The Process

Well I started this web page awhile ago but have done nothing with it...I looked at a friend's blog today and got inspired It's been raining here for the past while and it's quite cozy...I think we are set to break some records set in 1983 this winter. I'm so glad that we live on a hill and in the upper part of a house thus no floods for us. YEAH!

There is so much going on with us these days.

Shaun is in the process of starting a woodworking business...something that he has wanted to do for an age. It has been awesome watching Shaun these last years grow and now he is blossoming and IT IS BEAUTIFUL! He is just so...well the most amazing man...and I would know .

The girls are growing Growing GROWING! I look at them when I go to do the final tuck in right before I go to bed and am amazed at their sweetness, beauty, how big they are, and all the potencial in those wee bodies (that are getting less "wee" every day). I sorted through every scrap of their clothing yesterday...even going to far as to empty out every drawer (yeah I know!). I came across the last remnants of tiny baby shoes and socks in Portia's top drawer. I took them out and set them on the bed waiting to see if I could find the mates. Soon I had a little pile of various sizes of socks. I sat down and just looked at them and went through pictures in my mind of when the girls had each worn these small socks and how little they were. I got really nastalgic and a little sad thinking that those precious baby times are over for us. And then I closed that chapter for good and moved on to the bigger socks. It was a small silly thing but somehow it was a process I needed to go through yesterday. I seem to grieve every chapter closing...and then I am able enjoy the new chapter .

We have started a home group (or a "Life Group" as we call it in our church) at our house. We have been amazed and awed by the goodness of our God. The people that have come in to form the home group are wonderful. They are now friends. We prayed for a long while before embarking on this particular journey. So far it has been an astounding blessing to us. We meet every Monday night. We are reading a book called "Blue Like Jazz" by a Christian Spirituality writter named Donald Miller. Shaun and I read this book this summer on the recommendation of a friend and got quite a bit out of it. But it's quite a different experience going through the book with a group and talking about it. I am getting completely different things from it this time around.

We have now been back in the lower mainland for 2 years and a bit. It's been so nice to put down roots. We have some lovely friends. We have great family here as well. We have all the grandparents pretty close by. That is just lovely! My mom just moved to the Seattle area a few months ago...so she is closer and that is WONDERFUL! The girls just adore Grandma (Portia calls her "Babuh"). They have so much fun together those 3. And then there is Shaun's parents...Papa and Nanny. I just have to say that between those three (Babuh, Papa, and Nanny) they have put so much into our 2 beauties. It really does take a village to raise a child. I have really come to appreciate and enjoy the process of watching the grandparents and grandchildren interact. There is nothing like it. Each have something uniquely wonderful to share. Then there are aunts, uncles, and cousins. Our children are RICH in the love poured into them.

We will be going down to my mom's house for American Thanksgiving. We are really anticipating that. It will be fun to see her new home and area. We are also so excited to be able to go to Edmonton for Christmas this year to share Christmas with Shaun's brother and fabulous family. We have 2 nephews and 1 niece there. We are looking forward to a boisterous Christmas.

Over the last few years of being first a new wife and then a new mother twice over I have focused intensely on those things and loved it. That is all I had time for. But now I have a little more time to think straight. Well let me start by saying when I was younger I would hear all of these songs in my head. I didn't know how to write them down because mostly they didn't have words to start with. Over time I pretty much ignored that and it went away. Over the last few months I have been praying that that gift would come back so that I could write them down this time. I have been wanting to compose some songs and then sing them with Shaun Maybe lay down a C.D. one of these days. That has been a dream on the back burner for awhile so perhaps in the next little while that will start to become a reality. We'll see.

Over these last 8 years I have grown up. So many lessons have been learned (not to say I'm done learning by a long shot)but perhaps now I have more to write about. Anyway, I am a work in process. I will not be complete until I reach heaven. May that process bring glory to God. Over the last little while I have been thinking about a few people in the Bible and the titles given to them...for example Abraham was God's friend...WOW!!! or King David was a man after God's own heart. and then I look at their lives as recorded in the Bible and it gives me much hope...I mean really LOOK at DAVID this "man after God's heart" he committed murder, adultry, I mean this guy messed up all the time but the thing about him...the whole Psalms are David saying sorry and making his heart right before his God. Or Abraham he lied A LOT! etc....it gives me hope that it's not perfection that God is looking for but rather the state of our heart...constantly seeking Him. What a wonder. I hope that God will call me His "friend". I think I would like that very much...well no come to think of it he calls me His child...His princess. I like that even better. I am the apple of His eye. hmmmmmmmmmmmm how rich is that .

Well while I have been waxing eloquent my daughters have been pouring sugar all over the kitchen floor and breaking pottery ....LOVELY! Maybe I don't have more time...must run.

A Princess