Full Moments

Full moments

It will be two weeks ago tomorrow when my parents and gram came into town. While they were here, my mom got me this book she has been reading called One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp. It was a hard book to read at first because of the tragedy she has gone through; however, her perspective on life, thankfulness and God are truly inspirational. Her writing is poetic, transparent, and encouraging.  Her desire is to live life fully.  She was dared to write a 1000 things (gifts) she is thankful for in her everyday life.

I was explaining her book to a friend and sharing how it has challenged me. For instance, in the past I would have described to someone that the last two weeks I have had have been really busy. But busy in my head often means running from one thing to the next without taking the time to enjoy it. But as I really look back over the last two weeks that previous statement is simply not true. There were several moments that I fully enjoyed. Therefore, I choosing to change my vocabulary to say that the last two weeks have been full. And when I say ‘full’ I mean in the sense of being full of life.  So I have decided to start my own list of my 1000 full moments that I am thankful for. I don’t know how long this will take, I am in no rush but I thought I would start  by jotting down a few that come to mind from  the last two weeks and see where it takes me…

1.       The feeling of joy that filled my heart the day before my parents and gram came to visit in anticipation of their arrival.

2.       Watching the kids run, hug, and greet Meme, Granddaddy, and Momo at the airport.

3.       Waking up and walking up the street with the kids to my parent’s house to enjoy breakfast together

4.       Going out to dinner at a nice restaurant Bristol without the kids to celebrate gram’s 89^th birthday. I enjoyed every bite of the food and the fact that I was able to engage in the adult conversation with my family.

5.       Buying plants with my mom and getting dirty with her in the yard planting them

6.       Sitting on the couch and having a deep mother daughter talk while the kids napped

7.       Enjoying my Gram (89) and her brother (92) and my mom and her two cousins giggle as they talked about memories

8.       Watching a deeper connection form  as my mom’s brother shows her how to use her new iphone

9.       Having coffee with my Gram at Barnes and Noble talking and sharing about what God is doing in our lives

10.   Smiling as the kids show off their freeze dance moves to all the relatives

11.   Having my Parents and Gram come to our church. The Lord’s presence was so powerful through the service in both a corporate and personal way.

12.   Seeing how handsome Paul looked in his open collared white shirt for Stephanie’s wedding

13.   Inspired by Stephanie’s and Brad’s unique vows

14.   Thankful for dear friends who pray

15.   Came through a hard time and realized that though I am not perfect I am loved and wanted

16.   Kait watching the kids so Paul and I can have planning and vision time for Kingdom Living and we made huge progress on plans for the fall

17.   Healing prayer time with Marie is always good for the soul closed doors of fear and abandonment

18.   Revelation of priorities got shifted for Paul and I in a good way

19.   Paul’s neck continues to get better

20.   Working on the book for Jason’s 40^th and enjoying the sweet words, memories and pictures that came in from everybody about him

21.   Huge feeling of satisfaction by completing the book in two days

22.   Enjoyed watching Harrison and Noah play in the back of the van as we drive to springfield

23.   Laughing when Noah asks if we are there yet and we have only driven 30 minutes

24.   Surprising Jason at the BBQ place, I don’t know who enjoyed it more us pulling off the surprise or him

25.   Seeing Jason’s family  meet baby Zadok for the first time

26.   Going to pay for the meal and discovering someone already paid for it in full

27.   Having both Noah and Dassah come in bed with us in the hotel room in the middle of the night, snuggle and fall asleep on either side of me (Definitely one of my top ten moments in life)

28.   Blessings of technology of doing FaceTime with Leah and little Cassie and the whole family

29.   Seeing cows that got loose up close at Paul’s aunt’s house

30.   Watching Baylor game and entering into Paul and Jason’s joy that Baylor won

31.   Heart overflowing as I watched Jason’ family perform a song they made up about him, I didn’t know who to watch them or him because Jason’s smile was so big the whole time.

32.   Seeing the little girl “joy” cousins (they all have the middle name Joy) sitting by the pool with their swim suits and feet dangling

33.   Sitting back at the pool and enjoyed watching everyone give to Jason extravagantly with words and gifts and watching him receive them into his spirit.

