The Things We Hope Will Last (and pictures from this summer)

It's official that in less than 9 months that Joel will finish his residency and right now we're a little worse for wear. For example, the "L" button is missing on our laptop, the only computer we've had since the beginning of Joel's second year of medical school. We recently got a new modem only to find out that it did not solve our ever slowing internet access. We don't think this computer will make it through the year. When it dies, you can expect a new post sometime in July 2010. 

I don't think we can handle anymore home repairs. We just bought some nice $400 springs so we can open our garage door again. Minty Maizy Ruff Ruff has been trying to abolish the window sill outside our kitchen and I'm pretty sure she'll attempt to chew the cable wires so that we won't be able to watch our 12 channels on TV anymore.

A couple other things that have suffered wear and tear over the last 3 years: all but one of our fish have now met their maker, the dryer makes an abominable sound, 3 out of the 6 chairs at our kitchen table have collapsed under someone's weight, and the light that comes on when you open the garage door hasn't illuminated our comings and goings for about 2 years.

Minty Maizy Ruff Ruff: our newest family member has joined Sabrina as an "outside only" pet

The boys and Garrett, the neighbor, painting gold nuggets for Silas' 4th birthday party

Baby Liza (not pictured: her one tooth)

But among all these things that are destined pass are many that shall not. I think we're going to come out of these 4 years, not unscathed, but like having passed through a fire of sorts. Even a month ago I questioned what a future for Joel and I would like, thinking maybe our testing would result in our being burnt to a crisp. But up from the ashes we're rising to new heights. We're learning to trust and love one another on a deeper level that we didn't know before. We're learning that it's better to have a marriage that matters to one another than to have a marriage that looks great to every body else.

I got a hair cut

In the lives of our children, we're leaning to let go of many things. We no longer grieve our inability to provide the safest carseats possible, or the toys whose manufacturers would have us believe would make our children brilliant. We're learning to care less about how we appear as parents and more about how our children appear to the Lord; that for now, we're fully responsible for that.

Trying to keep Silas and Micah from spoiling in the heat

Liza is a crawling machine

We've learned that to live a life without the Lord would be the worst possible thing that could happen to our children.  May we do our best to both model the love of a warm God- not just tolerating our presence- but delighting in every choice that actively moves us towards him. And may we prevent as many accidents possible, especially the ones involving diaper rash cream and carpet or broken bones and stitches. 

Shooting the breeze after a fast game of "chase jet chase"