If one picture says a thousand words...

...what does a whole CD of pictures say?  We received a cd in the mail on Wednesday from our photographer and what I see and hear from all those amazing shots is WOW.  You forget just how stinkin' cute your kiddos are (easier to do when they are fighting and whining) and how much it means to be a family.  I will not be able to post all of them today, but thought I'd upload my favorites.  Hopefully we will figure out which ones we want to print and enlarge before we celebrate 20 years!

More to come....

We just got back early this morning (as in close to 4am) from our 2nd honeymoon in St. Maarten and have lots to share from the last couple of weeks....

We are waiting on pics from thr professional photographer who took amazing shots of us and our boys at our renewal ceremony, down by the Eno river on 10/20.  Once we get those, I will post lots of pics and even some of the words we said, including the new and improved vows we said!

For now, here's some pics that one of our small group members took and sent to us...thanks, Alfonso!  Spoiler alert...

 



And then also, the song that has been running through my head all week....
The one below isn't the official music video (you can see that HERE), but it has the lyrics and I LOVE the way they did this video!

drought

I could never begin to explain what has gone on since I last wrote a post on our blog.   And while this blog has experienced a "drought," our lives our being nourished and refreshed by Jesus' love and redemption.  Every day, I strive to remember that fear and hurt no longer rule our hearts and our home.  Grace rules and we pray for strength to remember what that means for us and how to love each other because He first loved us.
Sounds so simple, doesn't it?  But anyone in love for longer than 20 minutes knows that loving someone when you feel unloved is the farthest from simple as it gets.  That loving someone when you are tired, overwhelmed and quite honestly, just focused on your own needs, is impossible.  Loving when you've been hurt...wow.  And not just by that person, but by others.  And when that hurt has made scars and wounds that you've never shown anyone before.
Psalm 147: 3 says that God heals the brokenhearted and "binds their wounds."  As a nurse, I find this verse's explanation of what God does particularly meaningful.  "Binding" a wound means to make a dressing and cover it- like with gauze and tape.  It doesn't say that the wound will disappear.  The verse says instead of healing our wound, instead of taking the pain away and the memory of how we were hurt, he heals US.  He heals our hearts and leaves the wound, and likely a scar.
I have no idea who reads a blog that rarely gets updated, but if you are reading this and you have been hurt, my prayer for you is that you would know the sweet healing that comes only in trusting in God to be your nurse, your healer.