2 Years Old!

2 years old!

18 months old

1 year old

11 months old

10 months old

9 months old

8 months old

7 months old

6 months old

5 months

 4 months

3 months

2 months

 1 month

 2 weeks old

Dear Elliot,

You are 2 years old! Your birthday came along with the gift of spring--at long last, since we had about 18 inches of snow a week ago!


- You have a very delightful trotting run, with your little arms pumping with each step.

- You do a pretty good job eating what we all eat, although sometimes it takes a little coaxing. Your favorite foods are grapes, cookies, cheese, yogurt, muffins, popsicles, and chocolate.

- You are a chatty fellow, as has already been mentioned. It is such a kick to hold funny little conversations with you, since you definitely know what you are thinking and talking about. One of your newer expressions is an enthusiastic, "Oh yeah!" (Me, reading a book with you: Look, there's a rocket. You: Oh yeah!) Real sweet.

- You love balls and dogs. You love going to the National Sports Center to watch hockey with Dad and the boys. You love playing basketball at church. You love going to Grammy and Grandad's house. You love to color with crayers or (better) markers. You love getting carried (you big 30-pound lug), giving big sweet hugs, and getting cozy on my lap to read a book, albeit that is getting harder... 

- You have an excellent arm, with great follow-through on your shot.

- You have an impressive recall of who wears which clothes. I was sitting on the floor folding laundry today, and you kept telling me the person who wore the clothes I was folding at the time. With perfect accuracy.

- You can be such a hilarious little ham. When you are around people whom you aren't totally familiar with, you can be very quiet. But at home, especially with your brothers, you dance, strike a pose, make goofy noises, participate in outrageous conversations, make faces.


Your name means "The LORD is my God." There are a million things that pull on our hearts, promising to satisfy or crawling into the place of greatest honor. But all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols. All our other pursuits will fall short. And so it is our prayer that you will make the greatest Treasure your treasure. That your life will be spent in pursuit of the Faithful One, who calls us and makes us His own through Jesus. I pray that Zechariah 13:9 will be true of you:

They shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.

When the LORD is your God, you have everything. May He be yours and may you belong to Him all the days of your life!

I love you, my sweet big boy!

Momma

Letter to a Friend of a Friend

Dear friend,

I don’t know you, don’t know your name or much about you really. But one of your friends shared with me about what you said at school recently, that God is dead and you killed Him.

I’ve thought about those words a bit, and what I would say if I had the opportunity to sit down and talk with you. I’m quite a bit older than you, but I know that even by junior high, life can offer plenty of pain and difficulty. In the middle of junk, it’s easy to feel like God is distant—dead even.

But I know a little about death too. Mostly what I know is how my own heart was ugly and broken and dead. Might seem curious to say that since I could still walk around and play basketball and do algebra and play the piano, but there was absolutely no spark of real life inside. And dead people don’t get better with time and effort. 

And what happened to me is something quite crazy to imagine. Right in the middle of my own junk, when my heart was full of selfishness and arrogance and deadness, God broke in and gave me new life. Real life for the first time. And it wasn’t because I had something I could offer Him or do for Him. It was because of events in history—something that happened 2000 years ago. 

It was a universal problem actually, people with rebellion and ugliness and deadness inside, and—this may be hard to swallow but stick with me—God, the real God who made this world full of photosynthesis and the nervous system and black holes and symphonies, He not only made everything and everyone but He had every right to just let us pursue our course straight into eternal destruction.

But instead He did an absolutely astounding thing. Breathtaking. Stunning.

He sent His own, His only Son straight into the mess. You know of Jesus—but have you ever read the firsthand accounts of those who walked next to Him on dusty Palestinian roads or sat with Him in a little fishing boat and saw and heard what God Himself was like when He actually put on human skin? 

If you believed God was real and alive, you might think He would be harsh and insensitive, turning away people who don’t measure up, with no time of day for the likes of you. But turns out that isn’t right all. Jesus saw the people nobody else cared about. He hung out with crooks and mess ups. And if someone came to Him, broken, sick, knowing their whole life was screwed up and they couldn’t do a thing to fix it and He was their only hope—well, He would take time not just to heal their sickness or rescue them from their demons, but to actually work resuscitating life into their dead hearts.

You’d think that would make Him a hero, but in fact it earned Him the utter hatred and venom of the religious leaders of the day.

In the end, they killed Him for it. But He’s God of course, so they couldn’t have touched a fingernail of His if He didn’t allow it. So why on earth did He let them hang Him up on a cross like a criminal so He could slowly asphyxiate to death? The most shocking thing of all. Because Jesus’ whole purpose in coming to earth was not just healing and loving the handful of people right there for a few years. He came to save dead people like you and me for all eternity. 

And to do that, He chose to die in our place. Take the hit that was coming to me for all the hateful junk in my dead heart. In a way, I could say what you said—God died, and I was the one who killed Him.

Best news of all though, and you can take it from me or get the confirming testimony of over 500 eyewitnesses, Jesus did not stay dead. He crushed the enemy by His own death, and no graveyard was strong enough to hold Him in. He’s alive, my friend, and He would welcome you—not if you get your act together or have something impressive to offer Him—He would welcome you if you simply came as you are to Him as He is. 

He died to give us life and cover over the ugliness of our dead hearts. How I pray that you would give Him a chance to do just that.

