Remembering Jesus

I have been reading through Revelation the last few weeks and the other day came across a great passage that I thought would be fitting for Christmas Eve. No, it is not the usual Christmas Eve passage but I think it is helpful in remembering just who Jesus, that tiny baby in a manger, really was.

"Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems (crowns), and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords." Rev. 19:11-16 (ESV)

So this Christmas, keep in mind that Jesus, the seemingly helpless babe, was and is The Word of God and that He was and is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the mighty conqueror. He is from the beginning and will be for all eternity. His power is unending. Doesn't this make Christmas mean all that much more - this gives the reality of Jesus in all of his power and splendor, a reminder of his divine nature, God himself and yet, "[He] who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." (Phil 2:6-8)This is why he came - for us. This great warrior, this King of Kings, humbled himself and became a servant for us, suffering the humiliation and death that we deserved, taking it upon himself so that we wouldn't have to, so that we can walk with him and be with God for eternity. Praise God! But it was not for us alone. Ultimately it was his worship and for God's glory. "Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Phil 2:9-11)

Merry Christmas! 

Lots of Pictures!

Here is a post of pictures capturing all the fun we've had the last several months or so. Enjoy!

The ZOO! We went to the zoo this summer with Wesley's birth mom and half sister, Annie. We really loved the bird house and the birds really loved us. They were hopping all over the stroller and on us!

David hanging out in the stroller with Annie

The ARBORETUM - We went of a stroll and a hike through one of our favorite summer spots in Kansas - it's a beautiful place. It has a pond with lots of turtles, a huge, gorgeous perennial garden and  lots of hiking trails that skirt around hug trees and a creek. The park even has an outdoor miniature train set up that the boys love to watch. It has a life size caboose that Wes loves to climb.

The BEACH!! As part of a long journey to the deep south to visit my family, we spent several days at the beach in Florida with my sister and brother-in-love. 

David was petrified of the ocean at first but he soon warmed up to it. Here he's hanging out with Mamma, still getting more used to the water. 

David lounging with Aunt Elizabeth in his beloved sleep sack. 

David loved the sand and before he learned the true joy of playing in the water, he spent most of his time playing in the sand and walking the shore. 

Playing with Uncle Joey.

Hanging out with Papa.

Our first attempt at the beach resulted in a thundering downpour! 

GEORGIA! Another part of the trip down south was of course to stay with my parents in Georgia. It was a wonderfully relaxing vacation - once we actually made it there. We swam, did lots of swimming, the boys had lots of time outside and playing with Mamma's old Fisher Price toys.

David playing ball in my parent's backyard.

Watching a little tv with Grandma B. 

Wes is getting quite good of all types of sports. 

David found the patio furniture quite tasty!

Enjoying some yogurt on the deck. 

HALLOWEEN! This year, as usual for the last couple of years, we went to our church's neighborhood fall festival.

Wes has the same costume from last year. When it came time to buy one for him, he insisted on wearing the cow again. It still fit him so, why not? David, in keeping with the farm theme is a horse. 

Carving pumpkins. 

THANKSGIVING! We spent Thanksgiving with Eric's family in Arkansas.

Reading books with Grandma.

Wes monkeying around with Uncle Nathan and Aunt April

Hanging out with Grandpa in his big chair. 

Nabbing Grandpa's chair before he gets to it! 

Taking a lunch break at Firehouse subs in the middle of a LONG day of shopping. 

RANDOM & MISCELLANEOUS! 

Contagious smile

Enjoying another bowl of yogurt.

David loves to stack things, anything he can find! These are my spice jars. Yes, some of my spices are stored in old baby food jars. I had to find a solution for fitting them in the small drawer I keep them in. 

Don't you just want to squeeze those cheeks!

And these cheeks, too? 

