My birthday week vacation 2013-part 3

My friend had told me that July 4th parades were GREAT in New England.  She was right!  We went to one in nearby Columbia.

Loved the Colonial clothing...

And the bagpipes...

The Shriners' little cars were great.  Titus especially loved them...

Apparently last year Becky and family watched the parade next to the same family we were by this year.  They came armed with MAJOR water guns and huge coolers of ammunition.  Some of the firetrucks spray water on the crowd, so this particular family sprays back.  It was hot and Bethany really wanted to get sprayed, so she asked the girl to spray her.

Titus quickly figured out that these vehicles were throwing candy.  He was running out with the big kids to get it by the fistful!  The boy is serious about his food! :)

After the parade, we headed to a great Mom & Pop pizza place and then home for some down time.  After rest time and dinner, we went over to a church member's house to go swimming.  We put the watermelon in the pool to keep it cool.  I had never seen this done before but apparently this is something Becky grew up doing.  The kids thought it was funny because it floated, of course.

It was a great 4th of July.  The next day, Friday the 5th, was my last full day with my friends.  It was a wonderful day as they celebrated as my birthday all day long...stay tuned! :)

My birthday week vacation 2013-part 2

The second day I was in CT was Sunday.  The Bridge Church, the church plant that Becky and her husband Aaron are ministering at, holds their service in the evening.  It was great to have a relaxing morning and afternoon after such a busy day the day before.

The next day, Monday, it was time for the missions team from MS to go on to their next church. Aaron took them to the drop off location in Boston and Becky, the kids and I meet him there.  Because they are such fans of Chick-fil-a and we were within an hour or so, we went to the nearest location, which happened to be a nice mall with a great indoor play ground.  Titus has a great time in the little car.

Emily decided to make a side dish out of the Polynesian dipping sauce!  Becky and I were parceling out the food and looked over to find her doing this!

Bethany was very distracted and just wanted to go back to playing with "her friend".  She is very sociable and doesn't know a stranger.  Apparently she had met and made a friend while playing before dinner and was impatiently waiting to get back to playing!

The next day was story hour at the library.  The lady was great.

Apparently, Emily's favorite thing to do when someone is reading to her is to look at another book, because Becky said she does this all the time at home, too!

After the story, the kids made July 4th crafts.  Then we headed to the play date scheduled with Becky's two Pastor's wife friends and their kids.  First on the docket was lunch: PB & J.  Titus really gets into his food - and he especially loves grape jelly!

The kids had a great time playing.  There were girls Bethnay's age and a boy Emmy's age.  Titus wanted to be with the big kids, of course.  I tried to keep him out of trouble to let Becky have a chance to talk to her friends, because her time with them is very limited.  In addition to being Pastor's wives, these 2 ladies are also homeschooling like Becky, so they have that in common as well.

There are places in Africa that are actually more evangelized than areas of New England.  Becky and Aaron really appreciate when they get to fellowship with other believers outside of the church.  It's something I know I take for granted.

My vacation was so much fun. The weather was good - with the exceptions of the mosquitoes.  They had had so much rain there that the mosquitoes were awful.  Even though we sprayed the kids down, they still got eaten up every time we went outside.  By the end of the week, they had cabin fever.

We did get to go outside on July 4th, though, in town, away from the bugs.  I'll talk about that in my next post!

My birthday week vacation 2013-part 1

My birthday week started out VERY early Saturday morning when the shuttle came at 5:20 a.m.  I arrived in CT about noon their time.  My friend Becky and the three kids, Bethany Grace (6), Emily Faith (3.5) and Titus Aaron (18 months) picked me up at the airport.  After a very unwelcoming reception by the curbside passenger pick-up rent-a-cop,  I was greeted warmly by my loved ones with hugs and beautiful handmade pictures.  We went to Cracker Barrel on the way home.  The kids had fun sitting in the rocking chairs and playing with the oversized checker board game.  Here they are individually.  Notice the double dimples, blonde hair and blue eyes.  Cuteness x 3!!

Bethany Grace, biggest sister!  She has lost her 2 bottom teeth and the adult teeth have come in, and she is proud of them!  She is very thoughtful and sweet.  She donated her bed to me for the week and slept on an air mattress.  Because she wanted me to have something purple in my room, she gave me her stuffed purple My Little Pony.  She was adamant about putting more than 6 candles on my cake, because I am MORE THAN SIX!  Mommy and Daddy assured her that 4 was enough!

Emily Faith, big sister.  I can't tell you how much I love her curls.  Her brother loves them too.  He will touch them and pull them, which, as you can imagine, does not delight Emmy!  She is a mini Mommy and very girly.  She doesn't leave the house without a baby doll or a purse or both.  She will pretend a waffle or any animate or inanimate object is a baby!  She loves to play Mommy to her little brother and tries to pick him up.  This never ends well because #1, he's too heavy for her and #2, he doesn't want his sister to hold him (he's too busy for anyone to hold him unless he's tired!)

Titus Aaron, little brother.  He was 3 months old the last time I saw him and had dark hair.  Now look at him!  He is 18 months and talking up a storm and running everywhere!  He is super polite, too.  No matter where you are in the house, or who you are talking to, if he hears you say "what do you say?" he responds in his cute little voice "da-doo" (thank you).  So precious!

Here's a little example of sweet Emily's personality.  After eating, Becky let the kids look around at the toys at the Barrel.  I went to the bathroom and after I came out, I saw this:

She had set up an entire tea party with their toys and dolls.  She has done this before, apparently, and the previous store loved the set up so much they left it for the other kids to play with.

