The Reader

Yes, I know, it appears that Charlie has only memorized the story, and is not actually reading it, but that is because she actually read it just before I grabbed the camera, and repeats the performance just for my benefit. But if you pay attention, there are a few words you can see her read, like "Yum, Yum" and "picnic."

Sweet Answers

Ever since we left California with so many questions, Jeff and I have these sweet moments where God answers us, where there seems to be, at least for the moment, some rational reason why we are here in Washington. It was such a difficult and painful thing to be uprooted and transplanted away from everything and everyone we knew and loved, and moved to a place that we could choose to see as bleak, gloomy, lonely, or hopeless. But even if there are so many days with no physical sun, there have often been some bright moments of light where we can actually, confidently say, "Okay, God, I can see why you did this." The first of those bright spots, the sweetest answer, is of course Abigail Hope, "her father's joy." Conceived just after our move, and born just before the one year anniversary of our move, which could have been so bitter, she has been joy, sweetness, and light every day of her life. We had no plans for more children in California, and yet here she is, sunshine in her smile. Then we saw an answer in my brother's return to church. Whenever his sub was in, he would come to church with us, and after several years of trying to go his own way, renewed his commitment to God, a sweet redemption after such a long period of praying for him with no visible answer. Then in January he began dating Kayla, bringing her light and joy into our lives and bringing with her a sweet friend for Charlie and Abby: her seven-year-old daughter, Ava. We used to sit in the back row alone during church, but thanks to Josh and his excitement and passion for inviting other friends to church, today we sat in a group of 11 people, not including ourselves, made up of Josh and Kayla, Ava, and several of their friends and kids. One of them wants to be baptized soon, one of them meets weekly with the men's group at our church to study the Bible, and two have signed up to bring meals to the housebound of our church. These are all people who, in January, didn't go to church at all. I can't see any other answer for this but that God needed to reach all these people, to save them from death, to draw them to himself, and if he had to get us out of California to do that, to cause us some discomfort and pain to do that, I should be grateful that he chose to use us to begin with. We were a rock dropped in a calm lake, and Abby was a ripple which helped Josh to rejoin our family, which in turn helped him to rejoin God's family, which opened his heart up to someone like Kayla, which brought Kayla's and Josh's friends back to church, which drew them straight into God's waiting arms. So here is my next question: If God asks me to leave again, and go somewhere new, could I say yes again? Could you say yes if he asked you to leave all you know and go somewhere new?

Charlie the Gymnast