Celebrating Covenant Marriage

Happy Anniversary to my beloved husband!

Twenty two years ago today, we joined our hearts and souls in covenant marriage.

Before our closest friends, our family and our God,

we gave ourselves one to the other.

It was, quite simply, the best day EVER!

How thankful I am for God's blessing upon our covenant with Him.

May He be exalted and glorified as we live out our covenant vows with our

eyes fixed upon Jesus, the great covenant keeper who will never

break covenant with His bride, the church.

I so look forward to all that God has in store for us and our family.

Everything is Possible With God!

It was VBS week at our church and boy was it a fantastic week!

David participated in the preschool class.

Claire was a participant in the Hot Air Balloons group

Charlotte, along with her EMERGE friends, served as helpers

And Meredith and I were there all week as the Hot Air Balloon Crew Leaders

(second and third graders)

I love how our church family came together to put on VBS.

By midweek, our little church had 100 kids registered.  

Half or more were from the community!

Praise God. 

Here are some photos of our week together, learning about trusting God!

Charlotte and her friend Rachel serving at Registration

David and his buddy Ford during afternoon assembly

Charlotte and Rachel helping Mrs. Jones in the kitchen!

Pastor Dave with his Mr. Potato Head!

Fearless crew leaders. . .

Some pretty cute Hot Air Balloons

Pastor Dave talking about being strong in the Lord!

Miss Jan, our beloved Children's Ministry Director

Looking a little tired at morning assembly mid week. . .

Flash Skyrunner a.k.a. Mr. Jones all tied up

Charlotte taking a little break in the EMERGE room!

sampling the snack. . .

The awesome team in the Wild Blue Bible Adventures room

Flash

We LOVE VBS crafts!  Thank you, Miss Beth!

Claire and her pal Rhlan

Miss jan and that funny character Flash!

The preschool class leaving morning assembly.

BFFs big and small!

VBS was not David's favorite.
He prefers a calmer environment!

FLY...it was great fun!

We sure learned a lot about trusting in God!
The highlight for me.....

aside from the great fun, fantastic music, new friends, funny skits, wild games,
terrific Bible stories and cool crafts

was sharing the gospel with a little friend in my group and
praying with her as she put her trust in Jesus as her Lord and Savior!

He is mighty to save!!!

Youth Update

Our junior highers loaded into the vans early this morning to return home tonight.

I can't wait to hear all about Peter's week at RYM in Florida!

The week sure ended on a fun note....

The Spring Cypress Presbyterian Church Junior High Youth Group

won the Mega-Rec Championship.

I am not sure what that truly means, but I do know it involved some serious

Ga Ga competition 

a game I knew nothing about until we were at SCPC

(we have our very own pit on our church campus and the youth LOVE to play!)

Here the group is pictured in a Ga Ga pit. . .

I believe it is a version of dodge ball in an octagon enclosure.

Fun, Fun, Fun!

Pastor Dennis with our wonderful chaperones and awesome interns. . .

How blessed my kids are to be involved in such a

God centered

Christ exalting

Bible saturated

Fellowship oriented

Relationship building youth ministry.

We sure have missed Pete.  

After two weeks of RYM, this mamma is happy to

have all her kids home for the weekend!

RYM Week Two!

It is Peter's turn this week.

He met up with the junior high kids from church at 4:30 this morning

to depart for a long day's drive to Florida.

Here they are crossing into Mississippi!

They arrive tonight for the

Reformed Youth Ministry Junior High Conference.

The usual activities enjoyed at the beachside retreat center

may be tweaked to accommodate Debby, the brewing storm that lingers over Florida!

We know that God is sovereign over the weather and whether

rain or shine,

our kids are going to enjoy the awesome fun fellowship and 

biblical teaching!

Praying for Pastor Dennis.

He returned Saturday night past midnight from Colorado with the Senior High kids

and left Monday morning with the Junior High kids....

What a man!

Estes Park, Colorado

Meredith called today...

from the top of a peak on a hike in the Rocky Mountains!

She is having a glorious time.

In her quick recap she shared that the teaching is amazing, 

the worship music is so beautiful,

and the fellowship is fun and adventurous!

This is the Senior High Youth from Spring Cypress

Here is Meredith with the youth intern, Laura, and Pastor Dennis.

