Did you know Mrs. Potato Head loans out her ear rings?

Thank you, God, for my Salvation!

For obvious reasons, I've been thinking the last couple of days about what I have to be thankful for. Every moment I live, I experience so many blessings from my Father above. For instance, as I'm sitting here typing this, Viviane is standing by the coffee table humming in her cute little way, and she just looked at me a couple of minutes ago and said, "I love you, Mommy." Now, THAT is something to thank my God for. And God has given me a multitude of things to thank Him for in my dear husband Michael. Like, just in the last 2 hours, Michael fixed dinner for our family and cleaned up the kitchen since I'm on bedrest at this stage in my pregnancy. That kind of servanthood exemplified by Michael is yet another blessing for which to thank my Heavenly Father. Yesterday, we had the joy of gathering with part of my family, and one of the wonderful people present was my dear, sweet Mom. God is graciously preserving Mom through chemotherapy right now. Thank you, God, for Mom's health.

Among a plethora of other blessings, I can thank God daily for clothing, shelter, food, good health, sunny days, Viviane's smiles, Michael's kindness, rain, Christian fellowship, a sweet baby girl on the way...I can't even begin to scratch the surface in thanking God for His rich outpouring of goodness to me!

But the major (does that word even do it justice?) theme of my thankfulness this year is my salvation in Christ. God has been graciously and faithfully unfolding before me the wonder of His love to me in Christ and the freedom I have in Christ from guilt and condemnation! He has powerfully used A Gospel Primer by Milton Vincent to awaken in me a deeper understanding of what it means to be clothed in Christ's righteousness and stand before God completely forgiven and free from the penalty of my sin. He has shown me that He loves me as much as He loves His own Son because, in His Son, I am just as much His child as Christ is! I can hardly say enough. "Wow! Incredible! Amazing!" seem too mundane to express the wonder of God's love to me. So, since words will never say enough, I simply say "Thank you, God, for my salvation!"

What a Man!

My dear husband is absolutely the BEST! Do you know what he lovingly did tonight that I could not do in my very pregnant state? He gave me a pedicure! That's right...a pedicure. And, I must say, it was a very good pedicure at that :-) He's one sweet fella, and I'm so thankful to the Lord for blessing me by allowing me to marry him. Thank you, Michael, for being so loving. I love you!

Pumpkins and Wagon Rides

Viviane got to experience lots of Fall Fun while we were in IL! Mr. Tom carved a beautiful leaf design into a pumpkin one night (sorry, no picture of the finished product, but I assure you, it looked great!), and Daddy took Mommy and Viviane on a wagon ride at one of hosts homes!

More Highlights from our Month in Illinois

We had such a good time with friends and packed lots of exciting adventures into our month in Illinois! Here are a few more fun things we got to do while we were there:

At the home of one of our Sunday dinner hosts, Viviane got to hold precious little kittens for the first time! She LOVED it! The biggest challenge was keeping her from squeezing them to death :-)

We visited a still-functioning grist mill in a little town called Franklin Grove with the Luttmanns one Saturday.

Our trip to Chicago with the Luttmanns and several people from their church was a definite highlight. We enjoyed taking a train ride from Aurora to Union Station, using double strollers all day, visiting the aquarium and planetarium, and taking in the views of the city as we walked and walked and walked :-) It was a fun day for all!

And our dear friends, the Scotts, took us on a day trip to Wisconsin where we (especially Michael and Jeremy) thoroughly enjoyed a used book store called Resurrected Reads. We also visited Maranatha Baptist Bible College. I hadn't been back since I graduated in 2000, and the campus has changed quite a bit since then. Also, Michael had never seen where I spent 4 years of my academic life, so it was an adventure for all!

Ode to Joy

In the previous post, "Fall Fun!", I failed to include a picture of dear Joy, the woman who made the orchard trip possible. Thanks, Joy!

Fall Fun!

Saturday morning Viviane and I got to enjoy a fun time at an orchard in Rockford with Joy McCarnan, Jenny and Elijah Thompson, and Bonnie Ruth Farmer. We had a blast! There were animals to feed, grain to play with, pumpkins to look at, and of course, donuts and apple cider to partake of :-) Thanks, Joy, for getting us all together and treating us to a fun time!

A Day with Our Dear Friends, the Hansons

Yesterday we enjoyed a beautiful day with Brian, Johanna, Stefan, and Baby Girl Hanson in the quaint town of Galena, IL. We got to tour one of Ulysses Grant's homes, eat a delicious lunch at Vinny's Italian Restaurant (yummy garlic bread!) and Johanna and I window shopped in several neat little shops along Main Street. We topped the day off by hitting 2 chocolate shops (yes, 2, and, yes, you're dealing with 2 pregnant women :-) ) and enjoyed our ride back to Rockford. The day was filled with great fun, lots of laughs, and wonderfully refreshing fellowship with our dear friends. We love you, Brian and Jo!

Fun in Indy!!!

On the way to Rockford, IL, a couple of weeks ago, we got to enjoy a few hours in downtown Indianapolis, IN (I grew up about 40 miles NE of Indy, so I was feeling a little nostalgic about the whole thing :-) ). We walked around Circle Centre Mall and then toured the Capitol Building. We topped off our time by getting Steak-n-Shake to go (one of my favorites!!).