Blessings? Yes!

This week...

... a baby boy was born prematurely and was missing three fingers.

... my friend had to remove herself and her children from their home because her husband can't control himself when he drinks.

... my uncle had a gun held to his head and was robbed of money which was to be used to build camp facilities in Brazil.

... I stumbled upon the blog of an old high-school friend who recently lost his wife to a brain tumor. He is left to raise two small children while trying to trudge through his own grief.

JUST THIS WEEK.

I don't mean to sound morbid, but we live in a sick, broken world. It's almost too much to bear. And I'm sure that those of you reading this could probably make your own similar lists.

So how come I still believe that GOD IS GOOD and that GOD IS LOVE? I'll tell you. (Well, not I technically.) There is a rather new song on the radio and I can't hear it without crying. The lyrics are perfect. The melody is beautiful. It's by Laura Story, a woman who has lived through some very difficult times herself. It's called...

Blessings

We pray for blessings.
We pray for peace.
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep.
We pray for healing, for prosperity.
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering.
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things.

Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops?
What if Your healing comes through tears?
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near?
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise?

We pray for wisdom;
Your voice to hear.
And we cry in anger when we cannot feel You near.
We doubt Your goodness; we doubt Your love.
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough.
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we'd have faith to believe.

Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops?
What if Your healing comes through tears?
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near?
And what if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise?

When friends betray us;
When darkness seems to win,
We know the pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home.
It's not our home!

Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops?
What if Your healing comes through tears?
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near?
What if my greatest disappointments,
Or the achings of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy?
And what if trials of this life;
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights,
Are Your mercies in disguise?

(Oh! And if you have time, the message called "Where is God?" by John Piper is a good one to listen to when trials seem too much to bear.)

God is good...ALL THE TIME. Do you believe it?

First Day of School

At 3:45 this morning I was awakened by my middle child - soon to be Kindergartner - who was telling me that she didn't feel well. This is very unusual, but after taking her to the bathroom, getting some water and laying down on the floor next to her bed, I figured it was just a case of butterflies. When she didn't fall asleep until 5:30, I was more than just a little exhausted. (Not exactly the way that I wanted to start the first day of home schooling!) Oh well. We managed to get dressed, eat breakfast and get started by 9:00 just as I had planned. First on the agenda was taking our "first day" pictures:

Ally wanted to wear Sierra's first day of Kindergarten dress! Doesn't she look happy?

Sierra was so excited to finally be in 2nd grade.

And of course, Val-Val had to get in on the action.

We started our day beautifully with calendar time, quick overview of procedures, explaining the marble jar incentive, etc. The first hour and a half went very well and then it was time for recess. I could tell that Ally wasn't feeling quite right when she didn't want to play during recess time. She was happy to sit outside and nibble on pretzels and sip water. Then it was time for math. She half-heartedly completed her lesson and then got up to put her supplies away when suddenly I heard the dreaded words, "Mom, I fell like throwing up." Thankfully, I had time to get her back onto the linoleum with a trash can in front of her. Poor girl! This is how she has spent the rest of the day:

No more puke, but she certainly doesn't feel well. Boy am I glad that this didn't happen in a classroom full of kids and an overwhelmed teacher on the first day of "real" school! As I type this post, she is taking a good nap. Sierra was eager to do a little more work, but it wasn't exactly the ending that I was hoping for. Here's to waking up tomorrow for another fresh start!

P.S. Thanks to my good friends who wrote to tell me that they were praying for our first day. We definitely needed those prayers!

O Church Arise

O church, arise and put your armor on;
Hear the call of Christ our captain;
For now the weak can say that they are strong
In the strength that God has given.
With shield of faith and belt of truth
We’ll stand against the devil’s lies;
An army bold whose battle cry is “Love!”
Reaching out to those in darkness.

Our call to war, to love the captive soul,
But to rage against the captor;
And with the sword that makes the wounded whole
We will fight with faith and valor.
When faced with trials on ev’ry side,
We know the outcome is secure,
And Christ will have the prize for which He died—
An inheritance of nations.

