Celebrating Resurrection Sunday

Warning....feeling overly wordy this morning as I sit alone on a bed in Dallas at my friend Halie's house....with no kids in sight. That coupled with the emotional basket case I am right now might make for an extremely long post ; ) 

We LOVE celebrating Resurrection Sunday & each year has become more special as the girls are asking questions & are understanding the reason we are celebrating.  Leading up to Resurrection Sunday this year, we made our way through our Resurrection Eggs. This was our second go round with them & my favorite by far. I struggle with consistency so some days we did two eggs & we did skip a couple.....it has been a wild few weeks at the Nest ; ) I put together our set & rewrote the material to go along with The Jesus Storybook Bible in 2012 since that is what we read to the girlies most of the time. Instead of picking items that only go along with the week leading up to the crucifixion, I went with stories about Jesus that by the end of the week sync up with what actually happened on the last few days.  

The girls love familiarity & could tell me some of the stories after having read them so many times.  One day we read about Jesus calming the storm & from that point forward the girls spent more than a couple mornings acting it out in a laundry basket....on their own volition....it made my heart happy.  I did get involved to make the "waves" a bit more rough & eventually became the narrator until it was time for Jesus to stand up & say "hush" to the wind & the waves. Charlotte's favorite line followed "hush" & said "What are you afraid of? Do you not know who I am?"  I am learning more & more about how "playing" through these stories really help them sink into little minds & hearts. 

We did have to laugh some evenings when we would sit down to read & open our egg & Charlotte would declare that what was found inside was extremely boring compared to other nights. Such as a heart shaped piece of felt to talk about how "God was going to pour into Jesus’ heart all the sadness and brokenness in people’s hearts."- Jesus Storybook Bible.  That was not nearly as much fun as play doh or sweedish fish to attempt breaking into pieces to feed the five thousand. 

On Friday evening before leaving for work, we read through the story of the crucifixion & opened our egg to find pieces of paper.  We asked the girls how they felt after reading that Jesus had died.  Charlotte said "I feel sad" so we spelled "sad" & she wrote it down in her precious little handwriting. We asked Eloise thinking she would do what she often does & parrot her sis but she surprised us with her sweet little grin & said "I feel good, I thankful for God." Tears in my eyes, what a delight it is to see God beginning to work in her heart. What happened next made me laugh so hard. I asked Eloise for her paper to put back in the egg so we could bury it in the front garden but she refused to hand it over & began scribbling the entire story we just read like a crazy illustrator. Mind you, she was bouncing all over the kitchen while we read, was one disruptive act away from being escorted to her room & we were positive she didn't hear more than one sentence BUT she "drew" each part of the story & told us along the way. "It's the dark clouds, the cross, Jesus, the BIG stone & the mean soldiers with a sword, they have mean eyes!" Wow, someone is capable of much more than we give her credit for ; ) Following that drawing, we buried our egg in the front garden & I went off to work contemplating the extreme sacrifice of Jesus....that is a good thing to have fresh on your mind. 

Saturday was our "waiting" day where we didn't get to open an egg but instead had to wait just like those who loved Jesus were waiting. We enjoyed swimming, a lovely dinner with our small group & in the meantime found out that renters had been secured for our Orlando home! Another reason to celebrate! We decided late that evening that Robby & Charlotte would go to the Sunrise Service at our church while the rest of us met them there for the pancake breakfast. We woke Charlotte up with her chlorine smelling hair, slipped her Easter dress on & sent her on her way with peanut butter cracker breakfast in hand. Yes, we took all our children to worship that morning even though they had not been bathed in three days...priorities people ; ) 

Those two were out the door by 6 & I sat down to read my bible in silence which is a trigger for the rest of the kids to wake up. Funny how that happens! Eloise tip toed out of her room & said "Mommy, Char is sleeping in her bed, let's go see her." I said "No sweetie, she went to church with Daddy." She said "No mommy, she is in her bed, come look!" I followed her in copying her adorable tip toe style. She climbed up the ladder & lifted the covers & shouted "Oh no!" with a terrified look on her face, "She's gone!" Now there is an object lesson to help a two year old understand what those who came to Jesus' tomb on Sunday morning must have felt! I was chuckling as we walked out & I told her about how Jesus was alive again. Long story short, I rounded up the rest of the brood, loaded the car & we rushed over to Celebration to catch the baptism of some great friends.

We made it just in time! I parked the boys in the stroller by our friend Ileana & went over to center aisle with my camera to capture those special moments for the Ziel family. I was feeling excited & smiling ear to ear until I saw this man & his son...

