Post- Tacos

"Taco Night" went great! Thanks for praying.  We were very comfortable and she seemed to be as well.  She left saying she was looking forward to next week.
Us too. =)

It's Taco night

There is nothing special about what I'm serving for dinner tonight.  Tacos is typical fare around our house.

Our company, however, is another story. 

Last week our Little Lady's caseworker asked us if we would be interested in mentoring her mom.  There was an hour time opening in Mom's schedule that the caseworker saw an an opportunity to spend time together.  I was a bit hesitant at first- namely because the time frame was from 5:30-6:30 and my mind went right to "but that's when I'm feeding my family!" =)  So, after some brainstorming I (brilliantly) suggested that well, since WE had to eat supper and Mom has to eat supper- why don't we just do THAT together here at our home?? (I know, I surprise myself with such keen insight ;-)  After approvals and figuring details out a bit we're excited to be able to spend some time with Mom tonight and each Wednesday for at least the next 8 weeks.  I don't know how YOUR dinner times go but ours are full of noise, reminding manners, attempted conversation, complaining about the food, usually an escaped bodily function which assures LOTS of giddiness, typically some exasperation on the adults behalf and summed up with some bible reading which is usually heard between giggles and burps.  Real life 101 I guess- and we can't be less than who we are.  My prayer going into this evening with a bit of trepidation is that we will just extend our craziness to envelop Mom into our circle.  I don't know what God is up to but I DO know how to serve up some tacos... 

Thanks for praying-

Cuteness x 3

Easter part 1

Isaiah 59:12

Our sins are piled up before God and they testify against us.

Yes, we know what sinners we are.

This year was our second annual "confession cross" as a part of our Easter Advent. The idea is to write out a sin (or sins) each day, ask for forgiveness if that wasn't already done, and then tape them (eventually) into the form of a cross. Well, we did NOT do this everyday and it wasn't as anticipated as doing our Thanksgiving Tree (where we write what we're thankful for each day) b/c let's face it- who wants to remember how rotten they were that day?

But the effect is still the same. Jaedon was just reading over the cross this morning and commented "Wow. That's a lot of sins for one family." True. A lot of ugliness. Thankfully, today we also were able to cover over our sins with the only covering possible- red crepe paper (resembling Jesus' blood of course ;-)

Last weekend we were able to travel to the Creation Museum. They had some very intricate displays that were neat to walk through and see starting with the Garden of Eden- this beautiful and perfect world created by God (including dinosaurs which my kids LOVED!)

Then, as you keep on walking you saw the serpent, the choice. From there the displays turned ugly- scary even.

One rather disturbing but powerful display was one of Adam and Eve dressed in animal skins with the skinned animals lying in front of them on the alter. Brad brought up this point- they tried to cover themselves first but it wasn't good enough.

Genesis 3:7 "At that moment their eyes were opened and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.

Perhaps this isn't a "wow-brand new information, Amber!" point to make but it struck me anew.

Aren't we still just like that?

We try all the time to cover ourselves- to hide our "nakedness" : our pride, selfishness, addictions, our lack of self control, impatience, anger, bitterness, unforgiveness or our disbelief. And if we think we don't have a "nakedness" problem we're probably covering ourselves with LAYERS of our own making. God wasn't fooled by their attempts and he's not fooled by mine either. Even the attempts of our own confession cross is skewed. We aren't oh-so-eager to be reminded of our failings each day because we hear that sssssneaky voice say things to us like "oh, you're not THAT bad!" or "It's just one teeny thing- no need to ask forgiveness for something that small!" Oh yes! The serpent still lurks. And sin is still ugly.

I hope that as I enter this weekend of reflection and celebration I can strip off my own coverings for all my (many) nakednesses (is that a word?!) and be reminded once again the cost of my once and for all paid-for clothing.