strings of pearls...

this morning at breakfast i was having a hard time convincing adeline to stay in her chair until she was excused. she asked to be excused, i said she needed to wait for her sister to finish eating and then i dropped something on the floor. she saw this as a great way to get out of obeying: she would "help me" by picking it up, thus helping herself by getting out of her chair. i calmly told her to get back in her chair and that she wasn't helping if she wasn't obeying. i think adeline is starting to grasp how sin causes separation because in a little voice that just about broke my heart she said, "i'm sorry, ambre. can i still love you?"
how often are we in the same situation as adeline? God asks us to do something that doesn't sound pleasant and so we decided to "do something for God" other than what He asked of us. later, as we feel that we are no longer in communion with Him as a result of our independent disobedience we repent and then question the love factor. "does He still love me?" "will He still except love from me?" and God answers "of course, my child, always and forever..."
"Yes, I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor ruling spirits, nothing now, nothing in the future, no powers, nothing above us, nothing below us, nor anything else in the whole world will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
-Romans 8:38-39

yeah, for weddings!

"There are many reasons God saves you: to bring glory to himself, to appease his justice, to demonstrate his sovereignty. But one of the sweetest reasons God saved you is because he is fond of you. He likes having you around. He thinks you are the best thing to come down the pike in quite a while...
If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it. If he had a wallet, your photo would be in it. He sends you flowers every spring and a sunrise every morning. Whenever you want to talk, he'll listen. He can live anywhere in the universe, and he chose your heart...
Face it, friend. He's crazy about you."

-A Gentle Thunder by Max Lucado

singing moose

oh, my...
today was a great day. i flew to new york city with sara and adeline. a lot of you will remember adeline as erik and my's way cute flower girl, age three.
our trip began with a flight delay. adeline spent her time running between us and the big windows to watch the plane. at one point she informs us that her pants won't stay up very well. sara, her mom, tells her that it's because she has no butt. adeline then proceeds to turn around and moon us while yelling "see! i have a butt!" we just about died! only adeline can get away with mooning an entire airport. :)
we took her to china town tonight after dinner. she had a fit at the open market over the live crabs that everyone was picking up and waving around. at the second vendor she began screeching and everyone was laughing at her. it was great. some little old chinese lady told sara that adeline was a "good size" for a three year old. whatever that means. :)
tomorrow is day two of the great adventure... stay tuned!