This is Bill & Luke Berghoefer. The Berghoefers were one of the first families we met when we visited Orlando nearly seven years ago when we were considering moving here. We shared a meal at their home & felt an immediate connection with fellow brothers & sisters in Christ. They were encouraging as we shared a bit of our struggle of infertility, they helped us think through what a big move to Orlando might be like & we left with full hearts.  They moved to Maryland just a couple weeks before Charlotte was born & we have missed them ever since. Our lives overlapped for such a short time but in the circumstances of that year, God extended much grace, encouragement & laughter through this family. I immediately started crying while watching this video along with the rest of our "family" & considering all that God has done in these peoples hearts, that He is alive & that He is going before us to Dallas where He will continue to work in us & through us. 

More tears & a smile when I saw these two...I mean four ; ) 

Baptism is a favorite thing to observe for Robby & me. Even if we don't know the people I always cry. This time though was even more exciting because our precious friends, Don & Cathy & their daughters Anna & Clara were all going to be baptized.  I have mentioned them often throughout my blogging days as God has seen fit to use them time & time again to influence our parenting, our personal devotion to the Lord & like the Berghoefers, we have shared ample amount of laughter & joy through our friendship.  Watch the video on the link above to hear about why this family chose to be baptized. Here is Cathy, one of the most beautiful mamas I know.

and the whole family....it is crazy to think that when we met them Anna & Clara were the same ages as Charlotte & Eloise are right now & Alex was a big bump on Cathy's mid section!

Our friend Christa, who knows how sentimental I am stole my camera & snapped a few of our family as we sang together.  Worshiping together as a family has been extremely emotional for me since we made the decision to move back to Texas. I keep picturing coming there with empty arms pleading with the Lord to give us children & now leaving with not enough arms to wrangle our crazy bunch at any given moment.

The pancake breakfast was delish, as expected & provided for some time to catch up with friends old & new.  Anson was cracking us up with his adorable little grin...

Charlotte got to do what she enjoys most about Sunday's right now which is to chase Jackson & Alex. Cathy & I were watching & I asked her "what do you think about our kids behaving this way when all the other kids are sitting eating their breakfast?" She replied "I think they are okay as long as they aren't tackling" as Jackson & Alex hit the ground mid sentence...hahaha! Charlotte had her fair share of fun with these two. I am not sure what to do with a girl who can tackle another kid, not to mention a boy to the ground  & laugh about it.  We did put an end to the tackling fairly quickly but the chasing & laughing continued.

Another one of the Ziels back in their Sunday best...

This bunch LOVES to play together...

We took this one just in case...

We enjoyed the second service, more baptisms, singing & wrangling Charlotte, Eloise, Karis, Isaac & Olivia while Jenny blessed us with her beautiful cello playing. Thankfully we had Grammy & Papa with us so there were lots of helping hands. I thoroughly enjoyed a good snuggle with each child especially Isaac.  He is all boy & happened to be quite sweet with me for a good ten minutes. It made me excited for O&A to keep growing. After the service, we made it home, had a quick bite to eat & all settled down for a long spring nap....three hours to be exact. 

When we woke, we got our "fancy" clothes back on & attempted to take a picture of our four. HILARIOUS that we think we could even get one where everyone looks & smiles ; ) 

So, like the true Texans we are, we wrangled them.

Grammy & Papa had a harder time with the wranglin' but you know, they are from Michigan ; ) 

The rest of the Valentine's showed up to join in on the photo fun & were quite compliant!

Livi-Lou, goodness gracious...could she be any more adorable??

We all held our breath & applauded after we got a picture of these happy grandparents with their seven...

The two yittle guys were a delight to celebrate with as we thought about how teeny tiny they were one year ago as we spent Resurrection Sunday in the NICU. My what a difference a year makes!

Owen & Anson

We enjoyed our tradition of non traditional foods for holidays & had Churrasco Steak topped with Chimichurri sauce, black beans & rice. YUM! It was amazing!  Meals are always loud with our bunch but the noise is a constant reminder of God's goodness. 

They all gave me a hard time for forcing everyone to squeeze onto the front porch but I love this picture & will frame it once we are settled into our new nest...

What a special Resurrection Sunday it was to reflect on what God has done for us through his son. It is a truly a gift to help these seven children understand & embrace the love of God as we continue to do the same. This celebration could not have been more perfectly timed to coincide with our final weeks in Orlando. To see three services full of people worshiping, being obedient in baptism & hearing the word of God proclaimed brings great joy to our hearts as we consider the years spent here serving at CCC. All the glory to God for making much of himself in this place & for letting us play our teeny tiny part.