40 YEARS!!!

Nana and Poppy have made it 40 years together!!!!!  Congrats!!!!!

As we will be gone on their actual anniversary this weekend, we headed in on our weekend to take a day celebrating one serious milestone.  I told Nana and Poppy I resisted on their card but I can't resist forever.  Think about it...even their marriage is over the hill!!!  :)

So we are celebrating a lot!  They have given their married lives to serving the Lord both in America and overseas in Africa.  They have four boys who are all married, successful in their own line of work and following the Lord.  They are healthy and still working hard and still have each other.  What more could you ask for?  What blessings flow for them!  Oh yeah and don't forget the five grandchildren and counting!

May God continue to bless you!!

For our day together, we hung out, had a tea party (I think the girls are trying to make up for lost time since Nana and Poppy didn't get to have tea parties with their four boys)...

...helped Nana water the flowers and plants...

...and took a look at all the pictures we took.  I know my camera is dying fast since now I am getting about one in four shots that isn't blurry.  I am so sad!!

We went African for supper...well, as close as we could get...brochettes and pomme frites!!  Yummy!  We got so close on the marinade, it was like heading back for a brief moment.

Then we headed over to the Paris Baguette for dessert.

It's not all bad that K can't eat what the rest of us can.  Every once in a great while, it works out to her advantage as she gets her own dessert.  She even stole two of the candles for her cake.  Someone should tell her it's not all about her!  :-)

Well, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!!   May God bless the rest of the years you have together!!

And God Bless you too!

Just for Fun

Well, as I am so far behind, I thought it was time to start catching up. A little while back, I found some dresses I had bought on sale and put away for a rainy day, so this hot summer day qualified. This is snow white, in case you don't know all your princesses. :) Nope, never thought I would either!

Em started teething again (yes, again, only this time she finally pushed two of her molars through...still waiting for the other two).  She wasn't eating and we weren't worried until she woke up one night with a fever and rapid, shallow breathing.  Honestly, I was good until the breathing, then all my alarms went off and I went into hyper-alarm mode.  Shallow breathing has always landed us in at least the ER and it's a coin flip if we get to stay in the hospital on top of it.  Anyway, I asked people to pray and then we prayed over her.  She fell asleep and when she came to get me the next morning, she was completely better.  Well, let's qualify that...her fever and shallow breathing were gone...her teeth were still bothering her and she still wasn't eating.  Elated that God healed her, once again, I decided I could take on the battle of the food.

So I decided to try to bribe her back into eating.  I found a website with fun food for kids and after scrolling past all the recipes with peanut butter or eggs in them, came across a recipe for shortcake that didn't have any eggs in it.  We made it a big deal to let Em help the most (yes, I cleaned the entire kitchen after) and set to making "Strawberry Short-Snake".

With whipped topping...

Ours didn't look like the one on the internet, but the girls weren't waiting for me to shape it nicely with a knife.  :)

Anyway, it worked!  Em ate and ate and ate...and then kept eating all the healthy foods after that.  She even started playing again...

Oh yes, and we had a lovely visit with Chuck and Penny as they stopped on their way through to Palm Springs.  The bonus to living on the freeway is that we get lots of visitors.

Ok, so what you see below is my $13 solution to our $500 problem.  Yes, I realize they are not the cutest, but we have been told by eye dr after eye dr to get Emily sunglasses to protect what she has left.  Unfortunately, there has been no way to do that except order her another pair of her regular glasses, with tint ($500...and it still might not work as they may melt).

Frustrated, I went in to one more optometrist and asked if there was any way to solve this problem and there was a random woman there who just so happened to know that walmart had just stocked a new style of clip-ons with a spring in them so they fit all sizes.  Hopeful, I went to the store and voila!!  On the smallest setting, they fit her glasses (tells you how wide they really are!).  Out the door for $13!  She can make fashion statements later in life, for now it's all about saving enough money to pay for the rest of the fence.  PTL!!

Oh, and princess K?  Her world really is pink now!

God Bless!  Please continue to pray for Cam and Barb and the whole family!

Jay and Katrina Erickson

This post clearly starts as a journal entry from several days ago, but as I have felt the need to share this with all of you, I have modified it.

I am not sure how I am supposed to write tonight. We have received word today that Jay and Katrina Erickson (Micah’s cousin) were killed in an airplane accident in Zambia, Africa where they were serving as missionary pilots to Chitokoloki Mission Hospital. They leave behind two little girls about our girls’ ages.

I cannot help but weep and mourn. I get down on my knees to pray, but mostly I cry. It is good the spirit can intercede on my behalf. My heart is broken and not just for those girls but for this family. This family has left so many behind in Africa it is beyond my fathoming. It creates in me a desire for this world to just come to an end…to just be done with all this; with all this pain, with all this hurt and loss.

