Only One Day Like Today

Saturday, October 19, 2013

Pumpkin Patch Time!

Our family loves getting out to enjoy the beautiful fall scenery,

and a fun time at a big pumpkin patch!

There's always something for everyone!

The adventuresome corn maze participants!

Victoria and Caroline seemed to enjoy "tossing"
the bean bags back to Kyle! ;-)

Hmmm, what do we have here?

A little friendly competition between father and son?

Uh oh, looks like youth has it!

What A Fun Day!

Well, I guess it's inevitable . . .

even Mommy's must keep on turning a year older! ;-)

But, oh, how delightful everyone made the day!!!

First, I came downstairs to lovely party decorations,

and I was greeted with Caroline making my favorite breakfast . . .

egg and cheese sandwiches!

And then, look at this sweet face, presenting me with his handmade card!

Just melts my heart! : -)

Then, this sweet face . . .

giving me another precious handmade and personally written on card.
My heart rejoices!
Then, I had to grab the kleenex as my eyes overflowed with joy in reading cards and notes from
Ted, Kyle, Caroline, Valerie and Victoria! : -)

Then, I was given a card addressed to "Mama."

It was a very sweet card from Benjamin and Brielle! : -)

In the card was this sticker,

with instructions to put it over my heart.

Then, Lydia came over to spend the day with us,

and though her sweet presence was the best present, :-)

she had the most delightful sight in her arms!

Just made me want to sing . . .

"These are a few of my favorite things!"

In a basket was her handmade lilac soap, delicious homemade trail mix,

and a coupon for some of her beautiful photo note cards!

Oh, and a hot latte in the other hand! : -)

What a treat!!!!!

And oh, how much we loved having her "hang out" with us all day!

She brought her nifty spinning wheel and we enjoyed watching her card, spin,

and crochet hats . . . all from her very own sheep's wool! Awesome!

Then, all the girls gathered in the kitchen for some apple and pumpkin pie making,

and white chili and cornbread preparing!

Soon thereafter, Aunt Kelley and Richie joined us for the delicious feast,

and lots of laughing! Loved every minute of it!

And I was so blessed with more very thoughtful and wonderful gifts.

What a very special day it was!
Thank you sooooooooooooooooooo much everybody!!

I feel very, very, very loved! : -)

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Defending and Celebrating Life!

We are now about mid-way through both our season of celebrating 7 of the fearfully and wonderfully created lives in our home, and our newly-found commitment to take part in the nationwide 40 Days for Life Campaign. They have sure seemed to go hand-in-hand with one another as we have stood, praying for the “least of these” in front of our local PP clinic, side-by-side with many of our children that had once been “prime candidates” for abortion. Oh, how we praise the Lord for His Truth, that He firmly planted in our hearts and minds before we were given these ever-so flippant death referrals in the doctor’s offices. May He use our testimonies of His faithfulness for other's good and His glory!

Today, our hearts were gravely troubled. From the moment we stepped foot out of our van, a very deceived soul began spewing his anger at us with loud insults and false accusations. He, a self-professed “atheist, liberal, hippie,” claimed to know who we were . . . in his words, “gun-loving, health-care hating, Bible-reading folks that believe it cover-to-cover and pray to our imaginary friend.” He never mentioned "defenders-of-life!" And actually, he said he thought we were instructed in the Bible to kill people like himself. :-(

At first, we thought he had been waiting for us to arrive, or maybe had even been hired to harass us. However, as time went on, he mentioned that his own daughter was inside the clinic.

As Kyle attempted to talk with him, the rest of us tried to distance ourselves from the ruckus the man was creating, with wanting to keep our prayer vigil peaceful. The first time we made our escape down the sidewalk, we began praying earnestly that God would intervene, and send this man on his way. Meanwhile, Kyle did a tremendous job trying to diffuse the situation, by making his best attempts to talk with him, and keep him from harassing the rest of us. But within minutes, the man would take off toward the rest of us, and begin anew with his rant.

After about 15 minutes, another man walked by, seemingly out-of-the-blue, and as he walked by, he told us that he did not like that man and what he was doing at all. We thought at first maybe he knew him. Then, he continued with telling us that he didn’t like us “protesters” either as he proceeded to walk to his vehicle parked in the PP parking lot. At this moment, God answered our prayer in a surprising way! As the angry, yelling man approached us women and children once again, the second man, who as it turns out, also had a loved one inside the clinic at the time, came to our defense! He approached the yelling man, and while they got into a heated discussion, we headed back down to the other end of the sidewalk. Soon thereafter, the yelling-man’s daughter came out of the clinic, and together they quickly left the scene.

It was interesting to us that the yelling man never mentioned the very thing that brought us all to this PP clinic that day. Please pray with us for this man. He and his daughter desperately need to know of God’s love, grace and mercy.

As we regrouped, and continued the best we could with our prayer time, I started having doubts again about what we were doing. Does it really make a difference? Are we doing the right thing? And the Lord encouraged my heart with Matthew 25:40, "The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.' "

When we returned home, our hearts broken, and still feeling quite downcast, we read a couple more chapters in our “40 Days for Life” book. The second chapter we read “just happened” to end with Matthew 5:11-12, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven.”

So, we praise the Lord, for lifting up our heads, and showing us once again, that even in the midst of such hard things, we can continue rejoicing!!

God is surely moving in powerful and miraculous ways, and showing His awesome faithfulness during this (and past) 40 Days for Life Campaigns. To read all about it, check-out the 40 Days for Life blog and book! : -) You'll be glad you did! (And excited and inspired! )