I Scream, You Scream, We all Scream for Ice Cream

Today we had the opportunity to go out to Fairfax and get free ice cream cones from the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Shop. We went with our friends Debbie and Caleb and we had a great time. You could get in line as many times as you wanted. Needless to say we all had our fill of Cherry Garcia, Strawberry Cheesecake, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Triple Caramel Chunk, and Mango Mango Sorbet. The boys ended up with 3 cones a piece but Caleb won the contest with a total of 8 ice cream cones. It was a great day and we all had fun with it. It will definitely be marked on the calender for next year. Hopefully it will be a lot warmer then too.

A Testimony of God's Amazing Grace....

As we get ready for the celebration of Resurrection Day, I wanted to express my gratitude to my God for sending Jesus Christ to die for my sins on a rugged cross so that I may one day spend eternity with Him. What a glorious thought that is for me especially to see my Lord Jesus and then my son, Isaac, and my other child that the Lord brought home to be with him the year before last. I find it very humbling that sometimes when we feel that our faith is gone that the Lord is ever so faithful. When I wasn't expecting to be used by the Lord, He used me to lead a very close friend of mine and someone I had been praying for a long time, to accept Christ as Savior in her life. I was overwhelmed by God's grace and I am in awe of His great love each day. I wrote this poem shortly after Issac died and to me it is appropriate for this Easter celebration.

There is a Light so bright yet we do not see it.
It is there in the midst of the darkness;
What keeps you from it; Your sin, Your suffering, Your pain;
Though you think you cannot see it, the Light is there.
What will you do with the Light; Seek It, Touch It, Run to It;
If you do the Light will surely shine upon you.
There will be no more darkness, only the Light.
Take It, Hold It, Love It!
There is a Light so bright and now you see;
That Light came for you and for me.

The Light is Jesus Christ and to remember that He came to die for your sin and for mine. He took the punishment for us all! Please take time to reflect on this wonderful gift that Christ gave to us and accept it as your own. God loves you!
I praise God for what He has done in our lives over these last few months and how His faithfulness is always there. Our God is a Great God and I pray that each one of you will testify of that in your lives as well. We hope and pray you have a great Resurrection Day on Sunday!!! All our love to you!!

A Week in Review...

Some of you knew that Joe had been at ANCOC(Advanced Non-Commissioned Officers Course; for those of you not familiar with Army Acronyms)for the last 6 weeks and last Thursday, I was able to fly to St. Louis for his graduation on Friday. Joe's brother and sister-in-law were kind enough to come and watch Christian and Aaron for us so that I was able to go. After Joe's graduation on Friday, we started our long drive back to home. We had a great two days of driving and the weather was beautiful except for the gusty winds that plagued the east coast for most of last week and into the beginning of this week. On Monday, the boys and I went to Williamsburg, Virginia for Home Educators Week and we had a great time with the other families from our church. The boys,of course, enjoyed the Gunsmith Shop the best. They also help to learn how the tables were set for dinner and then went to the kitchen to help prepare parts of the afternoon dinner meal. The liked playing sticks and hoops too, although it is harder than it looks.

The rest of this week was spent getting back into regular school work and getting ready for Joe's birthday yesterday. He is not real big on birthday's so we kept it low key and just had a Strawberry Cake. Aaron had made Joe a little floam strawberry cake with candles and gave it to him for his birthday and then Joe requested the real thing. LOL!! We also were able to go out to dinner thanks to the youth at our church putting on Parent Date Night..thanks kids!!! We had a very good week and it is very nice to have Joe back from school.

A New Adventure.....Ice Skating!

On Monday, the boys and I were invited to go ice skating down at a rink in Pentagon City. This was definitely an adventure. The last time we went skating was in Germany with our friends the Dawson's and the boys were very little so it was easier for them because they could balance a lot easier being shorther then than now. At first, they were both a little apprehensive but a little bit later, Aaron shouted, "Mom, ice skating is awesome!!!!" It was a beautiful day too. We have had so many really cold days that we weren't sure how warm it would be but it was just perfect for skating. Now, the boys keep begging me to take them skating again. So, I guess we found our new adventure to be a great success!

Gracie's Playdate

Hi Everyone. I know it's been a few weeks since I posted anything on here but we really haven't been doing anything special except working on homeschooling. Today, I made a playdate for Gracie. Her mom, Joy came to play with her. We are blessed that we are close friends with Joy's mom and dad. They had a great time together and it got pretty loud a few times but all in all they played very well together. Gracie is still very submissive to her mom so it's funny to watch them try to figure that out even though Joy was in Gracie's territory today. We had fun watching them play in the backyard too especially since Joy doesn't really get to do that since her backyard is not fenced in. Since it was so cold we didn't let them play out there long. By the way, Gracie is wearing her winter sweater. Anyways, that was the excitement for today. :) Blessings to you all.

Our First Snow...

Well, we had our first snow of the winter season today. Just after church it started to snow and we were all so excited. We had lunch at friends of ours and then the boys were able to go out and sled and have a snow ball fight. They had a blast. Then we came home and they played with there friend next door. They love playing out in the snow, they would have been out there all night if they could have been. Gracie enjoyed eating the snow mostly and was jumping up in the air trying to catch the snowflakes in her mouth. We had a wonderful day enjoying the snow!!

"How are you?"

I put this question here because I know that many of you are wondering how we are doing, are deeply concerned for us, and have continually kept us in your prayers since Isaac's death. I started reading a new book today that was recommended to me by a sister in the Lord, called "Holding on to Hope" by Nancy Guthrie and she addresses this same question. After she lost her daughter, for the first year she answered this question by saying, "I'm deeply and profoundly sad." It is a question that has been frequently asked of both Joe and I over the last 6 weeks since we lost Isaac. Many times it is hard for us to discern the answer to the question. Most days I think we are both doing ok and we respond in like fashion, but on other days we aren't doing that well and I will admit that I have just put on the happy face and answered "I'm fine." when in reality I have been far from it. So, to answer the question, we are sad but more so we miss Isaac so much. We miss the chances to hold him longer, to even have brought him home from the hospital to his room where all of his things are, for him to be a part of our family with his brothers, and to take him to church with us were we worship as a family. I think as believers we sometimes think that our faith will help us hurt less(stated in the book by Mrs. Guthrie's husband)but I know that God has allowed Isaac's death to occur in our lives for us to see Him in a new way. God knows our sorrows and He understands it. I believe our hearts will heal over time through our reaching out to God and listening to Him when He answers our cries for help but until that appointed "time" we choose to cry when we need to and face our grief because the Lord has given us this task of greiving to do. Thank you all for praying for us and bearing our burden as Christ has called us all to do.

"The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord." I Cor. 15:56 - 58