Blessed Be the Name of the Lord

I sat in church yesterday in front of a woman I know only by acquaintance. Years ago, I had her two boys (now grown men) in children's choir. I never really got to know her personally, though.

Right before Christmas, she woke up to find that her husband of 26 years had unexpectedly died in his sleep. I have watched this woman from a distance the last few months as she faithfully comes to church, even in her grief, and is clinging to her Father for all she's worth.

Yesterday, as I sat in front of her, I heard her strong voice as she nearly belted these words:

Blessed Be Your Name
In the land that is plentiful
Where Your streams of abundance flow
Blessed be Your name

Blessed Be Your name
When I'm found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed Be Your name

Every blessing You pour out
I'll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name

Blessed be Your name
When the sun's shining down on me
When the world's 'all as it should be'
Blessed be Your name

Blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there's pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name

Every blessing You pour out
I'll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name

Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name

You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say
Lord, blessed be Your name

I was blessed by this woman yesterday as I heard her sing praises to the One who gives and takes away.

Milly and Her Dad

This was the story that won the "Young Authors Award" at school. It does amazing things to a mom's heart to see her daughter who has received speech services for almost five years enter a speech competition. Way to go, Dayna!

Milly and Her Dad - Practice Run

If I Ran the Zoo

I just ran across this list while cleaning up today. It brought back some smiles.

A few months back, Dayna decided that she thought life would be better if kids got to make the rules. So we humored her and made a list of rules she would make or change.

1. There would be no consequences.

2. We should paint colors on the walls and not have things be boring white.

3. It should be okay to be sneaky.

4. We should keep our mouths closed when chewing.

5. We should be able to have snacks whenever we want, and when we're full, we're full.

6. We should be able to go to bed whenever we feel like it.

7. We shouldn't have to do chores until we want.

8. We should do what we want when we want to do it.

9. We shouldn't do anything we don't want to do.

Well, we discussed each new rule and what it might look like. For instance, with #3, how would we feel if someone was sneaky in the middle of the night and took our car. If we followed #1, then there would be no consequences for the person to took it. Then we remembered the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books that we read a few years back. In them, there were some very interesting natural consequences for eating what you want when you want, sleeping when you want, etc. Dayna decided some of those rules weren't very good, either.

Then Dayna grabbed a pen and started crossing off the rules she decided weren't very good after all. We're left with #2 and #4. Daddy & I agreed they were pretty good rules. You know, we've never really had a problem with any of us chewing with our mouths open, and I'm sick of the boring white walls, too.

Guess what Dan & I will be doing over spring break? Here's a clue: "Seacliff" and "Mandolin String." (Who comes up with the color names, anyway?)

Another One Comes Home

Tonight, we welcome the Benson family back to the United States. They are bringing home sweet Michael from Northern China. Michael is the third precious child from China to join our children's ministry at church, and is the first of three who will be adopted from overseas sometime this year. He's 2 1/2 and from his family's blog, seems to be quite the little charmer.

If you think to pray, there are a lot of adjustments for this family, and particularly for Michael. Those first weeks home in a country where everyone looks, sounds and smells different can be overwhelming to a child...particularly one who doesn't have the communications skills yet to share what he's feeling or needing. It can also be hard on the parents who want so badly to meet their child's needs, but don't know what they are.

It's so exciting to see more families in our church being moved to adoption and bringing these precious kiddos home.

Can't wait to go to the airport!

Disney 2010

Click here to view this photo book larger

Sleep

3rd time this week. Do you know how I feel about insomnia?

Bella Notte

Tonight was Family Night at church. Instead of the usual Valentine crafts and cookie decorating, they did things a little differently (and had the best turnout yet!) About 150-200 (I'm so bad at estimating numbers) people came with their blankets, pillows (and even some in pajamas) to eat spaghetti and meatballs for dinner and watch "Lady and the Tramp" as a family.

I just thought this was such a FUN idea, that I'd post it here for my friends to take back to their churches.

Superman

A friend of mine has started a 14 day challenge on one of my newsgroups. Each day, we are to express love for or about someone in a specific way and share with the group. This has been a lot of fun and has breathed some fresh life into our group. So today, we were challenged to write about our "Super" husbands. Here's what I had to say:

Right now, Dan is upstairs listening to Dayna read her take-home book before she goes back to school in the morning. Earlier this afternoon, I'm pretty sure there was some light-saber action going on in my kitchen (a little to close to the China hutch for my tastes...). Yesterday, he took his little girl out to breakfast and all over Omaha so she could find a certain Zhu Zhu Pet to buy with her Chinese lucky money.

On a typical weekday, he wakes up and logs into work by about 5am. He takes Dayna to school then goes to the office. He clocks out, drives the 30+ miles home again to pick her up from school. He gets her a snack, gets her started on her chore for the day, and logs in to work for another hour or two. As a teacher, I just don't have the flexibility in my job to be available to take Dayna to or pick her up from school. He has gladly stepped in and worked his own schedule to be there for her. Often times, I'll come home and there will be two loads of laundry that have been washed, dried, and folded (and NONE of my clothes have been ruined!)

Dan has been extremely supportive of my teaching and continuing education...often using his own vacation time to take the family to other places in the country so I can attend a conference (which was how I FINALLY met the fabulous Burch girls last March and got to hang with the amazing Pierce family as well; we've also connected with the Theobalds on the way home from one of my conferences.)

And when I'm having one of my famous meltdowns (which have been happening more frequently lately...) he's hanging right in there with me. He prays over me each morning before I go to work in the morning, and emails me each day just to check in and see how my day is going.

Dan has always encouraged my participation in Bible Study Fellowship, spending Saturday mornings and Monday nights with Dayna so I can attend class and leaders' meetings. Last month, we were able to enroll Dayna in the school proram, and Dan is now attending a men's class on Monday nights as well. It's so exciting to sit around the dinner table and discuss our lessons every night.

And have I mentioned that my husband is incredibly funny, a strong, silent listener, and my best friend in the whole world? He also has the most amazing blue eyes...

I wish I could find a way to truly express how I feel about him...

Xin Nian Kuai Le