Matters of the Heart

As I shared in my last post Lily had a wonderful time at VBS a few weeks ago. But something much more meaningful than that happened there. Lily would tell us bits and pieces about what she was learning, but when she came home on Thursday of that week she launched into the whole story of how Jesus died on the cross, was buried in the tomb, and came back to life! When she shared about how Jesus died she said so sweetly, "And that's the sad part." I was blown away by the detail in which she understood. Later that day I overheard her talking to one of her stuffed animals telling him how she had Jesus in her heart and that he could have Jesus in his heart too if he wanted. So sweet.
So, I began to wonder a bit after that day, but I didn't really have a chance to sit down and talk more with her about these things until after the 4th of July weekend. A few days later I asked her where Jesus was and she said that He was in her heart! I asked her what that meant and she told me that it means that Jesus has taken away all of the bad things in her heart. I asked her if Jesus forgives her for all of these bad things in her heart and she said that He does. She then told me that she prayed for Jesus to come into her heart at VBS!!!
A few days after that we were talking again about how she will spend forever with God in heaven because she has Jesus in her heart and He has forgiven her. She got all excited about this and proceeded to ask me if I was going to be in heaven, if daddy was going to be in heaven, etc... and then suddenly she got really excited because, as she told me, her friend Lily had also prayed to have Jesus come into her heart at VBS and now they would get to be together in heaven too! Melt my heart.
So, I know that this is the most basic understanding of the Gospel and I hope and believe that as she grows and her understanding of the Gospel message grows as well that she will choose to rededicate her heart and life to Christ. But for the moment, I can only believe that God is faithful to his promises and that when a little red headed three year old prays for Jesus to come into her heart that God will do just that. God tells us to come to Him with the faith of a child. And now the God of the universe has taken up residence in the heart of my sweet baby girl. There may be no sweeter a gift than this.

VBS

A few weeks ago Lily went to VBS (Vacation Bible School) for the first time! She went to our friend's church this time for VBS because they offered the program for preschoolers and because a few of her favorite little friends were going. She went 5 mornings in a row from 9a.m.-Noon (which I have to admit was a nice break, but I also have to confess that I was a little sad leaving her the first day)! But, as I expected, she did wonderfully and LOVED the whole thing! Every day they did crafts, sang worship songs, played games, had bible lessons, had play time, snacks, and even memorized a bible verse! There were about 10 kids her age in her class- which I think was really great for Lily. I was so impressed with the whole program and with everybody who worked to make it happen. Overall VBS was a fantastic experience and I'll share more in an upcoming post about something especially exciting that happened there!

P.S. These are two of the crafts that Lily made at VBS (a wind sock and a light catcher)!

Acadia Summer Project 2010

I got to spend a month this summer with all of these wonderful people!

I just saw this picture for the first time today and oh how it makes me miss all of them- such good friends!

P.S. Notice that Lily is the only person not looking at the camera- that's my girl!

Eagerly Waiting For...

Here is Lily yesterday afternoon peeking out the window, eagerly waiting for the arrival of her Grammy and G-Pa. Oh my, she was beyond excited...for days! And just minutes away from their arrival it was just almost too much for her to keep in! They have been here just over twenty four hours now and we have already hit up Gov's for a meal, did sparklers in the backyard, picked raspberries, purchased enough fresh veggies from the farmers market to enjoy a tasty steak salad for dinner, made brownies, unpacked some of the many little gifts from Grammy's suitcase, played on Lily's new swing set, loved on the neighbors new little puppy, and enjoyed delicious brownie sundaes with raspberry sauce! Sweet.

Ouch!

A couple of nights ago Joe came into the kitchen carrying Lily with a little bloody towel bunched up under her chin. A few minutes earlier she slipped while in the shower and cracked her chin open on the side of the bathtub. And yet I didn't hear any screams or even crying at all! Joe said she cried for about 5 seconds and that was it (she cries more than that when her socks don't match her outfit)!! She was such a little trooper! It wasn't bleeding too much, but it did seem sort of deep so we debated for a bit about whether to take her to the hospital. In the end I convinced Joe that little girls might not think scars are cool so he decided to take her to urgent care. We were expecting stitches, but thankfully they were able to seal it with Dermabond. And...the doctor told Joe that Lily was the best child they have ever used it on!!! Joe said she was wonderful and handled it all so well. I was so proud of my little girl (who apparently got her toughness from Joe)! She earned herself a trip to Toys R' Us the next day where we let her pick out any toy of her choice. Given thousands of things to choose from my tough little girl chose a fairy princess dress up dress and magic wand. That's my girl!

