I thought I would give a little update on what we’ve been up to in the sunshine state. The weather here is gorgeous – although strange for Christmas! It’s been around the mid 70′s all week… some days I’ve been HOT. Weird how your body adjusts to the seasons! We’ve spent plenty of time in the hammock (today I napped in the hammock listening to the birds and the wind chimes!), we’ve taken some walks, and today we had family pictures at the “beach” on the large lake in Sebring.

By the way, a future post will contain my favorite pictures from our walks in Sebring. SO FUNNY. I wish I had a way to upload them to this computer!

We had our family Christmas yesterday, with an amazing amount of gifts, lots of laughter, and a very enjoyable celebration had by all. (I must say that I felt like an super aunt because our nephews thought the glow in the dark gummy bugs I put in their stockings were awesome. I had to agree.) Aunt Christie has AG fully outfitted for this summer (hooray for clothes!), LB has a full assortment of squishy tonka and playschool cars – amazingly, no repeats!, I have a tote for my Bible study materials that is far better than the reusable grocery bag I had been using (!!), and NP is ready to go buy some more tools with his gift cards. So much blessing crammed into one day.

The kids are thoroughly enjoying their cousins, their grandparents (LB is completely captivated by both of his grandpas!), and plenty of playtime in shorts! AG likes to “feed” the seagulls seashells and sand (she claims they really like it). I’m very thankful that I’ve been able to help out in the kitchen and around the house – one of my prayer requests coming down here was knowing how to serve NP’s family during this time. As the spouse of the youngest sibling, I didn’t want to be presumptuous or get in the way, but wanted to be useful. I’ve grateful for the opportunities I’ve had to serve this week.

It’s been a great week, with tinges of sadness here and there. Mom is doing better than we expected, but she’s obviously getting worn out. Dad has been surprised she’s done this well all week, and I think she’s rallied to spend time with us – we’re expecting her health to take a drastic turn once we all leave. We’ve talked a lot about heaven – it’s easy in our temporalness to forget that there is more awaiting us than we could ever imagine. I have been reminded of AG’s questions about heaven (will I wear shoes in heaven? can I swim outside with God?) – as a child it’s easy for her to have a very concrete view of what heaven will be. It’s mind boggling to think that in a very short period of time, Mom will be in the physical presence of Jesus, worshiping the King of kings, and free of all traces pain and sadness! It’s a real place – and she will be there soon! Hard to fully grasp that.

I’ve found myself singing this hymn to LB often as I rock him at night:
What a day that will be when my Jesus I shall see -
When I look upon His face, the one who saved me by His grace!
When He takes me by the hand and leads me to the promised land,
What a day, glorious day, that will be!

Amen. And in the meantime, what glorious days God has given us here! If a fallen, sin-filled, broken world that is so full of death and suffering is this marvellous, just wait… I have no doubt that what has been prepared will completely blow our most fantastic expectations out of the water! :)

He is good!

We’re officially in Florida! It’s been a crazy week – we keep forgetting what day it is. When loved ones are traveling, I have often heard people request prayer for “travel mercies” – one of those nice vague Christian terms that gets tossed around in prayer meetings. :) However, I think God really did have mercy on us in our travels, and we certainly know people were praying. Thank you, if you were one of them!!

Yesterday we packed like madmen in the morning, hit the road by 9:30am (we were aiming for 9am). We weren’t sure what to expect for road conditions between Grand Rapids and Lansing, seeing as we were at the tail end of a small blizzard. First blessing: the roads had been salted that morning and, aside from a few cars that had spun out in the ditch, things were relatively clear. We got to the airport with plenty of time – even with a wrong turn and accidental detour through Lansing!

We pulled up to the Lansing airport and our second blessing met us at the car in the form of an airport employee. She got a large cart and wheeled all of our baggage and car seats to the check-in counter for us. NP parked the car and we got through check-in just in time before the crowds started to gather. Blessing three: we were given seats together in a row of three! The small airline we were traveling with charged an additional fee to have seats assigned when you purchased tickets, so we opted out of that and prayed for the best. Thank you, Lord, for seats 7D, 7E, and 7F!

Our flight ended up being a little delayed, but the excitement over watching planes come and go and all of the airport trucks kept AG happy as a clam. We boarded the plane and got settled in our blessed row 7, and LB was predictably busy and squirmy. A while into the flight, he was getting downright fussy. Naptime had come and gone, and LB is not one to sleep anywhere except his bed. Maybe, just maybe in a carseat, but that’s about it. I took him from NP and rocked him for about… 30 seconds?… and the miraculous happened right there in my arms: LB FELL ASLEEP. And he stayed asleep for about an hour!! I am seriously not exaggerating when I say the ONLY explanation for that is answered prayer!

The flight went well from that point on. After we landed we asked AG what her favorite part was and she said, “All the noises!” This is my child who has, at various points in her young life, been afraid of the vacuum cleaner, the blender, the juicer, the steamer, packing tape (not kidding), and the distant whistle of trains because of the noises they make. Yet, her favorite part of the trip was “all the noises” on the plane! I must say here that I HIGHLY recommend the book The Noisy Airplane Ride by Mike Downs to those of you who will fly with young children in the future. It talks about all the noises you hear on the plane and we had been reading it for several days leading up to the trip, in the airport, and through the plane ride itself. I think it definitely helped prepare her and take away the fear of the unknown.

