Field Log: Week 312

Here we are... 6 years later from the day she said Yes. I wanted to capture the update as we are about to summit another peak in our family's journey. 

To capture the story of love with my Love. The deep, rich, amazing, challenging, sorrowful and joyful life we are having together. 

The Lord, knew the bride I would need to tackle this adventure ahead. He knew I would need a partner who thought she has little faith and cannot climb mountains. A companion who loves looking at the clouds - not the road - not the cool cars we pass, but up to take in the beauty of the heavens then turn to Lily and say, "Look what God made!" As we soak in the beauty of a sunset or even better the sun lighting up cirrus clouds with a brilliant spectrum of colors. 

You see my companion, partner and beloved is a princess. She was given a beautiful name when she was a little girl.  She and her dad gathered together with other fathers and daughters to form a club called Young Indian Princesses or YIPs for short. These families are still connected in deep ways with interwoven lives, with great stories and traditions and a rich noble heritage. They have been brides and bridesmaids in each other's weddings.  

(Just writing this about the YIPs fills me with tears, the deep rich story of a father's love. I want my daughter to have this experience of knowing how to be beautiful, confident and strong. So dad's "Yo. Who's with me?")

Every princess needs a name one that defines them, one that speaks to the soul, one that provides a zip code, a treasure map to find their heart. The name Sarah was bestowed with is Princess White Cloud. 

This is the name that still defines the beauty before me, and captures my heart. A princess who is looking upward noticing the handwork of the Master who fills our skies with awe and wonder. 

So my Beloved is a princess - a beauty to behold. One who causes me to stop, turn around and tell Lily, "Look who God made!" 

And the crazy truth is - He's not done refining her beauty?! In any of us. His ways are so beyond my understand.

Your beauty captures my heart, I'm picturing you walking down the aisle in your dress with your father. As my princess White Cloud is approaching the alter. It was like a sunrise that causes time to stop, everyone turns to look at your beauty to see the bride, I had the best view. The one where I could see all your beauty. Plus, the hint of pink in your dress was like the sun lighting up the clouds in the morning. I felt the holiness of this time and an added nudge take in this moment - don't miss it. This is a foreshadow of many extraordinary adventures ahead. 

Love, as we approach the summit of yet another mountain top, I see in you a new light in your strength, love, grit, faith and how the Lord is pulling out a deeper depth of your beauty. It's not easy to constantly be refined, defined, challenged, poked, prodded and woke up constantly throughout the night. Motherhood is the world's toughest job. 

What The Lord is showing me in you is you are princess White Cloud. He is making you even more beautiful with each sunrise and sunset of the day. He wants to show others this beauty in His heavens. So mothers stop in their tracks turn to the skies and point out what He has made in your. As they take notice all the beauty and the faint hint of pink in the clouds.  I am just a mountain climber who saw this beauty He made and said, I've got to pursue you with everything I've got. No mountain is too tall, tough, hard or treacherous. So Love, The Lord has made you to be princess White Cloud. As I pursue The Lord and His desires for me, it only draws me closer to my beloved princess. He made you reside in the heavens and to be chased after from summit to summit. In you He isn't making an Instagram to be uploaded to the cloud, liked and then scroll on by. He is making a Forevergram, one to be cherished, loved, pursued, squeezed, kissed and definitely share with others our love story. It is my honor, challenge, deep burning desire to summit another peak to capture just a glimpse of the Lord's masterpiece in the heavens my Love, my princess White Cloud. Each day with you is a heavenly day. 

I love, love, love you to the moon and back. 

your mountaineer  

     

Getting Ready for Our New Normal

After moving back into our house things kicked into high gear for getting ready for our little guy.  As our lists dwindled down and the day began to actually draw near for our departure to finally meet him, I began to feel a little weepy about how our lives were about to change in such an amazing way- the weight of the blessings being bestowed on our little family....I wanted to capture some of our "normal" during these final few weeks...savor the life we have now before it becomes even richer. So here are some glimpses of our "old" normal days  before we welcome our "new" normal with hearts wide open...