Cam, the father of the deceased has now buried five immediate family members on that continent. Not even thirty years ago, this very same scenario played out for him when his brother, his wife and young son died in a car accident that took their lives but left their two daughters behind. Cam’s nieces were raised by his brother. Just losing a brother in this fashion is too hard to imagine but now his son as well? So much heartache, so much loss for one family to bear. How can this be? In what world is this right? Very few things in this world seem right or good but there is no denying the Erickson’s were born for Africa and Africa has needed the Ericksons.

It started three generations ago, when five brothers left their homestead in Montana to “take the gospel to the natives” and almost a hundred years later, Ericksons are still changing the continent. Thousands and thousands of Africans have come to know the Lord through their work. But it has not been without sacrifice. Nine Ericksons now lie in the African soil. Cam and Barb Erickson (M’s godparents/uncle and aunt) have left a brother, sister-in-law, nephew, son, daughter-in-law, uncle, aunt, and two cousins. Cam and Barb’s uncle, aunt and cousin I refer to are Jim’s (M’s dad) family…originally five and now just two. Jim’s sister died of yellow fever when she was just fourteen and his parents were martyred while Jim, having returned as an adult, served as a fellow missionary less than an hour away.

Very few families pass on any sort of passion from one generation to the next much less a passion for a continent, for a people; a people not of their own blood. Yet each Erickson generation has returned to carry on the ministry. Jay and Katrina Erickson are the third generation to give their lives to Africa. It is no exaggeration to say that the spiritual face of the entire continent of Africa has been impacted through the presence of this family. Countless Africans can trace their eternal lives back to an Erickson.

So why is the loss of a life so purposely lived so depressing? Jay said in his own words that there is no sadness in death for a Christian, other than the loss of companionship by those left behind. And he was right, yet it is precisely that companionship that makes us weep. Two baby girls who will grow up without their mother and father. Four parents who will bury their children before their time. Four siblings who will never again see their brother or sister and who will now raise their orphaned children. So many Africans who will not be carried to help by their white friends, will likely die themselves. Hundreds of brothers and sisters in Christ who will never again see, never again glean from, never again hold, hug or love on these people. So many missionaries who lost a fellow worker in the harvest. It will be deeply felt; deeply lost.

Jay got it all right, technically, but he missed it on the loss we all feel. We do not mourn the loss of their souls, those are safe with Jesus. What we mourn is the loss of their spirit that was supposed to live with us for just a little bit longer. We mourn because it reminds us of the loss of all those who have gone before them and the years of lost companionship left in the African soil.

Today we mourn the loss of Jay and Katrina, the loss of the parents their daughters will never know and the loss of parents who must bury their children.

Please pray with us that the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard their hearts and their minds in Christ Jesus. Pray that God will unleash all that He is into their hearts and minds, that He will offer a comfort and love we can’t even imagine.

Memorial Day

Did I really get this far behind? Alert! Many posts to soon follow. :)

Well, we woke up Monday morning and M says to me, "Hey, it's a holiday today, isn't it? That means my mom and I have the same day off, we should call and see what they are doing." Since Nana works a 'normal' schedule...weekdays...and M works weekends (and doesn't get holidays off unless they happen to fall on his regular day off), they rarely have the same day off...really almost never. So we called and off we went to visit Nana and Poppy.

Once we got there, we decided it was a perfect day for the beach. So we joined the thousands of others who thought the same thing...does this look stereotypical southern california or what?

Em has always been scared of the ocean...if you ever wondered why, the next time you are at the beach, close your eyes and listen to the roar, imagine you have no prior knowledge or experience with the ocean and then decide what your reaction would be.

This would be the first time she actually went in the water...

Such a big girl...well, for a little while...then we took turns holding her as there was no way she was going to be left standing on her own out there.

K is content to play in the sand for a while...

Ahhhh!!!! "Oh-sin coming get me!!!" as Emily puts it.

Since I didn't think about us heading to the beach, I didn't have suits along, so when K decided to go in the water, my jeans got soaked and K, well, she had to get her only pair of underwear wet.  The water was so warm and inviting, it was worth it.

Sometimes even the bravest among us need to be held against the waves.

Teaching K to watch the waves...

Back at Nana and Poppy's we went to the swingset to discover the slide missing.  This is K mourning the loss of the slide.  The slide got destroyed by kids...as all things around here seem to have a similar fate.  There is very little respect for things in this culture.

Good thing she has ADD and can be distracted easily.

Oh yes, we also ate the tradition excess of food involving the BBQ and lots of fresh fruit.  As this is Memorial Day, I would like to take a moment to honor my brother, who has given his life thus far in service to our country.  He has done three tours in Iraq, one to Afghanistan, Croatia and where else I am not sure.  He has lived in Guam, Italy, and all over the US.  I just want to thank him (and his wife and kids, let's not forget them) for all the sacrifices they make for us to have the freedom to take a last minute run to the beach for the fun of it. I know there are so many others who deserve our respect and honor, but I will leave that to you.  God Bless!