Don't they look like twins?

I sure was grateful to hear Meredith's voice.  Miss that girl!

What a great week she is having.  

She'll be home Saturday night and Pete will depart Monday morning 

for his youth conference in Florida!

May my children seek you and know you, with all their hearts, Dear Lord!!!

True Worship

I admit my heart has been full these past weeks...

. . .with anxious anticipation for news regarding an exciting new opportunity

. . .with fear about our ever increasing financial commitment for our chidlrens' education

. . .with resentment about the amount of time my husband must travel

. . .with worry over certain circumstances out of my control

. . .with sadness for friends suffering health crises and major trials

and I could keep going.  

there are the regular worries a mother carries for her children

and the pure exhaustion from keeping up with five children and busy summer days

and ways in which things about life just look different than I ever thought they would

etc, etc, etc.

I know that in times like this, I must chose to put on true worship.

God is seeking true worshippers and it is through such worship

that we become surrendered to Him with love and admiration and wonder

and just being in His presence and enjoying His person

makes a full and heavy heart to flood with

joy

contentment

praise

obedience

My go to passage to center my worship is found in Ephesians Chapter one verses 3-14.

Worshipping and meditating on the glorious beauty 

of Jesus Christ, His magnificient worth and His radiant glory
align my heart with His
and I find myself beautifully transformed by
the renewing of my mind and a singular, pure devotion of my heart.


God's grace, lavished upon me - the truth of his goodness to me is expressed in these verses.
It pierces my heart and ignites true worship from the deepest wellspring of my soul.
And He becomes my all in all.
He becomes everything I need and more.
He alone fulfills every lost dream and disappointment.

Everything else fades away.
All the idols of my heart bumped off their thrones.

If you can relate at all.....consider what Christ has done for you...

He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing
He has chosen us in Him before the beginning of time
He has made us a holy people
He predestined us to adoption, according to His perfect will
He freely bestowed his redeeming grace upon us through Christ
He redeemed us through the blood of Christ
He forgave our sins according to the riches of His grace
In His perfect wisdom, He make known to us the mystery of His will
He has granted us an inheritance
He has sealed us with the Holy Spirit
He has made us His very own possession


And all of this is ours why????.....
verse 5 says it is all done for us

TO THE PRAISE OF HIS GLORIOUS GRACE


The goal of our adoption, our redemption and all our spiritual blessing is
that the glory of God's grace would be praised -

that we would be sons and daughters who
will enjoy making much of God's lavish love and life changing grace.


I am going to rest in His grace today!

RYM

Meredith met up with her high school group at church very early this morning.

They left the parking lot for the airport at 6:30 am!

Destination: Estes Park, Colorado in the Rocky Mountains

for the Reformed Youth Ministries Senior High Conference

We are thrilled that Meredith can take part in this experience!

High schoolers from PCA churches all over will ascend in the mountains together

for a week of worship, teaching, Bible Study, elective classes

not to mention. . .

horse back riding, rafting, zip lining, hiking and mountain biking!

Our prayer for Meredith is that this would be a sweet time of renewal.

That she would quiet her heart enough in those beautiful surroundings

to deepen and strengthen her relationship to God.

That she would be changed.  

Transformed by the renewing of her mind.

That she would grow in fellowship with other teens from her group

and that she would come home challenged and equipped to be a teenager of faith

in a world that is desperately void of it.

We pray for Pastor Dennis who took our group as well as the adult chaperons

and the youth interns, Michael and Laura.

We pray for safety and protection.

We pray for the keynote speaker Elbert McGowan

and all the pastors, including Dennis, who are teaching the elective courses.

For this next generation, Father, we pray for you to work mightily in the midst of this conference.

Raise up leaders.  Make genuine disciples.  Unite our youth.  

AMEN!

Happy Father's Day

Watching my husband be a father to our children makes me love him

more and more and more!

Ian is so purposeful in

teaching, training and discipling

our children.

He cares for each one of us in special ways.

He takes care of and provides for us in countless ways every day.

I am so grateful for Ian.

He is a man of honor and integrity and wisdom.

He is a godly man who seeks the Lord and His righteousness

and leads his family in the truth and knowledge of the Lord.