While little sister was having a dolly tea party, big sister was shopping for Mommy (Mommy went to the bathroom to change the baby).  Bethany picked out everything Mommy's favorite color.  She also showed me all the purple things because she knows that is my favorite color.  This was the look on Bethany's face after coming out of hiding (it was a surprise) to show Mommy what she picked out:

This was my room for the week.  It belongs to Titus.  His crib was rolled into Mama and Daddy's room for the week, and Bethany's bed was moved into brother's room.  Because she thought the room looked too "boyish", Bethany picked out the 4 throw pillows.  And, the aforementioned My Little Pony is because she wanted me to have my favorite color on the bed.  She is a very thoughtful little girl.

After some rest time for everyone and a light dinner, we went to Coventry Fest, the local town festival.  Daddy had been at the church's booth all day with a mission team that had come to town from MS. Bethany used the money she was allotted to get her face painted instead of riding rides or jumping on bounce houses. She looked so cute when the guy was done.

This was the view before the fireworks started.  It was a beautiful night weather-wise. The fireworks display was the most impressive and longest I had ever seen - and it was free!  True to his 3rd child nature, 18 month old Titus responded to his first experience of fireworks in a very relaxed way.  He just laid on Mommy's chest with his blanket and watched and occasionally said "wowwww".  He wasn't scared at all!

Around 11:00 that night, I finally got to bed.  It was a very long but very good day.  Being with people you love and that accept you just the way you are is absolutely priceless and very relaxing and encouraging.  It had been 15 months since I had seen Becky and her family.  It had also been that long since I had taken an entire week off work, and I was more than ready for this vacation!

More about my birthday week in the next post...

Birthday week escape to CT

This will be quick...to let you know I am still alive and that I thoroughly enjoyed my pre-birthday celebration week with my dear friends in CT.  Here are two pics. I will recap my trip this weekend, but suffice it to say, it was wonderfully fun, and great to relax and be off work for a whole week!

My Trip to CT: Jesus is Enough

**I still can't get Blogger to insert my pictures at my cursor where I'd like them to come in the narrative. So, here are the pictures part of my post! Picture #1. Child #1, B, age 4 and 11 months. Picture #2. Child #2 E, age 2 and 3 months. Picture #3. Child #3. T, age 3 months.**

My dear friends the C's left this area of north Texas to follow God's call to pastor a tiny church plant in Stoors, CT last August and I hadn't seen them since. My heart was aching to see them and the latest addition to the family, T, born in December, before E's 2nd birthday.

I was able to redeem some frequent flyer miles and go up last week for a visit. I can't tell you how good it was to see this precious family - it was way past time to fill up my love tank. The girls had grown bigger; 2 yr old E was talking so much more now (most to me still unintelligible). The baby is now 3 months and a smiley happy laid-back fellow (good traits to have as a third born). Nearly 5 yr old B is more independent and just older. Seems like she was the 3 month old not so long ago - where does the time go!?!

When my friends A&B were preparing to go up to CT and were raising their support last summer, I found it astonishing that less than 1% of CT are believers. That state, like many in the northern US, is less evangelized than parts of Africa! The church plant is 3 years old and meets on the campus of UCONN. The majority of the congregation is college students but my friends A&B are trying to reach out to families as well to have a more diverse body of believers there.

I was surprised by how rural the area is. It seems nothing is "on the way to" anything else and it's not easy to "run and get errands done" like it was/is here in north Texas. It has been a large adjustment for them on a variety of levels and they have learned and continue to learn many lessons. One that my friend B said she is learning over and over again - in various ways - is that Jesus is enough. Moving thousands of miles away from all your friends and family with a 4 year old, 1.5 year old and you're 7 months pregnant? Jesus is enough. Only 1other couple in the church with kids? Jesus is enough. Not knowing whether you'll get paid on Friday so you can buy groceries to feed your children? Jesus is enough.

I sat there and soaked in what she was saying and was simultaneously humbled and encouraged. Encouraged that people I know would give up a fairly comfortable life of ministry in a church they'd been with for 10 years to go to "who knows where" just to tell people about Jesus. Humbled because if Jesus is enough for them in their stark circumstances, then He most assuredly is enough for me in mine.

And, praise the Lord, Jesus is Enough in another way as well - this week especially as my mind is more focused on it (though every day I should remember to be thankful) - He paid in full the sin debt I owed to God the Father. The payment of Jesus' shed innocent blood on the cross where He died for all my sin (and yours) is enough (hallelujah!) to rescue me from eternal death! I have salvation through His death and resurrection - His triumph over death and sin and the grave! JESUS IS ENOUGH!

Filling up my tank

Friday I had the unexpected pleasure of having lunch with one of my closest friends B and her 2 little girls that call me Aunt Sarah. While they only live on the other side of the metroplex, during the week it's too far for me to go and she's working on the weekends. So I actually hadn't seen her since E's 1st birthday in December.

I know how fast children grow up so each time with them is precious. Seems like just last month the nearly-4-year-old in the pink boots was the size of her baby sister. Each time I see what I call my "nieces of the heart", I try to soak the love in like a sponge, much as I do with my biological niece A. I heard someone once describe that as filling up your love tank. I get so much joy out of B (nearly 4 yrs old) and E (just 1 yr old), and the fact that they know and love me sends me over the moon...and slightly makes up for the fact that my niece A does not know me well yet, since she doesn't see me often. I adore B&E and saw them both in the hospital when they were born and have loved watching them grow and develop.

And, how fun is it to buy matching sister dresses?!!?!? I can't resist. You can only dress them in matching things for so long and then they get an opinion about what they want to wear and the matching sister dreses thing is all over! I'll enjoy every bit of it while it lasts! :)