Makes Your Heart Go Pitter Patter

This picture was taken on the Saturday night before Mother's Day.
Matt had taken on quite a task to get himself and the fellow men in his family to treat all of the women to a "Special Day" at his parent's lake house.
He was so worn out and so were our kids from playing all day that they fell asleep together. With the lights on. The light was directly over his face. I have no idea how he managed that.

As soon as I started snapping pictures, Matt woke up.
About two hours later, Asher woke up crying and complaining that his ear hurt.
Great.
We thought he just had water lodged in there from the lake, so we tried to get it out to no avail.
He spent the better part of the night uncomfortable and crying.

Finally in the morning, the water came out. Or so we thought.
He started running a fever and we got antibiotics. At a check-up later this week, we found out that Asher had actually perforated his eardrum.

Happy Mother's Day! Blurgh.
But the picture is real cute.

At the Lake, Everything Is Beautiful

It's really easy to take pictures at the lake. Really easy. Everybody wants to relax. Everybody wants to have fun. Just take out the camera and start clicking. Of course some people's children ham it up more than others.

Try to guess who is related to us. (Oh wait, ALL OF THEM.)

It's too bad they don't like spending time with each other.

Out of all our time at the lake, the worst moment of the weekend came when Lucy fell out of her tube while our eyes were elsewhere. Thankfully, Matt was aware enough to ask me to take a glance at her and I saw her up to her eyes in the water. It was about the scariest moment in my life. I jumped in (Baywatch style) and lifted her up. Another 20 seconds and I don't want to think what could have been.

With that on my mind, can you pray for our friends the Broadways?

Their daughter Natalie is one of our Wyldlife leaders. She is 17 and junior at North Buncombe High School. She is beautiful, funny and loves Jesus enough to be around middle school kids.

While at the middle school yesterday she began to throw up until she passed out. She had to be transported to the hospital via ambulance where they discovered a brain hemorrhage. She had a shunt put in to hold off the bleeding and take down the swelling. She was then transported to Duke Hospital in Durham. She is being seen by the Pediatric Brain surgeons today and should have surgery over the weekend.

Her just stepped off our committee this year after nearly 20 years of loving YL in this area. They helped to bring me to Asheville and found me an apartment. They fed my YL team at North Buncombe for over 8 years. They are mentors, lovers of the Lord and faithful to their children and each other. I am so sad for them right now. Their other daughters, Audrey and Carly are reeling at the thought of their little sister being in the ICU. Please pray for this family.

Just the thought of losing Lucy bottomed me out this past weekend.

I can't imagine truly being faced with the prospect like they are right now.

Romans 12:12 "Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer."

Inspiration for the Weekend

Here is your plans for this upcoming weekend:

• Go outside.
• Put down your phone, gardening tools, etc.
• Lock the doors and don't let them back in.
• Eat all meals outside.
• Let them fall asleep in a hammock with their cousins.
• Stay too late with friends, family, whatever on Sunday night because you don't want to the weekend to end.
• Pay the price for the entire next week. It doesn't matter.
• Life is too short.

So Very Busy

I feel like when your kids are babies, you think to yourself...
life can't get any slower.
Then two years fly by.
And all of the sudden, I have two kids who are hilarious and keep me on my toes daily.


Somehow this summer has both been slow and fast simultaneously and I don't think that I have quite processed it.

We went to Lake Norman in Charlotte two weekend's ago for Brad and Leigh Bucklad's son's birthday party. Really it was a party for us. But there was cake involved for a one year old and that was good enough. Also, it was about the most beautiful house that I have ever been in. Humble and gorgeous all at the same time. How does someone manage that? It was a beautiful day and somehow, looking back at the pictures...it feels like the last weekend of the summer.

And that makes me want to throw a fit.
But here are some of the pictures.

Happy Birthday Miles!

Can you tell that she is growing up right in front of you?
Something about that is so great and so sad all at the same time.