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

Still speaking....

Tonight, we decided to drive to Steven's Mom & Dad's to have dinner with them. At some point during dinner, Steven's mom started talking about her grandmother. Her name was Annabelle Hawkins Adams. It's a little strange that she married an Adams and then years later, her granddaughter (Steven's mom) married an Adams too. But back to the point. Steven's mom was sharing that her Grandmother lived with her family and that her Grandmother shared a room with her & her sister. Steven's mom said, "I can still hear her voice. Every night as she was going to sleep, she would quote bible verses until she drifted off to sleep."
What a precious memory.
What a precious legacy.
This is part of the reason I'm participating in SSMT. I want my children to see me working to memorize scripture, not just for the sake of rote memorization but so that it will become part of who I am.
And who knows, maybe someday my grown granddaughter will be sharing precious memories about me with her daughter in law.
I also wanted to share this story, so that someday my kids will have this memory about their great-great-grandmother.

And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead. Hebrews 11:4

St. Augustine 2010

Warning there will be A LOT of pictures!
We had a great time at the beach this year, as we do every year!

Asher loved bonding with my cousin's new husband, Jacob. Not sure if he was overwhelmed by the trip but we sure had fun getting to know him better!

The kids had a little too much fun riding in the raft....oops!
Hanging out on the beach.... Learning to boogie board..... Loving the boogie board........ Catching sea critters...... Eating snacks...... Sharing secrets....... Reading and relaxing.......Smiling........Family pictures........ Getting spoiled......... Loving.......

Surprise baby showering..............

Feeding sea gulls......

Running from sea gulls.......

Eating ice cream........

Posin'.........
Eating sand................. Building sandcastles........Loving the water...on the LAST day......
Playing in the waves....... Eating....can you guess what? sleeping......... Entertaining........laughing.......

One last sunset........

And making memories that will last a lifetime!

July 4th on July 3rd

Our little city had our Fourth of July celebration on Saturday evening. We got to the Rec. dept. a little early so Caleb jumped in the moonwalk.

We had a great time hanging out with some dear friends. Emma and Dougie had fun meeting up with their friends and couldn't be bothered by being with us! Just kidding, when it got dark, Dougie came and sat with us.

As always the fireworks did not disappoint. We weren't sure how Caleb would react. He does not like loud noises at ALL. When they did a test firework before the show started, he freaked a little and jumped in Steven's lap. But Daddy did a good job of encouraging Caleb and within a few minutes he was loving it! The noise didn't really phase Asher except once when several boomed at the same time. So Dougie picked him up and they both sat in my lap!
This is Brandi. She is the daughter of one of my good friends. She is so precious and she LOVES Caleb and Asher. She even used her own money to buy Caleb some popcorn!
On Sunday, since Steven wasn't preaching, we went to his brother's church. Then we spent the afternoon with the rest of his family. It was a great weekend!

Fun at the Farm

A few weeks ago, my cousin's son graduated from high school. It gave us the chance to see some family and spend some time at the farm. The ceremony was Sat. morning and was limited so we didn't attend but we hung out at the farm. Steven cut a little grass using the tractor and of course, Caleb had to ride along with him.

I love Caleb's expression, pure joy!

Asher didn't ride but he liked sitting with daddy on the tractor.

The graduation party was late on Saturday afternoon so we got some of the cousins together to swim at my aunt and uncle's house. They had an absolute blast.
The boys spent most of the time playing catch the ball as you jump off the diving board! Boys will be boys!Haven fell in love with Asher. She stayed by him during the whole party!

These are the wild boys!

Their birthdays range from 12/99 to 2/01 so they're all

very close in age and have a great time being together!

I just realized I didn't even get a picture of the graduate. oops!

The news....

I'm going to be an aunt again!!!
My sister, Laura is expecting her 2nd child in late January.
To say we're a little excited is a huge understatement.
Asher's just glad that he'll now have a cousin to grow up with and someone to exchange gifts with at Christmas!

Congrats to Laura, Phil and Chaz-man!
We love y'all and can't wait to meet this little one!

1 Samuel 1:27

Easter 2010

On the Saturday before Easter, the church where Steven was serving as interim, had an egg hunt. Caleb really understood the concept this year except for one thing. You see, Caleb's favorite color is dark blue. Not blue, light blue or any other shade, just dark blue. He's quite obsessive about it and when he began hunting for eggs, he walked right past any egg that wasn't dark blue. I finally convinced him by telling him that they all had candy in them! As you can tell from the pictures, it was sweltering! Gotta love South Ga., we skip right over spring and go straight to summer! (Except now this week, it's back to 60's and 70's!)

Here's what Asher did pretty much the whole time at the egg hunt.

Since Steven finished his interim position at the church, we were free to attend Easter services with his family. We had a great time and it was really nice to get to be with extended family on Easter Sunday. That's a draw back to being in the ministry and living several hours away from family. It would have been even better if Emma and Dougie were with us.

Here's some pictures of Caleb and Asher before church.

Asher was distracted by Jack, our dog.
After church, at my in-laws house.
This picture cracks me up! Caleb has had enough!
This last picture has nothing to do with Easter, I found it when I was downloading the pictures from my camera. This is from one of those times when I let Caleb exercise his photography skillz!

For some reason when I look at this photo, I keep thinking, "Good grief, Charlie Brown!"

The week after Easter was Spring break so we loaded up the van and headed to my mom and dad's. We spend all week with them. We ate good food, slept in, watched some great movies, visited with family, ate some more great food, the kids camped, some had pink eye, some shopped others fished, celebrated a 1st birthday, ate again, and basically had a super time! It went by waaaaay to fast. We came back home because get what started Saturday? BASEBALL!!! More about that and the 1st birthday celebration later!