Rebecca Grace

Rebecca Grace was born on August 31 at 2:16 am.

7 lbs. 12 oz. and 19 1/2 inches long

She had quite the week leading up to her birth and has the war wounds to prove it. But she is a fighter and is a healthy and happy baby. Her bruises are going away nicely.

We are all at home now and settling into life as a family and we know who is in charge too!

Progress

We finally have a baby room somewhat together!! We still have 3 weeks to go, but I am ready to have this baby any day now. Dan and I went shopping for baby furniture on our 3 year wedding anniversary and found a beautiful crib and dresser at Baby Depot. Two weeks ago my mom came to visit for 3 days and sewed a gorgeous quilt, curtains, and dust ruffle. She even made some mattress pads and sheets for the crib and cradle. We got a lot done in a short amount of time. There are still plenty of finishing touches to do in the room, but it's stocked with diapers, wipes, and clothing. The "extra" stuff can wait for a while.

Did I mention that mom and I made this quilt up from scratch? Here was the process. We picked out wooden animals at Micheal's to use as pattern pieces. We blew them up on the copy machine and mapped out the quilt on grid paper.

Then we picked out fun and tectured material to make each animal look like the wooden one.

Then mom amazingly sewed it all together into a beautiful quilt!

Here are all the finished projects together in the baby room.This final picture is me at 37 weeks. Like I said I'm ready to have this baby in our arms!

Thoughts for Aug. 17, 2007

Does God owe us anything?
Does God owe us a job? Does God owe us a higher pay scale if we are working hard but only making $15,000 or working hard and making $65,000? Does God owe us a promotion over other employees who are less qualified than us or who work less hard?
Does God owe us safety driving over bridges or skiing on a lake or driving a golf cart recklessly?
Does God owe us answers to our prayers? If we really know our future plans would be perfect does God owe us then? Does God owe us our hearts desire for our dream career?
Does God owe us our dream house with everything in it we will ever need to raise our kids perfectly? Does God owe us children? Healthy children? Able-bodied children? Obiedient children?
Does God owe us a spouse who loves us and helps us with everything we need or want?
Does God owe us loving parents who give us good gifts and help when we need it or love when we need it or financial support to help us?

NO

This topic has been on my mind the last many days. It seems I have had different things pulling me in my life and in many different directions. And maybe as life changes and we seem out of control I realize more fully who is in control. God is in control and I fully trust Him with my life. I fear Him and know everything is working out His master plan.

But aren't we in control? As long as we continue to go to work I will always have a job and a paycheck and money to pay the bills and buy clothes and have fun and live life and be happy.

NO

Our hardest work is but rubbish if done for our gain. Our work should be for God's glory. Our children, our jobs, our talents, our gifts, our wages, our love; they should be for God. All of the things we have in our life are truly His first and we don't deserve any of it. I look down and see my heart pumping through my chest. Can I keep it going? What a wonder! My heart is pumping and Lord-willing will continue for many years to come. It just keeps on going, working very hard, doing the intent of it's creator. I realize very quickly I am powerless. Then in the next minute I think an evil thought about someone and deserve to be struck down. My sins constantly are piling up under the weight of God's wrath and nothing I do can remove them.
But scripture says:

The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him. Psalm 103:8-13.

We should praise His name for the many blessings we have, for saving us from the pit, for giving us new life, for allowing us another day on this earth, for giving us eyes to see, yes eyes. Can you imagine getting up this morning and not having eyes for a day. What an eternity before that day would be over and our life could move on! What an inconvenience! But when was the last time we thanked God for those bodily things that sustain us.

'Dar's gold in ye barn!

Sarah: Get up my love, and do not dally for there's gold in ye barn!

Dan: Now, now, darling, for it's not gold at the bottom of the rainbow. It's #2 yellow corn and it's in our wagon not in a pot.

Yesterday morning when I went out to feed our calves it was lightly raining and yet brightly sunny resulting in a very nice rainbow. It went from left to right and was complete. There has been only one time when I saw a better rainbow and it was actually a double rainbow with the bottom one complete from left to right and one partial one above it. I like rainbows because of the spectrum of colors. It is quite amazing.

God immediately comes to my mind when I see a rainbow and of his covenant faithfulness to us. He brings us the sun and the rain but never again will he bring a flood to destroy the earth. As it is written in Genesis 9 vs. 13-16:

13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.

Rathbun

My soul is yearning for more vacation fun as I compose this blog. My heart desires being back on the lake soaking up the sun, tubing, knee-boarding and skiing.

Sarah and I, along with Scott & Chelsie, went to Lake Rathbun this past weekend for what has become an annual getaway. It was awesome. Nothing spectacular like roller coasters or supersized cruise ships. It was simply quiet and relaxing. The lake was for the most part very quiet. The picture below of me tubing was on a portion of the south fork and we were the only boat using this area.

This picture of Sarah and I was taken on Sat. night at the dam. There was a band having a concert on the shore and supposedly there were fireworks to follow. We stayed until 11:00pm when we thought the band was done playing and then they said, "we will break for an intermission and be right back." At that point we decided to head back to camp and have s'mores and broom stick pies over the fire. The squiggly lines in the picture are other boat lights.

This picture is of our camper we slept in. An airconditioned camper was the key to making this an enjoyable camping trip for Sarah. The site was shady and close to the showers so that also made it very comfortable.

This picture I had to add because it is the best picture I have of Scott's boat. I believe it is yet unnamed but one suggestion so far is "winking owl." Send your suggestions to Scott.

Midwest Camporee 2007

God brings challenges to our lives at different times and at different places. They are for different reasons but I believe they are to help us grow in our maturity both spirtually and for our wisdom. From July 14-18 I was a cadre counselor for the 2007 Midwest Camporee. These boys pictured below were in my cadre and we lived together in the tents behind us for four night and five days.I can easily say it was more difficult than maybe I wanted it to be from a fatigue standpoint but it was easy because the boys were very well behaved and respected each other. Our nights were very humid and not very cool. Sleep was not of very high quality and the hot 90 degree days were tiring. It was a blast and I wouldn't trade it for anything. Cadeting was a part of my church life growing up and Lord willing Sarah and I will have a son or sons and I want them to be Cadets as well.

For activities we volunteered at the Neal Smith Wildlife refuge cleaning up tree branches as well as repelling and zip-lining from a 40 foot tower on Mon. The repelling and zip-line was fun. On Tues. we did archery and riflery as well as camp craft and made a dream catcher. Below are four of my boys doing riflery. Jake, in the white shirt, won the Tues. morn. session out of about 25 boys and came within five points of winning for the entire camporee out of about 100+ boys.As well we had a frisbee golf tournament and I was able to use my ultimate frisbee skills and show off for the boys. We tied for first place the first time the tournament was played. The steering committee decided to rerun the tournament the next night in hope of having a single winner but we again tied for first place only this time with a different team. The prize for winning was Blue Bunny Waffle Ice Cream cones.

Thought of the day: Those that stay in the middle of the road get run over.

Three Years Ago

July 24, 2004

Our wedding day was beautiful and filled with great memories. It was one of the best days of July for weather - sunny and cool. I think the high for that Staurday was only 78 degrees with no humidity. We were married in the afternoon at Redeemer URC in Orange City and had our reception at Landsmeer Golf Club. Here are a few of our favorite pictures.

What a great looking group of young people!