VACATION!!

Can you spell adventure? You can't unless you taken 4 kids, 7 and under, on a road trip. We're into day 3 of 8 and I can still see in color. Actually, it hasn't been that bad. We spent 2 days in Chicago and took the kids to the children's museum and I took the boys to the top of the Sears tower. They all had a blast but hit their walls by about 7:00 pm. When 4 little ones hit their walls, you desire their beds to be not far away. The only real negative so far is that 4 of us have been sick with some sort of nasty cough. Yesterday, on our drive to Dayton, OH, we gave our 6 year old, Johnny, some cough syrup. 1 hr later, he was throwing it up. Praise the Lord, my wife caught it all in a BIG SLURPY cup. (Sorry for the graphic nature) There have been some really good moments as well. The other night I was tucking my 3 yr old daughter, Anna, into bed and was telling her how good of a girl she had been so far. I kissed her on the cheek and she told me that she wasn't going to wipe it off. How cool is that?

I'm sure I'll have more posts about this vacation as we go. I had to capture some of these precious memories while I had the moment to do so.

I Can See!

There are moments in life that aren't very pleasant (excrutiating) but they seem to place all things in their proper perspective.

My wife has recently been fighting some kind of virus. Following a trip to the doctor and a few blood tests, we had an evening we did not plan on having. One test came back with a low white blood cell count and they wouldn't give us the results right away on the other. The PA said that an oncologist was looking at it and that they would let us know within the week. My wife called another aquaintance in the medical field and they were concerned with the low white blood cell count. To get the the crux, the word Leukemia came up.

Since then, we have found the blood tests to be fine and that Tarah just has a virus she is fighting. However, those 20 hours of the unknown are not something I want to repeat for a long time if ever. I mentioned in the first sentence how proper perspective was gained. Let me list what I saw.

1. My wife is precious to me..a gift from God, Himself, that I should never take for granted.
2. I am not in control and I am ultimately helpless without God.
3. I don't deserve the good things I have and God, at any time, could take them away and be withing His full rights. What I do have is His mercy in which I clung to very much during those hours.
4. The dying lawn, the cluttered office, my usual concerns, held no power over my life. Only my loved ones mattered.

Today, the day after, I was out trying to rescue my lawn. I was bagging leaf and needle piles that had been raked 2 weeks ago. Of course the grass was dead under those piles. My kids were playing around me and wanted to help, play, etcc..... but I was too busy "saving the grass!"
So quickly I forget. However, it didn't take me long to get a grip.

Moral of this story, embrace those things that are eternal and half-heartedly twiddle with the rest when time allows.