All in a year - can you believe Elijah is 2 already? Here we have last year's birthday and this year's. Weight wise the poor kid hasn't changed much but he's added a good 6 inches to his height at least.

My dad only got to celebrate one birthday with Elijah. I know that many don't even get that, but it's still hard. My grieving hits me at the strangest times but I can still feel and see God's hand of comfort. I have also been witness to his promise that he looks extra on the widows in their distress. It's hard to be 12 hours away from my mother, especially as an only child. However, God has provided amazing people to stand in the gap and provide encouragement, support and comfort. Please pray that she'll be brave enough to leave her home and come stay with us for a couple weeks at Christmas and when the baby is born. She wants to come, but it also involves her leaving her safe haven and comfort zone.

Officership has already been a crazy rollercoaster ride of fun, learning, frustration, sorrow and joy (and that's a typical day). I quit once a week :) but always end up back at the office the next morning. Others assure me that this is normal. We have an amazing corps with an abundance of programs and activities everyday of the week. Monday - ceramics; Tuesday - Character building, music, dinner club; Wednesday - bible study and men's and women's ministries; Friday & Saturday - skate park; Sunday - morning activities and YPL/young adults at night. We are blessed though with another set of officers who helps out tremendously (heading up kettles - horray!) and great corps leaders. We even have the DC's wife as our Sunbeam leader ;)

And then there's baby#2 who is growing and growing and constantly moving it seems. I have a fear that this one will be even bigger than Elijah. I like the ultrasound picture - looks like he's waving or doing the Salvation Army salute. We call him Baby Booth :) 

Instead of life and death I like to think of it as life and life - life into the world and another life into God's heavenly world. Paul says that the aroma of Christ is the smell of death to some and the fragrance of life to others.

Just some of the many blessings of my life.

I needed to go home to Fort Wayne last week to be with my parents. My dad is not doing well. So Elijah and I flew home for a couple days. Elijah was wonderful. It was as if God whispered in his ear, "you need to be on your best behavior the next few days for me". And he was. The people on the plane and flight attendants commented how well behaved he was. During our 3 hour layover he loved walking the moving sidewalks, riding the trams, and exploring the airport. He slept on the flights and then sat in front of my dad and played while we were home. He smiled at Papa all the time and brought so much joy to him. They would nap together, eat together and communicate together in their own special way. Dad said, "he understands me". It's hard for mom and I to understand him sometimes, but it was as if Elijah knew exactly what he was saying.

Mom and I found a villa for them to move into and they can get in this week, which is great since they need to be out of their house in 2 weeks. It will be a hard transition though for them. The cancer is hard. It has changed his whole personality and continues to paralyze his limbs, yet all his vital organs are strong and healthy. It's a slow and long aganizing death - hard on him and incredibly hard on family. He cries a lot, gets frustrated at the drop of a coin, angry, and panick stricken at times. I remember my grandpa being like this with alzheimers. Why does it seem the hardest diseases last the longest?

I know this sounds like a sad blog, but God continues to demonstrate himself everyday. We pray more and deeper than we ever have before and must completely draw upon His strength. It's the only way my mom continues each day. Seeing people come in to help in different ways is a testimony of the Family of God.  My uncle comes in everyday to help, women from the church help pack boxes, families bring food and help in other ways, neighbors mow the grass and do the yard work. And people around the world are praying - praying for people they've never met, yet praying none the less. God's family is amazing!

Elijah loved the zoo. The gorilla was amazing and all the animals were so close!

They absolutely loved seeing one another. After they left Elijah woke up asking "where's Xavi?" and searching through all our rooms. On a side note, this unbelievably cool orange chair reclines and was mine as a little girl :) Elijah loves it and it actually fits in with our family room decor.

The last couple weeks have been busy, good, exhausting, educational, fun and wonderful all at the same time. It started with Pilgrimage and our quarters full of Fellow Workers (Ruth, Xav, Heather, and Xavi). The weekend was great and it was awesome to hang out with friends.

Then one of our corps members was Promoted to Glory and we had a memorial service last Friday followed by a lunch. The week was full of many hours at the hospital and nursing home where his wife lives.

Elijah is doing better and even sleeping in his toddler bed for almost the whole night (I say almost because sometime around 5:00 he's been sneaking into our bed). The first thing out of his mouth in the morning is "waffles, 'toons". So waffles and cartoons it is.

The corps has been great. Family Fun Nights on Wednesdays have been a success. Last week we had 39 people at our quarters for a cookout and last night 35 came to cool off at our ice cream social.

