(in the picture: a nappy cake for Rebekah)

Usually the ladies from church get together on Friday mornings for coffee and Bible study, but today was different – they had a surprise baby shower for Jessica! As a result, our house is becoming more and more pink and yet our little girl-on-the-way still has no idea how many people on the outside care for her. But she will!

Today marks eight years since we said “I do!” in the church where Jessica grew up in Roanoke, VA. The next five years were spent in Virginia, with education and work at Daleville Baptist Church (Work? Maybe. But such a blessing!), as well as working various jobs to make ends meet and introducing Daniel to the family while we kept working towards the big move across the pond in 2009, while we were expecting David. After three years in Ireland, I think we can safely say that we are starting to get the hang of things, but perhaps the emphasis should still be on ‘starting’! In all that we’ve been through, we have certainly grown in our relationship with God and with each other, and I think it would also be safe to say that our love is stronger now than it was on our wedding day, even though we thought our hearts would burst with it then!

We’ve been working hard on getting the baby’s room ready for Rebekah and while we were at it we decided to spice the boys room up a bit as well…

Here’s what we did in Rebekah’s room:

And this is the boys room:

The rocket is painted with chalkboard paint, so they can draw on it

Last night, I (Seth) joined the tennis club. No, I don’t know how to play. I just decided to give it a go. There are basically three reasons: 1) it’s a great way to meet more people 2) it’s good exercise 3) it looks fun.

So far so good! There were ten people playing doubles and I didn’t mess things up completely for my teammate. In fact we won almost half of our games… because my teammate was really good. Our best strategy turned out to be Seth serving and him doing everything else. Good times.

The plan: A busy weekend full of good things.

The reality: A few days spent trying to get over a nasty tummy bug.

We haven’t been this sick in ages, but that’s something to be extremely thankful for, isn’t it? It also reminds us that we are dust, and totally dependant for everything on our Creator. For these reminders we’re thankful, and also thankful that we all feel much better today!

Today is Seth’s last day of being in his twenties. It’s certainly been a big decade – lots of education, almost eight years of matrimony, and going on five as a father. I’m not sure the 19 year old Seth would recognize this one, but part of that has to do with the change of hairstyle… Really, though, the 30′s sound good. So far, life seems to get better with time as you see more of the Lord’s faithfulness in the good and bad times and learn to trust Him. Plus there’s not much more hair to lose.