Once we landed in Florida, we headed down to baggage claim and were met by our limo driver. We had hired a limo to take us to NP’s parents because it ended up being only slightly more expensive than a one day car rental… and a whole lot less stressful. It was supposed to be a Town Car, but the driver told us that he had twisted his boss’s arm and brought the full stretch limo for us! How funny is that! So, our 2.5 hour car ride was in a huge white limo, complete with mirrored ceiling, “stars,” and color-changing light strips all around the interior. AG watched Peter Rabbit on the TV screen. It was great to have all the space- the kids sat in their car seats on the back bench and Nate and I stretched out on the side bench. I even was able to sit on the floor in front of LB to feed him his baby food when he was getting fussy. If you are flying into Orlando, I highly recommend Embassador Limousines!

God definitely showed us mercy the whole trip – add to that the fact that all of us are healthy and seem to have avoided my dad’s stomach bug, and we have much to thank Him for.

We’ve had a good day with NP’s family – his mom is definitely weak, although she says she hasn’t had much pain to speak of. For the most part we pretend that everything is fine – in some ways I guess you have to do that to enjoy her in the present rather than grieving her death before she’s gone. God is sovereign over all the little things, and we know the big things are in his hand, as well. Now we pray for “travel mercies” of a different kind as she comes to the end of this earthly journey – we know that what’s waiting for her is WAY better than a white stretch limousine!

Today we had a very enjoyable family Christmas celebration with my parents and my sister’s family. The biggest drawback was that my dad came down with a stomach bug, and exiled himself to the master bedroom all day so as not to share his “gift.” It was sad that he missed everything. :( We briefly thought about postponing our “Christmas” until the four of us returned from Florida, but three small children bursting with anticipation about presents nixed that idea.

I love that AG is getting old enough (and bold enough) to really interact and play with her cousins. They had a marvelous time – they are all great pretenders and had lovely tea parties, exciting medical emergencies (AG got a doctor kit and her two babies were apparently critically ill – it took a team of medical professionals to assist them), and adventures into dark rooms with their new flashlights!

One of the things I am thankful for today is my family’s taste in gifts. :) I must admit that when I walk through most toy isles, I am left cold by the majority of what is up for sale. As a general rule, if it requires batteries, makes obnoxious noises, or doesn’t really engage a kid’s imagination… what’s the point? It was so much fun to watch AG and her cousins romp through the house for hours – crawling through the new playhut and tunnels, playing doctor, taking care of babies, having tea parties, reading books, building with Lego’s, creating pictures with tangrams, making beaded jewelry, playing dress up… and the list goes on. Real play at its best!

AG is fast asleep, fully exhausted by an exciting day and satisfied by a great dinner and a nice slice of birthday cake for Jesus. Dad has ventured out of his room, feeling a tiny bit better, and the house is somewhat recovered.

It was a great day – my cup overflows!

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When AG was a baby, a friend from church had given me the book Healthiest Kid in the Neighborhood by William Sears. It’s a great nutrition primer for parents – I learned a lot! It definitely has influenced the way I feed my family, although I am not as good as I should be. (ie: I have been snacking on fudge all morning…)

One of the concepts he talks about in this book, along with the kids’ companion book called Eat Healthy, Feel Great, is “Traffic light eating.” He breaks things into red light foods (stop eating these), yellow light foods (slow down! don’t eat too much!), and green light foods (go ahead! eat all you want!). Our friends and family have become accustomed to us discussing red, yellow, and green light foods with AG. Meals are a constant discussion of this: “Is this a green light food?” This gets tricky when we’re eating, say, hot dogs – hot dogs are listed as red light foods, but I bend the rules on a rare occasion just because we like them. :)

I think that these books have given her a great jump-start on understanding nutrition. She will look at a hamburger bun and point out to me that it was made with white flour, and therefore is a yellow light food. We try to be consistent with her at meals – if you’re still hungry, you fill your belly with green-light foods. You can have a special treat, but only after you’ve fed your belly lots of good foods. We talk about juice very plainly, also – juice is made with fruit, but the very best “green light drink” is water, so drink water when you’re thirsty. Milk is also a “green light drink.”

Warning: this is exceedingly convicting. She often asks me if coffee is a green light drink. :| If she sees NP or me have an occasional pop at a friend’s house, we inevitably have the discussion that pop is a red light food and very bad for you. I am frequently glad that she’s shy when I see her observing what other people are buying at the grocery store – I can only imagine the horror if she starts pointing out to others that what they’re buying is bad for them! But, overall, it’s been a great thing for all of us to be more aware of.

Today at lunch she was eating spaghetti, and I was pretending that her belly was talking to her (embarrassing, but true. everything at our house is personified) – “thank you for feeding me all of these good green light foods!” She was delighted by this and turned to me and said, “and next, I will feed my belly some yellow light foods!” Cracked me up.