My Everything Quilt

“Once we agree with God that we exist for His pleasure and His glory, we can accept whatever comes into our lives as part of His sovereign will and purpose. We will not resent, resist, or reject the ‘hard things,’ but embrace them as friends, sovereignly designed by God to make us like Jesus and to bring glory to Himself.” --Nancy Leigh DeMoss in "Lies Women Believe: And the Truth That Sets Them Free!"

Changes. Life is so full of changes. Some changes are good; some are not so good. Then some are just good for us. Besides, if things never changed how boring would that be?! One change in my life lately is that my fourth daughter is now in college. She was saying the day before she started school that she doesn't feel 18, that sounded too old. Well, she is 18 and I wonder where the passed 18 years have gone. I remember her finding it hard to accept the new baby in the family. She would try to sit on her, or push her out of the way so that she could get close to me. We went through a real battle of the wills when Moriah was born. Many days I told Hannah, all of 2 years old, that I was going to win! I don't know who cried more, Hannah or me! When she was a little older she was very shy about having her picture taken. We would try to have some pictures made for the school year, and she would cry and have the saddest look on her little face. Now she loves taking pictures and...

That's what happens when you spend 2 weeks on vacation. You eventually cannot keep track of what day of the week it is. Today is Tuesday. Yesterday I posted that it was Tuesday! There was a lightning show last night. And this morning it started to rain. And it continues to rain. The stormy weather has been blowing over by noon, but not today. The sky is ominous and the thunder roars, the lightning flashes and the rain keeps falling. When it rains at the beach you have to have a backup plan. Ours is puzzles. So, David has been working a puzzle since Sunday, with Deborah's help ocassionally. Personally, I think he is going to go completely crazy before he finishes! Of course, there's always reading, which is what I prefer.

Into our 2nd week of vacation. Last week, David, Rebekah, Hannah, Moriah and I were in Orlando. We went to Sea World and Busch Gardens. Tuesday was Hannah's 18th birthday. We had hoped to spend the day at Discovery Cove so she could swim with the dolphins. But we did not make a reservation early enough. Gee, I wonder who said we should do that 3 weeks ago! So, instead of swimming with dolphins, the girls got to feed dolphins at Sea World. They loved watching them and trying to pet them. I think they would have spent the whole day at the dolpin pool. At Busch Gardens, we experienced bad weather again. No rain, just stormy skies which stopped the rides momentarily. We wanted to take the truck ride where you get up close and personal with the giraffes and zebras, but by the time we got to the reservations desk they were full for the day. We did get to feed the kangaroos, though! Again, I think the girls would have spent the whole day with them! Now we are on St. George Islan...