Celebrating 10 Years

Dave and I are heading to Asheville today to celebrate 10 years of marriage together.  I’ve been planning this time for over a year now and today has finally arrived.  It will be a day and evening designed to be all about us.  I was driving in the car yesterday and I had one of those moments.  I realized I had purposefully planned every detail around us and one of the most awkward things for me personally is to have any moments where all the focus and attention is on me.  How is that for irony?  So I’m pulling up the boot straps and will take one for the team today and try to hide my blushing face when all the eyes are on Dave and I today.

Which brings me to the word community.  If you don’t have it, search for it till you find it.   Dave and I have been so blessed to have friends who have entered our lives these past 10 years and who have chosen to Believe in Us, Trust Us, Inspire Us and Give to Us.  Some of those people are in our lives daily and some of them live in other states.  But we have purposefully and intentionally tried to value and love every opportunity of community we have with people.  Sometimes community comes easy and sometimes we have had to work really hard for it.  But bottom line… as I am now reading a new book When the Game Is Over, It All Goes Back in the Box: by John Ortberg… Almost all things in life are temperary.  At the end of the day when it all goes back in the box, one of the things that will live on are the investments that we make in other people. 

So we celebrate us today.  I’m raising my glass and toasting the man who has made the last 10 years of my life the most amazing ride I’ve ever been on.  Here’s to 10 years Babe.  I love you!

The things your kids will do when you are not looking.

Looked out the back window yesterday and to my shock this is what I saw. 

After a frantic dash out the door Emma says…”Look mom isn’t this cool”  After I calmed down I decided to take a picture.  The things kids will do when you are not looking.

A Big Day For Wayfarer!

Today was a big moment for Wayfarer.  We received a copy of Domino Effect.  It is a project that Wayfarer has been working on with Thomas Nelson.  It will be in every major Christian Bookstore and other stores as well like Target, Barnes and Noble etc.  I am SO proud of my husband and all the Wayfarer Team who were involved in this project.  We just pray that it will be a great resource to people to further them in their walk.

So what is the Domino Effect?

From the Publisher

The Domino Effect Leader’s Kit helps us enter into the story of good and evil that we find not just in history but all around us. What will we do with the evil that invades our lives and our world? Were we set up to be messed up? Is our world a problem of evil or an opportunity for goodness?

The Domino Effect, the first installment of a trilogy, rips the bandage off of the issue of evil. This aggressively theological and intensely personal initiative prompts life-changing discussion and discovery. It gives us a behind the scenes look at God’s thoughts toward good and evil, and it introduces God’s solution to the problem of evil-redemption.

The leader’s kit features a DVD with 6 sessions, 1 CD with daily audio devotions, 1 leader’s guide and 6 domino’s.

 Way to go Team! 

Pictures of the Tree House

Ok, so maybe it does look a little like a deer stand!

Emma and Izzie, may you have many wonderful times in this tree!

Tree House

Did any of you ever have a tree house growing up?  I did when I lived in Michigan.  I had many adventures playing in it. Most of the memories are of me playing for hours by myself in my tree house in the woods.

We don’t really have a woods behind our house but this past weekend Emma and I went looking at some of the treeline there and you’ll never guess what we found.  Across a creek/ditch was the perfect tree.  It has always been there but I never noticed it until we actually looked for a place for a tree house.

So what does this mom do?  Yup you guessed it.  I built my daughter a tree house.  Dave says it’s more like a deer stand but hey who’s counting?  Besides he’s not allowed to have an opinion since he did not help!  I’ll post a picture soon.  I can’t take all the credit.  My dad helped me get the boards up yesterday.  So now my girls have that place that they can go to use their imagination and have many wonderful adventures that hopefully when they are adults will also have very fond memories as well.  It’s just a start but hopefully we’ve got a great foundation to build on. 

Meet My Sister In Law

Yeah, No joke! This is Dave’s little sister Kayleigh on Easter Sunday. She is 5 years old and will be turning 6 on April 1. It’s weird that I have a sister in law that is the same age as my oldest daughter. And she is Emma’s Aunt.

They are coming to visit for a whole week here very soon and we can’t wait!

Haiti coming soon

Tonight at Engage my friend Audrey said..”Kim, are you getting excited?  Haiti will be here very soon!” And I can’t believe I am in the countdown now to May 1.  It will be here before I know it.  Haiti brings with it lots of thoughts.  Engage was good tonight.  Chris talked on the signs that Jesus did and showed people when he was here.  And how that relates to us here and now.  And the fact that there are signs all around us of how God is working in our lives, how He is prompting us to give, to help someone, to go and do something, etc.  And instead of sitting around always asking God for more signs or clarity or “God if you just do this for me then I’ll believe or then I’ll go and do that” instead… take those signs and go.  Follow.  Dream. Believe.

