A Packing Funny

Abigail is always making us laugh but I rarely remember to write it down. Tonights' quote couldn't go without being written down though.

Glenn was packing in the bathroom and as he was packing up the nebulizer Abigail looked at it and asked what it was for. Glenn said, "It is to help you breathe when you can't." A puzzled Abigail asked, "When you're dead?"

I guess it is a good thing. It means we haven't had to use the nebulizer in her memory and for that I am thankful. I think that I just laughed and didn't tell her that it won't help you if you die. Maybe Glenn did. A discussion for another day....

Sometimes a Light Suprises

Yesterday was our last Sunday at North Baptist Church. That is hard for me because our church is our family. We love our blood family but in so many ways our church family is so much dearer to us. It is hard to leave. As I was walking into church yesterday we were singing "Sometimes a Light Surprises." It was such a blessing to me I wanted to post the words here so I can remember:

Sometimes a Light Surprises

1. Sometimes a light surprises
The Christian while he sings;
It is the Lord Who rises
With healing in His wings:
When comforts are declining,
He grants the soul again
A season of clear shining,
To cheer it after the rain

2. In holy contemplation
We sweetly then pursue
The theme of God’s salvation,
And find it ever new;
Set free from present sorrow,
We cheerfully can say,
Let the unknown tomorrow
Bring with it what it may.

3. Tomorrow can bring us nothing,
But He will bear us through:
Who gives the lilies clothing
Will clothe His people, too:
Beneath the spreading heavens
No creature but is fed;
And He Who feeds the ravens
Will give His children bread.

4. Though vine nor fig tree neither
Their wonted fruit should bear,
Though all the fields should wither,
Nor flocks or herds be there
Yet, God the same abiding,
His praise shall tune my voice;
For, while in Him confiding,
I cannot but rejoice.

©2001 Kevin Twit Music.

I started crying when I got to the end of verse 2 and was so blessed that verse 4 is from one of my favorite passage in Habakkuk. God is so good to us and will prove Himself again this time as He has so faithfully in the past. I am so thankful for the unchangeableness of our God, His immutability. I think that it is my favorite attribute of my God.

I have a lot to look forward too :)

Sonja Maas will have lived 15 places in her first 10 years of marriage. I have decided that, if we live to have been married 60 years, I only have 76 moves left after this one :)

A Thief in the Night

I guess that this is the sequel to "A Thief in the Day" from last summer. The kids have been passing around a a stomach bug and since it was nice on Sunday we opened the windows to try to blow the germs out. Before going to bed Sunday night Glenn took extra care to make sure that the door was locked because Abigail was sleeping downstairs because she still didn't feel very good and he thought that it would be awful if someone came into house and did something to his little girl. We had closed the windows but didn't think to lock them. On Monday morning I went downstairs to start Glenn's birthday cinnamon rolls and wondered why the screen was missing on the living room window and why Glenn's hiking backpack was outside on the ground. I was still pretty sleepy but Glenn came downstairs to look around and asked "Where's the Mac? Where's our camera?" GONE! and my purse was dumped and rooted through.... Ugggg. At least we still had our cell phones this time so I called 911 right away. The scariest thing to me is that Abigail was asleep on the chair downstairs and the thief must have walked right past her. Anything could have happened to her!! So scary! The police and tactical unit came and we discovered that our camera was not taken, somehow it had stayed in my purse when the thief dumped it, that was a praise. I feel so violated again. I am so thankful that God kept Abigail safe. I don't know what I would do if something had happened to her. She didn't have any idea that someone came into our house. I am so thankful! In my unease I went to the Psalms - one of my favorites is Psalm 46 and so whenever I felt ill at ease I just said over and over again "God is my refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble." It was such a comfort. God is in control and allowed this to happen. We are thankful that it was just our laptop and not our kids. The other things that we are missing are my phone charger and Glenn's watch. Definitely not as bad as it could have been.