Eric rode in a 35 mile bike ride with a couple of friends from work - the Tour de BBQ. So, Kansas City has over 100 BBQ joints from what we've heard. On this tour, which benefitted cancer research, the cyclist enjoyed BBQ from seven different establishments at stops along the way. What a tough ride! ;)

We refurbished our basement, trying to give it a facelift without finishing it completely. It is a nice little play place for the boys to exert lots of energy (Wes especially) during the bitter winters and rainy days, and even has a nice little area for grown ups and reading. 

Well, we found out that we are going to have a girl and after a week or two of trying to hold back, I gave in and bought some clothes. I've since bought another little shirt and a 3 piece outfit - all on sale. :) I had a hard enough time with the boys clothes. This is going to take much prayer and self-control! 

After each nap/quiet time every day, I never know what I'm going to find in Wesley's room. Most of the time though, he's come up with something creative with his cars, trains or blocks. Here he had his cars and trains in school. :)

This summer Eric and his dad built a play house/swing set for the boys. Wes has learned how to swing for himself and both boys love to climb up the ladder and go down the super fast slide. 

Wes loves to build different train track configurations. He's gotten quite good at doing them himself. 

David is often found with his nose in a book, right side up or not. 

Let's go outside!!!

After almost a year of hardly noticing the rocking horse, David finally wanted to ride it! 

Getting ready to venture out on the first 20 degree day. 

On one of our trips to Arkansas, Wes was surprised with a "new" bike! It is a little big but he LOVES it!

Happy boy in the tree house. 

Santa or Not?

Among Christian circles there is great opinion about whether to include Santa Claus in the celebration of Christmas. Eric and I have been pondering how to handle this with our own children. Do we say Santa is a myth with no redeeming qualities or do we include him in some way in the season? On the one hand Santa seems to embody the consumeristic hunger that secular Christmas has become. On the other hand, it might be possible to further explain the spirit of giving at Christmas. Hank Hanegraaf wrote, "far from being a dangerous fairy tale, Santa Clause in reality is an Anglicized form of the Dutch name Sinter Klaus, which in turn is a reference to Saint Nicholas, a Christian bishop from the fourth century. According to tradition, Saint Nick not only lavished gifts on needy children, but also valiantly supported the doctrine of the Trinity at the Council of Nicea in AD 325." The Heart of Christmas: A Devotional for the Season by Hank Hanegraaf. 

So, the real Santa Claus, not the embodiment of heresy and materialism, affirmed Christian beliefs about the divine nature of our Savior as expressed in the idea of the Trinity and was very generous. Hanegraaf concluded this devotional segment about Santa Claus and the Trinity, "In Sum, then, Christians may look back on the tradition of Saint Nick...as a legendary hero of the faith. Of course the notion that Santa Claus lives at the North Pole in a toy factory, that he sees children at all times and knows whether they've been bad or good, and that he travels in a sled pulled by flying reindeer, is clearly myth and should therefore be treated as such. This December 25 as you celebrate the coming of Christ with a Christmas tree surrounded by presents, may the story of selflessness on the part of Saint Nick remind you of the Savior who gave the greatest gift of all. Thus rather than supplant the Savior with Santa, we can use Saint Nick as a reminder to generously support God-ordained ministries so that the message of salvation can reach those who have not yet received salvation by God's grace alone, through faith alone - and on account of Christ alone. " And I add, giving generously to those in need around us and abroad.

So does all of this look like for our family? Our focus is Christ, his birth, the gift of salvation he offers to us, the Word became flesh. We've been reading several verses every day about the birth of Christ from the gospels and the prophecy of his coming from Isaiah and Malachi. We have a book called, J for Jesus by Crystal Bowman that expresses the legend of the candy cane but tells frankly the purpose of Christ's coming and death. We have another book that we are going to read to the boys a couple of days before Christmas and the day of called, My Christmas Gift also by Crystal Bowman that expresses the real gift of Christmas and not to miss it among the gift giving and receiving of Christmas Day. We have several books portraying the birth of Jesus that we've been reading. On Christmas Day we are going to give Wes a sticker book that once again explains the whole purpose of Christmas.

