Happy Reformation Day

It's only right to remember that important day in church history when Martin Luther nailed his ninety-five thesis on the door of Castle Church in Wittenburg, Germany. Today our hearts are drawn to worship the Lord afresh for salvation of grace ALONE, by Christ ALONE, thru faith ALONE, based on the Word ALONE, all for God's glory ALONE.
God used a particular writing of Luther's my junior year of college to help start a Reformation of sorts in my own heart. Since becoming a wife, I have learned much from reading and hearing about his dear wife and her own commitment to God and thus her husband and his ministry.
We are thankful for saints like Martin and Katharine whose rest is won (although they have not yet received all that has been promised them - Heb 11:39, 40), but with whom we still have mystic sweet communion...who like, Abel, though they are dead, by faith they still speak (Heb 11:4).

Happy Halloween

For those of you who have been asking for some video, here is a clip of Stella in her Halloween costume for the annual Jackson Dawson Halloween party. I explained Halloween to her tonight-I told her its a fun time every year where you get to dress up and get candy for Daddy. She seems agreeable to that arrangement...

for not having much hair...

it sure can get messy! maybe the tossing and turning shown in the previous post is to blame!

i was wondering how we would tame the mohawk since stelly just had a bath yesterday and wasn't due for another one until tomorrow. i thought maybe some pine tar would help. or then again, maybe a "clump of dirt" would work just as well - yeah, right. (sorry for the slam, kenny. go tigers!)

sleeping beauty

the past few nights we've taken pictures of stelly sleeping when we go in to check on her before we go to bed. isn't there something so sweet about watching a baby sleep? stelly has been in some strange positions lately. last night she was on all fours with her bottom way up in the air! the other night she was kneeling again, but a little more comfortably. then a few nights ago she was all sprawled out as one would expect. so funny!

Windy City

we were in chicago from thurs eve - sun last week. the trip wasn't quite what we had planned. by some it might be considered a comedy of errors from car-sickness to a large rear dent (pun intended, will) to a flat tire to seeing hole in the wall apartments, but hey -- God's preparing us to be urbanites and to remember His control over all things. one thing we did accomplish was getting a few good shots for our prayer card. i didn't include the actual shot we selected for printing but here are some shots along the way. we are so thankful for the generosity of phil and julie e. for allowing us to borrow their vehicle. it was nice to be able to ride together in a vehicle where 2 carseats and 4 adults fit (2 of those adults are pregnant too)!!

one of the better shots. this is in millennium park. note the reflections in the metal ball of the glories of the city.
the reality of taking pictures with kids...haddon is looking who knows where and stella is screaming her head off.

haddon being a "big brother" and looking out for little stelly to make sure her hood stays up.
this is one of the first pics we took. matt said stelly looks like the kid in a christmas story whose mom had him so bundled up he couldn't walk. it was after that comment i decided to remove her toboggan.

stella sure is excited!

i wonder why?

Chicago - It's our Kind of Town!

Most of you know we're planning to do a team church plant with Will and Rachel P. in the Bucktown/Wicker Park area of Chicago. The area is an artsy, up-and-coming area that desperately needs God's fame to be proclaimed! There are countless details still in the works, but we are making progress. Here are a few pictures of the kids from our Labor Day trip (taken by our then resident photographer Joy M.). Lord willing, we'll be making another trip there next week.

You can't walk behind Stelly w/o her thinking you're chasing her!

Poor Haddon and Stelly both got sick during the trip. Here Haddon is running a fever and not feeling well at all, but is still as cute as can be!