Thank you all for your prayers for my father. I have to give praise to God because the last couple weeks have been pretty rough. His chemo caused terrible mouth sores, leading to not being able to eat or drink, which led to him being dehydrated (5 straight days going to the hospital for fluids) and a loss of 15 pounds. On top of that he now has pneumonia and a couple nights ago fell while trying to get some water and now has 15 staples in his head. I know this all sounds terrible (and it obviously is no picnic in the park) BUT and I am telling you GOD IS THERE! With all this you'd think my dad would be completely frustrated, upset, down and depressed and his natural nature would be exactly that - BUT praise our Lord he is doing good. My dad recognizes that God is with him and giving him hope and peace through it all. Even while the EMS was taking my dad away my mom felt the Holy Spirit within her, calming her and giving her peace (it also helped that she didn't see all the blood until after he was home and fine).

It's hard to be far away when all this is going on back home, but my heavenly Father loves his child and is taking excellent care of him. In my devotions this week God spoke to my heart about the deep love I feel for Elijah and the ache that my heart feels just at the thought of him being in pain and God reminded me that my dad is his child and He hurts even deeper than any one of us ever could. I believe God cries more for my dad than I do and I shed a lot of tears. I am comforted in knowing that God greatly loves, cares, and even hurts for his children.

I was trying to do too much last week on my own strength. Watching someone pass away and being with their family is emotionally and physically draining. I had to recognize my mistake in using my own power and ask God for help, which He is so willing to give if we'd just ask.

Luke 11:9-13 says "So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. 11 "Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"

I read this and also think, "If I, someone who is sinful and makes mistakes, knows how to love, how much more my Father in heaven who is perfect loves his people."

Home Sweet Home

 After 2 weeks of visiting, traveling and having fun we have arrived in Omaha, Nebraska. In the past 3 weeks we have been through 5 states, stayed in 5 different places and have seen countless friends and family. We were greeted by floods (our corps) and storms, but also by amazing corps people and a beautiful home. We are quickly becoming acquanted with our members and ministry, but know there are hundreds of things we still need to learn (like how to use my cell phone and what in the world all these keys are for) - not to mention the paperwork, statistics, and other corps work that we should know.

There is also a little thing called the Kroc Center that we are blessed to be a part of. We met with our team last week who are amazing and we saw the construction being done on the community center. For those not familiar with Kroc Centers (like me), the wife of the late Ray Kroc (founder of McDonald's) donated a large sum of money to The Salvation Army to build community centers somewhat modeled after the one already built in San Diego. The Omaha Kroc Center will be one of the first built in our division.

Visit our website to see an idea of what this entails http://www.omahakroc.org/ When finished (approximately Fall 09) our Corps will move into the community center.

We had a great installation Sunday (electricity was back on following the storms) and next week David has volunteered to go with our boys to Extreme Camp located 8 hours away in Rapid City, SD. Our main divisional camp is actually right here in town and only 7 minutes from our house, but this is a special camp where they boys will actually be "camping" - tents and all.

Elijah started daycare this week and let's just say he's still getting used to it (okay actually he screams as soon as we pull up to the place and when we pick him up he's screaming), but they assure me that this will pass (oh please Lord, let this pass). The daycare is very nice, but obviously all the people are new and he doesn't understand. I think this might be harder on me than him.

The new baby (oh I should probably mention that I am pregnant) is letting up on my stomach. The morning sickness is getting better each day. There are three of us pregnant in this division, which is fun.

I don't have any new pictures, but I got these downloaded to show our first Sunday and thought it would be fun to post on here.

Elijah really looks like his Daddy. This is one of the rare photos of David as a child with teeth. His grandma stuck their thumbs in honey to get them to be quiet and it rotted all his front teeth out!

But he has his grandpa's hair color and his mother's big mouth :)

On a side note - my Dad has a lot less hair now. He just shaved it off because of the chemo and he looks great! :)

So that's it for now. I'll try to update more regularly since we're far, far, far from home :) However, we do have two extra guest rooms for anyone who would like to visit :) and there's plenty to do and see in Omaha - not to mention great steak and lots of corn :)

Blessings!

Family Pictures

Here's my little runner. He's always on the go, unless Veggietales is on that is - then he's in a trance. Elijah is also constantly talking. It's not all understandable, but he still says it. He even mixes in basic sign language when he really wants something. Although sometimes he just randomly throws in signs that don't necessarily match. And after getting family pictures done here on campus, he loves to say 'cheese'. He's actually very good at posing for pictures too.

It's funny how God designs our children to be such an interesting mix of us. It's like watching a mini David look-a-like running around with a huge smile and crazy facial expressions, singing and babbling constantly.

David and I celebrated 4 years of marriage last week. :) I'm surrounded by amazing men. A husband who seeks after the Lord and a son who reminds me of God's amazing love every day. If a mere mother can feel this depth of love, can you imagine the depth of God's love for us? The thought leaves me speechless.