Have you not heard?

This week marked the 50th anniversary of my grandparent's marriage. We celebrated by going up Crystal Mountain on the new gondola. We ate amazing food (ridiculously expensive - if you plan on going I can let you know how expensive), had some good bonding time, and looked onto some pretty spectacular views. I would recommend it to everyone I know for a date night or a hike with older children as there aren't railings on most of it so walking carefully is a must.

Reflecting on our time up there today, I am reminded of a greater principle. Isaiah 40:28 says "Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth."

Have you heard that before? He is the Creator of the entire earth and all that is on it. Look at that picture of Mt. Rainier. I cannot even describe to you how glorious it was up close. Most of us who live in Western Washington see it daily, but to get a few hours directly across it was breathtaking.

I know some think yeah, yeah, God created all that is on the earth.

But they stop there and don't let it transform their thinking, make them question, or affect their lives.

Hear this, Romans 1:19-20 says, "For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse."

Did you hear that? We are without excuse! When Paul wrote this he understood that God created the heavens and the earth. The mountains and the sea. The babies and teenagers. He tells us that we can see God's power through all of what he has created.

Please don't just think you understand that some sort of spiritual being made all of the beautiful things that we see. The Creator God made everything so that we would look at it and know without a shadow of a doubt that he loves, cares, and desires to be in relationship with us. Don't miss it! Like Romans says, we are all without excuse because of the amazing design of our Father. So seek Him out. The Bible says, Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. I know firsthand that this can seem overwhelming. But just take a step. Read a Psalm in your Bible, talk to a close friend. Email me and ask a question! Just do something! The God of the universe desires you and I would love to be a part of it!

ten months!

Dear Siena,

You are such a beautiful girl. My heart shines when I play with you. I love you with more love than I ever knew was inside of me. The bond between us is so sweet, something that I knew from being a daughter but it's oh so different being the mama.

You have done crazy amounts of new things this month. You are pretty tired of eating baby food, so I give you just about anything that I am eating and you love it! You still only have two teeth but you are good at swallowing little bites of food :). You feed yourself almost your entire three solid meals. It's not only amazing to see you growing but it allows me to eat too!

You have begun to crawl, which is SO fun! You get into everything but more importantly you have MORE fun! You go anywhere your little heart desires, you can come to me when you want me instead of just crying, you can get your own toys etc...

You now point at things and people, which you don't know isn't the nicest yet. But you mean it in the best way. You wave at people when I said buh-bye and hi. You now roll from tummy to back and back to tummy! You can make all sorts of sounds with your tongue and lips - it's hilarious.

You LOVE your daddy. He plays with you nonstop and makes you laugh and laugh. He loves getting home and seeing your face light up when you see him.

You are amazing Sugar Pie. We love you SO.

~Mama

burdened.

As I sit here, a million things are whirling through my mind.

Why haven't I been blogging? Why am I blogging? Where are we headed? How do I explain all that the Lord is doing in my family's life?

Through the last hour of sitting in the sunlit playroom, reading my bible while my baby girl sleeps - I finally feel peace. My audience is one but I don't always feel that way. I feel caught in the middle of desiring many followers, creating beautiful posts, and loving to write and on the other side sometimes I want to stop blogging all together. I don't want my worth to be caught up in this realm of internet influence and I don't want to worry if my writing isn't as good as the next gal. As one third of this tiny family that the Lord is changing rapidly, I pray that my focus would be Him in order to lovingly influence the other two thirds to do the same. If my life impacts any one else outside of that - then it is all His Grace.

In all honesty, I am struggling to with transparency. I want to share my entire heart, our goals, dreams, where our life is headed. But as a missionary family that is trying to obey the Lord in everything, all the details can't always be shared until He okays them. I need to be okay with that. And I need to figure out how to let you all in on the things that I can without feeling like I need to stop writing just because I can't share every minute detail.

So, I will continue to share what I can as I am faithful to Him through His strength.

