T-Rex Cafe has become a totally fun place for our family to go hang and eat. Their food is DELISH, and the atmosphere is so cool. Isaac looooves to look around at all the dinosaurs and fish and other prehistoric craziness. We ended up going there tonight just for fun on a family "date." Here are some pics of Isaac and "Da-da" taking it all in. :)

Annnnnd, out at the fountain with Mom.... Someone was too interested in...well, EVERYTHING...to stop and look at the camera for a picture. :)

Have I mentioned that we have really been enjoying our family time lately? Because we have. :) I love our family. :)

Loving Family Time

Lately, Stan and I have really been loving US. :) Ha ha... That sounds funny. Let me try again. We have come into a place of enjoying our little family unit at another level and have been even more intentional lately about spending time together - just Stan and Isaac and me. Interestingly, every Friday night for the last several weeks we have ended up free and have done things together as a family (except last Friday night - we went on a DATE - just the 2 of us! Monumental! Mental note - - must schedule another one of those SOON! :) )

Anyway, here are some pictures from our recent family excursions. Nothing super spectacular - just us enjoying...US. :)

Life is good. :)

Recent Pictures of Our Boy :)

Just a cuteness update. :) These pictures were all taken within the last 3 weeks.

Dino-ROAR!

Our (New) New House

Hey again friends,

A couple weeks ago I posted this note on Facebook to explain our current housing situation. For anyone who isn't up to date on what's going on with our family, this would be a good place to start. :) Here ya go:

Hi friends....

We have had a significant change in direction in the last couple of months and I wanted to fill you all in on it.... Most of our friends know that in February we relocated to the Northeast Neighborhood of Kansas City, MO, an urban neighborhood in the heart of the city where our church family has spent the last decade + investing in the community. We moved into a house that we were planning on buying (and are currently renting) from some friends who had moved out of state due to a job change. We were so sure that this house was what God had for us...and it HAS been what He's had for us.... but for a much shorter season than we anticipated. Due to some significant hold-ups in the process of getting all of the paperwork together to purchase the house, the interest rate on the type of loan that we were going to need in order to purchase the house went way UP... which put us at a place where our monthly payments, had we gone forward with the purchase of the home, would have been RIGHT at the brink of what we could afford....we could have "eeked by" with our payments that high, but we would not have had much margin in our finances at all, and this house needs several thousand dollars worth of work that we would have had a tough time figuring out how to afford/save up for with a payment that high.

Soooo... several weeks ago, with heavy hearts (because we LOVE so much about this house), we started looking at other houses in the neighborhood, just to see if the Lord wanted to open something else up for us....and, after a couple of weeks of looking, we found "OUR" house. It is probably 2/3 the size of this one, but it makes better use of space so actually has 5 bedrooms with a possible 6th bedroom, and 3 full baths. It is, ironically, on the same street we currently live on, just about 4 blocks south (closer to our church)...It was a "for sale by owner," so the funny thing is that we would not have FOUND this house had we not lived where we currently do, because it was not advertised online. The house is in GREAT shape and has been VERY well taken care of. It has a beautiful deck in the back and a great playground set that Isaac will love as he gets older. The roof, furnace, AC, windows, electric, kitchen, bathrooms, etc. are ALL new within the last 3 years (actually I think it's 5 years on the AC). All of the rehab is very well done. Our utility bills will be MUCH less expensive because of the new windows, AND there is an atic fan that does a GREAT job of pulling cool air through the entire house, which will save us even more. ANYway... I could go on... but suffice it to say that we are super excited about this house. We are currently under contract on it (I forgot to mention that it is significantly less expensive than what we would have paid on our current home, which brings our monthly payments WELL within the range of what is comfortable for us budget-wise) and we are set to close on or before July 25th, assuming all goes as expected with the appraisal process. God is good and knows exactly what we need....and then gives us what we WANT, too. Wow. We feel so blessed.

So... with all of that said... I've gotta say that this house that we have been renting from our friends has been a GREAT blessing to us and we have so enjoyed it. I will be sad to leave it but Stan and I feel so much peace about the direction God is leading us. So, in a few weeks, we will (sheepishly :) ) send out aNOTHER "We're moving - please help!" email to our wonderful church family... sigh... I can't believe we're moving again. :-/ Definitely have moments of frustration over that. But more than that I'm in awe of God's leadership and His goodness to us in this season. He is so faithful.

On a slightly different, but connected, subject, we are so excited that our friend Jerusha will be moving in with us in the near future! She is in our house church and we have been enjoying getting to know her...and have felt like the Lord wants us to pursue community with her on a more intentional level. Isaac loves her, WE love her, and we are just soooo looking forward to having her in our home. :) Our new casa has plenty of room.... she will actually have her own "mini-suite." :)

And THAT... is that. Questions? Shoot. :) Love to y'all.

A New Season

I can't believe how long it's been since I've blogged. Truthfully, I don't know if I can fully explain why. The first few years of our marriage included so many circumstances through which I don't know how we would have made it without being able to chronicle our journey and have all of your support and prayers along the way. And then....along came our Isaac! He has been such a gift to us....and a challenge also. Over the last 9 months (can you believe it? 9 months!) since his birth, our lives have slowly (oh, so very slowly) become more and more manageable, but those first several months were incredibly difficult. Isaac has had acid reflux (still has it, but it is controlled by medication pretty well now - praise God.), and, while I want to avoid going into all the details of WHY it has made life so difficult in this post, I'll just say that it has. He has also been a cat-napper (meaning, his naps have mostly not been longer than 40 minutes) up until the last month or so....His naps are mostly longer now - again, PRAISE GOD. He is doing so much better at playing for short periods of time by himself, watching me work, so I am starting to be able to get things done around the house now to a degree that I haven't been able to in a looonnnnng time....and there are days that I actually sit down, or lie down, and REST during his naps now. This is so fabulous... I will never take a baby who naps NORMALLY (like Tali did) and sleeps through the night for granted again! :)

Anyway.... I have felt inspired to blog again lately for several reasons.... possibly mainly because I actually feel like I can handle (and ENJOY!) my life again these days, so I have time and mental energy to put into more intentionally sharing our lives again. I wanted to start fresh with a new blog, new title, etc., because I feel like the Lord has brought us through some fairly difficult times (between the loss of Tali and all of Isaac's difficulties) and out into a spacious place again, where we don't have to fight quite so hard to maintain perspective. When God made it clear to us that we were to name our baby "Isaac," I felt strongly that his name (laughter) spoke of the season that God was wanting to bring us into, after all of the intensity and grief around our situation with Tali. I didn't know at the time that I would have to hold onto that word from the Lord by faith for so many months after his birth. But I am so glad that we have held onto it....God is bringing us into a season of FELT, EXPERIENTIAL joy....fun....LAUGHTER. Hence, the title of our new blog: "A Time To Laugh" (Eccl. 3:4).