Coldplay - Paradise (Peponi) African Style (ft. guest artist, Alex Boye)...

Another Piano Guys music video for a beautiful Friday!
This one is for you, Joshua, our precious son!
We thank the Lord for giving us eight wonderful years with you.
We love you!

Goals From Another Life

I (Renee) found an old journal of mine from about eleven years ago. At that time I was single, living at home, and saving up money to be involved with YWAM.

I had to chuckle when I came across a couple of lists in this journal. I remember writing the lists and thinking how determined I was to accomplish every single one. I guess it goes to me, that God's ways are higher than mine. And I am so grateful.

So I thought it would be fun to share them with you so we can laugh at them together.

The first list is Ten Things I Want to do Before I Die

1. Skydiving
2. Hair past my waist
3. To travel the world in a bus and preach the Good News
4. Climb a mountain
5. Sail the seven seas and be shipwrecked at least once
6. Do a triathlon
7. Fly a helicopter
8. Scuba dive in the Great Barrier Reef in Australia
9. Fluent in Spanish
10. Complete a Bible school

I think I've only done about two out of the ten things listed there. And I'm not sure I want to do most of them anymore anyway. Funny how people change. :)

The next list is titled: "Someday I'm Going to do That!"  Sometimes I'm not sure what I was thinking... anyway here it is:

Drive a truck with more than six wheels
Go to Alaska
Visit the biggest ball of twine in Minnesota
Take up tambourines and dance with the joyful (Jer. 31:4)
Plant a vineyard
Build a treehouse
Roast a pig with apple in its mouth
Jump a train
Hitchhike
Own a ranch/bison farm
Play bagpipes on top of cliff - Amazing Grace
Become a beekeeper
Own an orchard
Find a moose
Cut a chicken's head off and watch it run around
Roll down a hill in a refrigerator (with a helmet)
Train ministry - play harmonica
Live out First century church
Become a martyr for Christ
Go tour a cheese factory
Go tour a brewery
Ride a horse
Eat locusts and honey
Eat escargot

Well, there you have it ladies and gents. My list of things to do someday. I wonder what my kids would say if we had snails for supper.

So...does anyone have an empty fridge I could borrow?

Charlie Brown Medley - ThePianoGuys

Joel and I have really enjoyed watching The Piano Guys' music videos. They are based in Southern Utah and are extremely talented musicians. I'll be posting our favorite videos for awhile, but you can check them out on their website or on YouTube.

The video below is a surprise concert they put on for a senior citizen audience. 

Enjoy it and have a Happy Friday!

5

Five years.

Can you believe it's been five years and almost two months since our first post on this blog?

Can you believe it's been five years and some weeks since our first ultrasound of Junebug?

Five years ago the phone rang and it was our family practitioner. Our doctor, calling with the results of the ultrasound. Just a routine ultrasound at 20 weeks in-utero. I will always remember her concerned voice saying, "Renee, there's something wrong with the baby's heart." I will always remember leaning up against the wall in the hallway of our trailer house, mind going blank, grasping for Jesus, and holding my breath. Waiting.

Five years ago, we thought maybe Junebug might have spina bifida or a chromosome defect. If she didn't she would have a 90% chance of life.

It's interesting looking back on these blog posts. Remembering where Joel and I were five years ago. Where we were spiritually. Where we were emotionally.

We believed so strongly God would heal our baby. We claimed it, we believed it, we wouldn't allow ourselves to think that Junebug would die. Die? How dare we think such thoughts! Death is from the devil! Surely only Life belongs to God! He is the healer and doesn't it say that if you believe, anything we ask will be given to us?

I remember sitting on the couch with Joel one evening. We had just received the news of Junebug's heart and all that it would entail. We were just at the beginning of the journey of heartache. At the beginning of Emily's story. Josh and Rachel were in bed already and Joel and I were together, praying. Thinking. Processing. I remember looking down at a box on the floor and I heard a voice in my head say, "She's going to die." Thinking it was Satan trying to get at me, I immediately rebuked it and tried to think of life and faith and Jesus; anything good and far from death.
Looking back, I now know that it was our Lord Jesus speaking to me as Joel and I were praying for Junebug. He was preparing me for death. He was preparing me for His plan for our little girl.
But because of my belief that anything death related had to do with the enemy, I had rebuked my loving Savior.

I'm glad Joel and I don't think like that anymore.

Yes, Life belongs to God. But so does death. Christ holds the keys to Hades and Death. Christ conquered death on the cross. Christ didn't stay dead. He is alive. And He calls everyone to die. Die to themselves so that His life will live through them.

He is calling me to die to myself, to my ways, to my old, sinful, human nature.

And I am glad He has power over all, even over Life. Even over Death.

Saturday Morning

"Mommy, winter is a long time," Madelynn tiredly, almost painfully, informs me. Yes my dear, winter is a long time.

I wonder if Daddy seemed to sense that, too, because this Saturday was waited for in anticipation. For this Saturday was when Daddy would help make the kids a new toy. The kids had fun the week before trying to guess what the new toy would be. They knew it would be made out of wood. But all their guesses were what they were familiar with. A new toy car? A doll? It dawned on me sometime this past week, that we only know what we know. We can't think beyond what we don't know. My kids had no idea what Daddy was going to make for them, because they had never seen one before.

It was a thought that I'm still casually pondering about. Sometimes I'm a little scared to apply those kinds of thoughts to real life situations. Like, I have no idea why Emily had to die at nine days old, but God knows. Just as Daddy knew what a fun new toy this was going to be, but the kids had absolutely no clue what it was, what it was called, or what it looked like, and of course how it worked.

Well, this morning it was time. Time for them to unravel the mystery of Daddy's idea. Daddy worked on Hudson's first, and when it was done, the kids laughed with delight. What was the toy? It was a Jacob's Ladder. Here's a pic from Google Images if you don't know what I'm talking about:

The kids are having lots of fun this morning playing with this toy. They've made caterpillars, letters, and yes, even finger snappers out of it.

And as the smell of roadkill venison roast drifts through the house, and the kids settle in for a quiet time, I think, yes, Madelynn, winter is long. But look at all the fun we are having! Summer will come soon. Most years it does anyway...