Come, see the cross where love and mercy meet,
As the Son of God is stricken;
Then see His foes lie crushed beneath His feet,
For the Conqueror has risen!
And as the stone is rolled away,
And Christ emerges from the grave,
This vict’ry march continues till the day
Ev’ry eye and heart shall see Him.

So Spirit, come, put strength in ev’ry stride,
Give grace for ev’ry hurdle,
That we may run with faith to win the prize
Of a servant good and faithful.
As saints of old still line the way,
Retelling triumphs of His grace,
We hear their calls and hunger for the day
When, with Christ, we stand in glory.

Words and Music by Keith Getty & Stuart Townend
Copyright © 2005 Thankyou Music

(This song has been running though my head a lot lately, so I thought that I would share it. You can hear it on the Getty's website here.)

Our last HOO-RAH!

Marc went back to work today. (Boo-hoo.)

It doesn't seem real that summer vacation is already over. It's been a good one! We decided that we needed to make one more trip to the cabin last week so that the girls could enjoy some more time in the river. The water has been too high to be safe for swimming until just recently. This time it was PERFECT! With their life jackets, Sierra and Ally can go just about anywhere without causing this poor Mama to go into a panic. I love that they are getting older and more independent. I was able to take book out to the beach and actually get some reading done while they played. (I did get all the way in the water several times as well!) And Valerie had a great shallow area with plenty of sand to play in. We spent lots of time outside kayaking, floating, hiking, digging, swinging, sliding, eating and playing games. Oh! And as I briefly mentioned before, we had some good friends join us for the last day. The kids had a blast together while the grown ups got to talk, play games, pick berries and stay up late for a good movie. It was a great finale to the summer....but I may just have to plan another short get away. I'm already aching to get back to more of this:

Picking God's Huckleberries

Wouldn't you know it - we found a huge patch of delicious huckleberries that God planted for us on the hill right behind the cabin! Thanks to our friends, the Berggrens, we were able to identify them and bring home several containers full. We would have had even more, but after Ally picked her berries she ran down the hill to show me....

...and, well, you can probably guess how many were left in her cup. ARGH!

You've Got a Friend In Me!

Our very dear friends, Josh and Janella Stimac, loaded their five precious children in the van and drove over 600 miles (each way!) to come spend last week with us.

Carter ~ Lucy ~ Emily ~ Calvin ~ Molly

When we lived in California, Marc and I used to spend just about every free day with Josh and Janella. We have lots of memories of attending Placerita Baptist Church together, lazy Saturday breakfasts at the Way Station, kayaking in Carpinteria, playing croquet, endless games of Sequence and Yahtzee, trips to Zion National Park & Bryce Canyon, playing the nickle slots in Vegas, late night runs to Golden Spoon for frozen yogurt, etc. etc. etc. Now we are making new memories with our EIGHT OFFSPRING!!! Funny how some things change and others never do.

Calvino and Val-Val really hit it off this time!

Besides just talking, laughing, and playing together, we kept them busy with
a day at Roaring Springs...
... a bug expedition...

... lots of river play...

... and their very first rodeo experience at the Snake River Stampede.

As you can see, we kinda wore the kids out!

We are so thankful for these wonderful friends who continue to be an encouragement to us as we raise our kids and follow after God!

Silver City Adventure

Last weekend, the "big girls" and I enjoyed a day trip to Silver City with several other families from our church. Other than the fact that our church bus broke down on a windy, dirt road about 5 miles outside of the ghost town, we had a great day! Thankfully there were several other vehicles that were able to rescue those of us who had been stranded in a cloud of smoke. We ate a great picnic lunch before walking all over the quaint little valley that was once a busy mining town.

At the Dan's Ferry Station before crossing the Snake River.

The Owyhee Mountains were beautiful!

On the porch of Pat's What Not Shop.

Sierra standing in front of the old hotel which is now home to a small museum.

Other views of Silver City: