Happy Birthday Margaret!

Margaret's 12th birthday was this past Wednesday, September 23. She had Hannah and Hope over for dinner, cake, and a trip to the Lampeter fair. Then yesterday we celebrated it again, since the whole family could be together (plus both grandparents and aunt Beth).

I particularly love the part of the "party" when Dad has us share memories and encouragement.

We are so blessed to have this girl in our family. She's already 12; that is crazy! Soon she'll be a teenager, in youth group, driving, graduating high school . . . oh my, I sound like a mom!

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I've really enjoyed how the age gap is decreasing between myself and my sisters. The last photo is from a starbucks trip with Margaret and her friends. I appreciate how our relationship gets to grow and mature as time goes on. I can't wait to see what God has in store for Margaret this next year!

A bit to honor my Dad

I really want to honor my dad for how he served this weekend. He took photos for an event called OneSingleDay put on by our church for singles. He was working on taking and going through photos the entire day, morning to evening. Where the sacrifically serving really came in was that Saturday night when he stayed up until 4:30 am to finish the slideshow so that we could view it at our church meeting on Sunday. I can only imagine the humility and grace it must have required of my dad when he found out that, due to technical difficulty, they could not show it that morning. He had sacrificed so much sleep and poured so much of his energy into preparing the slideshow for that exact time, only to have his plans and services thwarted. And I did not see one display of anger/frustration or self pity, although I know it must have been a battle in his heart. This is the grace of God at work in my dad.

Thank you Dad! I love you so much. You are a wonderful example of a humble servant.

Here is the slideshow. It was a most beneficial day to my soul.