10-10-10

10-10-10.... what a fun day yesterday was. I woke up and just felt excited by it, I am sure there are things that it probably stood for but for me I just liked the look of it. :) However, it ended up being a significant day for me when all was said and done.

I struggle with letting go of control in my life. :) The God who made me deserves all of me and sometimes I am able to do that better than others. The other days I really have a plan, an idea, something I want to see work out and it is almost as though I beg and plead with the Lord for my way to work.

Yesterday, Jay was on call for work AND he was supposed to lead worship for our 9 am and 11 am services at church. Well what do you know? He got called at 8:30am and had to leave church to go to a hospital about 45 minutes away to pick up things necessary for a surgery at another hospital. Now this is something that would normally stress me out but yesterday I was able to thank God for taking care of everything necessary. Our brother in law Nick was able to move off the electric guitar and lead the 9 am worship and Jay made it back to the 11 am service. It all flowed beautifully and God you get the praise.

Then I attended the 2nd service and really felt strongly that I should go tell one of our pastors that I felt the Holy Spirit guiding our congregation to pray for another pastor of ours that was home sick. I was able to let go of the part that was not wanting to come across bossy and I just followed God's voice and our congregation prayed and I got report today that our Pastor's fever broke last night and he is feeling a lot better today. Again, Lord we give you praise!!

Jay and I had a few moments of quiet conversation yesterday while the boys napped and as we talked about life I realized I was being allowed to let go of other areas of control in my life too. It really makes me wonder why I ever want to "be in charge" when the Lord's ways are so good and so perfect!!

So, 10-10-10 became a significant day for me and I am feeling a new freedom in it. I release all my plans and purposes to you Lord and I ask that you would help still me, to hear your voice and follow your plans all the days of my life. AMEN!

Precious Moments

We took our friends the Bentley's and the Riccio's up to Grandma and Grandpa's cottage this week. Christy and Judah rode with us and Caleb sure enjoyed having his buddy "Udah" by him.

Sweet Arianna having fun in the hammock!
5 children at one time.... that is the most little one's this Show Low house has seen, and the house is still in great shape and they all had fun. :)
We all enjoyed the cooler weather and did the usual golf cart rides, walks, playing with sticks and rocks and eating lots of food. Uncle Dutch and Aunt Jillers... if you notice Caeden is holding up a peace sign that he learned from your Korea pics and I think the even cuter part is Arianna trying to do it with her fingers too. :)

All in all it was great.... there were moments of craziness (especially during the 3 hour car drives) but lots of laughs and fun too! My FAVORITE time was Thursday night. Lisa, Christy and I got all 5 children asleep and were able to sit on the back patio cuddled up with blankets talking about life and praying for each other. It was so fun, we stayed up til 12:30. Thank you God for bringing more amazing girlfriends into my life. I feel so very blessed!!

Some of you may be wondering what the dads were doing during all of this... well, Jay, Nathan, and Dan were enjoying man time with out wives or children and played video games til the wee hours of the morning multiple nights and still managed to get up for work. God had a great idea when He created friendships! We are so happy for our Living Streams family!

Party, Party!

Our friend Ella just celebrated her 4th birthday! We first met her when she was 3 months old, it is amazing how quickly time flies! Ella, may you continue to grow in God's grace and love. Be blessed this year my dear!
From L to R... Ella, Nicole, Jonah, Caeden, Kirstin, Caleb, Bradley, Jenn and Lauren. Nicole, Jenn and I went thru Education at ASU together. Hard to believe we have been friends for 12 years and we sure have grown our gatherings!!! It was so fun to watch all 6 kiddos play and enjoy each other, we actually never had one problem, way to go kiddos!!
And yet another special birthday party for our dear friend Arianna! Happy Birthday sweetheart, may God fill you with His fullness and joy everyday of your life!

Caeden update

Caeden woke up this morning and came running to me in my bedroom saying, "mom, mom I have a wiggly tooth." It's official he is 4 years old and about to lose his first baby tooth. It really feels like he is "moving up in the world" with this. He had to finish his dental work today with the filling of 2 cavities and he was so excited to be able to talk to the dentist about his loose tooth. Who, when looking in his mouth said, "the other lower tooth is starting to wiggle as well." That news made him that much more excited about the whole thing. Yeah Caeden!!

A great story on prayer...

Our friends son's name is Judah and he is 3 months younger than Caleb. We were getting ready to meet up at the park last Friday with Judah when Caeden heard me talking to his mom about his allergy to a medication and that he had hives all over and swollen hands and it had been going on for days. Caeden said, "mom we need to pray for him." I said "that would be great" and so Caeden says, "God we just bless you and thank you and we want little Judah to be healed in Jesus Name Amen." Well wouldn't you know Sat morning Judah woke up totally healed!!! (earlier than the Dr.'s anticipated) Caeden was so excited!

So then he was talking to me about how his friend Luke's dog died and he was sad about it. Caeden said he should pray for the dog to come back to life. And I mentioned that the dog had been dead for a long time and that he wasn't going to come back to life. He responded with, "mom Jesus was dead behind the tomb and he came back to life, the dog can too." So with that said, I let my little prayer warrior pray to his heart's content. And I learned a lesson that day from my 4 year old son. Kirstin, pray about everything our God is big and can do anything!! (I better warn Luke's mom about Caeden's latest prayer.) :)