Baptism Pictures

Here are pictures from my Abbigail's big day!
Before Abbigail was baptized this morning, Kenny and I spent some time talking and praying with her in the courtyard at our church. I reminded her of the verses of Proverbs 3.5-8, as this has been a special scripture just for her since before she was born. We celebrated the day by going to lunch with a group of friends and then to Grandma and Papa's house for swimming and dinner. I hope that Abbigail will remember this day. It has truly been special!

A Big Day For Our Family!

Today, our oldest daughter is getting baptized. Abbigail is 8 years old and has been asking questions for at least 3 or 4 years about being born again and getting baptized. Finally she is ready. On Friday night of this week, she apparently was having a hard time getting to sleep so she started praying and spent much of the night in prayer. Saturday morning, with tears of excitement, she told me how she had told Jesus about the bad things she had been doing and asked Him to take away her sin and that she wanted to be with Him. When she told Kenny about it, he asked her if she ready to be baptized. She said yes. Later that day she told me "This is the happiest day of my whole life!" I am so excited to see Jesus' love and power at work in her life. I am grateful to all of our friends who have set a wonderful example for her to see Jesus at work in their lives. And to everyone who has had a part in teaching her of His love.

Thank you, Jesus, for hearing our prayers for our daughter. Make her strong in You. Grant her grace to become more and more like You. Deepen her love for those that are far away from You. Use her as an instrument of Your love in their lives. And just as her name means "My Father's Joy" let her feel and know Your delight in her.

Psalm 90

A prayer of Moses the man of God.

1 Lord, you have been our dwelling place
throughout all generations.

2 Before the mountains were born
or you brought forth the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

3 You turn men back to dust,
saying, "Return to dust, O sons of men."

4 For a thousand years in your sight
are like a day that has just gone by,
or like a watch in the night.

5 You sweep men away in the sleep of death;
they are like the new grass of the morning-

6 though in the morning it springs up new,
by evening it is dry and withered.

7 We are consumed by your anger
and terrified by your indignation.

8 You have set our iniquities before you,
our secret sins in the light of your presence.

9 All our days pass away under your wrath;
we finish our years with a moan.

10 The length of our days is seventy years—
or eighty, if we have the strength;
yet their span is but trouble and sorrow,
for they quickly pass, and we fly away.

11 Who knows the power of your anger?
For your wrath is as great as the fear that is due you.

12 Teach us to number our days aright,
that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

13 Relent, O LORD! How long will it be?
Have compassion on your servants.

14 Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love,
that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.

15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,
for as many years as we have seen trouble.

16 May your deeds be shown to your servants,
your splendor to their children.

17 May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us;
establish the work of our hands for us—
yes, establish the work of our hands.

This is the prayer of my heart today. I read it this morning and God just keeps bringing me back to it. Yes, Lord, let your work be shown to your servants and your glorious power to their children!!!

A Good Word

I was very encouraged by this today...

And [Jesus] told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, 'Give me justice against my adversary.' For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, 'Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.'" And the Lord said, "Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"

What might seem like such a long time to me, when I am waiting for God to come through on my behalf, is really not a long delay nor is it a slow response. God promises me that He will answer speedily and He won't delay. God is seeing everything in His perspective of time- in the perspective of ETERNITY. I see things in the perspective of the short 80 or so years that I might live on this earth. When He is ready to avenge me of my adversary, will He find faith in me? I pray that He does find me faithfully waiting, confident in His care for me.

Some old pictures I came across...

The first picture is of my 2 oldest girls. This must have been almost 4 years ago. Abbiyah (left) would have been 3 years old and Abbigail (right) would have been 4 years old. How cute!
The second and third pictures were taken a few months later. Forest is in the middle and that's him with the crazy hair.

More Before and During Pics...

This second set of pics is of one of the bathrooms. We took out everything and actually closed it off where the door was before and opened it into the master bedroom. It will have a large shower and pedestal sink. The toilet will have its own little room. I love the arches and am glad that we were able to keep them. Obviously, we still need to paint in here as well and put in flooring. I'll be sure to post some AFTER pics when we are finished. At some point in the future we will also being tackling our other bathroom and our kitchen. We just want to get through this phase of the remodel before tearing into that one.

Before and During Pictures

Here are some BEFORE and DURING pictures of our home remodel. This first one is from the living room looking towards the dining room. We tore out the wall and put in a beam to make the living and dining area more open. We still need to paint the walls and ceiling and add trim around the windows. The final step will be refinishing our wood floors.

Under Construction

As can probably be seen in the background of some of my pictures, our house is currently being remodeled. We bought our house nearly 4 years ago and have been remodeling ever since. We have had several lulls in the progress when no work was being done, but we have made great progress this summer. If everything goes as planned, we should be finished with all the work in the next month. I am excited and grateful.

Summer Fun

On Thursday I took the kids swimming. Phoebe and Forest were wearing their latest summer fashions! We had so much fun!


Later that night we had our usual Thursday night meeting in our home. We spend time hanging out together as well as in the Word. It is always so great to be around so many wonderful friends.

The Ultimate!

Met with several friends tonight for a game of ultimate frisbee. We had a blast. Everyone played a great game, when we weren't taking water breaks!