Tuesday, May 19, 2009

8 year anniversary


8 years ago today Eric and I were married! It makes me feel a little old, 8 years sounds so long, but also so short. In honor of our 8 year anniversary, I wanted to post 8 great things about these 8 years.

1. Our beautiful girls and how becoming parents has enriched and stretched our marriage.
2. Our fun adventures to places like Yellowstone and Yosemite National Park, Nepal, Red River, NM, trips to the cabin, Ouray, Colorado Springs...the list could go on, but I love taking trips together and look forward to celebrating our anniversary with a trip to San Diego in a few weeks.
3. That God has used our marriage to chisel away at me and sharpen me in an attempt to make me more like God (note: I am NOT there and will probably never be there)
4. Our projects that we've worked on together in making Amarillo our home. We really seem to do great when we do projects together, like our back patio and our flower beds.
5. That we have grown in these past 8 years through so many seasons; poor newlyweds in a tiny apartment, graduate school and college, our first home, pregnancies and babies, moving together for the first time and making a new home together, our first professional jobs, etc.
6. That we have learned to love what each other loves but at the same time accepted the things that Eric loves that I just never will, but that is totally fine with me (example: He loves golf, I will never play golf, but I love going to the course with him and riding along and enjoying the beauty of the outdoors. I also am totally fine with him going to play golf whenever he needs or wants to. I love camping, Eric probably never will, but he enjoys going to the cabin and being outside that way.)
7. This one may be too much information for some, so stop reading if you want to, I just have to include it though because it is something that I feel is really great. That we waited until our wedding day to have sex and we have gotten to spend the last 8 years enjoying the intimacy of marriage together!
8. That we are continuing on to more and more years together and have determined TOGETHER that we will stay married to each other no matter what.

This is not exhaustive and I typed it rather hastily, so there is much more to all of these things. Tonight we probably won't celebrate in a traditional way, I've never been much of a romantic and don't get hung up on celebrating today. Plus Eric has spring football until 8pm tonight. But we are going to San Diego (yes as a family) and will have an enjoyable dinner out there to celebrate. I'm going to convince Eric to watch our wedding video tonight (our tradition, but we didn't do it last year), I think we need to refresh our memory on our vows, and I think Mali will get a kick out of it.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Baby Dedication




Sunday morning was baby dedication at our church. It was so wonderful and sweet and special. Grammie, Uncle Brandon, MeeMee, Papa, Josh and Kisha, Megan and Chris, and even Mali were in the sanctuary to watch. Grammie made the girls beautiful matching dresses for the occasion. We do not believe in infant baptism, because we believe that Jesus said that baptism should follow each person's decision to follow Him as an outward profession of faith, so this is some what of the equivalent. I really believe it should be called "parent dedication" because if fact, Sunday, that was what we stood before the church and did...dedicate OURSELVES to raise Eleri to know Jesus as her personal Lord and Savior. Wow, what a huge calling. I know that I am unfit in every way to teach her to love Jesus the way that I would like to, but I know that God is fit to do so and hopefully that means she will learn about loving Jesus from us, but it also may mean learning it from other amazing people throughout her life. I wanted to add to this post part of the letter that Hillside gave each child to read when they make their decision to follow Jesus:

"May 10, 2009 was a very special day. Your parents stood before God, their family and friends at Hillside Christian Church to thank God for the precious gift of life and to commit to raising you in a Christian home. They pledged to 'bring you up in the nurture and instruction of the Lord, to teach you Scripture that will lead you to know Jesus Christ as Savior and lord, to recognize and encourage your talents and uniqueness and to love you as Jesus Christ loves you'. The gathering of family and friends of Hillside vowed to 'commit themselves to instructing you in God's word, praying for you, modeling Christ-like characteristics for you, and assisting your parents in training you in the way you ought to go'."

I spent moments throughout this past week asking God to help my heart be pure before Him during this time. I didn't want to "dedicate" Eleri as show or because it was what is done for babies. I wanted my heart to truly desire to be this way and to take very serious this commitment. I'm not sure I succeeded, I only know my heart desires this. Some days I'm sure I'll mess up, just as I've messed up with Mali, but God's grace covers all of this. I just thought of what Strap used to say "when you mess up, you confess up, you get up, and keep going." As a parent, and as a Christ follower, this is just what we have to do, because we will mess up. But some wonderful moments, I will honor God and will teach Eleri the little seeds she needs to know about the most fulfilling love she will ever know...the love of Jesus.

Sunday was also Mother's Day and my first Mother's Day with 2 precious girls. I am SO honored to be their mom. God has given me the biggest blessing in these two girls; from their sweetest to most difficult moments, I am blessed. I don't want gifts on Mother's Day, because I feel as if my girls are gifts, and being able to celebrate Mother's Day is a gift. However, Eleri did give me a full night of sleep last night!:) I'm so thankful for the hugs, the smiles, the moments when Mali is learning new things that I get to teach her but on the other side I'm very thankful for the opportunity to change dirty diapers, to get to hold my sweet girl or stare at her sweet body in the middle of the night, to have the opportunity to teach Mali right from wrong even in difficult circumstances. I'm blessed and so thankful for it. Mother's Day is a wonderful opportunity for me to reflect on these gifts God has given me and to re-evaluate my role as a mom and sort of boost me to persevere!