Love seeing HIS handiwork...

Talk about beautiful young ladies right???

This past week we had the pleasure of participating in all sorts of fun activities at the school that is a part of our church...

Louis was the photographer for the 8th grade banquet and dance... What a fun night for him, Greg and myself... Lou has had the pleasure of getting to know most of these young ladies on the Moore mission trip, Sweet Jillian and her mom came to Uganda with us, and through youth group... It was a fun and beautiful night:)

Then the following night I had the opportunity to be one of the 3 speakers at the 8th grade graduation... To be TOTALLY honest, I had completely forgotten that I had agreed to do it until Greg reminded me the day before... hello????  Get this girl some ginseng pronto!!!:):)

When the principal had asked me, I immediately asked if I could speak about Samuel... I didn't want it to be a downer so to speak... but that is the story that God has written for us... The principal was totally fine with that and actually wanted me to speak on how the Lord gets us through the hard and good times in life.

It honestly was such a precious opportunity for me... I was totally nervous, it is not my gift to speak in front of groups at all... but I felt so blessed to share Samuel with a whole new group of people who haven't heard of him and how important he is to us... and felt even more blessed to be able to share with those kids and their parents that THE LORD IS FAITHFUL THROUGH IT ALL!

I have always felt a little ill prepared to handle the trial of child loss in this life... I have wished that someone had really prepared me for the deep deep sorry and grief I would feel... That is why MEND has always been so important to me, because it affirmed in me that my feelings were indeed normal when everyone else and everything else seemed to be  screaming the opposite...

So I was grateful to be able to share with them the full reality of the hurt that can come in life, how clinging to the truths of God's word and not our emotions through those trials is so important, and to how to look for His amazing faithfulness and sometimes miracles through it all... Of course all of my kids were a part of THAT miraculous story...

TOMORROW on the agenda... church, soccer, graduation party up north... and then let the real craziness of June begins...

MEND Chicagoland starts Tuesday:)  Two 50th anniversary parties (both sets of parents), 3 families coming to visit, VBS, Greg's trip to Haiti, me traveling all the way to Houston with the kids on my own, and much much more... and that is just June... We are so thrilled to have friends coming to visit...

We are so excited for the things God has planned for our summer...