Weekend at Great Wolf

Even..

I believe in the sun even when it isn't shining.
I believe in love even when I do not feel it.
I believe in God even when he is silent.

In the Middle

Dear friends of mine are going through a grave time...Struggling with an unknown disease, fighting through all the question marks raining down on them. How I wish that I could give some much needed relief, more than just meaningful silence over phone lines.. A hand held, a meal prepared, their sweet little boys tickled and snuggled and sent off to bed feeling secure, the peace of mind that someone else knows they're hurting and afraid and cares enough to be there...

There is history between us and somehow that conveys more than words ever can. People who have shared a part in my becoming and growing and now I am hushed and privileged to share in this difficult situation they now find themselves in.

How do things like this happen? Where is God when good people are hurting? The same questions untold millions have been asking for years without number. All I know is that no matter how great the hurt is, how powerful the longing to be free of the struggle, He understands and He is here. In the the silent, aching moments when hearts feel sure to break, in the carefree smiles on little faces still unmarked by anything heavy, sad, unexplainable, in the quiet strength and dignity with which husbands and wives shoulder on together, unable to change the path they're walking down, but with the comfort that they can sit and rest awhile, to gather strength together.

In those normal, mundane moments I like to think God is right in the middle. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and cookies and milk and tears over a broken toy or pillow fights before bedtime...searching for a lost stuffed rabbit or sitting up all night with a feverish baby, road trips and sibling fights and backyard races and squabbling over how to spend a dollar, exuberant sloppy baby kisses and first teeth..He is in it all.

And so, as my dear friends push on I can only remember that He promises us that the hope He gives us will not let us down, because He has given Himself to us, to be with us...The storm may still be raging but we are not standing in it alone, warm sheltering arms are around us, walking us through it all...

Candyland

For birthdays we usually plan some sort of scavenger hunt. Tim completely outdid himself this year and planned a Candyland Land Nav course. It was a blast and Natalie and Adam were thrilled!

Funny...

"If you never did, you should, these things are fun and fun is good." If people were summed up in quotations, this one from Dr. Seuss would be Natalie's life mantra.

Today she is five and how fully she embraces every opportunity. In this brief time she has been in the world she has taught us so much about pure joy and squeezing every last drop of goodness out of each day.

She is always the one with the map. Since she could barely scribble she has been designing maps to varied locations, both real and imagined.

She must have some living thing, small or large, insect or infant to care for. She flits from caring for beetles and lame butterflies to concocting elaborate play spaces for Baby Will...

She is desperate to be first at everything, losing a footrace, no matter how close reduces her to tears. But as bloody as the competition between she and Adam sometimes gets she is quick to pull him in for a hug or urge him to join her latest adventure...

One minute she is lovingly putting her doll to bed or singing Adam a lullaby, the next she is furiously throwing a football, digging holes to "China" in the sandbox, cheering on a bug race, rolling down the hill, oblivious to how dirty and banged up she emerges....

Her sense of humor is spot on, a mixture of slapstick (she will willingly run into a wall or door if it will garner a laugh) and sarcasm...

Her room most often resembles the aftermath of a tornado but she knows where everything is...

She rarely puts on a dress without protesting but on very special occasions the only thing she wants to wear is her Cinderella dress...

Her face is either wreathed in smiles or furrowed in concentration. Everything she does she puts her all into it...

She makes us laugh, makes us proud, brings us such deep joy...

We love you Natalie Elizabeth, HAPPY 5th BIRTHDAY!!

Charleston

We are fresh back from a dizzying weekend in Charleston, SC. We stayed in a posh Marriott with a view of the Citadel and a comfy but smallish room. We were pretty much in the middle of the city and what with Will needing his twice daily naps we ended up spending most of the mornings in the hotel. While Tim was in and out teaching a single soldier conference we busied ourselves with spinning in the desk chair, playing I Spy out the huge window, creating maps for our visit to the aquarium, hopping from bed to bed, pile on Mom, tents and piggyback rides and songs and stories. Then our afternoons consisted of trips to the nearby aquarium (don't bother to visit-that's another story entirely) and the park and pierand we couldn't leave out the beloved McDonald's for sundaes.. So much fun, so little chance for solitude, I must confess I had a MAJOR headache to end it all but it was a blast...Next weekend we hit Charlotte...