As far as Santa goes, we've read stories about him and explaining that there was a real Santa Claus who gave gifts to poor people and followed Jesus but we don't emphasize the flying reindeer and other myths associated with the jolly old man. We thought that we'd have the stockings be from Santa in the tradition of how Saint Nick would do it, but not focus on him actually coming down the chimney or watching over them to know if they've been naughty or nice.

Another thing we've incorporated this year into the festivities is a Jesse Tree. I had hoped to do it last year but couldn't get all the sewing done for it in time! A fellow worker in Lebanon introduced this idea to me years ago. Mine looks far different from hers but the concept is still the same. You start  on December 1, each day read until Christmas a  major story of the Bible that points to Christ's coming (creation, fall, flood, Abraham, Isaac, the 10 commandments, Ruth, Esther, Jonah, Daniel and the lion, Mary, Joseph, John the Baptist, the shepherds, etc) and then pick the ornament that goes along with the story and hang it on the tree. I don't think Wes would have appreciated it last year. This has been a lot of fun this year!


On Christmas Day, we plan to open a gift or two, or their stockings and then have a breakfast together with a breakfast cake for Jesus, sing Happy Birthday to Jesus, read the Christmas story again (we probably will have read it the night before as well for the Jesse Tree) from the Jesus Storybook Bible and sing some Christmas carols.  Then we can finish opening gifts.

We may rethink all of this next year, but for now, this is our plan. Hope you have a wonderful Christmas!

Our Christmas Letter

So, our printer has been giving us fits lately! It ran out of ink and also kept having paper jams and unknown errors. We put in new ink but it printed very fuzzy! We couldn't figure out how to fix this or buy a new printer before we needed to send out our Christmas letters so we just decided to put the letter on my blog. Hope you don't mind. I guess this is more environmentally friendly. :) Enjoy!

Ps. It is my plan to post a bunch of pictures from the last several months and to start posting blogs more regularly after the new year.

Beautiful Blessings of 2013

God has blessed us so much this year. One of the biggest blessings this year has been the surprise news of another little one joining our family, biologically! And... it’s a girl! She’s due April 4, 2014.

Our boys bring us great delight. Wesley Joseph has such contagious laughter, a wild imagination and an inquisitive nature, is extra-extroverted, has boundless energy and an iron will. He loves to make all kinds of noise, talk, have people over, plan parties, create new train track configurations, and do anything that requires running, jumping, hiding, climbing, throwing, swinging and pedaling. Lately, we’ve had wonderful conversations about Jesus, the gospel, God, sin, and the Bible. What a blessing!

David Elliot’s personality has blossomed. He’s a laid-back, quiet, stubborn thinker - a little shy, but terribly cuddly and sweet. He loves his blankies and thumb, music, puzzles, books, trains, cars, animals, stacking blocks, hiding things, lining things up in perfect rows including his peas and noodles, and stuffing small things into other small things. He mostly does his own thing but also enjoys people and still smiles with a sparkle in his eyes. 

Last year, God gave Melanie a desire to gather women from church for fellowship together and mutual encouragement. This has resulted in a few small gatherings for prayer and book discussions (In the Land of Blue Burqas and Battling Unbelief) which she plans to continue. Lately she’s really been especially burdened for young moms and is praying for direction in that area. Along with this, God has rekindled in her a passion for children’s development and education and has been reading many books, blogs and articles on these topics. She also still enjoys doing crafty things and preparing whole, unprocessed food and recipes.

Eric has continued to work as a mechanical engineer at Black & Veatch, and achieved his first promotion!  Along with this 8-5 job he continued to serve as a pastor/elder at Cross Fellowship Church.  It has been greatly challenging and rewarding for him to serve in this role; both from the standpoint of developing an organization together with others that previously didn’t exist, and most greatly in knitting our lives together with our brothers and sisters at CFC.  In his free time (does that exist any more?) he worked on projects around the house, designed and built the boy’s playground (with a lot of help from his dad!), fixed a few things on his new truck (1997 F150 4x4 manual transmission...yea baby!), and squeezed in a few good books and movies.

