T-Ball and Other Doings

First practice was BRUTAL.  Brandon has a real and deep fear of change and new things and completely shuts down and/or panics.  We had tried to talk him through it as much as possible, but when we got to practice he simply refused to do anything the coaches told him to do.  I tried talking him through it yet again, but he just clung to me so eventually I ended up running the bases with him the first time...then he started relaxing.  This is the first picture I could take of him and you can see he's rather retisent but finally smiling.  At the end of practice they gave him his t-shirt and it was all over after that.  The t-shirt sold the whole thing to him and he has loved it ever since!

His team--the Blue Jays.  Their coach, Aaron, (the one in the matching t-shirt) is coaching because his daughter is the same way with trying new things, so he's really good with Brandon.  They both are very good with kids! 

Yesterday was their first "game".  They switched off hitting/outfielding three times, didn't keep score, and outs didn't count.  But they had fun!

Watching something far more interesting in the opposite direction the ball was coming from.  ;)

Look at that smile!

Micah and daddy had fun wrestling and being boys.

In other news...

We had marble-sized hail the other day that accumulated to about 1.5 to 2 inches in the back yard.  Bryan didn't get any at work...how odd is that.  The "storm" was accompanied by thunder and lightening which the boys found rather fascinating.  Micah has said several times since then, "Maybe thunder and lightening come back soon."

Last week Thursday the boys and I headed down to tromp around in the muddy tulip fields for a while and watch a glass blower work.  It was fun to get away from the crazy busyness we had going on last week.

Finally, the boys played at Grandma's house this week while I had my "baby doctor's" appointment.  Up to this point Brandon has always been the one driving the tractor and Micah climbs in the back.  When I said it was time to put toys away, Micah quick jumped on the tractor and uncharacteristically complying, Brandon jumped in the back and said, "Okay, Micah, you can take me for a ride."  Micah was totally okay with that and pumped those pedals all the way back around the garage with Brandon in the back...no small feat for those little legs!  I think riding his tryke to Bender Park the day before for the first time gave him the confidence to do it.  (Sorry, really bad phone picture, but it's what I had on me.)

Well, the sun is shining and my weeds are over a foot tall...guess where I'm heading... ;)

Blessings

Searching for Meaning and Purpose--Grace

"Why did Rachel die?"  That's not really a question I've allowed myself to ask, but instead have asked many times, "How is God glorifying himself through this and is there meaning and purpose in it for us to learn?"

Through my pondering, processing and grieving one theme has continuously come to the surface and that is GRACE.  God has been showing and teaching our family a deeper meaning of grace, I think, in a wide variety of ways.  Do I wish he would have taught them to us in a different way?  Absolutely--I would do anything not to have to experience this pain.  But I'd like to share with you a few of the ways God has portrayed his grace (in no particular order):

Grace in feeling God near even at our lowest.  One of the songs that has been playing frequently while I struggled through processing pictures and my own emotions is the song "Never Once" by Matt Redman.

Grace in holding each other when one of us fell apart and supporting each other as we grieved in our own ways.


Grace in the ability to forgive the Ghanaians who made our grief all the more difficult.


Grace in the prayers and support of so many around the world, mission and blood families and friends known and unknown.

Grace in realizing and accepting that Rachel wasn't just our daughter, sister, wife...but gave of herself to everyone.  We had a very difficult time finding pictures of Rachel by herself because she was always there for others.  There were also comments made on the memorial site to the effect of, "I only met Rachel once, but have never forgotten her."


Grace in holding our family a little closer.

 

 

If God had asked to take Rachel so others might be drawn closer to him or come to know him for the first time--could we have give her up freely?  There is Grace in the unknown.


Grace and healing in family worship.

Grace in loving children who didn't understand what was going on completely and in having patience to answer their many questions.

Grace in laughter and play together, despite our sorrow and pain.

Grace in the assurance we will see Rachel again some day so it's not "good-bye" but "See you later!".

Photo by Ian

Grace in the assurance that God will continue to heal, comfort and glorify his name.

Precious Moments: Micah

A few of Micah:

A big boy who rides his tryke with pedals now!

He and Brandon have been very busy building all kinds of things lately--the pencil in the ear must be ever present so he can be "like daddy".

Blessings

February and March

A perfect capture of my children's personalities....they were both very proud of the "fort" they had built and Brandon wanted his picture taken with it, Micah, however, wanted nothing to do with the camera.

Brandon being the big brother and making breakfast for the two of them, including cutting the bread with a butter knife.

A rare and precious moment.

One Friday, after weeks of rain and cloudy skies, we had some brilliant sunshine and 52 degrees
so we headed out to the "blue boat park".  Even though it was windy enough to fly the kite by itself,
Brandon ran too--none of this standing still business.

Once again, Micah made it difficult to get a picture of him.

There was a free tee-ball clinic in Bellingham at the beginning of March, so to get a feel for whether Brandon would enjoy
doing a team sport here in town, we let him experience this first.  At first he refused to do anything until I pulled him aside
and reminded him how good he was at hitting the ball at home.  Then he decided to give it a try and loved every minute
with a ball.

He is a very strong hitter!

But when they gave him a bat to "pretend" hitting a ball and then arbitrarily run
around the bases--he would have none of it!

Just for fun at the end, they played "What Time is it Mr. Fox" and Brandon really got into that as well.

Tomorrow we begin a new season of life.  Brandon starts playing tee-ball on a team.  He's pretty excited but a little apprehensive as well.  It helped that the coach told us he should bring his own glove...that got him really excited.  Here's to trying new things.