Out of the Mouths...

Tonight I returned from a shopping trip with Claudia and Morgan.  Greta wanted to know what we bought while we were out.  I showed her a pack of fun, brightly colored socks that the girls picked out for the sock drive at church for Water Street Rescue Mission.  As I said the words "sock drive" to Greta, I knew she would not know what they meant.  I followed it with, "They are for people who do not have very much money."

She looks at me with innocent eyes and says, "I do not have very much money."

More ordination

So grateful to Jamie Sentz who took these pics for us!!  They started off with a slideshow of pictures that I put together.  This is one of my favorites, Steve with all his brothers.

I was asked to speak.  I was so nervous that morning, I was not sure how I would do.  I mean, when was the last time I spoke to 500ish people.  Um...never!  Right before I was to go up I looked over at my friend Becky.  She gave me a wink and it totally calmed me down.  I realized that I was talking to my friends.  What did I have to be nervous about?

Funny, when I saw these pics the first thing I noticed was how wrinkly my skirt was!  I ironed it that morning but apparently it didn't matter.

All church photo.  Love this!

In case you are interested, here are the words I shared that Sunday morning:

Good morning.   What a privilege it is to be here this morning.  Thank you so much for joining us in celebrating this special day.  Pete asked me to share a few words about my husband, specifically how I am grateful for him.  There are many things that I am grateful for about Steve.  His faithfulness to our family, his hard work ethic, his generosity, and his effortless sense of humor would be just a few things.   But what I thought I would share specifically in detail this morning is the area in which I believe our lives have been most impacted by him.

 

One of the things that first attracted me to Steve was his passion for truth.  He was a man who wanted to know God and have his life be defined by the truth of who God is.  He was a young man willing to be radical for Jesus.  I’ve got some juicy details of Steve back in his radical days, but I didn’t want to embarrass him too much this morning, so maybe I’ll save those for another time.   Anyway, Steve’s passion and commitment to truth spill over into many areas of our life.

Steve is constantly reading something for the purpose of being informed, understanding a difficult subject, or learning more about a specific topic.   And believe it or not, he actually enjoys all that reading!  He cares about leading and guiding others, making sure that what he is sharing or teaching is accurate.  The same would be true in our personal life.  Steve does not share thoughts or feelings with me flippantly.  He is measured and careful with his words.  I know that if he shares something with me he means it and I need to take it seriously.

When Steve is disciplining our children he is not given to simply just correcting or yelling.  He is consistently teaching them, guiding them, taking them somewhere with their hearts.  When I asked my older 2 girls what they were grateful for about their daddy this exact thing was what they both said.  They feel that their dad is always pointing them to God.  And on a completely unrelated note, the younger 2 were thankful for daddy buying them presents and playing basketball with them.

Our marriage is much richer and fuller because of Steve’s commitment to truth.  He’s not simply willing to smooth over conflict.  He wants to get to the real issue of our hearts.  Though at times I’ll admit it can be a bit maddening, I know we are relating in marriage on a deeper level of love and respect because of him.

Steve is very passionate about seeing the truths of the gospel lived out in our lives.  Steve’s faith is not based on good works, legalism, or happy answers that simply sound good.  My husband knows he is a sinner and he worships a God who has saved him, is good, and is the process of changing our hearts.  So many times in our daily living, Steve has helped me and pointed my heart back to God.  He’s committed to leading me to a place of truth: trusting God and having faith that He is working for my good amidst all things. 

Steve, I am so proud of you and so happy to be by your side.  I am so grateful that our journey has brought us here.  Thank you for loving me, loving our family, and faithfully pointing us all to God.  We are so fortunate to have you in our lives.

Crossway Church, I would like to thank you for all that you have been to us these past 10 years.  You have strengthened us, prayed for us, and been our friends.  I also would like to thank the pastoral team: Pete, Bill, Doug, and Kurt.  You have been my husband’s closest friends and he is a different man because of you.  I am so grateful for your faithful friendship to him.

Trick or Treat P.S.

I forgot to put this under Aaron's costume picture.  As I was taking his picture, I said to him, "Hey bud, aren't you supposed to have a sword with your costume?"

"No, Mom.  They are sold separately."

Someone has been reading the packaging!!

Trick or Treat '12

Little duck, kitty cat, Ninja Warrior, and 2 old fashioned Christmas carolers.  Much to Claudia's dismay, these pics were taken before their hair and makeup was done.  I was running out of day light!

 
This right here is the picture of 4 year old stubbornness.  Greta was going to be a ballerina and I got her a cute little costume.  She did not like what she needed to wear with the costume to stay warm.  She  was insisting on wearing this black sweater and skirt.  I turned her into a cat.  But she refused to let me give her a pink nose or a tail.  All she wanted was whiskers.  In the end, she was happy.  Score.

This was Greta's attempt at a ninja kick.  More like a ninja spin.

Our neighbor, Cammy, joined the girls with their costume idea.  The girls were having a hard time posing correctly for this.  I love Morgan's face here.

What we did around here...

Because of Steve's ordination celebration at church last weekend, more of his family came in.  It was so fun having them all here.  Thanks to hurricane Sandy, we had a few days of unplanned extra togetherness.  Thankfully other than a bunch of rain and our grill blowing off the deck, there was nothing to be said of the storm in our neck of the woods.  Steve's dad, brother Shawn, and sister Ashley were all due to fly out on Monday but b/c of the storm they were here until Wed.

Morgan was thrilled that grandpa played Battleship and Monopoly with her!

Lots of nerf gun wars.  See the forts and barricades?  This picture was a set up b/c they were running around and I couldn't get a good shot!

The pose didn't last long!

coloring with Maw

Sorry, Shawn.  This is what happens when you take a nap surrounded by a bunch of  girls.

These last 2 shots were taken over the weekend before the storm hit.  

Ashley and Aiden

One thing that Ashley and I really like to do together is take pictures.  We had a little shoot together one of the first nights she was here.  Little Mr. was super tired but he endured for a few minutes!!

                         

Ropes Course

A local Christian camp (Black Rock, I've written about it before) has a number of different science classes for homeschooled kids.  I finally took the plunge and signed Claudia up for the ropes course.  It was something I loved to do there when I was young and she was finally old enough!  She took her friend, Madison (pictured below), and they had a great time together.  I stole this picture off of Black Rock's FB page.

All of our company is now gone.  Though it was very fun having everyone here and we miss them already, it is nice to feel back to normal.   Funny how after having a house full of guests, suddenly 5 kids feels peaceful!!  I have many pictures to post about our time together.