We enrolled Wesley in a 3 year old class in a homeschool co-op that meets once a week and Melanie teaches part of this class. This co-op gives Wes more social interaction that he loves; Melanie gets a creative outlet for teaching.  Though it makes for an exhausting day, it has been a huge blessing to her because of the parenting wisdom she’s gleaned from all the more experienced moms she regularly gets to interact with there. 

This year has not brought much outward turmoil or struggle, other than being more busy than we can handle sometimes, but we’ve faced some definite inward challenges that have pushed us beyond ourselves. With the challenges that parenting brings and the responsibilities of work and church planting combined, we are often confronted with our own sin. Time and again we’ve been reminded of God’s beautiful grace that sent Jesus to take away the guilt and punishment of our sin and of His assurance that He loves us and doesn’t want us to stay like we are. We’ve also been reminded through other people’s suffering of how big God is, how unjust is the sin in our world that causes pain and suffering, how precious life and family and friends are, how much we waste on worthless things and bad attitudes, and how beautiful and strong is the body of Christ far and near. All these things that come to our lives are for a reason, pleasant or unpleasant, to draw us to the Lord, to push us to rely less on ourselves and make us more like Him. Through these truths God has taught us greater joy and satisfaction in Him alone, to be worshipful throughout the day, to seek out how He’s working knowing that each day is purposeful for Him and His glory. This is so, even in what seems the mundane things of life. All of these things are a great blessing indeed! 

2013 Highlights

Winter - Eric traveled to the middle of the Indian Ocean for work and also had lots of time for snorkeling, a 5k run, golfing and eating fresh fish while Melanie and her sister shoveled out loads of snow as two huge snow storms passed through Kansas in four days. We gave a facelift to our unfinished basement to give the boys a space to run around in during the long, frigid winter months. What a blessing!!!!!!

Spring - Eric passed his Professional Engineering exam!!! Hurray!  Melanie was delightfully involved with a few others in choosing a new children’s curriculum for our church. We both thoroughly enjoyed doing premarital counseling with another couple and learned a lot about ourselves and each other in the process! What Did You Expect is the best marriage book ever! 

Summer (VERY BUSY!)

• We were again involved in another huge neighborhood garage sale with our church. 
• Our church hosted a backyard Bible club for the first time. Great fun! 
• After several weeks of physical therapy to push him along and correct a very awkward gate, David learned to walk! 
• Melanie’s parents visited. We learned that to give Wes a regular size hot fudge Sunday is not a good idea. 
• On Mel’s big 4-0 birthday, we found out we are going to have another baby!

- Melanie visited a dear friend in Oklahoma

• We trekked across America to GA and Florida to visit family and friends and have a little vacation at the beach. Wesley enjoyed body surfing and David just mostly wanted to walk up and down the beach - once he learned to walk, he didn’t want to stop!  
• The boys enjoyed many days going for walks, riding tricycles and playing on their new swing set.
• Went family camping in the backyard for the first time!  Wes and Eric roasted marshmallows over the Coleman!

Fall - Eric joined a men’s bible study through work.  Melanie and the boys started teaching/attending the homeschool co-op. Wesley learned to ride a bike (with training wheels). Melanie discovered and devoured the parenting book Don’t Make Me Count to Three that has been a huge help in biblically training our boys to love, be kind, share, obey and be respectful. We are so thankful to have found this very practical jewel!

Prayer Points - 

• Big picture direction for the short and long term future
• Better time management skills and a oneness in prioritization
• A safe and easier pregnancy, i.e, no bed rest!

My Favorite Parenting Book

Finally, I thought I would write another blog entry. I have so many ideas for writing floating the back of my head but alas, I am not the best at executing them. This one I have wanted to write about for a very long time. I am just not good at writing about why I like a book. But I will give it a shot.

