blessings and babes

The last 5 days have been so jam packed. We've been out of town, busy at church, hanging out with family, helping out friends and on top of that a sweet friend passed away Friday night. She had a long battle with cancer and is now resting and rejoicing at the feet of Jesus. Her name was Martha and her legacy is nothing short of amazing. She had a gentle spirit and loved Jesus. Next to her love for the Lord, her love for her sweet husband was evident in everything that she did. When Luke and I were getting married, she and her husband (along with another sweet couple) wrote Luke and I a card that we put in "our box". It simply said that their prayer for us was that we would have as amazing of a marriage as their 50 years had been so far. They constantly encouraged us. Were excited for us. They rejoiced in our engagement and spoke of how wonderful daily life with your best friend could be. It meant so much to us because the majority of people that we encountered made jokes (or were serious?) about how much of a drag marriage can be. Martha only spoke of how much of a gift it was. We wondered at the time if they would be able to make it to our wedding. At the time, she and her husband were both battling cancer, undergoing treatments and dealing with hair loss and the effects of the disease. We were so blessed to look out in to the crowd and see them. I will never forget as Luke and I drove to Dallas after the wedding and talked about how special it was for them to be there. She was such a blessing, will be missed dearly and I know that her precious husband will have many changes as he adjusts to life without his best friend. Pray for him, will you? I can't imagine life without your spouse of 53 years.

We went to the funeral visitation last night and after wards we went to dinner with friends. Madelyn was so good during the visitation and at dinner despite the fact that it was past her bed time.
She is so precious.

Madelyn and Kolson, Nathan and Jenna's youngest, is four months older than Madelyn so they love to interact.

They had fun exchanging growls and pinches and giggling at each other.

Days like yesterday remind me how thankful I am for the blessings in life and the babes that make every day fun.