Mother's Day 2011

Have you ever read the book on love languages? Are you married to someone that "speaks" a completely different love language than you? Just like pretty much everything else, Justin and I are complete opposites when it comes to expressing love. Giving and getting gifts is one of Justin's top love languages, but gifts are not even on my radar. Even so, Justin usually buys me something for Mother's Day. But, I think this year, Justin finally got me the right thing...quality time:) He took us girls to breakfast, then to visit his mother (A wonderful mother-in-law. I can't relate to people who don't have a good relationship with their in-laws), and then a trip to the zoo. I'm so excited that I actually get to be in some of these pictures! Most of the time I'm the one behind the camera.

Justin got a little fancy with his photography! These first three pics were taken in front of our beautiful willow tree in the front yard.

There was a long line to get into the zoo. While we waited, a young girl in front of us offered Jordan and Rylie each a quarter to feed the fish. Such a sweetie!
We moved much faster through the zoo with daddy carrying the girls on his shoulders.

Look, I'm in another picture! This is on the boardwalk above the bison. This is the part of the zoo where I used to be a keeper. Such good memories!

Sitting down to eat some lunch. Rylie put her arm around Jordan and I HAD to get a picture. This is a rare sweet sister moment! I should add that it's rare for Rylie to be the affectionate sister.

Not-so-girly princess

We were watching American idol tonight. When Lauren sang, she was wearing a pretty "princess" dress. Jordan said, "Hey, I have that dress!" (you do?). She ran upstairs and got into her dress up outfits--which she never wears!--and put her princess dress like Lauren's on, along with her crown. She was so cute I had to take a picture (since dressing up does not often happen at our house)...

Dancing around...
And then...
...she laughed and a big booger shot out of her nose! Well, it could have been a booger. I personally think she stuck something up her nose...it looked more like a little piece of chicken!

Where was I?

Jordan is a very thoughtful little girl. She is one who will sit and ponder all sorts of thoughts and ideas. One such thought came up yesterday. As Jordan and I were sitting downstairs, Jordan looked over at Justin's and my wedding pictures. She's asked before where she was in those pictures, but we've told her that she wasn't born yet. Well, yesterday, that answer quite disturbed her. She asked again where she (and Rylie) were, and was becoming visibly upset, even near tears, "But...where WAS we?! Were we tiny? Were we big? Where WAS we?!" She could not wrap her sweet little heart and mind around the idea that she was not in existence. How can that even be? Something that was not is now what is? Something from nothing?

Isn't God amazing?! I pray we would all be in awe of our mere existence, that God would choose to make us something when we were once nothing!

Grandma and Grandpa Neill

These are the only pictures I got with the grandparents from this weekend.

Cousin Carson

The hunt

Fallyn was so good at helping Rylie find Easter eggs. She was so selfless and generous!

I wish I would have gotten some pictures of the Orchard cousins...they are so good with the little ones! We love them a lot!

Gobbling up the Easter Candy!

I can't get over her cheesy smiles!

Sweet Baby Emily

Jordan and Rylie's new cousin, Emily, and her older brother Carson came to Wichita for Easter. Such a sweet picture of Emily and her mommy!

Easter Morning

Christ is Risen! Happy Easter!

Without God, nothing else can satisfy

"Meaningless! Meaningless!...Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless!" Ecclesiastes 1:2

This book of the Bible has been heavily on my mind recently. Today, I spent my day with the Lord reading through each chapter. Over the course of this year, my eyes have been opened to see the meaninglessness of the "things" my students fill their hearts and minds with--partying, drugs, boys, girls, sex, popularity, fame, attractiveness, money, success, grades...the list goes on and on. Ecclesiastes 3: 11 says that "He has also set eternity in the hearts of men." My students try to fill up this eternity in their hearts with pleasures and practices that are completely unfullfilling, even destructive, all the while running from God, the only one who can truly fulfill their hearts' desire. I see the hunger for something more, a thirst for a life with purpose and meaning, but there is a lostness about them, wandering as though they were blind in the worldliness of our culture.

My heart is burdened and grieved for the lost that can't seem to find their Savior. I want their lives to matter; I want them to find true meaning and purpose; I want them to be found and saved by the One that gave His life for them. Without God, nothing else can satisfy. I know the hunger and thirst in their hearts...we all do (God put eternity in the hearts of everyone). This is what Jesus means when He says "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." John 4:13-14. Jesus fills our eternity, and we realize that filling up with the pleasures of this world become utterly meaningless, a chasing after the wind.