Amazing Grace

The third verse of Amazing Grace says -

Through many dangers, toils and snares
I have already come;
'Tis Grace that brought me safe thus far
and Grace will lead me home.

This morning Grace lead my grandpa Kinsey home. Home to be with his heavenly Father - the giver of all Grace - home to see his wife of 65 years, with no more hurt, in a new body with a sound mind. He ended his battle with Alzheimer's on this earth and leaves a family who remember him with much love, respect and joy. A family who has seen the faith and love of a man who has been truly changed by Grace and are grateful for the gift of his life. It is because of Grandpa's faith that I know more fully the person of Grace - Jesus.

And on Wednesday when we remember Grandpa's life and sing his favorite song, Amazing Grace, I'll be thinking of him joyfully singing 'God's praises' ... and him humbly saying as he often did "better than I deserve" - "I'm better off than I deserve"

When we've been there ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun.
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we've first begun.

Lydia's Baptism

We had a wonderful day with family and friends as we observed Lydia's baptism. All of the grandparents were here, and the Coon's and Mrs. Cris joined us at the church and then at home for a special time together and lunch. We are grateful to the Lord for our family and friends and for the church he has provided for us to be a part of.

We love our sweet (but sinful) children and hope and pray that one day each of them would grow to know and understand the love of their heavenly Father for them - that they would repent and receive the Lord's grace and mercy in Christ. By having them baptized as infants (Samuel and Lucy were both baptized as babies) we do not believe they are becoming Christians - they obviously have no idea what is happening at this time - but we trust the Lord will draw them to Himself.

We pray for wisdom to teach them about the abundant life the Lord has for them and look forward to being part of this journey - teaching them of God's goodness in the good news.

Nana visits

Nana, Jeremy's mom, came to visit this weekend and we were so glad she could come. We enjoyed having her here and hope she can come again soon. On Saturday we ventured to Sweetwater Park and decided to take the quicker route to the falls along the river - it was a much harder trail than we anticipated - really not a trail at all but climbing over rocks and bouldering much of the way. Nana was a trouper and carried Lydia the whole time in the baby bjorn. We were glad to take the longer easier way back and decided we won't take that route again until Lydia is Samuel's age. Samuel LOVED the trail and thought it was awesome - love to see him enjoying the adventure.

What an adventure we had! Nana was joining us for the weekend to celebrate Lydia's baptism and hang out for a while - she didn't know she'd get some extreme hiking time. Thanks for coming Nana -

Cookies

Mama's been introducing new foods lately but I'm not so good at keeping any of them in my mouth yet. But I sure do like sitting on the counter while Mama cooks dinner. Maybe I'll try one of those cookies in that cookie jar while Mama's not looking, ok, maybe there is only a leftover candycane in there but it's worth a try ...
Ooopps - caught with my hand on the cookie jar!

Entertainment

I love to hear my children play and create stories with their toys and imagination, I love to watch them explore and imagine AND I love when simple entertainment keeps them busy for hours. Samuel made nintendo DS's for he and Lucy, as well as an iPad/iPod for him to listen to his own music. They played with their electronic devices much of the day, even let me create my own character for the games they made up and asked me for replacement batteries when they ran out of juice. I got to listen to the music Samuel put on his iPod - so far he only has RUSH and Journey on there but he can pull up other ones to play for me. Tonight he played part of Handel's Messiah he's thinking of putting on there. Yep - all of this entertainment - you guessed it - with a marker and a toilet paper roll. It's the simple things in life people - the simple things in life.

A new week

Well, the last few weeks have gone fairly well as we adjust to my work schedule, bottle feeding, daddy making dinner, children getting into a new routine and more things to fit into a day. I'm so grateful for the families who are taking care of the children - the children have done well and love spending time with them. I am super grateful!

Work for me - a bit overwhelming. It's crazy but I think I'm really going to like the work. In the past few weeks we've introduced cereal and squash to Lydia, Samuel has lost another tooth (somewhere on the floor at school), Lucy had her first show-an-tell at school, Jeremy graded a gazillion essays for his 130 students and I have figured out how to make it through the day... These smiles help me out!