Hope and I attended my friend Rachael's funeral on Thursday morning. So sad and yet so hopeful. It was truly a beautiful service. The pastor (who I know from when I was part of the River Falls ministerium) did an awesome job. Just incredible. The church was PACKED!! What a testiment to what an amazing person Rachael was. She touched the lives of everyone she met. My favorite part of the funeral (that sounds kinda weird, doesn't it??) and the part that made me cry the most was towards the end. The congregation sang "Awesome God." That was one of Rachael's favorite songs. Well, it's one of Hope's favorite songs, too, and she belted it out from the back row...hands raised and everything. It was such a special moment. I thanked God for my precious little girl and her love for God.
That afternoon Hope and I went to a local coffee shop to see Dawn, Dan and Isaiah. After 9 long months of not seeing them, it was so nice to give them hugs. And their little guy is SOOOOOO cute!! He is just perfect. I didn't get to spend any one on one time with Dawn, which I was really hoping for, but there were many in town who wanted to see her, so I had to share. And that was OK. Friday we headed to Como Zoo (we being me, Hope, Andrea, Wyatt, Elise and Hannah) to meet Dawn, Dan, Isaiah and Dan's parents for the day. It was a perfect day for the zoo and we had a great time. After the zoo was lunch...which gave the Mom's (all of us first time Mom's with kids ranging in ages from almost 3 to 3 months) time to chat about Motherhood. It was great!! I had a few tears in my eyes when I said goodbye to Dawn. I loved seeing her, but it just made me realize how much I truly miss her. Friday night found us on our way to Dresser, WI, to the Trap Rock Inn. It's a little hole in the wall that most people would drive right by, but they have an excellent fish fry on Friday night, so we headed there to meet Mark's Aunt Donna and Uncle Ken for supper. We had a great time with them. Hope absolutely LOVES them (and so do I, by the way) and it's always fun to get together with them.
Saturday we had a plant sale at church for the youth group. It ended up being the "send Jake Myer to the National Youth Gathering in 2009" sale because Jake and his family were the only ones (besides me) to show up!!! That's all I'm going to say about that because I'm a little ticked off about that. BUT...I got to spend quite a few hours with the Myer family that day and that was awesome. They are great people!!
And that brings me to today...Mother's Day. This is my 3rd Mother's Day as a Mommy and I'm so incredibly blessed to have Hope Christiana as my daughter. It's really true what they say about your children: they are your heart walking around outside your body. I just look at her and melt. She is such a loving, smart, beautiful little girl and sometimes I just can't believe she's ours. After church we had lunch with Mark's Mom and Dad. Hope gave Grammy a beautiful porcelain miniature tea set (for two). Mark's Mom collects tea pots AND they have a tea party every day at Grammy and Papa's, so I thought this would be a perfect gift. Plus when it's handed down to Hope she'll have some wonderful memories of using the tea set with her Grandmother. After lunch Mark took Hope and told me he had something to do...so they'd meet me at home. So I got home and had a chance to chill a little. NICE!!! They got home and I got the best Mother's Day gift I have ever gotten: a beautiful hand drawn picture of Hope. It made me cry. The artist said that Hope was the most beautiful little girl he's ever drawn. OK...so I know he probably tells every parent the same thing, but I'm going with it!! I can't wait to get it framed and on the wall. Hope was really good sitting for the picture and told me all about Tom (the artist) when she got home. I'm glad we got a picture of Hope with her long hair because she's getting it cut short on Friday. I'm having a little bit of a hard time with cutting all that beautiful hair, but I know it's best. She's not a ponytail girl at all and it keeps getting in her face and her food. My sister is cutting her hair so I know it'll look super-cute. After I got my picture from Mark and Hope, it was time for Hope and Mommy to head to the farm. We struck gold at the farm today because it was feeding time for the calves when we arrived. Hope got to give Reddy (her favorite calf) a bucket of milk AND she got to help farmer Allison give a 1 day old calf a bottle of milk. She was in 7th Heaven!! Of course I didn't have my camera today. UGH!!!! We got home and went out for supper. Now Hope and Mark are asleep and I'm not too far behind. Before I forget: Mark also got me Lincoln Brewster CD (I love it!!!) and a beautiful hibiscus tree for Mother's Day. Now if it would warm up enough to put the tree outside, that'd be good!
So that should pretty much catch everyone up. Today was the last day of Sunday School and although I dearly love each and every one of "my kids," I'm looking forward to the break that is Summer vacation!! Wed. is the last night of confirmation and the following Wed. is the last Kid's Club of the school year. June 1 I go down to 20 hrs/wk for the summer and I'm looking forward to that. I love my job, but I love summer, too!
Here are some pictures that I hope you enjoy...
Here's the whole picture. Isn't it beautiful??
Hope B and Hope H: a day on the farm
The Brue family at the farm on a very windy day.
Hope petting "Baby Reddy" (her name for the calf because of her reddish color).
Hope with Dawn on our trip to Como Zoo.
Mommy and Hope at the coffee shop.
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