Talent

An Animal Named Post Office

Twirling

Unedited photos by:
Matthew A. Finney Photography

Jesus is God

A few days ago Joel was in the dining room and Ava and I were in the kitchen.  He said something to me and I replied, "Yes, thank God!"

Ava laughed and said, "Mom...Jesus is God!"  More laughter.  "You called my daddy God!"

I explained to her that I wasn't calling Joel God and that yes, Jesus IS God.

And so tonight I've been thinking about how blessed she is, at the age of 3, to know who Jesus really is.  He was not just 'a good man', or part of a mysterious trinity, but He was 'God, manifested (made visible) in flesh.'   She may not yet be able to explain that because God is a spirit and is invisible, that He needed a human body to come in so we could see Him, and how that body needed a name so we would know what to call Him, but she DOES know that Jesus is God!

How beautifully simple.

Riding Bikes

Last Thursday:

Two Pictures

One from yesterday:

Sweet helpers.  =)

And one from today:

It has taken nearly 4 hours of work to get the toys to this place.  The pile on the floor by the bed is all of the dolls and stuffed animals and you probably can't tell but there are about 7,459 items on top of the bed, neatly organized into containers.   

WHERE do they all COME from??????

I have put off organizing them for weeks (maybe months) because it feels so overwhelming and there are just sooo many.

I seriously wish I could just throw them all out and start over.  But of course I won't.  I did get rid of a lot today though and that felt AWESOME!  

I feel like I can breathe better.

The Faith of a Child

The crazy wind tore the gate off our fence a few months ago.  

The rest of the fence is in very sad shape as well.  It was very windy a few weeks ago when the girls and I were outside swinging and the fence was creaking and swaying in the wind.  The girls came and stood by me as I was looking at it, trying to figure out which part was most in danger of falling.  One of them said, "What are you looking at?"  I said, "The fence is starting to break so I'm checking on it." 

(or something like that) 

Gracie says, "Jesus can fix it!"  Ava immediately agrees, "Yes, Jesus can fix it!!"  I say, "Yes, He can.  Daddy is planning to work on it soon and Jesus will help him do it."  Later that day as Ava laid down for her nap she suddenly gasped, "Jesus forgot to fix our fence!!"  So again I tell her that Daddy is going to work on it, and Jesus will help him, etc.  Both girls brought it up a few more times in the next couple of weeks and I told them the same thing every time.

A few Saturdays ago, John and Jody picked up the girls to take them out to eat, shopping, and to the park.  Here the girls are waiting:

 (and SO excited)

Joel worked on the fence while they were gone and when they pulled back up out front, I went out to meet them but Gracie didn't even look my way.  She ran as FAST as she could around back and excitedly, out-of-breath asks Joel, 

"IS JESUS HELPING YOU FIX THE FENCE?!"  

Joel says, "Well, yes.  He's given me strength to work on it."  (or something like that)  Gracie sadly says, "But...I didn't see Him!"

She totally expected to see Jesus and was SO excited !!  Ah, such faith.  =) 

Another funny thing is after Joel fixed the first two sections on the left of this picture, he only removed a single rotted panel on the section that is currently completely gone.  It stayed that way for a few days until he was able to take down those next two sections.  That driveway on the other side belongs to our very good friends and one day Gracie stuck her head through the small opening, looked from one side to the other, and said, "THIS is going to be GREAT!"  Which echoed Kyndra and I's sentiments exactly.  We're thinking maybe Joel could make a gate on the back side so that we can easily go back and forth between each other's houses.  LOL!