I have read countless parenting books - probably 20, or more. Yes, really, that many! I will list some of the other ones I like at the end of this post. However, my all time favorite parenting book, the one I go back to more than any other to glean from its time-tested wisdom, spiritual motivation and general encouragement is...

The Shaping of a Christian Family by Elisabeth Elliot

As I may have mentioned before in a previous blog, there is a distinct reason why gave David the middle name Elliot. The life of Jim Elliot, the martyr missionary to the Auca Indians in Ecuador and his wife before his death, Elisabeth have had more influence on my spiritual life as a whole than any other even more than John Piper and David Platt!  I have read more of her books than any other author. Her words are encouraging, challenging, exhorting, frank and yet true, obedient and helpful. So, I was so excited to learn that she had written a book about Christian parenting! I found out about this book and read it probably in 2008, 2 years before I became a parent and have since given away numerous copies, loaned mine out often and had to by new ones for myself. The current copy I have has tons of underlining, stars and about 20 dog-eared pages.

So why do I like the book over all other parenting books? Well, this is an autobiography of Elisabeth's childhood as well as the childhood of her mother and father. I love learning from biographies and autobiographies. So I think she wrote the book as a means to show a model for others what a Christian family looks like. You see a mother and father who were devoted to Lord and lived it out and you see parents and children who were not perfect but whose home was one of peace, laughter, tenderness, encouragement and love, just what I want for my family. She covers all kinds of topics and gives examples of how those things were lived out in her family - everything from family devotions, mealtime behavior, common courtesies, discipline, the role of husband and wife, mother and father, work and play, the Sabbath, schedules and routines, good habits, the training of infants and young children, preparing for new babies, leisure/vacation time, etc, etc, etc at a time when there was no tv, her mother had no dishwasher or washing machine, no tupperware, squeezies (the greatest modern invention getting children to eat their vegetables!), etc. Furthermore, it is full of beautiful, quotable gems that Elisabeth Elliot is so good at writing. And, because it is all written in the context of her family (her and 5 siblings) it makes it so much easier to comprehend how to implement her ideas into my family. It is rich with spiritual encouragement and old-fashioned parenting wisdom that our country has all but forgotten.

I have read this book so many times I've lost count. I just picked it up again over the weekend after not reading it for a while. I just can't get enough of it! Read it for yourself and find out.

So here are some other good parenting books that I like too although they don't quite measure up to The Shaping of a Christian Family. Most are probably ones that you might not have heard of. I always like to go off the beaten path! :) The first three are recommended by Elisabeth Elliot in the back of her book.  That is how I came across those.

Hints on Child Training - Henry Clay Trumbull (Elisabeth's grandfather, first published 1891)

My First 300 Babies - Gladys West Hendrick

The Mother at Home - John S.C. Abbott (Free on the Kindle, first published 1833)

Shepherding a Child's Heart - Ted Tripp

For the Family's Sake - Susan Schaeffer Macauley (daughter of Francis Schaeffer)

The Mission of Motherhood - Sally Clarkson

Parenting By the Book - John Rosemond


All of the above are Christian in nature and subject however, I have two that I love that are secular and about the... French parenting methods! They are fun to read and revealing about our American culture of consumerism, instant gratification and over-indulgence.

French Kids Eat Everything - Karen Le Billon

French Twist: An American Mom's Experiment in Parisian Parenting - Catherine Crawford (this one is hilarious but is occasionally crass).

The next parenting book waiting in the quay is Duties of Parents by J.C. Ryle quoted often by Elliot, and another oldie. :)

Wesley's Three!!!

Wesley enjoying the snow!

Finally, I'm writing about our dear Wesley! I've been meaning for months to write but the time just gets away! Wes is at such a fun age! He's really talking well and he loves to talk! He comes out with the funniest things! One of the funniest lately was "pankytoes" - this is how he says pantyhose. I laughed so hard when he said this! It was so cute. He asks about everything and he never forgets what you tell him. He doesn't miss anything! 

