announcing

it is with unspeakable joy that we announce our second daughter

true elizabeth

our tiny bundle, born december thirteenth, joined our family on christmas eve

and we are overwhelmed by God's gracious gift

seven pounds, six ounces, and eighteen inches of goodness

"Glory to God in the highest..." -Luke 2:14a

(*we're sure this announcement is unexpected news to many,

know that this beautiful girl has caught us a little by surprise too!)

(**more pictures will surely follow-- mommy left her camera cord out of state!!)

new headband= spring cutie

our weekly run to our favorite box store ended in the capture, payment, and never-left-out-of-sight easter clearance headband. i have to say i love it almost as much as miss h herself!

the flower fades

"The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our Lord will stand forever."
-Isaiah 40:8

all of the grass

and all the flowers

all the baskets of laundry

and all the best cooked meals

all the hollywood gossip

and all the home improvements

will.

fade.

away.

only the eternal remains.


where am i spending my time, energy, and resources?

more than eggs

i LOVED easter this year! haven is at a great age to really have some fun. all of these pictures seem to center around eggs, but the things i really want to remember weren't captured with my camera's lens.

all week leading up to easter, we talked about jesus' death and resurrection. the sunday before easter, haven's nursery class learned all about jesus death-- waiting until the following week to present the good news that he is risen again! she came home saying that 'ee-ter is scaw-y.' we quickly told her the rest of the story and she's still reminding us that 'he awive!' i love her three year old grasp of the resurrection story-- they hit him. he died. the rock moved. jesus alive! he went home with his flip flops on. :)



on good friday, we remembered jesus' death by keeping our home dark-- no lights on, no tv (*jon works from home, so his office escaped our plans). haven complied pretty easily, i seemed to have a harder time. every light switch and remote was a reminder that the sky turned black and creation mourned the death of God's true son. this sweet family commemorated good friday this way last year and i've been waiting to recreate it for haven all year.

we also followed this recipe/agenda in making resurrection rolls on friday. reading through john's account of jesus death with haven and jon was probably my favorite part of the weekend. h cried when we had to put jesus in the 'tomb'-- whoever thought to have jesus' body represented by a marshmallow, truly knew the treasure of a three-year-old's heart.



haven could have cared less about dying the eggs after the initial drop into the dye (*which in retrospect probably worked out best for my table and floors...). i got busy too and we both forgot about them resulting in really bright colors!

after church on sunday, we had friends old and new over for lunch and a little egg hunting. honey glazed hams are heavenly. This is miss h with our friend josh. it was his first real egg hunt too!







"jesus is awive!"

Burp cloths (*insert WAY better title here)

These were SUPER easy to make and super quick too (and super cute, if I may say so!). I got the idea from this site, but changed the dimensions based on a store-bought cloth.

I bought a full-sized, ribbed towel from Tar-jay to use as the backing. The yellow/grey fabric is from Amy Butler. I love Amy Butler.

First, cut a piece of terry cloth and patterned fabric approximately 7 x 18 inches. Then, with right sides facing, sew the entire rectangle leaving a gap just a couple inches wide. Before turning the burp cloth right-side out, clip the corners so that the fabrics will lay smoothly. Turn out and press.

Finish by sewing a quarter inch inside the perimeter.

Burp and wipe. Repeat.

With two baby showers in two days and even more friends with babies on-the-way, there was a need for mass-produced little baby burp cloths. (*Haven's on this kick where anyone her age or younger is a 'tiny wittle baby'. so stinkin' great) Anyways, I tied up two cloths with a grey ribbon and a board book inside.

"How wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ." -Ephesians 3:18

Hallelujah

Holy is He

painting by Lance Brown

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us - Eph 1:7-8a


...the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, "This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. -1 Cor 11:23-26

Clickity-clack!

This week's hair-do (oh please last two weeks!!) is great-- I always know where Haven is. Clickety-clack. Clickety- clack.


I'm loving this site, Happy Girl Hair. One of the two sisters has hair very similar to H's in texture and the mom keeps a little gallery of her daughter's hair styles. I went through and picked out a couple then let H pick which one she wanted. We even made a special trip to the 'hair store' to pick out new tiny, tiny barettes. We didn't have ones small enough and certainly not in the quantity needed.

Welcome Baby Wren

Sweet, sweet friends of ours are expecting their second bambino in early May and we had SO much fun dragging them in to town for a baby shower. They recently moved their lives to VT where they're planting a church. When word spread that Christin was coming, everyone jumped in to help out-- so I dare say who hosted, but Laura was definitely the mastermind behind all the goodness and opened her home to all of us. (*not even two weeks after moving?! she's amazing...)



Girl is a planner and organizer extraordinaire. Like, way better than anyone you'd pay to come in your home to tell you where to store your christmas tree. Like, 'made-a-spreadsheet-for-the-shower' good. Here she is with our friend Ruth. Isn't she beautiful? And with perfect hair? (*she's totally hating me right now...) :)

Anyways, Christin is creating a shabby chic nursery for little miss Wren so we carried the theme into the shower.




Soup, salad, and quiche were on the menu followed by an unbelievable trifle and cupcakes by Martha Stewart Glorianne. Yea, they had pear icing.




