13 days to go!

Tonight I miss my daughter so much my heart hurts. It's funny how our mind sunconsciously knows when a particular season is nearing an end; maybe I just let my guard down these past few days since she will very soon be coming home!In 13 days to be exact.

Tessa left for YWAM (Youth with a Mission) training in Orlando, Florida last September, but with texting/e-mails and a quick trip down to her base to visit her, she didn't seem very far away. After a short visit to PA at Christmas, she left for India for the outreach portion of her missions experience. Even with the distance between us, I haven't dealt with a lot of homesickness. I tell myself that I have done this YWAM thing twice before with our older kids and I can do it again. Time just flies by and life at our house these past months has been rather predictable and mellow.

I like predictable and mellow.

But suddenly her room seems too clean, too quiet (did this "obsessive-about-clean-rooms" mom just write that??) and I miss the whirlwind of activity that breezes in whenever Tessa shows up!The front door is practically revolving, as her friends come and go.She is vivacious, bubbly and energetic,very driven and passionate about life. She laughs loudly, feels deeply and plays hard! Her emotions can be her biggest hurdle at times, but I love how she is learning, with a growing maturity, to temper her feelings- both the highs and the lows. I never want her to stop being Tessa, though!











The picture below is of Tessa when she was just two years old. Already she had a sparkle in her eyes and a dance in her step! I love this girl.

Morgan smiles

When the first baby laughed for the first time, the laugh broke into a thousand pieces and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies. And now when every new baby is born its first laugh becomes a fairy. So there ought to be.
-- James Matthew Barrie

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