This quote struck me this morning in the book Spiritual Disciplines of the Christian Life,
"Why if we are obeying the Lord, the responsibility rests with Him, not with us! Thou, Lord, Thou shalt have all the burden! At Thy bidding, as Thy servant I go forward, leaving results with Thee." - Hudson Taylor

the dancing guy.

Seriously, this is amazing. Chris showed it to me last night. It truly is a real picture of leadership. And it's funny.

Wave....

Since arriving at training, we have been welcomed with such warm arms. I love it here and I love what we are able to be a part of. The training is intensive and the new staffers are busy all day long. Siena and I have our normal routine even here. During the last few days before we arrived here, it was easy to be flexible because we were around large, loud crowds. Her loud, shrill screams were ok in the midst of millions of other's at Disney World.

Here however, it's a quiet meeting place with teaching, training, and devotionals. The little glimpses that I have gotten makes me want to stay for more. But my life's ministry is my sweet little 9month old chubby girl. This morning, Chris asked me, "Are you sad that this is what you have to do while we are here?" I told him, "No! This is my typical day!" It seems funny to him I'm sure that amidst the Florida weather (90's temps, hot sun, and thunderstorms), the fun training, meeting new people, and quaint apartment that we are living in - that I'm not feeling as if I am missing out. But truly, my days consist of naps, diapers, feedings, playing, and loud baby noises. I love it.

I especially love that I got to see another first from my little one today. We were walking back after dinner (after trying to sit through a session but the Joy wouldn't quiet down) back to our apartment. We passed an older couple that had their three grandchildren with them. The grandmother waved at Siena and I told her to say hi. Siena waved back! We have been trying to teach her this for months!

I brought her back inside and started tickling and playing with her before bedtime. I started waving at her in hopes that she would do it again and she did! It was the sweetest thing. I really love watching her learn new things and develop into a sweet little girl.

Here she is last week at the park! More pictures from that day, coming soon!

Why Hello Internet.

Pleased to finally meet you again!

God is so good. So good that in four days I have a list of 20 evidences of His grace to us. I think that I could come up with more. But really this has been a wonderful start to what I am sure is going to be amazing. Thursday night we took a red-eye to Orlando from Seattle. We left at 11pm and got to Orlando at 11am with one layover for 2 hours. Wow. Thats a lot of traveling!

But we are all three here and in one piece. Even better than that, I would say we are doing really well and enjoying ourselves in this humid, hot, beautiful place!

Evidences of God's Grace Orlando:

- Happy baby at the airport on Thursday after waking her up at 9pm

- Siena asleep to Milwaukee

- Chris and I have had wonderful prayer times together

- Siena sleeping upright on my chest through both flights, something she hasn't done since she was 4months

- Siena did well during the 2.5 hr layover

- We arrived safely in Orlando!

- It only cost $4 to get to our hotel on the Lynx!

- We were able to check in early to our hotel and got a crib (this was a HUGE deal!)

- Chris graciously let us eat poolside after over 24 hrs of not sleeping and not wanting to go anywhere to find food

- Siena slept from 6:30pm - 9:45 am (with a few bouts of crying... but we got onto a new timezone!)

- Chris and I slept from 8:30pm-9:45am!

- Had so much (cheap!) fun in Downtown Disney, especially the amazing guitarist/singer and free ferry shuttle!

- Siena had an hour long nap during which Chris worked out and I had precious Jesus time

- Jesus giving me patience and flexibility even as much as Siena going to bed super late and not napping... if you know me- this is a lot of grace! Thanks Jesus!

- Siena sleeping from 9pm-7am

- Having full bellies frugally!

- Getting to go to Magic Kingdom in Disneyworld! SO much FUN!!

- Nursing mom's room at D.W. ... seriously a huge blessing that allowed Siena to eat, nap, and be cool for a while

- Siena being an extremely flexible/happy baby 90% of the time!

I'll be updating as I can!

Hope you are having a wonderful start to your week!