There is no greater joy....

"Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." Mark 1:17

It's the only hope and prayer that you have for your children that has eternal importance. And now, only because of God's unending and abundant grace, our prayer has been answered! This past Sunday night, my sweet Caleb prayed and asked Jesus to forgive his sins, to come live in his heart and be "his boss". :) Other than the births of my three babies, it was the most awesome moment I've had as a mom. And to God be all the glory and credit! Wow. When Caleb first starting asking about praying for "Jesus to come into his heart," Dawson and I were excited, but concerned that he was too young. We wanted him to fully understand the decision he was making, and to be able to grasp the concept of Jesus's death and resurrection. But along the way, through wise counsel and prayer, we realized that none of us fully understand the greatness of that life-changing decision, and that no one can grasp the supernatural wonder of our Savior's death and resurrection. So, on Sunday, when Caleb said he wanted to ask "the Spirit to come live inside him", Dawson and I felt so privileged to guide him through the process. To hear his precious voice pray and express what his little heart had already been feeling, it was truly like witnessing a miracle. And then after we all said 'Amen', Caleb looked down, patted his chest and said "Hi Spirit!" :)

All I can say is Praise God! and we can only hope that our other two will someday follow in his footsteps.

Showers of Blessings

It's funny how my life has been described a lot lately in terms of weather. First, there was (and still is) "the Fog" and then, the most commonly used phrase was "when it rains, it pours". This was beig used by me, and other friends and family members when they heard about the string of complications that had happened to us recently. Within the last two weeks, we have been dealing with Adelyn's terrible jaundice that has kept us in and out of the hospital and doctor's office, the sharp decline of Dawson's grandfather's health, our brakes going out on our minivan, our dryer dying and then finally, our vacuum going up in smoke. Because of these circumstances, the downpour metaphor had seemed very appropriate. In fact, I was starting to joke about, but almost believe, that God hated us, and I had begun to plead with Dawson about finding some doves and sheep to try to make a peace offering with God, so He would stop smiting us.

However, our 'down pour' has now turned from burdens to blessings. All within the past two or three days (aka-in God's perfect timing), Adelyn's jaundice has started to decline and we got a clear bill of health from the doctor, Dawson's grandfather's days here with us have extended beyond what we had thought, some dear friends offered us a free, working dryer, and then another precious friend gave us her spare vacuum cleaner!! Can you believe that? And as difficult as it has been on my pride to accept some of these generous gifts, I am incredibly grateful for all of these answered prayers. I still haven't really even had the opportunity to fully absorb the greatness of God's provision during this crazy time in our lives.

Thank you so much to all of you who have extended encouraging words, meals, offers of help and prayers toward us. All of it has meant so much to us.

In other news.....being the mother of THREE is CRAZY!!! I am overwhelmed every day, but I am trying to take it hour by hour. In the midst of the insanity though, there are many precious moments with the three angels God has blessed me with. Here are some pictures from the past few days....


My sleeping Beauty


My not-so-sleeping beauty, on her special new blanket from our beautiful friend Jen


All dressed up for our outing to the post office--they dressed themselves (Ellie obviously has her mother's fashion sense :)


Never a dull moment!


One of my new favorite activities