Preparations

Our church is getting ready to host an Eggstravaganza next weekend.

So I solicited some help this afternoon to get some eggs stuffed.

We sure had a good time doing it together!

Even Peter got involved!

Each egg was carefully filled with candy and a different Easter scriptures

. . .good news of Jesus' resurrection

We uttered prayers over each little egg 

and the little heart that will joyfully find it

and delight in its contents.

Looking forward to all the Holy Week activities at our church

a Passover/Seder dinner on Thursday

a good Friday Tenebrae service on Friday

 the big Eggstravaganza on Saturday

and

a certain joyous Easter celebration on the Lord's Day!

TWO

What a privilege it has been to see the Lord enfold Ezra into the H family just hours

after seeing Neamiah received into their loving arms.

To watch with utter amazement and joy and wonderment 

God enfolding TWO new sons and brothers into the H family

across TWO provinces and

in TWO days!

Let's keep them in our prayers as they travel back home to Wuhan

and settle in to their new life as a Party of 11

The Lord has done great things for us

and we are filled with joy!

Psalm 126:3

Rejoicing with Friends

We've been praying for our friends the H family.

Will you join me in upholding them?

We met them during our adoption journey to David

and actually got to spend time with them when we traveled to China.

You see, they live there - in Wuhan

With there lovely family.

You can reminisce with me about our visit with them HERE.

And today they received another precious Wuhan boy into their family

Nehemiah is pictured, smiling ever so brightly, in the grey jacket.

We rejoice in watching God bring to pass another beautiful adoption

in His good time and for His glory!

They sleep now as it is night in China,

and when they awake, they board a train to another province

to meet Ezra....another new son who waits for them.

You can read that amazing story HERE.

God, bless the H family.

Bless then BIG!

Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more

than we could ever ask or imagine,

according to HIS power that is at work in us,

to HIM be glory!

{Ephesians 3:20}

Mom, It Growed!

David planted a sunflower seed a couple weeks back.

He has nurtured it carefully.

Carrying it around the house and digging the seed up, sometimes, just to check on it. 

So attentive!

So I was quite surprised a few mornings back when I heard David, hovered over the cup in the window, declare in a most happy voice, "Mommmmmyyyyy. . .it growed!"

Sure enough, a little sprout.

We watched it carefully day by day, 

It grew taller and taller, pushing the soil out of its way.

Reaching toward the sun!  We counted the leaves.  TWO big ones and TWO baby ones!

David was quite pleased with himself. And with his sunflower.  He named it Rachel. {???}

We ran to find one of my favorite books about seeds....Eric Carle's The Tiny Seed.

Great colorful text about the miracle and lifecycle of a seed.

Of course we adore Mr. Carle's artwork, too.  

We examined all the pictures, page by page.  Trying to find the little seed. 

We loved all the bright cheery colors.

The big, happy sun.....and the beautiful flower especially!

That inspired some painting of our own.  So out came the paints!

{I adore the face of determination and focus}

I LOVE David's garden of flowers.  I think I might just frame it.

{and it is his first work where he didn't mix all the colors to make brown!}

We had a sweet conversation about where the beautiful flowers come from.

David knew!  God made the seeds and the flowers.  He gave us the sun and the rain, too! 

Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation:

seed bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it,

according to their various kinds"

And it was so.

{Genesis 1:11}

David loved our little spring unit.  Not as much as me, I fear.  

I LOVE connecting literature and language 

with art and science

. . . and God's Word. 

I RESPECT that every moment is a teachable moment,

when you are little. 

I HEART the path of inquiry that starts in the dirt and ends with washable paint.  

I ADORE watching a little one discover new things about God's world.

I DELIGHT in watching kids create something that reflects who they are

and what they are learning

and how they see things.

I TREASURE the young child's heart and mind that asks probing questions

and names their plants

and tells stories with too many words

and sings while they work.

I RELISH the confident smile preschoolers wear while they work and play and live

moment by moment.

That is why I sense God calling me back to the preschool classroom.

I've sent my resume out to a few Christian preschools.

Join me in praying that God would call me AND David to a very special place!

David wants to plant some plants you can eat.

Next week.....a vegetable garden!

Can. Not. Wait.

The Crud Wars

Sunday afternoon, we all headed back to church for a Youth Group Big Event...

the SCPC CRUD WARS.

Here are the teams that have been competing in events throughout the school year.

Here is the Master of Ceremonies - our fabulous Youth Pastor - Dennis.

And here are a few of the ingredients for the CRUD WARS.

Let's just say...it was fun and it was crazy and it was messsssssy!

 

It started out fairly tame.  

In relay fashion, the teams had to chug a can of Coke, belch, and tag team.

Meredith had trouble burping {our ballerina girl} so she faked it so as to not hold up her team!

There were several water relays with lots of wet and slip sliding kids!

Only two kids from Peter's team {WAM} showed up...so they had extra work but still pulled out some event victories!

There was the cottage cheese relay....

The Siblings looked on in amazement!

And had some precious fun of their own.  This is David's new best friend - Ford!

Ian got to judge the sundae making contest. That's when it got a little GROSS!

There was also an event where contestants had to style a teammate's hair using Ranch dressing.
Thats when it got STINKY!

Then it was out to the crud pit to play steal the bacon {or pool noodle in this case}

To make it a little more interesting, each round a new slippery, messy ingredient was added to the war:
huge containers of things like. . . tomato paste

baked beans . . .syrup. . .

applesauce

flour

It was an all out food war as kids dove for the bacon when their number was called out!

It was an afternoon of great fun, lots of laughter and fantastic fellowship

And the surprise of the day......here comes the clean up crew!!!  Thank goodness!

The little kids had to join in on the fun at this point

Somebody got to hold the hose . . . Fireman David!

Plus a little peek inside the truck.  How cool was that!?

Here is some iphone video Ian shot of operation clean up

What a gorgeous day to worship and play with our new church family.  We are blessed!