34.   Alone time in the hotel room while Dassah napped I got to pray, read and worship without any distractions that I normally have in my own home

35.   Seeing Dassah and Cailin ride on several rides together because they are so little at Incredible Pizza

36.   Seeing Noah’s smile as he scored a goal on Paul at Air hockey

37.   Hearing the excitement in Harrison’s voice that Pop gave them $10 more dollars to play games

38.   Hearing Noah say when we are in the go carts, “ I can’t wait for us to drive around the corner and wave at Papa”

39.   Running into dear family friends randomly at a gas station bathroom on the way home from Springfield

40.   Not realizing the ice cream place was cash only and my dear friend next to me heard and said it was her treat before I could do or say anything (and the guy gave me way more than two scoops too)

41.   Seeing Noah’s wide-eyed wonder at the huge tractor parked at the gas station

42.   Overhearing Noah say to Dassah in the bath after she dumped a cup of water on his head, “Dassah, Jesus says do unto others as you would have them do unto you”

43.   Discovered I was going to be leading the kids tent and I had a surprise helper come, my beloved sister in law, Susan, and we got to stay outside in the beautiful weather almost the whole evening. The kids loved it and so did we.

44. A fun surprise to open my email and find that my mom sent me this picture of my nieces, my dad and brother in law going to Daddy Daughter dance. What beautiful nieces I have. I love how my dad and Nathan are honoring them by doing this. Fresh emotions fill my heart as I remember how my dad has made an effort in the past and continues to take my sister and I out on dates. Now he is continuing to do this with his granddaughters. Precious moments. Precious Papa.

45.   Fresh BBQ rub salmon dinner, Caesar salad with fresh grated Parmesan and flat artisan bread is always a treat esp. after eating out all weekend

46.   Play date with Jacklyn and Hannah-  rich conversation and enjoyment of food she brought homemade zucchini bread, cinnamon scones, and coffee breakfast. I had vegetarian sushi and salmon for lunch for us

47.   Watching Dassah enjoy being with Hannah playing babies, dancing, swinging, hugging ect. favorite moment was when they held hands and danced and smiled at each other for a brief moment)

48.DeAnn surprising me today with gifts for me and the adorable spring clothes for the kids. I was blessed by her thoughtfulness of getting me Passover plates. I really like them but what touched me most was that she remembered from last year that I didn't have any.

49. Tonight Noah says “Mama, I love you so much. Did you know that when we tell each other that we love each other the Lovin just gets bigger. “ He paused and then said, “I love you soooooooooooo much, See it just got bigger. “ I said it back to him “Noah I love you sooooooooo much. It is huge now.” Big smiles and little laughs from both of us. 

A more personal Purim this year

Last night we celebrated Purim with our community. Here are a couple of fun pictures below that I got with my camera. I look forward to seeing other people's pictures too. Paul pulled off funniest costume with dressing up as Donald Trump. Noah dressed up as a Knight and Dassah as a Ballerina (thanks for the idea little Cass). I got to wear the outfit I bought and wore in China for my 21st birthday which was 12 years ago. Wow time flies by fast.

For the past couple years our family and community has celebrated Purim with other Christians and Messianic Jews. It is joyous and fun time to celebrate God's victory over Satan. It is fun to dress up, eat hamantaschen cookies, and reread or watch the story of Esther. Due to being pregnant or nursing, I was not able to do the Esther fast that leads up to Purim in years past. However, this year I was able to do it. I felt the seriousness and weight of the Esther story this year not just because I was fasting, although that got my attention on a physical level, but because of three other reasons. The first being the fact that Iran which is modern day Persia wants to destroy Israel and the Jewish people again. The second being that this is the first time I have family who I love deeply living in Israel. The third being that our community in June is going to become part of Tikkun International. Tikkun is connected with ministries in Israel. With all that being said, the story of Esther became more than just a story in the past. As I prayed and declared scripture during the fast, I realized that I along with all those who are praying for Israel are truly following the example of Esther as we come before the throne of our King and ask Him for mercy.

Hebrews 4:16 Let us then approach¹ the throne of grace with confidence,² so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.