Love one another

Just heard this from my precious children and I had to record it...

Eric and Amy were sitting at the table eating lunch when Amy says, "I'm done."

She got up and started making her way to the living room when she says, "Hey Eric, wanna play Charades?"

Eric: Not right now, I'm still eating.

Amy: Okay, I'll just play by myself.

(By the way, how does one play Charades by oneself?)

Eric: Nooooo, Amyeeeeeeeeee. I want to play with you. You are my best friend.

At that my heart swells and a broad smile takes over my face.

"This is My commandment, that you LOVE one another, that your joy may be full." ~Jesus

I know why God commands us to love one another and I know how much joy it brings Him when we love each other. My kids say they love me all the time and yes I love to hear it and I appreciate it. I know they love me. I gave birth to them, I nursed them, I held them close for hours on end and bonded with them early in their lives and everyday since. So I really do not have to hear from their lips that they love me...albeit wonderful...I just know they love me.

But when I hear them say that they love one another and that they are best friends... that warms my heart infinitely more than when they profess their love for me. Why is that?

Now as I type this they are making Lego space ships for each other. Such a joy to peek in on them.

This is the greatest commandment, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and the second is this, love thy neighbor ~Mark 12:30

Getting Up

Getting up early to read, pray and write.

What is it with me and getting up early!?! Why is it so hard and such a battle in my mind? My husband gets up for work and leaves by 5:30 every morning. So I feel like I have at least some motivating factor to help get my tush out of bed and see him off.

But no. I stay and sleep.

"A little sleep, a little slumber, and a little folding of the hands to rest; so shall your poverty come like a prowler, and your need like an armed man." Proverbs 24:33

That's convicting. Is it convicting enough for me to get out of bed?

A few months ago I was enjoying a lovely evening with a group of women. All of these women were married to physicians (be it residents or attendings). So one major action that the two wiser and more experienced ladies did was to get up every morning with their husbands and fix his breakfast or get his coffee.

They GOT UP!!! One admitted that she didn't do much for her husband at 4:30am in the morning except heat up a muffin for him, but hey, getting one's head away from a warm, soft pillow and one's feet onto the cold, hard floor of the early morning says she did MUCH!

These ladies were on the same team as their husbands. They were for them and they didn't just say it, but they lived it. They anticipated the needs of their God-given spouses and put some action in the mix.

I say that I am a relational individual and that I have often 'taken pride' in the fact that I am just "so relational". The truth is I am a very poor communicator. So the whole 'relational' thing is thrown out the window because how in the world can one have a relationship with anybody unless there is communication?!

So here I am, communicating with myself really and writing for the world wide web to see that I have resolved to get up at least two mornings a week to communicate with my husband (my most important human relationship) before he leaves for work. Additionally, I will stay up in order to have a time to communicate with God (my most important relationship).

"His grace is sufficient for thee"

Cush

...the land of whirring wings along the rivers of Cush, which sends envoys by sea in papyrus boats over the water. Go, swift messengers, to a people tall and smooth-skinned, to a people feared far and wide, an aggressive nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers -
Isaiah 18

Present day northern Ethiopia is the Cush of the Old Testament. I have seen it with my own eyes and what a sight indeed! This was my first trip overseas and I was overwhelmed. Sure I knew beforehand what a fortunate nation America is and that we have so much abundance, but I was shocked at the real way of living for most of the 80 million people in Ethiopia. It is one thing to see something on TV when you are watching it from your air conditioned house in a comfy recliner. It is totally different when you are experiening it standing in the middle of Ethiopia looking into the eyes of one of its daughters.

I flew into Addis Ababa on a Thursday night and was one of the ONLY white (Farinjii) in a huge crowd of the Bole Internationa Airport. After passing through customs and picking up my bag I headed for the reception area straining to find the other farinjii (my Timmy) in a crowd of hundreds. What a welcome sight he was!

From there we went to his apartment that he called home for the past four weeks. The next morning I woke at 4:30am to the encantations from an Ethiopian Orthodox Christian priest. There must have been a church nearby and this church had a loud speaker with which the priest was able to broadcast the daily prayers. "Strange speech" indeed. The national language is Amharic and second to that is English.

That day I spent with Tim at Zewditu hospital where he worked for some of the month. Black Lion, the other hospital was the larger of the two and I did not get to go there. That night we went to a traditional Ethiopian restaurant with dancing, food and the whole bit. It was really awesome and eyeopening.

The next morning we began our journey through Abyssinia. Bahir Dar to Gondor to Lalibela to Axum and finally back to Addis Ababa.

I have so much more to share, but I will wait for another post. I hope to get pictures put up too. In the meantime, if you EVER get the opportunity to go to Africa - TAKE IT!!! Until next time...

Down in Africa...

Ethiopia. In the Old Testament this country was called Cush. Lake Tana is the headwaters of the Blue Nile that eventually feeds into the Nile. Tim is there right now working at Black Lion hospital and I am so proud of him. He will be there for four weeks teaching nurse anesthetists.

I just talked with a gal at church who has a three year old and just gave birth to her second child just four short weeks ago.

Her husband is deployed and has been for three months. He has six months to go.

So I have been without my husband for an entire weekend and I am complaining because...

Seriously. Lets give a shout out to not only the soldiers serving in the military, but to their wives and children. You inspire me. Blessings to you this Thanksgiving because I am thankful for you.

...proud to be an American

Yesterday I took the kids to a birthday party for a three year old girl at none other than...

CHUCK E CHEESE!!!!!!!!!

Ahhh, Chuck E. Cheese. In my humble opinion, the bane of American entertainment.

Is he a rat or a mouse?

So imagine, a Sunday afternoon, a RAINY afternoon at that.

Six different birthday parties all with at least 10 kids and some more.

Some grown-ups with WILD ink and piercings.

Some really cute, polite kids.

Some really cute, not-so-polite-it's-always-my-turn-kids.

All in all, it was complete mayhem.

My Eric and Paul loved and I mean LOVED it! I wanted to let Paul walk around, but in all the chaos he would have been trampled in a matter of seconds. Needless to say he was content to be on my hip most of the two and a half hours.

Amy...not so much. (That's my girl!)

Eric's first RACE!

The attached pic is of me and Eric (almost 5!) at The Man Run UTMCK annual event. He ran one mile!!!!! So proud of him.

Daddy ran with Amy and Baby Paul in the double jogger (GO SUPER DAD!) for the 5K.

What else is going on around here...Umm not too much.

Planning for Eric's campout birthday party

Teaching yoga and Pilates Tuesday mornings at my church

Living life to the fullest by enjoying Him

Paul's favorite activity is dropping anything into the toilet. My old cell phone, some Hot Wheels cars, one of Amy's bracelets and some crayons are just a few of the casualties that have ended up in the john. Sometimes clean and sometimes not (GROSS!)

Now I am pondering how these blogger couponing masteristas have time to take pictures of all of their projects, download them to the computer then post them on the blog and type a super detailed explanation of the experience! Seriously! I just read three only three blogs of some women around here in K-town who do couponing and crafting. THEY HAVE KIDS! Do they not get interrupted while on the computer. Do they just have kids who play contentedly at their mother's feet while the mom just types away and share all of her awesomeness with the world wide web?

At any rate, there are goods and bads to blogging. Good to share ideas and make this world a better place. Bad - because I tend to compare myself to others and when comparing myself to the blogging world of coupon master crafter moms, I am a total loser.

At the end of this day I am comforted by this

All too soon this life will pass, only what's done for Christ will last.

Eric