Checking In and Catching Up

I know it has been awfully quiet here at True and Faithful. Let me assure you that it hasn’t been quiet in real life! Here is some of what we’ve been doing over the break.

First, my oldest son and his beautiful bride came home to celebrate an early Christmas with us.  Elizabeth is a just-graduated nurse so she gets to work all of the holidays.  Ben (on Christmas break from medical school) took Matt back with them for some guy time: duck hunting, shooting and gardening. Here’s Matt with the Crickett rifle he opened Christmas morning (thank you  Ben for picking it out!).

After Christmas, we filled every inch of our 8-passenger van and headed to the mountains of Virginia.  We nestled into the Cozy Cabin on my uncle’s and aunt’s property with a bonus: no Wifi, no television and no cell service. We hiked, read, visited with family, antiqued, made bonfires, read some more, road the four-wheelers, competed nightly over Acquire and had another bonus: two days of snow!

What was a minor inconvenience to the locals was a sweet answer to prayer to these born and raised Floridians! A few nights into our trip, the grief that Matt carries hidden most days, came out in some behavior and then lots of tears. As he and I cried together, talked and hugged, we prayed that God would send snow as a special love note from Him to us.  In the early morning hours, tucked under the quilt between Matt and Annalise, I heard the soft falling of  . . . could it be?

Yep! We woke up to a light snow. Just enough to thrill the heart of a 10-year-old boy. God is good. He is good regardless of whether He answers the way we want; but there are those times that He answers so very personally and tenderly.

The next day, we headed up to the highlands for lots of snow. The Florida kids played hard.

In the days since the trip, our life — outside of school  — has been about basketball.

And birthday week. Nick turned 20 and we had a full house of friends and family.  He has the same birthday as Dan, which is good but hard as we remember years of shared father-son celebrations.

And on the heels of that birthday, Annalise turned 8. When you’re the youngest and you look forward to your birthday all year long, the celebration tends to get stretched over many days!

So, that’s a taste of life in the house! It keeps me getting out of bed in the morning and on my knees as I continue to parent for two. I hope that your Christmas was blessed and that your new year is full of the sure hope that God gives.