Yabba Dabba Doo...I'm 2!

It's hard to believe that this past Saturday, Asher turned 2! Remember way back when, I found out I was pregnant and this happened? And then remember how Asher decided to make things difficult as he entered into the world? Where has the time gone?

At 2 yrs old, you weigh about 26 lbs and I have know idea how tall you are because you won't stand still long enough for me to measure you.

You define the saying, "all boy." No one has ever had to force you to throw a ball. You love any kind of ball! Earlier this year, we were visiting Grandma & Paps and you, Paps & Max played basketball together. From that moment, you have associated basketball with Max & you renamed him, "Max-ball." It's so cute, that pretty much everyone in our family calls him that now!
You also gave your cousin Mia a new name too! When "baby Duuz" (Cruz) was born, you started calling her MiMi. I wish I could type the inflection in your voice when you say it. I guess it comes out like "ME!ME!"
Your vocabulary is coming along slowly but surely. Some of the funny things you say are~
Yabba-bla-bla-bla- you're trying to imitate Caleb & say Yabba Dabba Do
lelow- yellow. To you, any color is yellow & you also call any writing utensil a "lelow."
lelow truck- any car or truck that we see on the road is a lelow truck
wack wack- is your name for a duck. In fact, for all animals (that you know), you only say their sound not the name of the animal.
apple- any fruit. But the funny thing is that you and Daddy have an ongoing game between what's an apple & an orange. You are so into this little game, that when we showed you an orange crayon, you said, "it's not orange, it's apple!"

Just a couple of mornings ago, we could see the moon out one window and out the other window, we could see the sun coming up. You love to see the moon & you pointed it out to me. Then you looked out the other window and said, "look Momma, it's lelow moon!" And there was no convincing you that it's the sun, to you it's the lelow moon!


While we were at the farm, you slept on an air mattress with Chaz & Caleb. You still sleep in your baby bed at home, so you didn't do too good the 1st night. Aunt Laura found you like this:


Your two best friends- dog and baby
You love to read, especially the choo-choo train book!




Like I said earlier, you love to play with any kind of ball but you have such a love for baseball. It's amazing how this seems to be so ingrained in you. Here's a video of you hitting the baseball off the tee. When you swing, you hold your hands as if you're going to bat left handed but then you bring the bat around and hit right handed. I've tried to get you to switch your hands on the bat but in true Asher fashion, you want to do it your way! You also step into your swing and hike your leg when you throw the ball. It's pretty amazing because we've never shown you how to do that!

Untitled from Cheryl A on Vimeo.

Asher, we love you so much. Life with you is fun and challenging. You make us laugh and sometimes you make us feel like crying! But I wouldn't change anything. You are a blessing! We love you so much!

Do it Lord....

This time last year my mom & I attended this event. My mom & I sat together with some friends, one of my mom's sister & her daughter were sitting several rows behind us and my sister and her friend were up in the balcony.
Before the event began, I kept looking around the sanctuary trying to locate our other family members and basically people-watching. It seemed like every time I turned around, I made eye contact with a lady who was a couple of rows behind us. To me, it got to the point where it was awkward because I didn't know this woman. She didn't look familiar to me but every time I turned around, she would look at me.

When intermission came, my mom and I went to look for my sister. As you can imagine, with 6,000 other women, it was a little crowded. As we're walking through the crowd, I realized that my mom was not right behind me. When I turned to look for her, imagine my shock when I see that she is talking to the woman that I kept making eye contact with earlier. As I'm trying to make my way back to her, I'm even more surprised to see my mom embracing this woman and I'm thinking, "who in the world is this?!" When I walk up, my mom says, "Cheryl, this is {insert name*}."

I'm choosing not to share her name because sometimes things happen in a family that happen to one or two family members but it inflicts pain on the extended family. The hurt may not be as deep as it is for those who are directly involved but it still hurts. I can't and won't share the details because it's not my story to tell but I'm part of the extended family and I believe God allowed us to cross paths with *her so that we can watch a story of forgiveness and redemption unfold before our eyes.

You can just imagine how utterly shocked I was. I hadn't seen her in a really long time. Within a few moments of this re-introduction, my sister walks up and my mom tells her who this woman is and in true Laura fashion, she hugs her and begins crying. After a few moments, we walk away, still in shock. When we walk back into the sanctuary, we see my aunt and cousin and we share with them who we just ran into. I would give anything to have a picture of their faces. Mouths literally dropped open! We see *her walking towards her seat so my aunt & cousin go to see her.

When Travis & the worship team come back, the first song they sing is "Do It, Lord." I knew the song and had heard it many times but was blown away by the words, they were so timely for what we had just experienced. I began crying and praying when we sang these words~

I see the brokenness of families brought to wholeness
I see the prodigals running home to You
Father's hearts now turning toward their children
And the children's hearts turning toward their father's

And even though we were scattered around the sanctuary, my mom, my aunt, my sister, my cousin and myself were singing these words as a prayer to our God, begging Him to do this for our family members.

It is a moment that I won't soon forget.
And to top it off, when Beth began her teaching, she focused on forgiveness.

Over the past year, we've seen God working in this situation. It's not what we want it to be but it's so much better than it was.

Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another Forgive as the Lord forgave you. Colossians 3:13