Because I'm committed to making you smarter...

Here's some useless, yet interesting leap day trivia:

-- A person born on Leap Day is called a leapling.

--As the story goes, the tradition of women romantically pursuing men in leap years began in 5th century Ireland, when St. Bridget complained to St. Patrick about the fair sex having to wait for men to propose. Patrick finally relented and set February 29 aside as the day set aside allowing women the right to ask for a man's hand in marriage.

--The tradition continued in Scotland, when Queen Margaret declared in 1288 that on February 29 a woman had the right to pop the question to any man she fancied. Menfolk who refused were faced with a fine in the form of a kiss, a silk dress, or a pair of gloves given to the rejected lady fair.

--Invented at the Savoy Hotel in London on February 29, 1928 this sweet concoction was said to have spurred many a marriage proposal.

2 ounces gin

1/2 ounce Grand Marnier

1/2 ounce sweet vermouth

1/4 ounce fresh lemon juice

Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Serve with a twist of lemon.

You're welcome....

Stewart has a little brother

Josh and I often quote Stewart right after Isaiah has said something. Please don't think less of us, but we find a lot of similarities between the two. This captures that several times (except we're not looking for a new daddy).

Missions...

is a passion that God has deeply wedged into our hearts for years and, I'm learning, never goes away. And I definitely didn't want it to (though it would make some things easier), but I guess we've kinda "put it on the back burner" for the last couple of years as God has been healing and restoring us, building up our marriage and guiding us through the huge transition of becoming parents. I feel like we have come a LONG way from where we were 2 years ago, and the Lord has been slowly, gently but steadily bringing the nations back to the front of our hearts. I have no idea what this will mean for our future, whether we will go or send (or go some and send some), but doing one or the other is clear....Praise God!

So, last Sunday morning Josh and I were in bed recovering from an ugly stomach bug, and decided to listen to several of Piper's sermons on the subject. If you haven't heard him preach on this you are missing a huge part of his heart...start with "Doing Missions When Dying is Gain"...you won't be the same!

Anyway, though he says SO MUCH there was one statement in particular that really challenged us. This is from his sermon called, "Missions: The Battle Cry of Christian Hedonism."

"When Jesus commissioned his church to disciple the peoples, he did not have in mind merely political boundaries. He had in mind the distant, distinct groups including tribes and tongues and peoples. And today there are over 16,000 such groups undiscipled. If every Christian in the world won all his neighbors to Christ, half the world would be unevangelized; because two billion people make up culturally distant people groups who do not have an indigenous witness. They are the "hidden peoples," the "frontier missions" of our day. The only way they can be reached is by cross-cultural missionaries."

How Marvelous!

I didn't grow up in churches that sang many hymns and on days like today I'm thankful because when I hear one I haven't heard in a long time, it's still new to me and the words have fresh meaning. I don't have memories of singing them as a bored kid in the pew with her parents. There's no negativity or indifference associated with them in my head (not that people who grew up with them would...but I think I would).

And this morning I was hit over the head with one as I was listening to Chris Tomlin in my car. What a beautiful and ENCOURAGING message! I couldn't help raising my hand (with one planting firmly on the steering wheel) and singing to the top of my lungs! The chorus has been playing over and over in my head since. A very simple message, but so full of marvel, wonder and joy at Jesus. So, I just wanted to share the words of it with you:

I stand amazed in the presence

Of Jesus the Nazarene,

And wonder how He could love me,

A sinner, condemned, unclean.

Refrain:
O how marvelous! O how wonderful!

And my song shall ever be:

O how marvelous! O how wonderful!

Is my Savior’s love for me!

Refrain

He took my sins and my sorrows,

He made them His very own;

He bore the burden to Calvary,

And suffered and died alone.

Refrain

When with the ransomed in glory

His face I at last shall see,

’Twill be my joy through the ages

To sing of His love for me.

Refrain

Boxes, anyone???

We have been trying to get our house ready to sell and are having the hardest time finding moving boxes. Seems like grocery stores, pharmacies and even ABC stores don't have them like we thought they would.

So, if you hear of any available...let us know!

Isaiah's happy reunion with food

Let me explain: Isaiah has always LOVED his food....until he has a stomach bug which is what he's had the past few days. It has been IMPOSSIBLE to please him. He would constantly sign "food" and "please" only to emphatically shout "No!" (his new favorite word...ugh) at EVERYthing we would offer him. He was finally satisfied yesterday for a few short minutes with Jello and part of a popcicle. But today he's eating! He's not quite into all his normal foods yet, but he was happy this morning with honey-nut cheerios (in the pantry, no less) and his first ever peanut butter sandwich at lunch. This is a big deal if you know his dad well.

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The Mr and Mrs

Wow. They're married! Here's a few pictures of their special day. I'm missing all of the wedding party and most of our family so I'll try to get those up as soon as I get them.

Still the big sister!

At the reception and much more comfortable....and can I just mention the

two incredibly cute boys in the background?

Mother of the groom and her little boy

Today is the BIG DAY!

My little brother, Darren, is getting married! It's still really unsettling to me (He's young and will always be "little" to me), but he's excited and says he's ready. I'll post pictures soon.

Update on Doria

Several of you have asked about her and have been praying for her. That speaks volumes to us so thank you.

She had surgery yesterday afternoon to have her gall bladder removed. They found really thick bile which is most likely the cause of all her pain. They didn't see stones but will do a pathology report to be sure. She should go home today. She said her belly button hurts :) but she's doing much better. We're thankful that they didn't wait any longer to do the surgery as my brother is getting married Saturday (!). We're expecting and praying that she'll be doing much better by the weekend.

Thanks again for praying for her.

Prayer, please

My sister, Doria, was admitted to the hospital this morning. She's been experiencing some pretty awful pain in her side for awhile now and after several trips to the Dr, two trips to the emercency room, two prescriptions for Vicaden that didn't work, she was finally admitted. She's relieved to get better pain meds, but they're still not sure what's wrong or what to do. She definitely has ovarian cysts and a scan earlier today showed that her gall bladder is only functioning at 33%. However, the Drs seem to be miscommunicating (one has a very thick accent, they said.....WHAT?!?). One Dr was talking about surgery and another one was talking about discharging her, so please pray for clarity for them and healing for Doria.