Sisters

Laine had such a good time posing for this picture.  She was so excited to sit on the couch holding Mead all by herself.  She actually stayed in position for another five minutes or so after I put the camera away!

Getting Bigger

Laine always talks about the things Mead will be able to do when she gets bigger.  I think she's ready for more of a playmate than Mead is presenting herself to be at the moment.  Right now she just looks cute, but we love it!

We got a job!

We accepted a job on March 9th, but we had to wait a couple weeks to announce it to friends until the church congregation found out about it.  Here's the scoop...

Penny has accepted an Assistant Pastor position at The Covenant Presbyterian Church here in St Louis.  He'll be directing and overseeing a new program called the Fellows Program.  This is a new endeavor for Covenant Pres.  This is a program that is at other churches in the U.S. and we'll be the first one in this area.  

What is the Fellows Program?  In short, it's a post-grad program for about 12 recent college grads who are seeking to enter the market place.  They'll come and live in St Louis, take a couple of classes, work jobs, and learn what it means to implement a Christian world-view in the marketplace while being actively involved in the local church.  Penny and I are very excited about this opportunity!  

The church also has a school connected with it, and Laine is enrolled to start the 3-year-old program in the fall, which is two mornings a week.  She is really excited about school, and I'm excited for her to have the opportunity to grow and learn in amongst other peers and in a Christian context.  We just need to her to master potty training by then.  Keep praying!

The next thing big piece for us is finding a place to live.  Please pray that we would find a home that would be a great fit for our needs and affordable - the church is in a pretty nice part of STL, so housing prices are pretty high.  We are so thankful for God's provision for us up to this point, and we are confident He will continue to meet our needs in this very tangible way.

A Wonderful Book

Not too long ago I finished reading a book called Good Night, Mr. Tom.  It's one of those books that I didn't want to come to the end of because I enjoyed reading it so much.  I picked it up to read for my children's literature class, and I had no idea how much I would be captured by the story.  

It is about a boy who gets evacuated from London at the beginning of World War II because of anticipated bombings to the city.  He gets placed in the home of a middle-aged yet reclusive man, Mr. Tom, in the countryside of England.  The boy comes from a physically and verbally abusive background, but Mr. Tom's compassion, sensitivity, and love to the boy transform his life.  More than a story of child abuse, it is an amazing story of healing and redemption from a painful past, both for the boy and Mr. Tom.  

Though it is technically listed as a children's book, there are several mature and sobering scenes in it.  If you're looking for a good book to read and willing to have your heart tugged at as you read, I highly recommend this delightful book.

Sweet Smiles

Mead is starting to give us some wonderful smiles.  Sometimes it is still inadvertent, but other times it seems intentional.  This is such a fun phase!

Sidewalk Sledding

The snow is gone, but the sled was left out by the front door.  The kids got a fun idea, and Daddy was a willing work-horse.  Good times!

Six Weeks

Reading to our kids

My children's literature class has inspired us to want to start a new family tradition.  Jerram Barrs has mentioned several times how his father read to them every night when they were growing up.  He said they read for almost an hour every night all the way until he left for college!  

Penny and I love this idea of having a family reading time before bed, especially in place of a family TV time.  We hope to start this tradition soon, assuming Laine is ready to sit still and listen for a few minutes!  We'd like to read books like The Secret Garden, the Winnie-the-Pooh stories,  Little House on the Prairie, the Beatrix Potter stories, the Chronicles of Narnia, the Lord of the Rings books, the Harry Potter stories, and many others.  We'll obviously have to work our way up to more mature books over time.

In addition to these books, we've also discovered some other new ones by authors like Nick Butterworth, Dick King-Smith, and others.  It's been a great class, and it's gotten us even more excited about reading to the girls.