Daughters

Saying Good-bye to Emma.  We love you!

When Steve and I had our first daughter, and then another, and then another, and then another, we pretty much thought that we better learn how to work with and raise girls.  I learned how to do hair, we braced ourselves for prom dress shopping and wedding planning.  We not only had our own four girls, but they had their friends over so then we really would have a houseful of girls....girls beget more girls, we found out!  Now we have the honor and privilege of working with a group of beautiful young women who are not only learning so much about themselves, but also teaching others and teaching me and Steve as well.  Teaching us how to show compassion, love, patience, honesty, forgiveness...and seeing the true beauty within each and every soul.  I am learning how to see with God's eyes, the unconditional love that we always read about...the pure love of Christ.  These beautiful young ladies are our daughters too.  We pray for them, worry about them, hope for them, support them, feed them, talk with them, laugh with them and admire their strength to do very hard things.  We have seen several go on to bigger and--hopefully, prayerfully--better things.  We send them off with tools in their handbag of tricks to pull out and use against unhealthy triggers and patterns of thought and action. We watch them advance, and sometimes get setback...two steps forward, one step back--but always, one step at a time.  Keep on moving, keep on moving...forward.  Let go, and let God.  Sometimes they leave because they have graduated the program.  Yeah! We are so happy and excited for them.  Sometimes they leave because of other reasons, and we have to let them go with our love and confidence in their abilities ringing in their ears.  We give them our phone number and make them promise to call us if they get in trouble or need help in any way.  And then we trust, and pray, and love.

A River Runs Through It

Last week Steve and I were invited to join in on a river trip with a young women group that Ashley's been working with all summer.  We went up to Jackson Hole to run a section of the Snake River. While it was relatively mild, there was a rapid that managed to spill at least one person from all three of our boats.  Steve was having such a wonderful time that he was totally unaware of the gal behind him going overboard.  When we saw these pictures, I was laughing so hard at the look on his face...it is one of pure joy!

It was so great to spend three days hiking, camping, swimming, talking, singing and goofing off with these girls!

We love all of them (this is only about half the group) and they have brought a lot of love and happiness into our lives.

Lessons learned from the river:

If you fall overboard, we will pull you back in.  We will lift you up from your shoulder straps. We've got your back.

You have to listen carefully to the guide to know when to dig in deep with your paddle, and when to rest.  He will tell us when to paddle, and when not to paddle.  Meanwhile, he is watching the flow of the current and is guiding us to a proper placement to safely run through it.  Listen to the guide, he knows the way!

Some rapids are bigger when there is more water, and some are bigger when there is less water.  We cannot control the level of the water, but we can control where in the river flow we are.

These were just a few things I thought about in connection with life.  I thought a lot about the Serenity Prayer:

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things that I can change, and the wisdom to know the difference.

These days, I'm trying to operate with that in mind, and with this:

Just love them.

Taking the Birthday Back!

Birthdays are to celebrate the specialness of someone and to let them know how grateful we are that they were born and are a part of our lives.  This wonderful girl had that taken away from her last year, so as a family we are helping her Take the Birthday Back.  In our house, we do Birthdays.  We start early with breakfast in bed and a shower of gifts and well wishes.  We give lots of hugs and loves and "it's your Birthday, hey, hey, hey" songs.  We try to get the birthday person to wear the Birthday Hat, but that seems more like a punishment, so we don't do that anymore.  We have the dinner of their choice, and homemade cake and ice cream (also of their choice).  The whole extended family comes to help celebrate and give notes of love.  Everyone deserves one day during the year where THEY are celebrated and feted.  We love this girl.  She is someone I greatly admire and look up to.  I am in awe at her strength and bravery.

Awesome
Sparkly
Hilarious
Loving
Entertaining
Youthful

I love that you still love to snuggle with your stuffed animals, hang out in your sweats and slippers, give the best hugs.  You are my precious baby, now and for always.  Love you, Ash!