Happy Birthday Olivia!

Happy 4th Birthday Olivia!
I love you, Nana

:)

Happy Anniversary to the love of my life and to my best friend. 

Thirty-one years ago, we vowed ‘forever, together, in love’.  

I’m blessed.  Seriously, blessed.   

happy birthday son

On this day in 1982, I first met the baby boy I had carried for 9 1/2 months.  He was born at 12:45 am, weighed 8 lbs 6 oz, and was 20 7/8 long.  It was suddenly real, and I fell in love.

When we came home with him and settled in, I suddenly realized this darling baby was ours, and our responsibility.  I realized, literally, that I knew little about being a mom.  We learned by trial and error, made mistakes, had some successes, and felt more comfortable with what we were doing.

When I snuggled and held him close, I thought about him smiling and sitting and walking and talking and running and playing.  I wondered what he’d be like as he grew, what kind of man he’d become, and what he’d accomplish with his life.

As I rocked back and forth, I looked into my baby’s beautiful blue eyes, and never imagined he’d be the man he is today.  I couldn’t have known the special plans God had for him...

Happy Birthday, Son!  I love you!   

one beautiful morning

I sit here on my bench, soaking in the dappling sun as it peeks thru the shade of a tree.  There’s a soft breeze, gently kissing my cheeks, carrying the fragrance of flowers swirling all around me.  I hear the bubbling water on the pond, a buzzing bee flying by, the music of the wind chime, the chirping of baby birds.  I open my eyes and see a beautiful butterfly resting on a colorful bloom, a mother sparrow poking a worm into her nest, the glint of goldfish as they swim back and forth, a tiny crape myrtle bloom floating by, a limitless deep blue sky holding white fluffy clouds.  

 I am astounded by the sheer beauty of God’s creation.  I close my eyes and thank God for my life, for His grace, for His salvation.  There are no words to express the immense love I feel.  God is so good. 

“Nature never taught me that there exists a God of glory and of infinite majesty. I had to learn that in other ways. But nature gave the word glory a meaning for me. I still do not know where else I could have found one.”

~C.S. Lewis

one, two, three!

My grandkids make me smile and laugh.  They fill me with joy and love.  They are fun and adorable. 

They have filled a space in my heart that I never knew was empty.  

 

Three gifts from God... 

I’m blessed.   

Seriously, blessed.

i’ve fallen and i can’t get up

I believe all us, as Christians, at one time or another, have found ourselves stuck in a pit.  Sometimes the pit isn’t very deep and the clay isn’t very soggy, sometimes the pit is narrow and the bottom is miry, sometimes the pit is wide and the clay is liquid, sometimes we fall in backwards, sometime we trip and fall in, sometimes we weren’t paying attention, sometimes we jump in, sometimes we are pushed in, sometime we slide in, sometimes we aren’t aware how we got there.  However we find ourselves in the dark hole, there’s only one way we’ll see the light, there’s only one way the bottom is firm, there’s only one way we can be freed.    

‘I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!’  How many times have we heard that?  Over and over and over again.  But, in reality, it’s so true.  When I’ve fallen, I can’t get up by myself.  It takes a loving and powerful and comforting and gracious and true and kind and faithful and majestic and holy and righteous and almighty and perfect and merciful and eternal God!  He is the one and only way we can be rescued.  He is the one and only way we can be saved.  He is the one and only way we can be set free.  He is the one and only way we can be delivered. 

I’ve been in a deep, dark pit stuck up to my neck in slimy clay.  A lot of soul searching took place down there.  A lot of tears.  A lot of questioning.  A lot of suffering. A lot of learning.  A lot of yearning.  A lot of praying.  A lot of...   

Hey, God gave me a new song!

I waited patiently for the LORD; And He inclined to me and heard my cry.  He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm.  He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; Many will see and fear And will trust in the LORD.

Psalm 40:1-3 NAS

quick quotes

Grace is the pleasure of God to magnify the worth of God by giving sinners the right and power to delight in God without obscuring the glory of God.
- John Piper

When wealth is lost, nothing is lost; when health is lost, something is lost; when character is lost, all is lost.
- Billy Graham

You must go forward on your knees.
- Hudson Taylor

foto favs

what a blessing...