A Big and Special Day for Max

We have been having a lot of conversations lately with Max about loving Jesus and Jesus being our forever friend.  We have talked about doing what Jesus would want us to do in our lives.  Loving people like Jesus would love people.  We have talked about how we make mistakes, we sin, we make bad choices...all of us.

The bible says the following:

"That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved" (Romans 10:9) . 

We believe that in order to be promised eternity in heaven you need to do this.  We believe that to be a Christian you need to have a conversation with God.  You need to confess to Him in prayer that you are a sinner, you need to acknowledge that HE is Lord and you need to tell Jesus that you want to follow Him.  That we all need help from Him in this world.  You are not born a Christian, because you are in a Christian family...it is a choice each of us makes no matter what family we grow up in.  My brother and I made the decision to accept Christ at bible camp in the 4th and 5th grade respectively...it was a special evening...I will never forget it.  

Yesterday Max said this prayer with me after our church service.  He has asked for quite some time about communion and what that means.  We have shared with him that communion is a special time where we thank Jesus for dying on the cross for us, we ask Him to forgive us and we commit to him that we will do our very best to follow Him.  Yesterday there was communion and again Max asked me about it...why we do it, why he doesn't do it...and at the end of church he whispered in my ear that he wanted to pray a special prayer to ask Jesus to be in his heart forever and ever and to promise to do his best to follow him.

Then after we prayed we had our own time of communion...just Max and me.  His very first communion.  It was special.  He was teary, I don't know if the tears were from the Holy Spirit or just from his own emotion but he was moved.  (or tired and crabby I guess, he is 5)  

And of course, we snapped photos on our way out of church.

 3 John 1:4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

Twins Tee Ball

Is there anything sweeter than 5 year old Tee Ball?  I mean seriously?  I have LOVED every single season of our boys tee ball years.  It may be one of my favorite things.

Tonight we did team photos, seriously?  Melt my heart.  Max has a little girl on his team too who is darling in her pink shoes and helmet.  His buddy Hinckley is also on the team as well as another new friend Joey.  Scott and Jack helped Coach along with Hinckley's Dad and a bunch of other Dads as well.  It is SO nice when you have a great group of families to enjoy a season with.

Here are some pictures from the evening.

 Max's Gameface is my favorite here....

Update on Hard Things

Some of you have asked for an update on my sister's (Kathy/Joe) wedding in Wisconsin...thank you for praying.  Here is a summary....and a few pictures off of my phone.

Thank you again for praying for me while I was in Wisconsin.  I could feel the prayers.  It was a hard time for me.  I just want them to see Jesus in me.  My sisters 3 kids….all stood up with her.  They have had so much confusion in their life.  Ages 25, 14 and 10.  My heart ached for my parents too.  Just hard.  My brother Mike was a groomsmen too.  

For me a death of dreams of when I was a little girl.  My sister has been married twice to men, and she had a commitment ceremony once to a woman so this is marriage number 4 in a lot of ways.  And of course as a little girl, the baby sister I was wanting to have a double wedding someday.  Dreamt of being the Maid of Honor, dreamt of how we would raise our kids together...and just do those "sister" things.  The dream died many years ago but times like this still stir up my heart.  Just when I think my heart has healed, it hasn't and I don't think it is ever possible for it to completely heal from this loss.  

Drew sent me a beautiful text right before the service began.  Saying how he was praying for me and how proud he was that I was being a light in a dark place.  He had also told Scott the day before how he was grateful that we chose to protect him and his brothers by not bringing them with us.   That was a bright spot in my day.  Knowing he could see that I was trying to “be Jesus”.  

 My nieces whom I love so very much

 Kale, Ariana and Vedarose

The Officiant, Marianne and Joe (my sister Kathy)

The service was different.  The beginning opening was welcoming the animals, mother earth, buddha, various other spirits I had not heard of but then the “HOLY SPIRIT” was welcomed…and boy was I ever chatting with my Lord when I heard that.  I had a conversation with him throughout it all.  I felt HIS presence….I sobbed, I mean ugly cried in parts because I felt him so strongly.  I grabbed my Dad’s arm tightly as we sat there.  I heard the birds sing loudly…it was eerily loud to me. Like they were praising God…it sounded like songs of praise.  

So thank you for praying…thank you for loving me well.  

I was grateful when it was over, I felt peace as I drove away.  XM The Message had a playlist waiting for me as I drove….these were the songs that were played.  "Let them See You”, “Here I am to worship”, “Strong Enough”, “Because He lives”, "Voice of Truth”, "One Thing Remains”, “You Make Me Brave”, and “Fix My EYES”….I mean seriously?!  I snapped pics of my radio screen as I drove as I could NOT believe how very good God was to me to have those songs there to fill me up after a hard few days.  

This song was perfect for me....enjoy!

Lord, YOU Make Me Brave

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Hi-VMxT6fc

Happy Birthday Drew!

Drew is 16!   Well, he was on June 3rd but I am just now getting his blog post up!  :)  How can summer be SO busy?

We celebrated his bday a little bit early as Scott had to be out of town the week of his actual birthday. We opened gifts and had his favorite Boston Cream Pie the Sunday before his birthday.

Gpa's "little rolls" for breakfast

 Nearly every present was from Max according to Max...this was the one he was most proud of.  Drew wants a fishing boat, so Max wrapped up his toy one and gave it to him.  Thought he was SO clever.

 Jack was proud to give Drew a gift certificate for a "Mystery Tackle Box" which is a mail order thing where you get random fishing gear every month for 3 months.  

