highlights

Wednesday Highlights:

I was noticing the other day that of the 17,782 pictures in my iPhoto library since Madelyn was born, only a handful of them are of all three of us. That's one thing I want to be more intentional about. Wednesday night before church started I remembered and had my sister take a quick picture of our family of three.
Luke has been excited about this past Wednesday and telling the students how awesome it was going to be. One of his friends since childhood (and mine since high school) came to help lead worship. Kristin has an amazing voice.

After church she came to the house for dinner, to catch up and play with the munchkin. Spending time with old friends is always refreshing and this was just the start of that for us for the week.

Blair and James came out after church too and I loved how much Madelyn and James looked alike sitting next to each other on the couch.

Thursday Highlights:

We loaded up the car and headed to Martin's Mill on Thursday to see BJ before he left for Africa this summer. It was nice taking a little drive through the country, eating at an old favorite restaurant when we lived in the Mill and spending time with BJ.

I am so proud of what he is doing this summer and totally excited to hear how God uses him.

In student ministry, it seems that there are always those students that end up becoming more of a friend than a "former student". BJ is one of those. When Madelyn was sick, I remember reading some words that he wrote in reference to her, "Our petition is that she grows up; our desire is that her Creator be glorified" (I blogged about it here). He could have never known (and still doesn't because I have never told him) how powerful those words would be for me.

They were very timely then, as they were written when a ventilator was breathing for our precious daughter and doctors were trying to find out what was keeping her from being able to breath on her own. Every day since then, God has brought those words to my mind. They are still timely.

Our petition is that she grows up; our desire is that her Creator be glorified.

In short, that's the one prayer I whisper the same every single day.

Recently during an interview for the Children's Miracle Network, Luke and I were asked what our dreams for Madelyn were. Luke answered that question, but the only words that came to my mind were the ones BJ had said for her back in September...

Our petition is that she grows up; our desire is that her Creator be glorified.

If you think about it, pray for him. He leaves this week for Africa.

After we dropped BJ back off at his house we stopped by to visit with Katie and Nathan and then headed over to Judy and Rex's for dinner (their house is the best place to just "show up" at dinner time).

Madelyn had such a fun time playing with Judy

and Katie (and Nathan but somehow I didn't get a picture of the two of them playing together).

We ate delicious steaks and enjoyed time sitting around the dinner table with old friends. Nothing is better than that.