The last time I saw her was a year ago when she came as my maid-of-honor. With her, the time and space between us just seems to stand still, waiting for the moments we can be together again. This week was a time of sharing together, us sisters.
Who knows you as well as the sister who was there when you were born, took you everywhere and dressed you up when you were little, then dressed you on your wedding day?
Even from the distance and miles of desert in between she still knows me the best and loves me all the same.
All the trust and honesty that only years create. We both share and love everything. We have to be intentional, to make time to be together. It is always worth it. My sister is a gift and I am always thankful for her.
Our good friend, pastor, and pre-marital counselor told us before the wedding- "Some people get in trouble because they think the grass is greener on the other side. Just remember, the grass is greener where you water it."
Water your grass. Take the time, put in the thought and care, and your grass will be green and beautiful.
After a precious weekend made of magic memories and Christmas trees, he still wants to water. He finds the biggest rose and leaves a poem for me to find. He surprises with dinner at our honeymoon hotel. He practices a dance to romance me in the living room, and remembers the sweet cake in the freezer.
Our friend and pastor also said that as you each spend time to grow close to God, you grow closer to each other.
Like a triangle, you each move close to the point, the head which is Christ, and by default become closer- become one.
How much closer in one year have we become? And a mystery still is that watering our joy, our love, and giving thanks to the maker of it all - the giver of the daily grace that makes it all possible - we keep moving toward Him who is Enough.
Saturday night fancy dinner, followed by dancing on the patio
Billy the goat (left) and Bucket the sheep (right)
Sunday morning
One year and counting!
How many blessings could I list today? Today, one year ago, my husband and I made solemn vows to have and to hold by God's grace until death do us part. We then walked down the isle, our son in hand, to the tune of Fly me to the moon and proceeded to celebrate with the best party of my life! My mother-in-law still says that was the best wedding she had ever been to (which is saying a lot seeing as she owned a wedding cake business for some time!)
We wanted to celebrate by having a get-away-weekend. My husband searched far and wide for a B&B. Everything was booked due to spring break and he was close to giving up when the Red Caboose gave a call back and were open.
The Red Caboose Bed and Breakfast is a sweet little log cabin located on a Christmas Tree Farm north of Houston. What a delightful surprise for us both! Never having been to a Christmas Tree Farm, we did not expect the warm welcome and magical feel of a working Farm always preparing for Christmas.
The log cabin was decorated in rich greens and reds, with lighted Christmas trees in every room. Breakfast was homemade apple sauce, home baked muffins and banana bread, fresh fruit and fresh squeezed juices. Our gracious hosts, Christina and Bob, were incredibly friendly. Christina made us cookies in the afternoon, and assisted us with salad and cherry pie to accompany our fancy dinner Saturday night- our favorite: steak and sweet potato.
Bob told us the stories of nearly every animal on their farm. Bob and Christina own: 4 horses, multiple goats including Billy, Bucket the sheep, a pony that is nearly 50 years old, a couple of miniature horses, a pot-bellied pig names Arnold, Guinna foul, chickens and roosters, a turkey, 3 peacocks, several macaw and parrots, and mastiffs. Nearly every animal we met had been strayed and rescued, bottle fed, or had some other precious story. Well loved, they were all incredibly friendly.
My husband hates goats, something I learned early on, because apparently when he was a small child a goat he was petting turned on him and attacked him. Scared him silly. Billy the goat probably changed that for life. Billy (the white goat in the picture), is something more of a lap dog stuck in a goats body. He always had his head out through the fence, always trying to get closer and closer- either to get petted or to eat your shirt! The grin on Travis' face was well worth it.
There's something magical about walking through a grove of Christmas trees, just waiting for winter. They open every year after Thanksgiving and set up a small train for children to ride all around the property, do hay rides, and run their little petting zoo while families pick their special tree and take it home from there. They stay open till they're sold out. I tell you I know where we're getting our tree this year! What a special experience. We'd love to see Bob and Christina again, too.
And in the space and quite, there was plenty of time to read and pray, to remember and give thanks for every special gift this past year. With so many gifts, so many times when we have felt loved and rescued from on-high, how can we fear the uncertainty of the future? Are we not always in His hands?
I prove it everyday because I know that I definitely am not the one in control here...
Stepmoms have to learn how to live in the midst of the daily uncontrollable. And when it all seems to fall apart - the carefully laid out plans and good intentions smashed to bits - it is hard to choose Joy.
But when I have so little control, I can trust that my God is in control.
I see it in his little face, Every Moment Counts! And every moment is a gift from God. Every moment with my little one is a blessing, and every moment without him is an opportunity to choose joy, to pray, and see my God work in my moments. Counting these daily blessings has helped me make it through the tough moments. And maybe the tough moments push me to learn how to trust God more than I would have without them?
Trusting in the One who has brought us all together pays off in the moments when I see this little one's face light up over understanding Compassion and Mercy, and all the answered prayers that have come to pass in this week alone! Praise God- He really does hear me and He really does care!
And then, when all you want is control but you don't have it at all, God springs a beautiful SURPRISE! And if I really did control all of this, would I get to enjoy the surprises??
Mi-ma and Pi-pa visit!
We stand all happy next to TIV
The Tornado Intercept Vehicle!
Sean Casey, visiting Moody Gardens with TIV to celebrate opening of his IMAX film- Tornado Alley (we gotta see this!)
Gifts... 290 -320
...New hairbands!
...new book- stepping stones for step mothers
...new music- Gungor
...Mom and Dad- In law visit
...time to rest
...build up and encourage the young weary at heart
...Children's museum!
...Son learns about compassion and mercy, takes lesson to heart
...Daddy takes the lesson to heart too
...Son loves to tell stories, I love to hear
...Son teaches me all about monster trucks
...Best friend has baby! All is well (IN HAITI!!)
...finally give the dog a bath ;)
...Daddy does the dishes
...Tornado Intercept Vehicle and Sean Casey!
...Daddy's face lights up all JOY
A reminder to always praise... enjoying praises this week
Being a newly-wed-step-mom-semi-professional woman.
Some days it feels like walking in the dark, or maybe just walking with my eyes closed?
And it seems the only times I really see are those when I look for the gifts of God. When I attempt gratitude, I find sight and I can breathe and all is right.
When I get stuck with the big questions that I can't answer, and my mind gets cloudy and my heart confused- I see when I look at Him who set this life before me, the One who gave His life for me. The big questions? I see them in His hands. The tough time? I see His faithfulness proved over and over.
And after the heavy foggy grey comes the sweet smells and cools breeze of Island spring.
256. Leap year!
257. Husband takes time to listen and really understand.
258. Son wants to go to Africa to start a summer soccer camp for kids!
259. God sheds light and I see my selfishness.
260. Sunshine in the fog.
271. Hurt feelings dealt with followed by tickle fight before bed.
278. Morning walk to the beach.
280. Lunch with hubby.
282. Call from best friend in Haiti, ready to have a baby!
284. Morning time on porch, sun and breeze and bible.
285. Porch garden in bloom.
286. Smell of orange tree in bloom.
In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7
These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater
worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result
in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8
Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not
see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and
glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 1 Peter 1: 6-9