We were planning on heading to Syracuse to find a place to live yesterday but instead spent the day canceling credit cards, signing up for LifeLock because our tax forms with all 6 SS numbers were saved on our computer, calling pawn shops and generally feeling pretty unsafe in our home. I locked the door and windows when I was not downstairs which I never have done before. We really live in a very safe neighborhood but the lilac festival starts soon and there are people all over the park getting ready for it and I am assuming someone just took advantage of the situation. I just need to be more careful. It was an expensive lesson to learn but it could have been SO much worse! I laughed because many people told me that they hope that the next place we live is much safer and I am certain that the neighborhood we move to in Syracuse won't be nearly as safe as this one but I will be more careful. Our neighbors all told me that we need a dog. If we did have a dog I really doubt that anyone would have come into the house this time or back in August. Maybe we should get a dog but we can't commit to that unless we know that we are allowed to where ever we are living. One thing at a time.

The evening was much better. We had Hawaiian Haystacks for Glenn's birthday dinner then had our small group over for cake and ice cream and a walk in beautiful Highland Park. I am so thankful for our dear friends who are such a blessing to us!

So today... I trust God that He loves us and has good plans for us and will work all things out for His honor and glory. We lost a lot of information in losing our laptop but it is OK. We still have our kids and we are still safe in the hands of our gracious God.

Medical Marriages

This morning I did something that I am certain I have never done before - I left my puking kids at my house with a friend and went out for breakfast with my husband. I have been looking forward to this day for a while because today was Imagine RIT which sounded so neat and the Medical Community Christian Fellowship spring breakfast on medical marriages that we had been invited to by our friend Brian. This morning we were woken at 4:45 up by the sound of a splat on the floor in the kids' room. We ran in to see Abigail standing in the middle of the room throwing up. After a quick clean up (boy, am I glad I spend several hours cleaning the kids room on Thursday after Caleb threw up in fear of the fact that his sisters may do it sometime in the middle of the night too!!) I figured that all my plans for today were cancelled. I sent a quick email to my friend who was planning on hanging out with our kids and told her that Abs was sick and she probably wouldn't want to come over. Jenn called me and told me that she was still willing to watch them even with the puking - and Glenn "made me" let her. You know, I would do that for a friend but I was surprised someone else would do it for me! So she came over and watched the kids while Glenn & I went to the breakfast. I am so glad that I went. There was a panel of 3 couples - in the first couple the wife is the doctor and the husband is an engineer, in the second couple the husband is the doctor and the wife stays home with the kids, in the third couple both of them are doctors. It was so neat to hear from each of them and the struggles that they have had and how they overcame them. All three of the couples had kids while they were in their time of training and it was so interesting how they each did things differently and how they worked through the challenges that they had. I appreciated that they were very open and honest, especially the non-medical wife, with things that they had struggled with and continue to. I know that it isn't easy but I think that we got some helpful hints and tips to help us along the way. The things that stick out the most for me from this morning:

1. When telling one of the doctors about our journey he told us that farmers put the most manure on the plants that they have the biggest plans for. (or something like that). It was encouraging to hear because I know that God has plans for us and He is preparing us for them.

2. The importance of setting priorities and making choices based on them. They talked about time with God, your spouse, and kids. One area that I know that Glenn & I struggle with is making each other a priority. The couple that were both doctors said that they had Friday night date night and had a get away once a quarter or every 4 months. We have very infrequent dates and we have never had a night away from all of our kids. We have had nights here or there with one or more of them gone but I don't think that we have ever had a night with all of them gone. Oh, no, there was that one time when we were moving out of the mini-mart and AmyJo took our kids home with her so we could finish up packing and we went to her house the next day. At that point I was pregnant with Lydia so it was a while ago.... There may have been once or twice that some or all of our kids spent the night there when we lived in Waterloo because they fell asleep after Friday night pizza but I really can't remember. Anyway, enough of my tangent, that is not the point. The point is we need to make "us" a priority because we never have.

We got home and Lydia was groaning and she subsequently threw up all over the chair. Glenn took Caleb and Hannah to Imagine RIT and had fun exploring with them while I stayed home with the sickies and did LOTS of laundry. All in all it was a pretty good day. I had a date with Glenn and got to meet some neat people and got to hear the answers to a lot of questions I hadn't even thought of asking yet and to hear from people who have been there and are there and be encouraged. I got lots of laundry done and got to snuggle with sickies. God is good, all the time.