Trip to Philly

So two weeks ago Jeremy and I were packing for a long weekend in Philadelphia. We went out there to attend the CCEF (Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation) annual conference. Each year they pick a topic to focus on and this year it was about fear and anxiety. There were several general sessions, and about 16 elective sessions to pick from. We learned about all sorts of things - from obsessive compulsive disorder, to fear of death and aging, to helping fearful children, to responding when the terrible things we fear actually come true. It was a lot of information to take in! When we first got back everyone was asking us about the conference and what the highlights were, and so on. I wasn't sure how to sum it up then, and I'm still not, but now I know what has stood out to me the most. Ever since we got back I just keeping thinking about the fact that God gives us grace FOR THE MOMENT. We all have things we fear or tend to feel anxious about, but until those things actually come true for us we will not receive the grace to handle them. I know this to be true, from my own life and from hearing about other people's experiences, but I think I still tend to forget it. So it has been so helpful for me to dwell on that the past two weeks. There's no sense worrying about something that might happen in the future, because God isn't going to give me the grace to handle those things until they actually happen. If He gave us the grace now, we wouldn't realize our need for Him. Am I making sense? I think they said it much more eloquently at the conference.

So, we enjoyed the conference and we even had some free time to go exploring. We saw a few historic places in Philadelphia and we spent a great afternoon in Valley Forge National Park. That's where the pictures were taken.

Baking w/Suri

Suri is my friend that I met through Kinship. We've been hanging out every week or two for almost three years now! She's a sweet girl and we like to cook, read, craft and enjoy nature together. Two weeks ago we spent the afternoon making fruit salsa and cinnamon chips. Yummy!

Anniversary

Monday was our 2nd anniversary! We celebrated with a 4-course dinner at The Melting Pot downtown. We found out that four courses of fondue takes a long time - we were there for four hours! And it was a LOT of food. We actually didn't quite finish everything, which was very disturbing to Jeremy. I think the next time we go we'll do maybe an entree and dessert only.

Sometimes it seems like the few days of the year that you really want to be special, end up not being special or fun at all because someone is crabby or sick, etc. But our anniversary was really a good day. We enjoyed the meal and had fun reflecting on the past year and looking forward to the year to come. I'm so thankful to God for my sweet husband!

Emelia and Auntie go to Wood Lake

My nieces, Emelia and Hannah, stayed with us last weekend. On Saturday morning, Emelia and I went to Wood Lake Nature Center while Jeremy and Hannah went to the library. We all had a great time! Emelia pretty much talked the whole time we were walking, and she had us stop at every bench to have a snack/water break. We talked about school (she started kindergarten this year) and nature and God and cancer. It was really a sweet time together.

Felicity

Am I the world's worst blogger? I created this site and I haven't posted a thing for the past month! Actually I've been debating whether to continue with this site or create a Facebook account, but I've decided I like blogspot because it's simple and pretty and I just like it.

Well we have had a few blog-worthy experiences lately, but I probably only have time to write about one today. I promise I'll share the others at a later date. This past Wednesday our church held a funeral for a baby girl named Felicity. She died in the womb just a few days before her due date and she was delivered Saturday night. When things like this happen it brings my emotions about our miscarriage right up to the surface again, so I just didn't feel like I could handle going to the funeral, but Jeremy went and he said it was pretty amazing. I heard someone say that Felicity's parents were with their family on Sunday night singing the hymn "It is well." That is just spectacular to me! I'm sure they were singing through tears, but still... they were singing praise to God only 24 hours after delivering their lifeless baby! I pray that the Lord continues to support and encourage them through songs and words and people and scripture as they heal from this loss. And Lord, strengthen them to use this experience to point others to You.