First family picture taken in front of our new house.

Easter Sunday...new little girls

Easter Sunday 2009 was quite possibly the best days of my life. It certainly was the best day in recent history that I can remember. It's the day our 2 daughters decided they would make a public declaration that they had decided to follow Jesus. Can anything be more meaningful to a parent? I'm not sure. It's such a huge fear to think about my children not being in heaven. I was worried that the girls were too young at first. It's easy to say when you are young, "Yes, I love Jesus and I want to follow him"...man, how much harder it gets the older you get. More temptations, more freedom...easier to justify actions. But, then again who are Rob and I to tell the girls, "ou've come to us and told us you want to ask Jesus into your heart (without us asking them to do it) and you've said you want to get in front of the church and make this public, but sorry....you are too young." It just would not have been right. So April 12, 2009, rolls around. Rob's whole family and my family show up to church which was incredibly meaningful to us. It's good to know that our families have now experienced the church family that so changed our lives and the church that hopefully Rob will be working for one day. I went and got the girls and changed them into their clothes they were getting baptized in. It was so special to see them waiting in line with other friends and church members who were also making that commitment. And how amazing to get baptized on Easter Sunday. It makes me sad to see how easy it is to forget or not really get the significance of Easter Sunday. It is the day we celebrate the most important, the biggest day in our history! The day that Jesus brought hope back to us! He conquered the grave! He conquered death! Incredible and amazing! I mean, do we all get that? The day is to be celebrated like no other day. And for this to be the day that our girls were baptized on meant so much! There they were symbolizing going into the grave and rising up washed and cleaned and new. Wow. Just wow. Something else that was so wonderful was that Rob was able to be a part of the baptism. He's not been ordained yet so he could not do the baptism himself. But, that actually turned out to be really cool. His really great friend, Rick did the baptisms with Rob in the pool and Rob helped him dunk the girls under and bring them back up. This was meaningful because God has used Rick in such a huge way to help guide Rob in the direction he is supposed to be going with his life and to serve God. It was really special to have them in there together to baptize our daughters.

One thing I really love about our church - the freedom we feel to celebrate God's goodness. So many times you go to a church and you have to be proper and quiet. Not ours. We are told to forget the person standing next to you, don't worry about what they are thinking of you. Celebrate Jesus and what he has done in your life. Man, God is so good and I'm so excited about it. I just thought that the whole way through the service. I don't want to be quiet and stand still, I want to just praise God for what he has done in my life and the lives of our daughters.

On that note I'll just put down a few lyrics that mean a lot to me right now. "My Savior, He can move the mountains, my God is mighty to save, He is mighty to save. Forever, Author of creation, He rose and conquered the grave, Jesus conquored the grave!"

The body of Christ broken for you....

Sooo.....we had a pretty big adventure in the ministry last Sunday. Apparently someone in the church did not get the memo that I have a serious fear of being in front of ppl. Much less having to hold communion bread for all of them! Right before church started last week Rob told me that I was going to help give out communion. At our church we've started something where 2 couples stand in front of the church, one on each side. One holds bread, the other grape juice cups. We go by rows in the church and everyone files to the front to break off a piece of bread and and get grape juice for communion. As each person goes by you have to say "The body of Christ broken for you" or "Christ's blood shed for you". Well, I had no clue what I was doing and almost had a panic attack thinking about it all throught church! But you know what? I'm really sick of being so darn worried about being in front of people. I went on up there and had no idea what I was doing! But, I made it through and I felt really good about it. It was funny though because one of the pastors in our church is aware of my fear and he said, "I did not volunteer you!" Then, as he was about to walk away he said to Rob and I, "Welcome to the ministry...things change quickly." It made me smile and realize - this is it! This is my new life and I'm really excited about it.