Lately Wes is really into several fun things. He loves to pretend that he's a cat, pretending to lick and meow and curl up like a cat. He's also into owls. He is fascinated by them but I think he is kind of afraid of them too. We've read lots of books about owls. His favorites are Owls by Gail Gibbons and Owl Moon by Jane Yolen. During the day Wes often says we need to be quiet because the owls are sleeping. He can even recognize several different kinds of owls in pictures like the Great Horned Owl and the Snowy Owl. He really likes the owls with the heart-shaped faces like the Barn Owl. (By the way, he calls all heart-shaped things "happy tarts." This comes from us trying to teach him to have a happy heart and us praying together to Jesus for each of us to have a happy heart when we are having a hard day.

His birth mom recently had a baby girl named Annie. We've been able to visit her a couple of times and now he loves babies and calls most of them we meet "baby Annie." He has a set of nesting dolls that I pulled down for him from one of my trips to Belarus years ago. It has seven nesting dolls and he loves to put all the pieces together. It also has a tiny baby in the very middle that he loves and gets quite upset when it is misplaced, which, given its size, has been quite often. Miraculously we've been able to find it every time, even after several days!

Wes with Baby Annie

Wes also likes to serve us pretend food, especially cookies and ice cream. He makes cookies out of his blocks and the other day he asked me if I'd like a lick of ice cream from the top of the bedpost! Quite an imagination! Often in the afternoons after nap time we have "tea time" and drink from a real cup and saucer and have fun little snacks. While we are snacking we read, sing songs or say tongue twisters. He loves this! Drinking the tea helps him practice with being more careful with drinking and eating. It is NOT a means to make him less manly!!! 

Another thing Wes has started to do a lot lately is sing. He just suddenly started singing different recognizable songs with the some right words and some made up words. He sings Jesus Loves Me, Hickory Dickory Dock, the ABC song, the theme song to the Cat in The Hat cartoon and others. He also likes to do finger plays. 

Some other things he likes to do are build towers with blocks and boxes, play with all of his trains and cars, play with play do, play games, kick balls, throw balls, run and run and run, ride his tricycle, wrestle with papa, help mamma cook and play with friends. He also loves to play with stickers. He once covered his papa with at least 50 stickers. 

He's learning new responsibilities. He puts his dishes in the dish washer and puts his clothes in the dirty clothes. He also starting to dress himself and is beginning to have an opinion about what he wants to wear. Potty training is going at a snails pace! We've been working on it for 6 months!!!! 

Wes really loves books. Some of his favorites right now are Owl Moon, The Little Engine That Could,  and Caps For Sale. These have been read over and over and over and over again and he can quote them. He loves to walk around with things on his head like the peddler in Caps For Sale. 

So that is all for now. Below are lots of pictures. Because he's been potty training so much, it was difficult to find many pictures of him fully dressed! He usually just wear his undies and a shirt when we are in the house. 

Wes's Birthday cake. This was my first attempt at making such a cake and I had a blast! I wouldn't want to do it everyday though!

Wes enjoying his cake. 

Wes learning how to bowl.

Monkeying around with his Uncle Nathan

Sporting some major nap hair

Wes playing with his Oklahoma friend Lilia

Wes and David playing with the trains. Well, really Wes is playing and trying to keep David from playing. David does have a tendency to destroy Wes's hard work. Those track pieces and trains are just so darn tasty to David. He can't help himself!!! Wes doesn't like that though and makes it quite clear!

Hanging out with Papa and David. 

Uncle Nathan and Aunt April gave Wes a trapeze swing for his birthday. He loves it! This is in our new improved basement play space for really cold, snowy days like this weekend!

One of Wes's favorite birthday gifts, a flat bed truck with an excavator on back. 

Wes riding our friend's 4-wheeler. Yes, it is pink but it belongs to two girls! He had a blast riding this!

Wes with Uncle Joey on top of Stone Mountain in Georgia.

One of Wesley's creations with his cars. He loves to line them up, move them around, have them talk to each other, etc. He was very proud of this!