Hannah

Hannah is a sparkler on the fourth of July,

A bounce, a song, a pirouette,

A flash of pixie dust whirling by.

Her spirit so strong, so sharp, so bright

A young star streaking through our night.

The force of her will, a tidal wave that crashes down my good intentions and sends me swirling in the aftermath of anger gone wild.

I want to nurture her spark—I’m so afraid: Afraid of dousing her with rigidness or letting her rage into a fire of self destruction by being too lenient. Balance is a rare enlightenment. I am stumbling in the dark trying to parent her.

She is so selfish yet only four.

Today she shared her cookie with her sister with a smile. Reminding me this journey of character development is not near over, (when is it ever over?) and does not end in my incompetent hands. The One who knows the stars by name has counted the honey colored hairs on her head. He has begun a good work in her. He has plans for her future. And she loves Him already—loves his Creation, loves His Son.

I take a deep breath and look into her eyes wide with wonder, curiosity and awe over a cicada or a sunset, or a trumpet solo or her sister’s new skill and I relax. I breathe out my guilt, my insecurities, my crazy need for control.

I love her. I love her. I love my daughter. I love Hannah Rivkah-- my priceless gift of “captivating grace” from the One who is Grace.

15 Year Anniversary Celebration!

In May Shawn and I celebrated our 15 year anniversary by taking the kids on our first ever family vacation.  Usually we travel with or to visit extended family.  This was our first time to just load up the kids and head off on our own family adventure.  We loved it!  We are definitely going to take more as time and money allow.

We went to the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina, staying in some cabins real close to Linville Falls and Linville Gorge.  We made some incredible memories watching our kids take in the beautiful views, discover rock climbing (and scaring us silly), enjoying sweet visits on our cabin's porch after the kids went to bed--watching glow worms wink in and out in the grass and pointing out shooting stars.  We had a campfire one night and let Hannah stay up late with us eating hobo dinners cooked in Shawn's masterfully made campfire oven.  We hiked to see the waterfalls, walked across a mile high bridge, were in awe of 600 year old trees, and breathless at rhodedendron framed views of mountains rolling away into the distance.  Elanor started exclaiming "Wow!" a lot during the trip!

The smilebox below tells the story better with pictures!  You can click on each picture to see it bigger and clearer. Enjoy!

Personalize your own photo album

Some things I've been wanting to share for a long time . . .

In March I finally got to meet the definition of sweetness: my niece Jamison-Caris Swann. She was born March 2, 2011 and I got to fly up and meet her five days later.

This was also the first time I have ever left Hannah.  She spent three days with her daddy and with our friends the Normans having a blast!  She really had no repercussions at all from me leaving her except for when I came back she was dressing herself and could buckle part of her carseat all by herself!  Makes me think I need to leave more often! :)

In April we all drove up to Nebraska so the whole family could meet JC-Swann.  We had a magical time enjoying the spring weather, walking to East Campus for the "big kids" to play under the flowering bushes, eating ice cream at the creamery, jumping on the trampoline, gazing at Jamison, talking and enjoying each other's company.  Words fail to me to express what a blessing it is to see the Barnacles so happy with arrival of Jamison-Caris.  What a long awaited joyful completion to such a sorrowful journey for all of us.

Uncle Shawn's "Whiskey-Grace"

Enraptured by Uncle Shawn's "Princess Gold" story (an ongoing bedtime saga for Hannah.)

Walking to East Campus

Under the "Fairy Bushes"

Uncle Bryan caught a snake!



Elanor "ecStatic" on the trampoline!



Elanor's happy place--digging by the back stairs.



My happy place. . . .



All our angels . . . sleeping or pretending to sleep. :)



Painting red rocks to fool the birds in the neighbor's strawberry patch.



My sweet sister and the sweetest ever baby.



The videos below were the culmunation of our magical time and how much I love being with the Barnacles.  Nothing more whimsical than little kids dancing to bells ringing!

Corban joins in!