Where did the babies go?

How quickly our Christmas' change. The oldest is now 14. The next wild one is 13. The baby is 10. (Husband rolls eyes when I call him the baby.) Needless to say....this was our last year to "believe." KILLS ME!!!!!!!! I guess if we adopt the Polar Express theme....we will always believe.

Anyway....the hooligans got lots of neat clothes. They are apparently spoiled rotten and I am currently taking mental momma inventory of that. And yes....I'm going to read Radical starting this week. I need help. ;) These boys have everything under the sun. It's so sad that come Christmas you end up with a bunch of clothes because you have every gadget ever produced.
Shoot me.

Anyway....here they are. They really do love one another. They are as different as night and day.
Thankfully they don't know who David Platt is or ever heard of the book Radical and have no idea just how much their lives are about to change. ;)


Take a note of the "baby's" sweatshirt on the far left. I laugh every time I read it...."My game is money!" Don't you love it?

It's time to start thinking forward to 2011. This can be happy or it can be painful. I'm choosing the happy side of it all.

What in the world do we drastically attempt to do different this next year?? Just one. I'm thinking. And I don't like to think I'm going to do more than one drastic thing because I won't. It's kind of like reading the bible in a year thing. I'll fail.

Hmmmm.....what is my "one?"

Love y'all. Hope all is well in your wintry neck of the woods!

Greatest lesson learned at Deeper Still that DID NOT come from Beth, Kay, or Priscilla

Oh, goodness. I hope you can hear my heart and feel what I'm about to describe when I have to leave out all sorts of names and manner of detail.

Sounds exciting, huh? Hang on....let's ride this out and keep our fingers crossed.

We all know what happens when you put a group of women together. There can be intense giddiness, excitement, fun, and a whole lotta anticipation. There can also be a great deal of fear, insecurity, and question of "Am I really as cute or funny as Suzy across the room?" Isn't it interesting how our minds are all over the place? Maybe it's just me. I'm highly doubting it though.

And, then the dynamics of your little group change. Maybe a new girl that noone knows walks in the room with a friend. Maybe someone starts telling a story about someone you know that rubs you the wrong way. Maybe someone tells something that you think "did she really just tell that?" Maybe, maybe, maybe....

It just happens. It just happens with a group of girls. No matter the age or demographic or status. It can happen just.like.that. Before you can even think or process or understand what is happening.....something has changed. And maybe the change involves yourself. Maybe you were the one who said or did something in that instant you are wondering, "Did I really just say that or do that?" Oh, I think I did.

It happens. And the minute it does....you just want to throw up and cry and run out screaming something completely inappropriate. It happens. And it's ugly.

But after some suffering and hurt and flat out conviction, God shows Himself through someone COMPLETELY UNEXPECTED. And her name is grace and forgiveness.

Her name is grace and forgiveness and she came clothed in the form of a person that you never saw coming. She showed me what it's like to truly understand someone and something without any kind of judgment. She showed me love when she could have easily ran the other way and made all kinds of assumptions.

I saw grace and forgiveness up close and personal this weekend and I will never ever forget it as long as I live.

I won't forget how it felt.

I won't forget how unexpected it came.

I won't forget what she looked like.

I will never forget how humbling and beautiful she was all at the same time.

I love those two words....grace and forgiveness.

I hope you extend it when someone is least expecting it because it just might be one of the greatest life lessons that person can learn.

Hugs and blessings y'all!