Today was Lina’s fourth birthday, and I had decided to mostly make her gifts this year. That’s what I decided, but we ended up buying her a little bike, and the nightie is still on my sewing table! However, I did make one gift, and I was really happy with how it turned out (and so was she, which made it all that much better), so I decided to do a little show and tell. Seriously now, tell me you wouldn’t just love this if you were four.
But wait, it opens!
No way! It’s actually a house!
And you can even get inside of it to put the fairies back in their sleeping bags (hey- I didn’t have any time for furniture!)
This was a pretty fun little project, and the thrill payoff was more than enough to make me plan one for Daphne for Christmas! What do you think?
Let me just begin this by saying that the picture of me a little lower down the page here pretty much sums up exactly how I was feeling during the week leading up to our recent hurrah. A little flopped over feeling. Smiling wanly when people said they wanted to take my picture. That glassy eyed, glazed over look comes from mentally counting your luggage again and again and again and wondering if your 84th trip to Wal Mart might have put you over the weight limit for the checked baggage and did we or did we not leave winter coats for ALL the children in England or did we put some in the charity shop when we came home for the summer and I know I wrote it down but that only helps if I can find the list and oh yes I scanned it into my computer to help in just this contingency and where did I save the file and oh while I’m on the computer I should order those homeschooling books and oh wait, actually what I should do is check and see if I can find any cheap wellies that I could order and take with us and why did I just turn on the computer again? What I really need to do is run to Wal Mart . . .
This, I just realized, was our 5th transatlantic move. The fifth time in two years that I had to try and condense our life into fourteen 50 lb. suitcases, and the 14 carry-ons that we try to slip through without having them weighed because that’s where we put all the books.
Fourteen suitcases is honestly a mountain. We’re not talking small suitcases here. We’re talking the big jobs, and they are maxed to the complete limit. The carry-ons are mostly those small suitcases with wheels which means that actually we’re really talking about 28 suitcases. Continue reading ‘Luggage’
Howdy!
So – I know that Mom practically promised that I would tell you all about the Great Heathrow Debacle. And let me tell you – I’d better write it down quick because I think it’s one of those memories that I will probably try to mentally block!
But while I type, why don’t you all jaunt on over and sign up for the new purse! And while you’re there, DO fill out that survey for me – I’d love it! Thanks!
Why does God allow His children to sometimes fall into grievous sin? The answer that the Westminster Confession gives us is God uses this to humble them. Here it is below:
The most wise, righteous, and gracious God does oftentimes leave, for a season, His own children to manifold temptations, and the corruption of their own hearts, to chastise them for their former sins, or to discover unto them the hidden strength of corruption and deceitfulness of their hearts, that they may be humbled;[19] and, to raise them to a more close and constant dependence for their support upon Himself, and to make them more watchful against all future occasions of sin, and for sundry other just and holy ends.[20]
Here we see that death and resurrection theme. Sometimes a proud heart can only be humbled when it is brought low by its own sin. God uses this to bring about a spiritual renewal and awakening, resulting in a much closer walk with God.
For those watching, it can be heart breaking. But that is why faith is needed. And if you have a loved one who has been caught in a grievous sin, pray productively that God will use the fall as a means of destroying pride (that’s the death part) and that He will create a new heart that is humble and faithful (that’s the resurrection part).
It is easy to get confused and disheartened when someone close to you falls. But we must keep our eye on the story line and remember that God is faithful and will bring all things to an end that is consistent with His glory and our good. And, someone else’s fall into sin can and should be a sermon to everyone else, a reminder of our own frailty and weakness, and a motivation to take heed to our own souls.
Sometimes we might be tempted to think that God is not answering or prayers, or that He is answering them the opposite of what we asked. But that is the time we might need to step back and look at the whole picture from a different viewpoint.
God is writing the story, and we may be in the midst of a very difficult chapter, but the story is not yet finished. That is why we need to have the eye of faith to hope for a better outcome. When the disciples were watching the crucifixion, they felt lost and disappointed. But God had already planned the resurrection and victory was coming just three days out.
We have to remember that recurring theme of death and resurrection that God loves to weave into His stories. This is why the psalmist can fear no evil in the valley of the shadow of death. This is why we can expect God to work all things for good, even those things that look (from our perspective) hopelessly tangled. Faith is not what we see, but what we don’t see. Faith remembers the Author and Finisher of our faith. Faith looks forward to the resurrection.
So I have been missing from this page, but believe me, I have not been inactive. But let me not be tedious with all my doings. The central thing is that we got the Merkles off!
In fact, they arrived safely in Oxford not long ago after a smooth trip from Moscow to Seattle and from Seattle to London. However, according to a couple of cryptic emails from Ben and Bekah, the smoothness of the trip ended at Heathrow, for Bekah says it was “a completely unbelieveable scene.” Bekah writes: “We missed the bus due to unforeseen issues, and then the next bus wouldn’t let us on, and then we finally caught the third.”
My feeling is that any bus driver who would look at a travel-weary family of seven standing on the curb in a foreign country with fourteen pieces of luggage, five children, and seven carry-ons and not take pity on them and squeeze them in one way or the other ought not to be trusted to drive a bus.
Then Ben writes: “Travel went very smooth until Heathrow. Then we had a serious woop. I even got to push the emergency stop on the moving sidewalk. Very exciting and I am sure Bekah will tell you all soon.” So we await the story. Somehow I think that Bekah’s “unforeseen issues” and Ben’s “serious woop” are the same event.
So I’ll keep you posted!
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