Wishing you every good thing,
Amy

Elliot's Conversation

Elliot is extremely chatty, and if you can simply master his vocabulary list and identify each term correctly, he makes a charming conversationalist. But if you guess wrong, he will continue saying the word in increasing volume until you get it right (or he finally loses interest).

Pip- chip
Mummy- yummy
Blank- special blanket
Bloon- balloon
Beekoball- basketball
Mum- mom
Dickder- Victer
Iyah- Josiah
Nana- banana
Ruck- truck
Dute- cute
Deeku- thank you
Deedodas- dinosaur
Deedodas- applesauce
Dader- water
Dader- color
Ouse- house
Puppin- muffin
Stoo- stool
Boop- poop
Dog! Dog!- dog
Dada- daddy
Rammy- grammy
Radad- grandad
Opop- Pop Pop
Oos- shoes
oves- gloves
At- hat
Oots- boots
Peas- please
Ooth- tooth
Down- up
Down- down

Happy Birthday, Ben!

Happy birthday, dear Ben!

You are one of God's greatest gifts in my life. At small group, we took a few minutes to share some evidences of grace. Not to monopolize the time, I saved mine, and here are just a few that come to mind.

Sacrificial serving: every morning you get the boys up so I can have my time in the Word and prayer. You love to do the small things that will bless and encourage others, like making the coffee for a meeting.

Reaching out: you have a gift for noticing people on the fringe and connecting with them.You have a warm and generous attentiveness for others.

Joyful zeal: you don’t get stuck in the status quo. You love change and receive twists of the road with faith and joy.

Loving the Word: one of your favorite things is studying the Word and then exploring it with junior highers. You take it up as a sword in the fight for faith. May He send it deeper still into your heart and life.

Missional thinking: you have an eye toward tackling the hard thing where it will be strategic for the gospel. You are ready to press in, even when it is at cost to self.

Creative thinking: the boys love your stories and games. You have a tremendous capacity for enjoying different things and help to pull me up somewhat in the fun factor.

I love you and am so thankful to be on this path with you. May the year ahead hold best-yet mercies!

4 Years Old!

(4 year blue chair picture coming)

3 years old

2 1/2 years old

2 years old

18 months old

1 year old

11 months old

10 months old

9 months old

 8 months old

7 months old

6 months old

5 months old

4 months old

3 months old

2 months old

1 month old

2 weeks old

Dear Josiah,

You are 4 years old! It has been such a joy to watch you grow and change over the past year. You are sensitive, energetic, imaginative, and thoughtful.

Most frequently, you are busy pretending you are an animal. Favorites include Tazmanian tigers, cheetah, black panther, and bull, though (if you’ve watched Wild Kratts recently) you may opt for a red kangaroo, ahi-ahi, howler monkey…

You are very agile. You can gallop through our living room on your feet and hands, and that is typically your preferred mode of travel. I would certainly miss a step and faceplant, but I’ve never seen you do that!

We are doing a little preschool this year, reading a special book together every week and doing the history, science, and reading along with Victor. It’s really fun to see different concepts click in your mind, from colors to math to reading comprehension. But you are more kinesthetic than anything, and bouncing, running, and jumping are still your most frequent activities.

You have a lot of fun playing in your preschool class at church and playing with other friends—but you are more introverted than your big brother, and it’s not unusual for you to gravitate to independent playing at times. You do love joining in with freeze tag though, and you are very fast, my little cheetah!

Your tender heart is evident. Several times in this pregnancy I’ve thrown up in a trash can in front of you boys, and you will very compassionately tell me, “I’m sorry you had spits, Momma.” You will also warm my heart often at supper time when you say, with an emphatic tone, “Thank you for making this, Momma.”

After being sick for about a month around Christmas, you actually weighed less than Elliot (which made me sad to see!). But once you got well, you also hit a growth spurt and started out-eating all your brothers! Now the special birthday pjs that I ordered too early only reach mid-calf!

I love hearing you apply biblical truths to life in everyday situations. You have told me several times, “I don’t need to be afraid at night, because God is with me!” and “I don’t always get my way, but do you know who does? God!”

You are a joy to have in our family, and I just pray that God will continue to cultivate and shape your heart to take refuge in Him, to see how His word and His ways apply to every part of life, and to find your greatest joy in Jesus.

For your birthday again I remember the special verse that we pray will describe your life:

For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth, that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.—2 Chronicles 16:9a

We surely love you, Mr. Josiah,

Momma

 Interview with Josiah

(3.29.18) 4 years old

1.      What is your favorite color? black

2.      What is your favorite toy? Dump trucks

3.      What is your favorite fruit? apples

4.      What is your favorite video to watch? Wild Kratts

5.      What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Hamburgers

6.      What is your favorite thing to wear? New dinosaur pajamas

7.      What is your favorite game? Sequence

8.      What is your favorite snack? Crunchies

9.      What is your favorite animal? Cheetahs and Tazmanian tigers

10.   What is your favorite song? Away In a Manger

11.   What is your favorite verse? Genesis 1:1

12.   What is your favorite book? An animal book

13.   Who is your best friend? The Lees

14.   What is your favorite thing to do outside? Throw snowballs

15.   What is your favorite drink? Apple juice

16.   What do you like to sleep with at night? My new monkey

17.   What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Bananas

18.   What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Hot dogs

19.   What do you want to be when you grow up? A police officer

20.   What was one of your favorite things that you did this year? Played that I was a cheetah

21.   What is your favorite place to go? To the park