He is Greater.....John 3:30 says He must become greater, I must become less"

The day we took Claire to college this week was very emotional.  Lots of emotional things happened this week.  One unexpected thing that happened was after we got home from moving Claire on Wednesday, Precious broke down in tears.  She cried long and loud and hard.  Kleenex after Kleenex filled with tears and snot and slobber and nothing I said helped soothe her.  It was incredibly frustrating and I felt very helpless.  I wanted to sit and cathartic cry myself but this daughter of mine was absolutely wrecked.  She cried because she would miss Claire so so much.  She cried because "who would snuggle us when she babysits us?"   I tried to cheer her up by looking at the facebook pictures of new teachers at school since school would start the next day.  That made it worse.....a new PE teacher?  But she loves the one from last year......and on and on.  At one point she said "everything is different!" and I started to understand her little heart just a wee bit.  Parents,

Last night Josiah could not wait to go to bed.  He wanted to sleep really fast so that he could wake up and go to his first day of kindergarten today.  He willingly took a bath.  He set out his clothes and shoes.   We found our classic book:  Mrs. Bindergaten gets ready for Kindergarten.....which I have read to at least the youngest 2 kiddos before they started school.  (I also have It's Great to be Five! if anyone needs to borrow that one.)  Sharing his excitement to finally get to board the bus and go to school after watching older siblings do this year after year is such a great pleasure to me.  He is a very special little boy and when I see him I am reminded that God is a God of great gifts and mercies and hope and goodness.  God is a God of miracles and of mystery.  God is a God of not just the happy, shining moments, but also the quiet whispers and hard truths....and God is very very good at being Sovereign and  in control of our lives if we choose to let Him.    Josiah show

And then August 21 happened and all of the craziness of moving to college, starting high school and starting kindergarten stopped for a bit.  We hit a pause button for Precious Maryn because she turned 9 years old today.  Nine.  For 9 years she has been our child and when I think of her life so far, and what she represents and how much influence she has had so far......I am in awe of what her future holds.  Precious opened our world to an understanding of things and culture and sensitivity and awareness in ways we would never have.  She created a community for us that would not have been forged....and it is about adoption and ethnic understanding and sensory world and ADHD and pre-maturity and exceptional deep Holy Spirit love...because she does all of that she teaches us every day.  Precious is breath-takingly beautiful.  She had a deep and complex soul that is much older than her years.  She struggles with mundane and ordinary things but exchanges that struggle for a very deep und

Jeremiah was getting ready for bed last night after football practice.  I was downstairs switching laundry, as I often am.  He came in and said, "mom do you know (insert girls name I won't share)?   I didn't know her.  I asked why.  He said she had asked him if she could wear his football jersey at school this year.  "Wow!  What did you say?"  I asked.  He told her he didn't want people thinking they liked each other.  She assured him that wouldn't happen.  What?  Jeremiah!  What if she likes you?  What if this was her way of hinting to you????????????   By this time I am trailing behind him as he makes a bee-line for his bedroom......because I want to TALK ABOUT THIS!!!!!!!!!  Is she  cute?  Could you like her?   He closed the door on my face and said "Goodnight mom!"   Good talk Jeremiah.  Good talk.  Jeremiah starts high school on Thursday.  High School.   I have no idea how we got here.  2 blinks ago I was walking him into Kindergarten...

Isaac is at work this Sunday night. . He works most of the Sunday nights lately because football season has begun which keeps him busy most of the week.  I asked 2 years ago when he started working at Culvers that he not work before 2pm on Sundays so that we could have our Sunday dinner as a family.  It is often the only meal we can all share at the same time.  The management has honored that request.  They also asked him to consider doing the shift manager training which is kind a cool.  It's not the best paying job with the best hours but its a pretty good gig for a high school kid. I noticed last evening that the weather felt different.  It was still warm but felt a cooler version of warm.....and tonight I noticed that it is getting dark earlier.  Football season, cooler days, earlier sunsets.....the season is changing again. Summer is on its way out and Fall is knocking at the door.  For Isaac, he will start his junior year at Western Christian High School.  He got to choo

Today Claire came home from work and we sat at the table for awhile.  Oh boy, if my dining room table could talk......there are more memories soaked into this table that I can recount, and more tears and bursts of laughter than I can ever remember.  There are more lists and memos and plans etched into it that I could ever save...... She is making her lists for moving to college.  It's true that she is only moving a couple hundred feet away to the college in our town, but she is still moving out.  She is taking all of the things she uses every day and she is setting up a life in a dorm on a college campus with a new roommate and a whole new world.  In 4 days we will move her out.  It is so weird.  It is the weirdest thing ever.  Adding children to our home is not weird at all.  Figuring out how to send them out is.  I'm less sad and more....conflicted, maybe.   I am so excited for her.  Moving to college is probably one of the best experiences that a healthy, well-adjusted

Today was one of those days where you think things will go one way and they  just go somewhere else.  It was kind of like a day at Mall of America.  You walk out of a store and struggle to remember which direction you were headed......and where to go next.  It was a very Wednesday,-ish Wednesday I guess.  The little kids were feeling the same way.  They didn't have daycare today,  or a play date, or a plan.  I was hoping to work from home most of the day.  Precious biked to the library and came home with 8 chapter books.  She asked me if there was anything she could do to earn some money.  I said, "well Precious, I will pay you a dollar a book if you read all those books".  She sat down to read.  Josiah asked if he could do a lemonade stand.  Sigh.  In my head (and maybe out loud) I said I didn't want to do a lemonade stand.  We didn't have supplies or a plan.  No one comes past our house and if they do they drive so fast they would never see little kids set