Blessed by a Children's Bible

Have you heard of this Bible? We have by so many of our friends. We got to flip through one when our little niece Ruby was dedicated. It was her gift from the church. It looked amazing and we loved the idea that every story pointed to Jesus. The illustrations in it were also really great. So we waited patiently for God to provide this little Bible for us.

We have been so surprisingly blessed by this Bible. The first thing I read was the introduction, telling how the Bible isn't just a book of rules and heroes, but that most of all it's a Story- a true Story. I almost cried and was immediately drawn to worship. Here's a tiny excerpt:

There are lots of stories in the Bible, but all the stories are telling one Big Story. The Story of how God loves His children and comes to rescue them.

It takes the whole Bible to tell this Story. And at the center of the Story, there is a baby. Every Story in the Bible whispers his name. He is like the missing piece is a puzzle- the piece that makes all the other pieces fit together, and suddenly you can see a beautiful picture.

And this is no ordinary baby. This is the Child upon whom everything would depend. This is the Child who would one day--but wait. Our Story starts where all other good stories start. Right at the very beginning....

Then you turn the page and begin to read about creation and see this picture. oh. I just got chills again.Here's another excerpt from the story of Abraham and Isaac and how it points to Jesus.

"One day Someone will be born into your family", God promised them. "And he will bring happiness to the whole world"

God was getting ready to give the world a wonderful present. It would be God's way to tell his people, "I love you."

Many years later, another Son would climb another hill, carrying wood on his back. Like Isaac, he would trust his Father and do what his Father asked. He wouldn't struggle or run away.

Who was he? God's Son, his only Son--the Son he loved.

The Lamb of God.

sigh. And just check out this illustration for the Christmas Story!
Well, I hope you've been blessed by these little excerpts. I HIGHLY recommend this Bible to all my mommy and daddy friends.

Here's the website for any of you who are interested. The Jesus Storybook Bible

Another major graduation and big brother showing him how to play!
Rockie Mehaffie

Big boy undies! Just at home though.

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Simon's Dedication Day

This post is exactly one week late. Sorry about that.

Last week we dedicated Simon. This is such an important day in our family because we stand before our church and the Lord and promise that we will raise Simon in the love and instruction of God. This is something that we take so seriously. We feel the great calling that God has placed on us to teach Simon (and Isaac) the glory and authority of God. We also feel the amazing blessing and humility that He has chosen us to be the parents of these two amazing sweet little boys. I can't help but cry when I think of it. Even now there's tears in my eyes. During the dedication, they read the prayer of Hannah ( 1 Samuel 1:27-28).

I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the LORD. For his whole life he will be given over to the LORD.” And he worshiped the LORD there.

This gets me every time. What a high calling! And yet, we receive it with so much joy in our hearts. That we prayed for these sons, and God has answered our prayers! Praise Him!!

Here are some pictures from church.
Luke introducing us to the church.
After church, we invited our family and dearest friends over to our home for lunch and a time of prayer. We also shared the verse we picked for Simon and asked everyone to join with us and pray these things for Simon. The verse is Job 1:8

"Have you considered My servant Job? No one else on earth is like him, a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away from evil."

This is our prayer for Simon. Man I'm so emotional right now. God has been so good to us!! Any who, here's a family picture!

4 Months Old

My sweet sweet SimonBoy! It goes by fast the first time and even faster the second time around. Where did that little new born go?!

He's so great. Everyone said that since Isaac was such an unbelievably easy baby, that #2 was going to be crazy. Well, not so with Simon. He has been just as easy as Isaac was.

The biggest difference: thumbsucker. (not pictured above) For. Real. Isaac loved the paci. Simon doesn't not like the paci, he just likes his thumb better!

I love my boy!

The Lion King

Man oh man! I've wanted to see this for a long time. And Luke surprised me with tickets!!!! I was stunned when I saw the note under my pillow. It was a full minute of me just frozen staring at the note before I let out a good "Rockie" scream! We went last light. Here are just a few pics. They don't allow cameras so these were taken with Luke's phone, so they're not amazing.
We were on the second to last row. pretty high up. Ha! but I was truly truly thankful that I was even there! I cried pretty much for the first 10 minutes. Not because it was sad or anything, but because I was so overwhelmed at what I was experiencing and so extremely thankful to my husband.

It was such an amazing show! I just wanted to take pictures of EVERYTHING and rewind it to get a second and better look. uh! so awesome! I hope you all can see this show sometime!

Happy New Year

We had a mini ECU reunion for New Year's since our friends came down from Connecticut. I would say this is the most fun I've had in a while. It was awesome to reconnect and to remember and laugh our heads off about things that happened while at college. So SO fun. We all have kids now which means when they were all running around like tornadoes, we all just watched and laughed. And though there were kids everywhere, it still felt like an adult party! Here are pics from the night!