Because of You

My all-time favorite love songs are the ones that are sung  just for me... literally!  Just like a love-letter written in your beloved's own handwriting, music performed in my beloved's own voice is priceless.  So imagine how time stood still for me when my fiancee-to-be singled me out in the middle of a "highlight-of-the-year" talent show to sing me our song... and then asked me to marry him in front of our closest friends of LLUSM (along with a couple hundred other students and faculty)!!  After making me an offer I couldn't refuse, he did it again as I walked down the aisle to close the deal.  Needless to say, I was not the only one crying at either of those events!

Believe it or not, this is a "pre-dating" picture.

It's amazing to me that 5 years have already passed since I was so sweetly serenaded.  And when I think about what I've been blessed with and how I've grown in that time, I can honestly say, "It's because of you!"  I love you, Michael!

We've been through thick and thin...

"He has made everything beautiful in its time.

He has also set eternity in the hearts of men;

yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end."

--Ecclesiastes 3:11

Mother's Day

Like all things underrated and taken for granted, I never fully appreciated my mother until I became a mother myself.  And I'm learning that the rewards of motherhood far outweigh its costs... they must, because my mom has surely forgotten all the heartache (well, most of it) that I remember I caused her!

A package from Mike gets Mother's Day weekend started early

A tower of treats from Harry & David - Max was excited, too!

"Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD,

         The fruit of the womb is a reward."

--Psalm 127:3

Moms were honored with roses during church service

Giving Mom the gift of music with a private live concert

No, that's not our sister. ;)

Great husbands come from great moms (and grandmothers)!

The best gifts on Mother's Day

In the children committed to her care, every mother has a sacred charge from God. "Take this son, this daughter," He says; "train it for Me; give it a character polished after the similitude of a palace, that it may shine in the courts of the Lord forever."  

    The mother's work often seems to her an unimportant service. It is a work that is rarely appreciated. Others know little of her many cares and burdens. Her days are occupied with a round of little duties, all calling for patient effort, for self-control, for tact, wisdom, and self-sacrificing love; yet she cannot boast of what she has done as any great achievement. She has only kept things in the home running smoothly; often weary and perplexed, she has tried to speak kindly to the children, to keep them busy and happy, and to guide the little feet in the right path. She feels that she has accomplished nothing. But it is not so. Heavenly angels watch the care-worn mother, noting the burdens she carries day by day. Her name may not have been heard in the world, but it is written in the Lamb's book of life.

--Ministry of Healing (E.G. White), p. 376-377.