Sweet

I am thankful for a full week of fun…

~ for a great week for Tatum K.  She likes all these birthdays and parties and holidays for one important reason: CAKE!  If you’ve seen my Instagram, you have seen her insistent chanting:  “Cake! Cake! Cake! Pie! Pie! Pie!”  There is no denying her love of sweets, and she was one happy girl to get to indulge this week!

~ for Gavin’s 2nd grade class chapel program, celebrating that the Bible is God’s Valentine to His children.  Such a sweet message, and the kids did such a great job. 

~ for a dear friend’s good news that made my heart sing. 

~ for excitement for Cooper – thrilled that he made the A team for Jr High baseball!  He started practice last week, and games will commence soon.  Carson Grace is enjoying playing on the Varsity Softball team.  Come on SPRING!!!

~ for new signs completed for Giddyup and Whoa.  Bear and Tatum K both got to be sign models. 

~ for two special back-to-back birthdays.  Kora turned 10 on the 13th and Gavin turned 9 on the 14th (Gaventime’s Day!).  Yep.  366 days apart!  These two are used to sharing birthday celebrations, and Gavin knows his birthday is going to be red and pink every year until eternity.  They are great sports about it, and we do our best to make their individual days special for each of them.  We feasted on box macaroni and cheese and pizza and pink and blue cupcakes. 

~ Miss Kora had no reservations about what she wanted for her birthday: pierced ears!  She marched right in and hopped up in the chair!  She made some pretty intense, horrified faces during the piercing, but she was super-duper brave!  So pretty!

~ for surviving the epic amounts of sugar consumed by my household this week: from “special birthday breakfasts” to class birthday treats, birthday cupcakes, ON TOP OF class Valentine’s Day parties.  It was a high-fructose corn syrup and Red 40 flavored week.  We may be doing a cleanse these next few days!

~ for the single-most highly anticipated evening of the year: the Father-Daughter Banquet/Dance at Tyler Christian Fellowship.  There is nothing that thrills my girls more than to hear the doorbell ring and open it to find their beloved Daddy with roses in his hand to offer to each one of his beautiful girls.  They all dressed in their finest, and they dined, they danced their little tails off, and each one of them soaked up how much they are loved by their Daddy.  Even Carson Grace cherishes this time.  I love that this is a memory they will always treasure.  This year I had a really great time with Tatum K (too young to attend) and my boys.  We cooked some tasty nachos and watched a movie.  But the highlight of the evening was playing Pie in the Face!  We all got “pied,” even mom, much to the boys’ delight.  Lord, help me to relax and have fun with my kids.  They really are so easy to please….all they want is time and some good laughs.  And sometimes it really is as simple as a fistful of whipped cream smeared on my face. 

~ for a special time of fellowship and sharing after church.  Leadership hosted a lunch for new visitors, with a tasty meal and encouraging testimonies from people in the Body. Love the opportunity to get to meet, welcome, and encourage new families.  

It’s been a good, full week.  Plenty of hard, but also plenty of sweet moments.  I think that’s just where we are in life.  I think it’s always going to be some flavor of hard.  Large family life is uniquely challenging.  Adoptive family dynamics are complicated.  Life after cancer is ugly hard.  But God is just so faithful.  His Word reminds me of His new mercies.  His Spirit comforts mine and reminds me that no matter what I feel like, I’m never ever alone.  And Jesus meets me: in my brokenness, in my joy, in the moments when I feel like an utter failure, and in those fleeting moments when I breathe a sigh of relief that I finally got something right.  We serve a God of second chances!  Hallelujah!  He never gives up on us, and I’m so thankful.  And while my loving Father never ceases to extend grace to me, I also need to DO MY PART!  It’s my responsibility to get into the Word and seek Him.  My flesh is never going to feel like praising Him.  But I have to do it anyway.  And I know that He will meet me.  

Tomorrow is a very special day that you may not know about…February 18 is International Eat Ice Cream for Breakfast Day!  It’s a special day set aside to support children who are fighting or who have fought cancer.  Gold Network of East Texas is encouraging people to eat ice cream for breakfast and post pictures on social media, with a caption in support of kids with cancer.  You can participate by posting a picture on Facebook or Instagram, tag @goldnetworkofeasttx and @eaticecreamforbreakfastday, and tell us who you are eating for.  If social media isn’t your thing, just dish up a sweet treat and say a prayer for the kids.  You can even email me a picture at info@goldnetworkoet.com.  Our family will be eating ice cream for Sawyer.  And Eric.  And Olivia.  And Sophie, Brock, Jase, Liam, Michael, Izzy, Bristell, Hudson, Addie Leigh, Anna Luisa, Kaitlyn, Abigail, David, Ceely, Parker, Emerson, and all the other children whom we have met in person or online, and kids around the world.  No child should ever have to fight cancer.  But for now, we can eat ice cream.  And we pray.

Thanks for giving thanks with me.

“Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity.”” Jeremiah 29:12-14