Then, we played baby shower games. 'Guess how big Wren is' involved ribbon, scissors and Christin's waistline. Praise the Lord you don't play this game at adoption showers. I'm not really sure I want to guess how big my waistline is, much less 20 of my favorite girlfriends. Present bingo was super fun to watch. I didn't get to play-- the game pieces were pastel M&M's and well, we all know what happened to mine.


How cute is this little 'wren' mobile? Martha Glorianne made it!

All of our guests took home these little Freesia bulb favors to plant in their garden to celebrate Wren's coming. We also had everyone sign a little message to the princess-to-be in this copy of Amelia Bedelia (*did you read this when you were little?) as a guest book of sorts. We jotted down a list of goodies and who gave them on the back cover for Christin to keep too.

Finding God in the Waiting

An old friend wrote a beautiful post here that I would TOTALLY recommend reading. Nope. Scratch that, subscribe to her whole blog-- it's fantastic. God-glorify-ing-ly fantastic. She has a way of putting into words the things that get stuck swimming in my head. Things like finding God in the waiting rooms of life.

Most of the last year has been a waiting room for me. Waiting, rather impatiently most of the time, for a baby, or a child-- but a new member of our family. I've grown more and more anxious as day after day passes with a still empty crib in my home... an empty womb... two collapsed adoption plans... a phone silent with news that my family will grow anytime soon... as my plans, my dreams distance themselves further and further away from my reality.

2011 has been a battle ground for my content-ness. I have fought hard for what I thought I wanted--cried out, frequently and loudly, for the family I so much desire. Praise God he has met me in this midst, in this messy yuck season of my life-- not 'messy yuck' because of my circumstances, but 'messy yuck' because of the condition of my heart. Met me and is healing me. Holding me. Allowing me to remember where my true joy lies. What my real desires are. That my plans are childish and incomplete in comparison to the wondrous, perfect plans he has for me (jer 29). A perspective I can trust when I cannot see (is. 55).   A character I can lean hard in to (ps 16; lk 11).

I posted this song in response to the work He is mending in me. Redeeming. Restoring. Making more like Himself. In spite of myself.

"And He is the point of all this waiting. For while we may be yearning for macaroni and cheese, a friend to visit, a man to marry, a baby to hold, a child that turns to the Lord, or a relationship to form or heal…while all these yearnings may be good and God-given.  God may not give them…or He may just not give them immediately. He tarries, not to drive us crazy, but to drive us to Him.  He waits, not to cause us to sin, but to turn us from the sin of loving these things more than we love Him."-Burning Bushes, April 2011

I took down the crib last week (*Jon did actually, because brave and obedient doesn't always translate into unemotional and handy). Not because i'm done waiting or angry or redecorating or for that weird thinking that it'll happen now that i'm not anticipating it. But because if there's never another baby to sleep there, Jesus is more than enough. Because instead of counting down days or stalking adoption websites, I will worship Him and glorify Him with a content heart. I will wait on Him. He is the point of the waiting. I believe it. I stumble through it, but I'm learning to mean it more and more each day. Learning to be content like Paul (phil 4). Learning that Jesus is Lord and not the idols I fail to recognize as such. God is so good to grant joy and hope for the journey. So blessed. So, so blessed and in love with our Gentle Shepherd.

How are you using your waiting room? Have you discovered He that doesn't leave or forsake yet?

I am Lost for Words

::Jeremy Riddle
::"More than a Friend"

Look What I Found in the Garage!

There's nothing cuter than a ballerina with two twigs drumming out "Holy, Holy, Holy" in your garage on this first warm day of the year.

Our soul waits for the LORD; he is our help and our shield.

For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name.

Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us, 

even as we hope in you.

Psalm 33:20-22

Three!

She has a hard time holding up her fingers the right way, so she'll show you the okay symbol and exclaim she's 'free'.

Her party was a fairy-jump-dance-blast. When the music stopped they had to find a polka dot to stand on-- she'd pick hers up and move it to stand right next to her friends. They danced (read: jumped) for almost an hour BEFORE the sugar. We did cake and ice cream last so that everyone's blood sugar crash happened on their own turf.



Flower PB&J's are way tastier than triangle ones I'm learning in party-aftermath.

Haven found this little family a couple weeks ago and had the worst day when I told her we had to leave them at the store. This was a first for us, and I left feeling like the worst mama. Our good friends who listen and love just about as best as they come rescued the little family and delivered them to their rightful three-year-old mama. So great.

Our camera failed to accompany us, but we had the BEST time at the Please Touch! museum in PA. Tiny grocery stores, puppet shows, carousels, child-driven buses and rubber duck rivers were the order of the day. Jon took the day off to spend with his best girls and we ate it up.

Birthday morning she awoke to candles, favorite donuts, and another round of the song she loves to hear with her name smack in the middle.

Tents and princess crowns, magnadoodles and tiny figurines are doted upon all day. Lunch is had at the slightly scary Rainforest Cafe (really, a snake right at the entrance?)

Three just may be my favorite. I say that with every stage, but I mean it this time. Potty trained, filled with 'why?', wants to fly, lives in a princess dress, thinks I'm 'boo-ti-ful' and applies chapstick at every turn is wonderful. And I don't take it for granted. Thank you, Lord.

About to crash at the end of a great day of celebrating God's good gift.