Lilypie Waiting to adopt Ticker

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Eye of God


This is an image taken by NASA in 2003 by the Hubble Space Telescope. It is referred to as "The Eye of God". This image has been featured in many space articles and magazines. It is actually described by astonomers as "a trillion-mile-long tunnel of glowing gases." I thought I would share this beautiful picture. It's likeness to an amazingly gorgeous eye is undeniable. Isn't it awesome just to dream for a moment that perhaps the Lord looks upon us with such hugeness and such glory? Just recently a fellow blogger offered words of comfort as she discussed this space image and challenged the thought that if our Lord's eye is this large, imagine His hands and how so very much they encompass us and lift us up. It is quite comforting to think of it that way!

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Garden Glory


We are trying to get serious with gardening...I mean I am. I will explain Chris' involvement in a minute. For several years, I have created larger and larger areas to garden and expanding the library of produce that I plant. This year, I am excited to add corn to the backyard garden (check out photo)! I planted the seeds not more than a week ago and they are sprouting up quicker than I can say 'hopscotch jolly.' (Does that sound country enough?!) We live on 6 acres of beautiful land. Three acres are wooded and the other 3 are pasture. Our house sits right on the border of both. It is a perfect place to raise kids, do some gardening, watch the dog run and hopefully add a few farm animals. I am trying to convince Chris into letting us get a donkey from our neighbor who is giving hers away. (We'll see!!)
In the meantime, I am trying to nurture my little garden and hopefully be able to enjoy the fruit of my labor. I hope to see some corn, zucchini, red onions, 3 different types of tomatoes, green peppers,squash, green beans, and a variety of herbs.
Now..let me describe Chris' role in the gardening. He is an avid supporter. He will water it faithfully, create and maintain any composting, even purchase a few plants to add, and he definitely enjoys harvesting any ready fruits or veggies. As far as his involvement a couple of years ago, it can be summed up in 4 words: He mowed it down. We can laugh now about it, but 2 years ago, not so much. I was 8 months pregnant with our 3rd child and I had been nurturing my beautiful garden since the spring..and it was not funny. I had even started seeds indoors 6 weeks before planting during the winter months trying to get a head start. Here is where the crazy idea came from. During a car ride back from town one day, we noticed a man had mowed down his garden. It sparked a conversation going somewhat like this, 'Why would you mow down a garden? I wonder if he had already harvested all the veggies. I wonder if that helps it grow better next season. I bet he is going to plant new stuff now." That is how it went. A few days later, I look out of our kitchen window and discover that my husband has JUST FINISHED MOWING DOWN MY GARDEN! Let me say that we had just begun harvesting the veggies. It still had many more weeks of growth and plenty more veggies to harvest. You can imagine my response....and let me remind you that I was 8 months pregnant. This condition already creates an increased level of emotion. Needless to say, Chris will not ever mow down a garden again....and anyway the 4 foot high fencing that we installed prevents any temptation! His explanation?!1 Well..it was something like this: Didnt you say that you wanted me to?!! ha..ha...ha..ha... He was very serious and to this day, it has been chalked up to miscommunication. Ummm...hmmmmmm. Yep...miscommunication. See...these are the things that make a marriage stronger. and you just thought I was talking about gardening!

Le Dossier

We are excited now to have gotten our second installment of dossier instructions and list of items to gather and notarize. We thought we would have been WAY into the waiting time by now, but as we realize and rest at ease knowing that God is in complete control and He is watching over every bit of our process, I choose not to be discouraged that we are not on the timeline we had set for ourselves. Thank goodness, things dont happen because I choose for them to happen. There is no telling what kind of situation I would be in! Time to hop into the paper chase!