Certainty

"To be certain of God means that we are uncertain in all our ways; we do not know what a day may bring forth. This is generally said with a sigh of sadness, it should rather be an expression of breathless expectation."
Oswald Chambers

my boy

We moved our son to Temple University in Philadelpia today. Carson has been attending classes locally at HACC for the past few semesters and finally achieved his goal of attending college away from home.I am so proud of him and I'm so pleased that he is following his dream! He wants to get a degree in Communications, specifically in Film. Already he has some experience with videotaping weddings and other events as well as creating short films. He is good!

Where have the past 21 years gone? My boy is all grown up. I am in a "sentimental mommy mode" tonight and my mind goes back through the years full of memories with Carson. He has brought so much energy,fun, and a sense of adventure into our home. Happy-go-lucky and easy-going, he has never sweated the details about anything! He is everyone's friend, accepting and comfortable. And he really likes his mom! We have always had a pretty special relationship, with very little of the emotional pulling-away that is more typical between mothers and their daughters during the teenage years.

I know he will be back--this is not a forever move--but I also recognize that with Carson, our job as hands-on parents is finished. We still have an impact on his life, but it is now on his terms. How grateful I am for the privilege of being Carson's mom!

I love you, Bud.

taste of Spring

You want a little taste of "pretend Springtime?" If you walked into our HomePlace Structures warehouse today, you would think we run a greenhouse rather than a wood products business. Every nook and cranny of the warehouse is filled with colorful flowers (albeit SILK ones!)We are getting ready to roll out a new product, our Cottage Garden Beds, which are raised beds used for gardening. A display unit--filled with these silk flowers-- is going out to every Costco store in the continental United States within the next month or so. So, while it's not quite the real thing, I'm getting a bit of a flower "fix" in the middle of winter!

treasures in the darkness

"I will give you treasures of darkness." Isaiah 45:3

In the famous lace shops of Brussels, there are certain rooms devoted to the spinning of the finest and most delicate patterns. These rooms are altogether darkened, except for a light from one small window, which falls directly upon the pattern. There is only one spinner in the room, and he sits where the narrow stream of light falls on the threads of his weaving. "This," visitors are told by the guide, "is the way we secure our choicest products. Lace is always more delicately and beautifully woven when the worker himself is in the dark and only his pattern is in the light."

Could it be the same with us in our life? Sometimes it is very dark. We can not understand what we are doing. We do not see the web we are weaving. We are not able to discover any beauty, any possible good in our experience. Yet if we are faithful and do not faint, we will someday know that the most exquisite work of all our life was done in those days when it was so dark.

If you are in the deep shadows today because of some strange, mysterious providence, do not be afraid. Simply go on in faith. God is watching and he will bring good and beauty out of all your pain and tears."

-adapted from J.R. Miller

Morgan's 1st Christmas

Look what was in my Christmas Stocking this year!!


Morgan Belle at 5 weeks


Carson, Tessa, Christy, me


Carl and me by the Christmas Tree


brand new family--first Christmas together

Merry Christmas!

Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen. ~Author unknown, attributed to a 7-year-old named Bobby

not-quite-Christmas

This morning I woke up to wonderful snow-- pure, white, crisp snow: enough of it that it forces us to slow...down...and take a deep breath in the midst of our otherwise busy life. So beautiful.

As I am working around my house I have been reflecting and praying for the hurting people in my life, realizing that every corner of our world has its own share of pain as well. A 45-yr-old woman out shopping with her daughters, has an anurysym and is brain-dead. How does a family pull the plug to end the breath of their mother and wife? Another young mom recently diagnosed with brain cancer. My friend who must get through the first Christmas without her husband who died in late summer. She has two sweet little babies who look to her to meet all their needs. The family whose dad is unemployed, struggling to pay the rent and worrying whether they will have enough money to help their special-needs daughter. How will they do Christmas? Chronic pain continues, terminal illness steals our loved ones from us...the list goes on and on.

Why do you suppose pain hurts more during the Christmas season? Could it be that Christmas as we wish it could be, taps into many of the aspects of what heaven is like? Maybe at this season each year, our longing for the perfection of heaven surfaces and we have to face the reality that this temporary stay on earth simply can't measure up to what we were originally created for. In our sentimental minds and hearts, our "picture-perfect" Christmas includes beauty, warmth, meaningful and safe relationships,tender romance,giving and receiving gifts that were hand-picked 'specially for us,full stomachs, no pain,no hurt, no tears...

I don't mean to sound morbid--we are blessed indeed! In more ways than I can count, God has been and will be faithful throughout all of life's ebb and flow. He will never leave us, never! It is the hardest thing to get ahold of, but the most beautiful when we really get it, that what God promises to us in times of suffering is not first relief of the suffering. His promise is to give us HIMSELF. (P. Tripp)

And isn't that the true meaning of Christmas? God coming to earth in the form of a human being--someone we could relate to--entering our lives and walking through our journey with us. Although He healed and radically changed many lives during His time on earth, Jesus didn't magically make all pain disappear. Life as we know it was not eradicated.

Now He walks alongside of us, laughing with us in the joys of life, weeping when we cry, holding us when our world falls apart, loving us with a deep and unending love. And when our Christmas doesn't quite measure up to what our hearts long for, we have this incredible Hope as Christians that we will someday be forever living in a place where it's Christmas all eternity long!