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!