End of Another Year, Another Decade

Can you believe that we are ending the first decade in the new millennium? Do you remember the hype of Y2K and our wondering if the world was going to shut down? :-) It's amazing to look back at the last 10 years of our lives and be overwhelmed at the goodness of our God. We have experienced huge change, several times. We rejoiced in becoming parents, grieved over losing parents, moved to 2 different states/ministries since SC, said "goodbye" to friends and family, made new friends, etc. Lots of change, but our God has never changed! He has taught us more of Himself, and with and by His grace, we have been stretched and grown over the years. Life is about Him and His glory, and we pray that we have and will continue to live that out. God is always good, in all circumstances! We have prayed Philippians 3:10 many times and watched how God has answered our desire to know Him better in ways we could have never imagined. Those ways have not always been easy, but we know they are good (Romans 8:28). It is always good for us to be conformed to the image of Christ. We look forward to seeing God continue to work in the next decade. Let's follow the two greatest commands, as spoken by Jesus in Matthew 22:37-40--Love God! Love People!

As the last couple of hours of 2009 come to a close, we sit with our girls having fun playing games and watching fun things on TV, but most importantly, we stop to thank God for what He has done and look ahead to a new year, new decade of trusting Him! May you come to know Him and/or continue to grow in your knowledge of Him and have a very Happy New Year!!!

Works of God Monday

God has blessed us with a wonderful daughter who turned 10 yrs. old today! Yes, she has hit the double digits. It's hard to believe that we have been parents for a decade. We celebrated the day by giving her a new bike in the morning and then heading to Disneyland. Of all days to rain and be "cold" in SoCal, it was today. We had a memorable experience, to say the least. We made sure that we had fun though. Here are a couple of pics from the day. I'll have to write more later because I am exhausted and ready to go to bed.

Whirlwind of a Fall

Well, I'm back! I know, I do this so often. I get on a blogging kick and then disappear for a while. I have to say though that this Fall has been full of activity for us, and I have spent little time at the computer (well, except for Facebook). Last month was a fun, but crazy month of going non-stop. We went to SC to see my parents, sister and her family, Kris's brother and his family, as well as several dear friends. We were gone for a week and a half and so much enjoyed our time of celebrating birthdays, enjoying fellowship, and just getting away for awhile on vacation. We got amazing prices on flights from LA to Charlotte, NC--under $800 for all four of us! My family lives just under an hr. and a 1/2 from Charlotte, so it worked out fine. It was better to fly the beginning of Nov. than at Christmas. We knew our friends from MI would be coming to visit us here in CA right after our getting home from SC, but we figured we could do it all. :-) It was great, but I don't think we could have packed more into a month! My body reminded me that I was nuts, but I'm glad it all worked out. We did so many fun things with the Browns and continued to learn more about SoCal ourselves. We were able to count a few field trips in for the girls--everything from the San Diego Zoo, botanical gardens at a local university and tide pools at the ocean, to a cultural day in LA, visiting Chinatown and Olvera Street ("Little Mexico"). We were able to get some Disney days in there as well and have Thanksgiving in the midst of all the traveling around. We are so thankful that the Browns came out for those 12 days, and we have really missed them since they left! I have TONS of pictures up on Facebook of our trip to SC and the Browns' visit here with us. Send me a friend request, if we aren't connected there. I don't think I am going to try to put the pics up on my blog too.

Well, now I am trying to get into the Christmas season. It seems that it is already passing me by. I am still in the process of decorating. Normally I start Thanksgiving weekend, but we still had company, so I figured I would start the day after they headed home. I was too exhausted and had started getting sick, so I took time to rest most of this past week instead. I'm still fighting it but am getting somewhat better. Anyway, we'll get the decorating done in the next couple of days. People are more important, as well as getting healthy, so I'm not bothered by it being later this year. I AM stressing a bit about Christmas cards. I don't have a plan! I need to get on that this week for sure.

The first order of business for this week is celebrating our special "little" girl's 10th birthday! I can hardly believe that Emma is going to be 10 yrs. old tomorrow. God has blessed us with an amazing daughter, and I thank Him for the very special gift of her and the relationship that He has allowed us to have. I have a very big lump in my throat, realizing the awesome responsibility of raising a child and knowing that the first decade of her life is done. We look forward to the next decade with all the changes we know are ahead, trusting God for His continued grace and wisdom in raising a godly young lady for His glory. My sweet Emma is such a blessing, and I wish her the happiest of birthdays as she enters the double digits! :-)