For me tonight I sat on the chair of confirmation.  So many times I have been the person who would hear those things but sit and do nothing.  There are still things in my life now that I am doing that with and I need to get up and respond.  But with Haiti I think that is one thing this past year that I heard a promting, heard an inner voice to say go.  Had doubts and questions as to if that is something I should do or not and then with my whole heart said OK, I’ll go.  It was scary.  It still is.  It’s hard for me to leave my family behind.  To leave my girls.  It’s never easy to travel or be away from them.  It’s hard to go somewhere that is not totally safe.  I have lots of fears.  It’s hard for me to not be in control of things but I know this is what I need to do.  I know it’s what I want to do.  Haiti is something that stirs passion in me.  Not because I think I can go there and change things there for people or their situations but because I can’t wait to go and see, hear,  and serve.  I really feel selfish because I need Haiti.  I need it to change me.  I need it to remind me of the things it did 15 years ago that changed my life.  Haiti and the people there gave to me in ways I have never been given to before.  As different as it is to be a part of and see another culture, I am in so many ways craving and desiring to step on the ground again.    These are such random and personal thoughts but I figured I need to dare to share them.   I certainly have nothing figured out.  I just don’t want to be a person who God whispers to and I never respond because of random fears.  I do that more than I should.  So what is God whispering to you in the core of your heart?  Are you willing to take action on those promptings?  

Pictures for the Grandparents!

The Girls in their Easter Dresses

With Nana and Papa

We miss you G-Ma and G-Pa.  Can’t wait to see you in April!

Easter Morning

I woke up early this morning.  Before the sun was out.  The kids were still sleeping (shocker) and I just layed in bed thinking about today and the meaning that Easter has to me.  I noticed the sun just starting to make its way up so I went to our breakfast table and watched the sun rise.

My dad was a pastor when I was growing up.  Every Easter Sunday meant a busy time for our family full of Easter services.  One thing my dad always did was to have a sunrise Easter Service.  I never actually attended it but he did faithfully every year.  So this morning I was just watching the beauty of the sun as it made it’s way through the clouds and how it in minutes brightened our world.  And thoughts raced through my mind of childhood, my life, my children, my faith.

You see for me Easter represents the cornerstone in my faith.  It effects every decision that I’ve basically ever made.  It is the foundation of my marriage, my family, my life.  The fact that Jesus did what he did on the cross and then was not defeated by death but rose again and conquered death means that my life has purpose and meaning.  He is alive and that is the hope that I have that gets me through the good times and the challenging hard times that I don’t understand.  It is what we give our lives to.  What is at the bottom of each mission, journey, adventure our family ever embarks on.

The girls received their Easter Baskets this morning with a few special things from mom and dad.  However as much fun as we have with them in joining in their child imagination we never forget the real reason for our holidays and are hopefully through our actions and words we are laying a wonderful foundation for them to one day with their own decision truly understand and grasp the meaning of the cross and Resurrection.  I hope one day my girls wherever they are in their journey will be constantly be awakened and stirred to embrace the Sun Rise that is continuing to call their name.

 

The End to a Perfect Day!

So Yesterday was in my terms the perfect day.  Dave and I both had off of work so we decided to have a family day.  It started out by me being able to sleep in till 10.  Maybe that was why I thought the day was starting so well!  When kids get up at 6:30 or should I say when Izzie gets up at 6:30 each day, by the end of the week no wonder I am tired!  So I got some much needed rest.  We all got ourselves ready,  had lunch and then Emma and Dave headed to the New Dr Sues movie (which Dave said was one of the best kids movie’s he’s seen) while Izzie and I ran some final Easter Bunny Errands.

We then headed back home and spent the rest of the afternoon outside.. .running and playing in the yard.  Dave mowed for the first time this year while the girls and I did our favorite… took care of all of our beds around our house.  This is the first time that Izzie has been able to be outside and do her own thing as well as help me.  This time last year she was still very immobile and on all fours.  We had Pizza for dinner and then the girls got a major bubble bath.  To bed they went and Dave and I topped our evening with a movie and a great glass of our new favorite wine. 

This morning came again just as early but I felt so much more rested.  Today we are heading with the Reichley and Norris families down to the Reedy river park for a nice picnic lunch and let the kids run around.  It is going to be another beautiful perfect day to day here again. 

So off to get things prepared for that.  Hope everyone is off to a great weekend!