Baptism

We had the joy of spending last weekend with Mark and Jill and the girls to celebrate Katelyn's baptism. What a gift it is to have family and get to spend time with each other!

The kids enjoyed playing together all day Saturday. It is so fun to see them play together and just love spending time with each other.  We were so busy enjoying each other that I took zero pictures. On Sunday we got everyone and all the food ready--actually Jill did all of the food preparations including baking a homemade boule (round loaf of bread) and buns for lunch--with plenty of time to make it to church early enough for Jill and Mark to practice their song.

With my "brood" while J & M practiced

This was the first Sunday that they had been in church as a family since Maddie started her chemo treatments which also added to the special-ness of the day. Spending the weekend with them and witnessing God's covenant with his children through baptism was another reminder of how God blesses us so richly. 

Speaking of Maddie, the doctors recently gave them the clear sign for her. She will have monthly blood tests run for the next couple years so we just continue to pray that the cancer does not return.

For the baptism Mark and Jill sang the song "He's Always Been Faithful" by Sara Groves which was very poignant and a testament to God's working in their lives these past six months. May I be as trusting and believing of God's faithfulness through whatever he puts in my life.

Musings...

Our world has been a bit shaken in the last couple weeks. We officially found out a little over a week ago that my niece has a cancerous tumor. She is only 3 years old--half a year younger than Caleb--and a bundle of joyous energy! My sister and bro-in-law had been warned that it could be cancer but actually hearing that it was cancer with a specific name just knocked the wind out of me. I am the type who sees the glass as half full and imagines a happy outcome out of everything so it just floored me.

Being a week into this journey gives one a little more perspective. That first day we just waited to see what was next. The "next" included a 3 1/2 day hospital stay full of tests for Maddie. She got to go home for the weekend to be with the family before having to come back in for an out-patient surgery to remove as much of the tumor as possible. That went well though we don't have more answers...we are just waiting again for what happens next. The crazy thing is that when you look at Maddie, you would never know she has cancer. She is her normal wonderfully exuberant and joyful self.

I am not sure how many are actually reading this blog, but I ask that you just pray for Maddie and for healing in her body (that they will treat her in a way that preserves her way of life and heals her of the cancer), Jill and Mark as they have to watch their child go through this (and that they will have time for themselves and each other), and the doctors and nurses who are treating Maddie (for wisdom and direction since this is a rare type of cancer).

Many people have stepped forward to help Mark and Jill and to pray for them throughout this process which is such a blessing. I was able to spend last week with them to help out in little ways, but it is so good to know that they are surrounded by friends who are standing in daily as their family during this very difficult and uncertain time.

Although we don't understand why this is happening to Maddie, we know that God is faithful and always good. He holds each of us in his hands and has our days planned out before we even know them. And that is what we are hanging onto these days.

The Peter Fish's Visit

Our church just started its annual World Hunger Campaign. (For those of you in the CRC, this may sound a bit off since the official CRWRC campaign is usually in the fall. Because of our fall Life Group series and how it fit with planning, we decided to recognize World Hunger Day in the spring so it could have its own special focus. That was the worship director making her explanation for why we are doing what we are doing and when!) To kick it off today in worship, an adult invited all the children ages three years old to fifth grade to sit at the front of the church while he shared about the Peter Fish and CRWRC's (Christian Reformed World Relief Committee) work around the world. He encouraged each of us to read our daily devotional that goes with it and fill our Peter Fish which will be collected during worship in three weeks.

Today was the first time that Caleb willingly went up to the front with the other kids. He was not so sure at first but did follow Isaac up there. As we watched our kids look around and copy what the other kids were doing during the talk, we realized how little control we have over their actions when they are out of arms' reach. Fortunately, they both sat pretty well, raised their hands when they were supposed to (though they did not always put them down right away), did not hit the boy next to him (Isaac) who was lying on his shoulder but instead "gently" moved his shoulder out from under the other boy's head, and was one of the first ones to walk into the congregation to help hand out the fish to the adults whose hands were raised. (Caleb was a bit disappointed in this last part since he was not as quick and did not get to hand out any fish.) Impressively, they remembered a lot of what Mr. Steenstra said and were ready to fill their fish.

Speaking of, our boys are just slightly in love (and that is putting it mildly) with their Peter Fish! They fought over who got to hold it on the way home today. They fight over who gets to be the first one to put the money into the fish after reading the devotional for the day. And they are now fighting over doing chores so they can earn a little extra money to put into the bank (a penny per chore--reminds me of my childhood when Mom would pay us a penny for each pickle picked from the garden...). Now I just have to be creative in finding chores that they can actually do without too much of my help. (I mentioned they could help me wash the windows, and Isaac is gung-ho about getting that job done--even thought he should miss his rest time to get the windows done.)

This is day one of a three-week campaign. If we keep going at this rate of enthusiasm, our house will be gleaming! Ah, I love when the Peter Fish comes to visit our home!

Giving back to God

We are trying to teach our boys that everything we have comes from God and that, as a result, we need to give back to him. We just started giving our boys an allowance each month to help them learn how to manage money (or at least start understanding a little more about money). They get $1 for each year of their life so Isaac gets $5 while Caleb gets $3.

When we did this the first time last month, we talked about how it is their paycheck just like Dad and Mom get paid each month and that it is their responsibility to do with it what they want. However, to teach them about tithing and saving, we added the following rule when they get paid: one always goes to God and one goes into saving; the rest is theirs to spend however they want. (We got this idea from some friends and from the whole "Love and Logic" parenting principle.)

It all sounds pretty basic and straightforward...to us adults. To a three year-old and five year-old it is not always as obvious. Below are two different conversations we have had with the boys who are obviously trying to still figure out the tithing part of it.

Isaac's perspective:
At first Isaac was not too excited about losing one dollar and actually said, "That's okay, I think I will just keep this one." (Yeah, we had a little talk about its being a gift from God in the first place and that we need to give back to God with joy...I am not sure that he was still totally convinced.) Our conversation continued, but he got a little hung up on actually giving it to God; he took us literally and thought God was going to be at church to collect his money. When we further explained that the deacons collect the money to help God and others, his next question was, "But how do they get it to him? Do they send it up to him?" (The image I got from his question was one of the deacons sticking our money in one of those bank tubes and shooting it up to heaven...maybe that is something like he was imagining. Who knows???)

Caleb's perspective:
Since our boys leave for children's worship midway through the service, the boys have not been in the sanctuary to put their offering in the plate. Today was the first Sunday this month when they were still with us for the offering and able to put it in the basket as it passed by. Rebecca, a good friend of ours and the boys' teacher for moms' group preschool, is a deacon and happened to be up to usher today and handed us the offering baskets. Today at lunch we were talking about giving our money to God since it is the beginning of the month again. Without missing a beat, Caleb asked, "Is Miss Rebecca Jesus?" (It took us a moment to put together what we said and the fact that he put the money in the basket she passed to us.)

To see our religious beliefs and the things we do because of our faith through a child's eyes is so amazing! I catch myself at a loss for words in trying to explain something that is such a part of my being. I am thankful that God uses our children to make me stop and really think about why I do things so I can not only explain it more clearly to them but also live my faith with meaning and not out of habit.