We love to visit friends.  This is my amazing friend Rebecca and her sweet little lion, Cillian.  I especially love this pic because while playing over there, Lily discovered some lip gloss that belongs to Rebecca's daughter and proceeded to apply it non-stop for about an hour.  

We like to work on projects together.  Lily's favorite projects right now always involve painting and stickers

She has a big girl bed, but still loves to sleep in her crib (which will be moving to brother's room) so I just wanted to capture a glimpse of her reading books in her crib on one of the last mornings...

One of the joys of having a big girl bed and the ability to get in and out of one's crib whenever you like, is discovering things like this after "nap time"...

We love going to the library...

For about the past year and a half Lily and I have helped out in the child care of our favorite Jazzercise center.  It was such a blast (most mornings) because both instructors for that class time have kiddos around Lily's age, so she has made some great friends and it was like a weekly play date for her. 

Then there are those sad days when bunny needs a bath... (yes, there are times when I stuff my machine to the gills!) 

We both went to the eye doctor together...

We spent a LOT of time getting brother's room ready for him...

While I cannot say its part of our regular routine, we attended a fancy, Spring Fling tea party (Lily's first) and it was so much fun!  She had a blast and our hostess was prepared to make Lily's experience one for the books.  Lily LOVED it.

...sipping her virgin mimosa....  

...this guy even made an appearance thanks to Lily's imagination....

...just a glimpse of my sweet girl being her cute self...

...we love to visit parks all around the city and play...

swinging is her absolute favorite...

We wrapped up our final visit of the school year with some shaving cream fun...

we love the Parents As Teachers program and especially Miss Cara!

Miss Cara brought some fun things to cut during her last visit as well.  Lily has really been getting good at using her scissors.  

These two girls are some of our favorites to play with...

we just happened to stop over on a day when they had a HUGE bounce house set up in their yard!  It was next to impossible to get them out of there- needless to say, bounce house = bliss for Lily

We have hosted some neighborhood get togethers.  We are really fortunate in that we have met 5-6 families who all have kiddos Lily's age who live right around us.  We have really enjoyed getting to know them better and look forward to many more fun times ahead. 

When the weather is nice and before it turns brutally hot, we love to have friends over to play some yard games in our backyard... Kubb (pronounced Koob) is the current fave... 

These two.... 

Our house is pretty busy these days...it seems like everywhere I turn, there is some new "project" or mess being created... I love it though.

...I guess I cannot complain too loudly, I made a great meal from scratch, but the clean up...wow.

We love to get together regularly with these cuties...it has been so much fun to watch them all grow up!

...pals....

On a typical day when I'm trying to make dinner, this is what it has been like underfoot for me.  We have been going through tubs of baby stuff and slowing pulling out baby toys etc for brother.  Lily has been making sure they are still up to snuff... non-stop!

We celebrated birthdays and Father's Day (a little early before we left)

of course, our normal trips to the grocery store....

We have loved going to the pool as much as possible.  This pic cracked me up because Lily found the little sunglasses from when she was a baby and strapped them on and did not want to take them off!  Hilarious! 

Art is a big thing and its really fun to see her creativity start to bloom...

her first face...

Our car was rear-ended, so we had to rent a van- Lily loved it!

Most Saturday mornings for the past couple of years, Joe and Lily have had their special time together.  This was taken at one of their most recent outings...to Union Station to see the trains.

Meanwhile...Mama indulged in one of my favorite things to do...breakfast with friends followed by some shopping for home interior stuff! 

we helped celebrate birthdays....

...ate ice cream...

and of course, always kept our eyes open for Luke clouds...our glimpse of heaven!

Where we Are...

We are waiting.  Our little guy was due two days ago on the 17th, but when his birth mother went into the doctor to be checked, she still had not started to dilate.  So, it is looking like he is pretty comfy in there.  The doctor said that he will induce next Tuesday if something does not happen on its own between now and then.  So we wait!  Counting down the minutes....and as Lily likes to say, "Only a few more sleeps!"