Baby Vivian

We went to meet baby Vivian Saturday. She slept most of the time we were there, but we did get to take our turns holding her for a few minutes... actually, she slept while we were holding her too!

Julian brand new

Of course a new baby makes me think of my babies when they were actually babies. This was of Julian probably just a week old. He was so small - less than 5 pounds when he was born, and you can really tell with the way Ronda is holding him here. Amazing how much he has grown!

The new family

Thanks Sherri for sending pictures. I really liked this one. What a sweet family.

A funny letter

I am going through college text books, getting rid of most of them, and I found this letter tucked into an old French book. I think this was from 10th grade where we signed up for penpals who lived in France. It's funny that I can't remember words trying to speak French, but I only had to look up a couple of these - I can still read French. Interesting...

Pictures of the kids

This is from the antique festival a couple of weeks ago. Good pictures.

A picture

She is so beautiful. It's been so hard on me to be here and not with them, but seeing her picture makes it a little better....

Vivian Elizabeth

Vivian was born last night - I don't know exactly what time (I'm assuming around 7:30???). She is 7 pounds 14 ounces and Dad said he thought she was 20 inches long. Not huge, but definitely a healthy baby! Emily was exhausted last night but in good shape otherwise. I have not seen pics yet, but hopefully that will happen very soon!

Baby Fink is on her way!

I'm so excited - my brother called last night and said they were pretty sure Emily was in real labor and that they would eventually have to make their way to the hospital. He called this morning and said Emily is definitely in labor, is in the hospital, has had the epidural (the absolute best advance in medical technology, by far!) and is slowly but surely moving towards motherhood!!!!! I can't wait to meet Baby Fink (and finally hear what her name will be) and am going crazy that we are here and they are there, 3 hours away. I want to be with my brother and sister-IL during this SO special time.

Anyway, I hope to post pictures or at least direct you to pictures very soon!

A prayer answered

Julian told me on Sunday morning that he wanted to be a Christian. We talked about it, and I asked him why he wanted that and what he thinks that means. He told me he loves Jesus and he knows that he is a sinner and that Jesus died on the cross to take the punishment for his sins. He said he understands what repent means and that he wanted to repent and ask Jesus to be Lord of his life. Jason talked to him too and prayed with him....

Of course we have prayed for this since Julian was a baby - that one day he would make a decision to serve God. Praise God, Our Father loves us enough that He sacrificed His son to save ours.

I am so thankful. This came at a perfect time in our lives - we are so full of discouragement and sadness over so many things, this is a bright light in our cloudy day (really it's been cloudy for weeks!) We have an appointment to talk to our pastor this week and will set something up about a baptism date, so just one more thing to look forward to!

Family night/Candle night

For a while now, we've tried to find something fun but cheap to do with the kids on Friday nights to replace our former "Friday restaurant night". We eat dinner by candlelight, which is a lot of fun, and tonight, we made up a story together. We all took turns, each writing a sentence or two before passing it to the next person. Posted for your enjoyment!

The Young and Beautiful Princess

I have been waiting for Julian to finish coloring this, but coloring is not one of his favorite things, so I don't know if it will ever get colored. If it does, I'll change the pages out, but this is a must-read.

Rice Bowls

This Sunday we will be returning our rice bowl to church for the "gathering day" I realized last night that I will be sad to see it go. This has been an amazing object lesson in our family for showing us what we are blessed with.

We got our rice bowl in September and put it on our table. With it was a calendar listing suggested offerings for each day. Everything we put inside the bowl will go to our church's World Hunger Offering (of which every penny actually goes to feeding people - no administrative costs, if you can believe that!)


We have not followed exactly all of the suggested offerings - some days giving more, some less than what was suggested. But each night, Julian finds and reads the verse from his Bible, we talk about what it means, and then the kids put that day's money in the bowl.


It has really made us aware each day of how blessed we are, though we complain about not having stuff. We have everything we need. And it has made us more aware that there are many, many, many people that do not have what they need, and Jesus wants us to help them, even sacrificing to do that.

Ready for church

They looked so cute after they got ready for church a couple of weeks ago, I had to capture the moment. It is funny to note that I have to fuss at Julian to un-button that top button - he likes it buttoned all the way up! AND Kathryn was SO excited to get to wear tights.

The Colors of Fall

An original composition by Julian