After church today, we had a quick lunch together and then

we sent the boys golfing. 

They had a great time together.

When they returned we had dinner mostly ready and enjoyed some pool time.

Friend Lauren is with us for part of this coming week....

it is going to be Camp Achterkirch!!!

We enjoyed grilled chicken, corn on the cob, watermelon and

Ina Garten's plum and raspberry crisp with

vanilla bean ice cream.

Summer fare is the best!

We lingered long enough at the table to go around and finish the sentence,

"I love my dad because..."

Let's just say, that was a sweet and memorable exercise.  And quite funny, too!

Nobody was too excited for a photo after swimming and right before bed,

but I couldn't let the day pass without getting a picture

of Baba with his children!

Happy Father's Day, love.

Romeo and Juliet - a Double Date

Tucked in Meredith's Christmas stocking six months ago were tickets to

Houston Ballet's Romeo and Juliet.

We had a double date of sorts.

Ian and I took Meredith and Bobby downtown for a special evening.

We ate dinner at a charming bistro in a historic hotel in the theatre district

and then walked a couple blocks to the Wortham Theatre for the ballet.

Wow was it a spectacular performance.

Beautiful and tragic, of course, it soared with emotion.

The staging and costumes were elaborate and gorgeous.

The score by Sergei Prokofiev was equally amazing.

We had a fun time together with Meredith and Bobby {who was all together a good sport}.  

Meredith packs up today and leaves for Estes National park in Colorado this coming week 

for the Reformed Youth Ministries Senior High conference.

More on that and Father's Day later!

First Day on the NICU

Meredith was accepted into the Junior Volunteer Summer Program at

St. Luke's Hospital at the Vintage.

And, because she articulated her educational and nursing goals with such excellence,

they rewarded her with an unusual post in the Women's Birthing Center which is home to

labor, delivery, recovery and postpartum rooms as well as a 

level II Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

She will work there three shifts a week -four hours each day.

She had orientation on Friday with all the summer volunteers

and her own personal tour of the Woman's Center after everyone else dismissed.

Today was her first day.

And it was a great first day.

The charge nurse and everybody was quick to welcome her and

take her under their wing.  She already feels like part of the team

and said she is going to be included in all the activities of the unit -

much more than she even thought was going to be possible.

The nurses all seem thrilled to have her there and are going out of their way to educate her on

everything they are doing and everything that goes on.

They have even told her she is welcome to be a part of labor and deliveries

and to help with paperwork after births.

Today she got to feed a baby in a Giraffe Incubator.

She is so excited!

And they are giving her scrubs instead of the purple polo

so she feels and looks like part of the unit.

Yep - she is a little excited about that, too!

This is going to be such a spectacular experience for Meredith.  After months and months of narrowing the college search and defining her interests from healthcare generally to neonatal nursing specifically, this is almost like God just placing down the pavers for her to step on one at a time in that direction.  Certainly couldn't have asked for a better assignment - a true privilege and gift!  She will really be able to see if this is indeed what she wants to set out to do.  And if so, she is already making great connections in a fantastic hospital system.  And if its not - how great to know that now before selecting a school primarily based on its nursing program!  She feels blessed.  And I feel blessed to sit back and watch her take these next steps in God's grace....and enjoy it so much, too!

David's First Harvest

David has been carefully tending to his garden.

Look at the growth compared to just a few weeks ago

Operation garden planting is HERE

At first he was very discouraged and disappointed that his

VEGETABLE garden was producing FLOWERS

But I promised him that those little flowers would give way to

tomatoes, peppers, squash and cucumbers.

He was skeptical!

But he kept checking on it every day and watering it.  

(more frequently than probably needed)

And about a week ago, I began getting excited, squealing reports about

a certain tomato that was turning red.  Boy did he show patience

to wait until it was fully ripe before picking it.

Today was the day.  His first harvest.  His first delicious harvest!

He plucked that baby with tender loving care!

And while he made a generous agreement to share with his sister,

he made it clear that he was going to have the first taste!

And then he shared....and they shared back and forth until it was gone!

Was it yummy?  Yes it was!

He was quite pleased with himself.

So we joyfully continue to wait for 

"God to get the rest ready". . .I'm sure we'll have another update on David's garden!