Jayden decided to wake up nice and early today. At least she was happy!

If you look close you can see her two new bottom teeth.

I am made perfect through Christ

Yesterday was a defining moment for me! I had a hard time dealing with some memories from the past. It was consuming my day to the point of just plain feeling sorry for myself and being stuck in depression. I spent much of the day in frustration and sadness. When I had finally realized I wasn't getting anywhere I took it to God. I spent some time sitting in the dark talking to him and asked why he was allowing me to go through this. I asked him what I was supposed to learn from this.
Then in a soft nudging of my heart I felt God cry with me. I felt he was telling me he was there with me when it happened when no one else but him could understand my pain. He was there with me then the way he still is now. That I had to go through that not only so that I would learn, but so that the other people involved would also learn, and grow from it. That the reason I still have thoughts of this person, is not so that I would allow myself to morn the relationship but that I would instead pray for this person. That I was allowed to share in this relationship for the purpose that I know them closer then maybe anyone else could, and I know how to pray for them. When other people would look back at this and be angry, God knew instead I would just pray.
I want my life to reflect Christ. It is such a process that at times seem to just get harder and even more complicated. Isaiah 64:6 says, "All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sin sweeps us away." I know that nothing I do in this life will ever be good enough to matter, but that is where Christ steps in. He has taken all my garbage and made me new, something he sees as great, and through him I will do many mighty things!
2 Corinthians 12:7-10 "To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weakness, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

We dog-sat for Travis's brother and his wife this weekend, and we got to watch their kids for a little while too. It was crazy but man was it fun! We had four kids and three dogs running around. Jayden and Maddy both stayed very entertained.


Maddy had fun wrestling with her sister Grace.

And Jayden got to play with Travis's first love Nakita. If this dog was a woman I might have some competition! ;-)

Learning to Trust
I feel like God has taught me a lot about trust the last few weeks. It is so easy to say your complete trust is in God when things are going good, but what happens when the tough stuff comes!? What a challenge it has been for me to truely give things to God and leave them there. My instinct is to take them to God, but then take them back thinking I need to fix it myself and never truely give them to God at all. I am so thankful for his patience with us in this learning process of life

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Poor Maddy Trav loves to torture her... but I think she likes the attention. It was so funny watching her try to get this thing off her head!

Such a cute little girl!

Grandma and Grandpa came for a visit. It's never for long enough!
Grandma was helping Jayden learn how to walk! ;-)

I know I know this is the sickest thing ever. Our poor little girl has been so sick from teething and has had what seems like a constant runny nose and today she had the biggest snot bubble and I was quick enough to get a picture.