Hot, Hot, Hot

It is HOT, HOT, HOT here!

It's that kind of hot, humid, muggy weather where your clothes feel damp just from wearing them, and cookies left out on the table get mushy, and everything is just STICKY!

We only have an air conditioner upstairs where the kids sleep, so during the day we are left to drinking lots of lemonaid and sitting in front of fans.

Watching Eli's whispy little blond hairs blowing from the fan just makes me laugh.

Babies, Badmiton, Beaches, Barbeque, and Big Booms

This was our 4th of July weekend: Babies

Badminton

Beaches (I don't have any pictures, but we spent the afternoon at Peacock Beach where Joe and his family went often when he was little)

Barbecue (we had a great BBQ picnic with all of the family at Nonnie and Grampy's house)

Big Bangs: Lily was beyond excited for the fireworks and she talked about it for days, but things didn't go quite as planned. We headed to Freeport to watch the LL Bean fireworks and when trying to find a place to park we lost track of Joe's brother and his girls. It took us a little while to meet back up with them and in the process the fireworks started early! Yes, early. In all my years of watching fireworks they have never, ever been early (usually they are rather late actually). So, basically the fireworks started and we made a mad dash for anywhere that we could see them- which meant that we ended up watching them in a parking lot. It just wasn't quite the same. And as excited as Lily was and as much as she LOVED the fireworks last year this time around for some reason the big, loud booms scared her (and she kept her hands over her ears the entire time). She says she liked watching them but that she just didn't like the noise. Fair enough. Overall the display was a little disappointing, but maybe that was because we were in a parking lot!:) I tried for the first time to get some pictures of the fireworks. This proved to be rather tricky, but I guess you have to start somewhere.

The picture below is my favorite of the ones I got- and it was the last one I took of the evening. Not only do I love the light exploding through the smoke, but I also kind of like that you can just make out the outline of a car at the bottom- which will always remind me of where we watching the fireworks on the 4th of July in 2010!

"Have We Met Before?"

Playing with each others hands- too cute!

Notice Eli checking out her rattle...and then trying to steal it (below)!

"Have we met before?"

Yes, these Cousins cousins (Eli Cousins and Holly Cousins) have officially "met" before- but they never really noticed each other until the other day. In fact, there have been very few moments previous to this that they were both actually awake in the same place before (much less awake, not eating, and content). We went down to Joe's parent's house for the holiday weekend and the day we got there Joe's brother and his family joined us for dinner. And these two cousins officially noticed each other- and not only did they notice each other but they really seemed to entertain each other for a bit- just watching one another, trying to play with each other's hands (this was my favorite), and even sharing toys (okay, Eli was stealing her toys).

Another Cousins friendship in the making.

First Day of Summer

She was asking if she could swim in her pool long before we even left for Bar Harbor (in May)! I promised her that when we got back from the summer project that we could get a pool (her old one had some holes) and put in up on our deck in the back. We literally stopped to buy one on the drive home from Bar Harbor!:) I assured her that she would be able to play in it the following day after her nap- but much to our dismay there was a thunderstorm. So here she is, on officially the first day of summer, eagerly awaiting (and watching) her pool- just counting the minutes until her little brother would wake up and she could finally, finally (after all of these months) dive into her little pool!

10K

Today Joe and I registered to run in the Westport Island 10K Shore Run on August 22nd. So maybe you are thinking, "Gee, I didn't know you were a runner." Well, you would be right. I'm not. A runner. At all. Seriously. And you know what, I don't think I'll ever really be. No, it's not because I don't want to be a runner or that I'm in my 30's, or that I have two kids, but more that I have two bad knees. And yet I've realized that left to my own devices I will ALWAYS choose to "sleep in" rather than work out. Or watch tv, or blog, or edit pictures, or work on some sort of craft or project or something. If I'm being honest I would probably choose to clean before work out. So...I need something to motivate me...I need something to train for. So just recently I convinced Joe to start training with me for a sprint triathlon (which we would compete in next summer). I figured that I might be able to handle that with my knees (since it's not quite as much running and it's mixed in with biking and swimming). And while I still want to do that, Joe decided that this goal is too far away to be really motivating (and he is probably right). And then he heard about this program at our YMCA where a woman there is training people to run a 10K. So we signed on. It's a pretty good deal as she will help us develop a training plan as well as meet with us individually once a week for training. So for a pretty low cost we've got ourselves a trainer (for 10 weeks) and some proper motivation to actually get me up and running! We start on Monday...So here we go...it should be interesting. I'll keep you all updated!