Bye-bye Summer!

Well, we ended summer vacation at the Muth's last night with a great cookout! Nicole Garalde (our new school piano teacher/accompanist) is living with us right now, so she was able to join us. We all enjoyed time with Jenny's parents and the VanDenBergs, having brats, hot dogs, and all kinds of great stuff. The kids kicked balls, climbed trees, and explored together in the backyard. Everyone took a short walk to a great playground near the Muths, and we watched the dads send the kids flying on the tire swing ("screaming fast," as Emma put it). There was a lot of other fun, but the tire swing was the biggest hit and most fun to watch. I must admit, watching Jeff VanDenBerg, who is 6' 5", take his 2 yr. old down a small curly slide was quite entertaining as well. Ha ha Tall people should only go on tall slides. :-)

What a summer it has been. We had a couple of really awesome trips. We were able to see both sides of the family. Emma finally got off of training wheels and loves to ride her bike! We've gone swimming, played at a splash park, saw a great fireworks display with friends, enjoyed blueberry picking, gone to the library and participated in the summer reading program, had an awesome day at Michigan's adventure, enjoyed having friends stay with us at our house, and just so many other wonderful things this summer. I am going to miss having the girls around. They played together so well, and we all just enjoyed being together so much.

More exciting than all of the above are the spiritual things that have happened. God gave me several opportunities during our week of VBS to lead children to Christ or help them understand something from the Bible. God has worked in my heart again by going through John Piper's book The Dangerous Duty of Delight and studying Scripture that supports the idea of Christian hedonism. Kris took our teens through it in SC, and I just was able to lead a group of ladies in the study the last several weeks. God is stretching and growing me in the area of teaching through The Excellent Wife in our Sunday School. Kris is taking the guys through the companion book for husbands. We started those studies 5 weeks ago. Really though the most exciting thing to me this summer was that a month ago, Olivia made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ as her Savior. She was up late because she knew I still had ladies here after Bible study had wrapped up for the night. When the last couple of ladies left, she came out of her room and asked if I could come be with her. I rubbed her back and sang a lullaby, and then she just looked at me and said that her heart was black with sin, and she wanted it to be white as snow. Talk about being thrown for a loop! I asked her what that meant, and looooooong story short, after I got Kris from the basement (his hide-out while the ladies are over--ha ha), and we talked to Olivia for a very long time, she prayed from her own heart, not just words to repeat after one of us, and she seemed to be genuine. There has been some question in our minds, but we know that God can draw a child to Himself, and we are continuing to teach her that life is about Him, and we'll just watch for fruit. We would never want to manipulate her or try to convince her of something that isn't there/didn't really happen either. Pray with us for discernment! How exciting though that she wants to know more and is thinking about God.

Tomorrow is Olivia's first day of K-4. Emma's first day of 2nd grade was today. She had a great day. Jenny Muth's mom, Cheryl Forbes, is Emma's teacher, so we are very excited about this school year. First grade was awesome for Emma, and I am sure this year will be no less great than last. Here are some pics of this morning. I think Emma still looks sleepy. :-) Olivia's pics will come after tomorrow.