slideshow

well, i have given up on youtube. they think i've done something fraudulent by putting a song i downloaded from itunes on my video, so i can't play my video through them. therefore, i uploaded it to my mobileme gallery. however, mobileme cannot be embeded onto blogs. soooOOOooo . . . i have a link for you. please follow it; you'll be pleased.
this is our time at the lake.

bust

i waited and waited and waited for youtube.  it's late and the slideshow does not want to download.  therefore, i will leave you with this:

dinner

i am so happy i only have one child at this time.  

bon fet, tet melon!

ode to noah

~ by you-you on your 6th birthday

(with help from aladdin's genie)

i ain't never had a friend,

never had a friend,

i ain't NEVER

HAD A

FRIEND LIKE YOU!

i ain't never had a friend like you!

my dear boy, when i first met you, you were a bit top heavy.  man did you have a head.  tiny little legs and those triangular feet i love so much trying so hard to keep that head up.  oh, but how you've grown!  you toddled around with your wonderful lips and your perfect little stutter breaking hearts all over the place.  you loved to eat, anytime, anywhere.  you loved to sing!  you and i had so much fun on our picture dates.  we would spend some time just making faces and laughing so hard!  you had a great sense of humor.  you also LOVED throwing fits.  you could cry with the best of them.  you screamed until i thought my ear drums would burst.  i was scared you would stop being my friend after i would put you on time out against the wall.  but, noah, you were always my little man.  you would crawl up in my lap and cuddle, take my hand and walk bravely through the front gate, dare to let me take you into the pool at the hotel, and curl up beside me at night.  like i said, you were a heartbreaker.  

i see pictures of you now and i cannot believe the little man you've become!  i thank the Lord every time i think of you for the precious gift of you!  He has brought you thus far, noah, and He will lead you home!

you, my dear boy, were the chosen son.  you are the promised one!  your life must be a purposeful one.  you have already come through fire, sweetheart, and i know the Lord has great plans for you!

this is one of my most favorite pictures of us, noah. it was taken december 14, 2007. it was the last time i saw you! how i miss you. how i want to hold you. i think, however, that you have outgrown those lengthy hugs, those sit-in-my-lap-for-hours times. just know this, when it comes to you, i'll take whatever i can get.

i am so happy you're home for your birthday! it will be your best one yet! mwen renmen ou, tet la! ak tout ke'm, wi!

daughter

photo taken by carsen. edited by angela.

job 38

this is one of the most amazing passages in Scripture. job has, as we know, lost everything. he's been given horrible counsel from his wife and his friends have not helped either. he asks God why all these things have happened to him. and what does the Lord say?

Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, 
    "Who is this that darkens counsel
         By words without knowledge? 
    "Now gird up your loins like a man,
         And I will ask you, and you instruct Me! 
    "Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
         Tell Me, if you have understanding, 
    Who set its measurements? Since you know.
         Or who stretched the line on it? 
    "On what were its bases sunk?
         Or who laid its cornerstone, 
    When the morning stars sang together
         And all the sons of God shouted for joy? 
    "Or who enclosed the sea with doors
         When, bursting forth, it went out from the womb; 
    When I made a cloud its garment
         And thick darkness its swaddling band, 
    And I placed boundaries on it
         And set a bolt and doors, 
    And I said, 'Thus far you shall come, but no farther;
         And here shall your proud waves stop'?
    "Have you ever in your life commanded the morning,
         And caused the dawn to know its place, 
    That it might take hold of the ends of the earth,
         And the wicked be shaken out of it? 
    "It is changed like clay under the seal;
         And they stand forth like a garment. 
    "From the wicked their light is withheld,
         And the uplifted arm is broken. 
    "Have you entered into the springs of the sea
         Or walked in the recesses of the deep? 
    "Have the gates of death been revealed to you,
         Or have you seen the gates of deep darkness? 
    "Have you understood the expanse of the earth?
         Tell Me, if you know all this. 
    "Where is the way to the dwelling of light?
         And darkness, where is its place, 
    That you may take it to its territory
         And that you may discern the paths to its home? 
    "You know, for you were born then,
         And the number of your days is great! 
    "Have you entered the storehouses of the snow,
         Or have you seen the storehouses of the hail, 
    Which I have reserved for the time of distress,
         For the day of war and battle? 
    "Where is the way that the light is divided,
         Or the east wind scattered on the earth? 
    "Who has cleft a channel for the flood,
         Or a way for the thunderbolt, 
    To bring rain on a land without people,
         On a desert without a man in it, 
    To satisfy the waste and desolate land
         And to make the seeds of grass to sprout? 
    "Has the rain a father?
         Or who has begotten the drops of dew? 
    "From whose womb has come the ice?
         And the frost of heaven, who has given it birth? 
    "Water becomes hard like stone,
         And the surface of the deep is imprisoned. 
    "Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades,
         Or loose the cords of Orion? 
    "Can you lead forth a constellation in its season,
         And guide the Bear with her satellites? 
    "Do you know the ordinances of the heavens,

         Or fix their rule over the earth? 
    ³⁴"Can you lift up your voice to the clouds,
         So that an abundance of water will cover you? 
    "Can you send forth lightnings that they may go
         And say to you, 'Here we are'? 
    "Who has put wisdom in the innermost being
         Or given understanding to the mind? 
    "Who can count the clouds by wisdom,
         Or tip the water jars of the heavens, 
    When the dust hardens into a mass
         And the clods stick together? 
    "Can you hunt the prey for the lion,
         Or satisfy the appetite of the young lions, 
    When they crouch in their dens
         And lie in wait in their lair ?

    "Who prepares for the raven its nourishment
         When its young cry to God
         And wander about without food?

the Lord puts job in his place.  have you ever been there?  have you questioned God's reason, His timing, His plan?  i have, from time to time, failed to understand the "why" of a situation.  thankfully, i am not God!!  i would do a terrible job!  i am so selfish.  i have found, time and again, that His mercies truly are new every morning (lam. 3:23) and that His ways are higher than mine (isa. 55:9).  

once again, i resolve to let God be God!  i'd love to take the backseat.  

a year in pictures

one year ago today, my darling girl made her first appearance in this world. i knew, despite not being told by the ultrasound tech, that i was having a girl. i was thrilled when the midwife declared what i already knew!  

from that moment on, i was smitten.  there is no child brighter, no child more sweet, more adorable than my daughter.  i am blessed beyond understanding by this girl.  

thank you, Lord Jesus, for giving me the amazing opportunity to be a mother to judah.  

here is a brief look at the past year:

my gallery