The morning of his birthday we were first in line to get his license...in Iowa you don't actually have to take a Driver's test...you take that in Driver's Ed so we only had to go in for the official paperwork to be changed from school permit to intermediate license. AND on his actual birthday he invited some friends over and they played games outside and then had dinner and cake.  Some of his buddies left before the cake was served.  So they didn't all get in the picture....

 Max picked out the cake for Drew.  He thinks you need to have a "theme" for your party (wonder where he gets that?)  So Max chose a golf and red theme....last year Max chose a fishing theme for Drew.  

 While we said no gifts all of the girls brought something. :)  One made chocolate chip cookies, and some brought candy bars or oreos.  Loved it...total girl thing. 

 Spying from the family room, LOVE that little Max was out there just "one of the guys"

 There were more boys here before..:)  promise...see prior shots from my phone for proof

 Drew was a great brother to let Max blow out his candles...

Drew we love you so much.  We are proud of you and the decisions you make.  You are a good friend, loyal and true in all you do.  You cannot be swayed, while sometimes that is hard as your Mom....most of the time it will serve you well as you grow.  You love to serve others and you are always thinking of others first.  You continue to love sports of all kinds.  You work hard at what you do.  Sometimes you remind me so much of your Dad in the things you say and the thoughts that go through your mind...

May you have a blessed year of being 16. 

Did I Love You Enough Today?

I read this post the other day and it really struck a chord..oh how I want to love my boys enough every single day....all 5 of them. 

Did I Love You Enough Today?

from this blog

06/18 60 COMMENTS

The sun is going down. We’ve sung the last song, read the last book, and tucked you back into bed for the seventeenth time. The day is coming to a close and I breathe a sigh of relief. All day long, I look forward to the bedtime hour. Two more hours till bedtime. One more hour. Thirty minutes. 10 minutes. As soon as you’re in bed, the cleaning starts. I pick up the toys, wipe down the counters, wash the dishes, and fold the laundry. Then the relaxing starts. I put on my sweats, grab my snack, turn on Netflix, and snuggle up with your daddy. Then it’s my bedtime. I turn the t.v. off, climb into bed, and just before my head hits the pillow, I ask myself,

“Did I love them enough today?”

You see, the day goes so fast, but the moments drag on and on and on. I know you don’t understand why the way you say my name drive me crazy sometimes. I know you get frustrated when plans change and people cancel and things don’t work out. I know how hard it is for you when I forget to toast your bread before putting the peanut butter on it and how life threatening that shoe to the head must have felt. I try to give grace because you probably didn’t mean to sit on your baby sister’s head … twice … in two minutes. But the truth is, I fail. So much. I snap. I cry. I angry text your daddy and threaten mutiny multiple times a day. I get sad and I can’t explain why. I get angry and have a hard time hiding it. I get lonely and insecure and frustrated and sometimes I say things that I can’t take back.

So when I get to the end of the day…the day that I’ll never get to have with you again…I go over the details, the highs and the lows, and I wonder if you felt loved the whole day. Once you’re in bed, sleeping soundly, I almost completely forget how hard the day was for me. In the moment, the chaos is so real, but when it’s over, it’s over and I just want to wake you up and say, “HEY! You did good today, kid.”

I hope that I loved you enough today. I hope that everyday you know that you are loved and that nothing you can do or say can change that. I hope that you see through my tears of frustration and know that I am so proud of you. You are the best thing I ever did. I love you fiercely and I hope you always know that. Not just in the long run, but every single frustrating day.

Did I love you enough today, little one? I sure hope so.

Hard Things

Sometimes we do hard things, not because we want to, but because God tells us to.  The next few days will be filled with hard things for me.  To be honest I would prefer to climb into bed with a deep dish pizza, a gallon of ice cream and a pile of movies today.  I would prefer to cry myself to sleep.  But instead I am getting ready to pack and head to Wisconsin.  My sister Kathy, who now lives as a man names Joseph is getting married to Marianne on Saturday.  Marianne came into her/his life last summer.

Sigh these are hard things on my heart.  I love my family. I love my God.  I want to show Jesus in my actions.

But oh my aching heart.  But I will go to show Love.  

State

Boys State Golf was Friday and Saturday this past week.  After a tiring week of finals and finishing school the boys headed to Ames Golf and Country Club for 2 rounds of golf for the state tournament. Friday it was much nicer weather than Saturday.  Both of the boys played well, the team had it's ups and downs.  But what a privilege to be in a High School State Tournament and to be in it with your brother.

Tommy shot 79 on Friday and 76 on Saturday.
Drew shot 84 on Friday and 92 and Saturday.

DMC as a team placed 6th overall.
Tommy placed 8th as an individual overall.

It was a great experience for both of them.  We were all there on Saturday to cheer them on, silently.  We even brought Max along...thanks to Scott for getting there bright and early Saturday morning, in the rain, to be sure he got a golf cart for Max and I to ride in.  That helped a LOT.

Some fun pictures from Saturday...

 Drew is in the navy hat...it was a hat given to him by the Junior Golf Pro at Des Moines golf, Matt Orth, about a week before he died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 26.  The hat is very special to Drew and I loved that he wore it.  

 Tommy in the white hat.

 It was a day to layer up, man it was cold.

 Max had his turn on the putting green after the boys were done and awaiting final results.

The team.  Nick, Noah, Keaton, Tommy, Alec and Drew

 These 3 played together on Varsity as Freshman too...

here is the throwback pic from that year.  They may have changed just a little.  WOW!