Super Sunday: Speaking About Missions and Child Dedication

Yesterday was a wonderful day for us.  First, Eli and I had the chance to speak at Journey Ministries, the church we're attending here in Michigan.  We were given the entire sermon time, which was an enormous blessing since missionaries are not often given much time to speak during church services.  We simply told our story - how we came to be on this path toward the mission field, our call to missions, and why we're passionate about medical ministry.  We love sharing our story and talking about missions, so Eli and I were both excited for the chance to speak and talk with so many people after the service.  Even though we've had the chance to speak at a few churches before, this was particularly special because my parents and my sister's family were there, and because many people from the church I grew up in were also there.

Directly after we spoke, we dedicated our son Asa to the Lord.  My best friend Corrie, who happens to be the Director of Children's Ministries at the church, joined us on stage for the dedication.  It was marvelous to have her do the dedication for our son.  Corrie explained what Asa's name means and then read these verses we had chosen for the occasion: "Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God....Asa's heart was fully committed to the Lord all his life" (2 Chronicles 14:2, 15:17).  And that is our prayer: that our son, Asa Everett Horn, would be fully committed to the Lord all his life and do what is good and right in His eyes!

Corrie brought Caleb and Kai from their classroom so they could join us for the dedication, and although I wondered if one or both of them would create a scene while on stage, they did amazing!  Caleb literally ran down the aisle when he saw Eli and they didn't seem to mind all the people staring at us.  The only minor interruption happened when the pastor was doing the vows and asked if we were committed to raising Asa to know Jesus, and Kai said "No!  No!" because Eli was trying to hold him still.  We laughed and quickly responded "Yes!"  It all went very well.

It was wonderful to have my family there too, and afterwards we returned to my parent's house and feasted on a smoked turkey my brother-in-law had made.  We were so thankful for such a joyous day and the chance to be surrounded by family and friends!

Five Months Young

The past five months have flown by.  This darling boy is as smiley as ever, wiggling like it's the latest trend, and has a new trick of grabbing his toes.  Asa also loves to slobber his Mama on the cheek and pinch her neck skin at the same time.  It's quite the show of affection :)  He's a good eater and a bad sleeper, and through it all this boy does our hearts good!

True Love

True love consists of a husband whose Valentine's gift to his wife is to encourage her to take a nap while he spends all afternoon playing with their three little boys.  Therefore, true love looks like this:

I couldn't ask for a better Valentine, or for more love from anyone else in the world.  Happy Valentine's Day!

Bubba

Early on, we nicknamed this boy "Bubba" because, well, there was something just so Bubba-ish about him.  It's probably a combination of the round head and sagging cheeks and double chin.  The nickname has stuck and he probably gets called Bubba more than Asa or Ace or Mt. Everett or any other name we happen to call him.  Doesn't this face just look like a Bubba?

The Bubba had his 4-month shots a couple weeks ago, and was weighed and measured too.  Our 4-month old is 20lbs 4oz, and is 27.25 inches tall.  Moose Baby!  During the Superbowl we decided that he could pass for a lineman whose most notable feature is his chunkiness - there are plenty of linemen with plenty of chunk and our boy could compete with the best!

He's hefty and chunky and perfectly scrumptious.  Oh how we love this Bubba!

Winter Days

Despite the fact that my computer's photo program completely freaked out last week - which led me to also freak out - I've still been taking photos of these winter days.  We haven't solved the problem with my computer, but thankfully we have an old computer that will suffice for now and I can slowly work through the past few weeks of photos...

Even though it's 50 degrees outside right now and we're taking bets on whether somebody's camper that was hauled onto the lake will fall through the ice, we've enjoyed a few days of playing in the snow and on the ice.  (And it's no joke - there's an actual camper, presumably used as an ice hut, sitting in the middle of the thawing lake and is already tilting its way toward falling in.  It's been there for weeks, probably abandoned by now since it's not remotely safe enough to haul it out at present.)

A couple weeks ago the boys went sledding with their cousins, down the hill behind my parents' house and across the pond.  They really zoomed and often made it all the way across the pond to the other side.  Kai, our fearless one, couldn't get enough of it!  He'd go forwards, backwards, by himself or with others.  It didn't matter as long as he was flying down the hill.  Caleb, our cautious one, wasn't too interested in sledding so he opted to wander around in the snow for awhile.

Eli has taken the boys on the lake a couple times to slide around and eat snow and knock each other over repeatedly.  They've also tromped through the woods and loved it!  We're glad we finally got some snow during this El Nino winter!

And here's a picture of the lakehouse, where my parents are graciously letting us stay during this season until we move to Kenya.  It's serving us well and we're so thankful to have a roof over our heads even though we don't really have a place to call home right now.  "Going home to the lakehouse" is the phrase Caleb uses to describe home, and that sounds good to us!

(Incidentally, in the time it took me to do this post, the camper has officially begun its descent into the lake, which means I win the bet because I said it would happen today!)