Today, I'm Choosing the Better Portion

It was my 32nd  birthday this week.  And I can honestly say that GOD THREW ME THE MOST AMAZING PARTY EVER.  When it all started to unfold I decided I should write everything he did for me. A LOT of what he did came through people that love me but many of his gifts were also things his own hand personally orchestrated just for this little child.

  As the day went on, I realized it would take me hours upon hours to write all the unique and personal ways he ministered love to me.  And I've just got too much laundry  to fold and little disciples to love and iced (it's in the 80's here!) decaf lattes to make for my hubby to spend that much time writing.    It was truly more than my words could contain.  If all Jesus did for me in one day would take hours upon hours to write about and unpack, NO WONDER John says this of Jesus' earthly life: " Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written."  I also now know why John calls himself the disciple Jesus loved.  He must have experienced Jesus the way I am right now. A way that so powerfully transformed him that he knew no more fitting way to refer to himself than "the disciple Jesus loved."  This has been building for a while in my soul and our suffering in the wilderness has been laying a foundation for what God is doing in me currently.   From SLAVERY to sin  to WILDERNESS testing to PROMISE LAND Rest and Renewal-that's been my journey these past 10 years of walking with Jesus.

 Jesus has me in a very unique spot right now.  One of Promised Land Soul Rest and Renewal.  A little personal revival, if you will.   It's  amazing me and overwhelming me all at the same time.  

So in light of my birthday and his overwhelming love for me, here's what I landed on:    I've decided to take a break from my blog. (for now!)   I haven't been very consistent with it since we moved back to the US and I think it's just because we've lived in a wilderness for the past few years.  It's been hard for me to write authentically in the midst of suffering, transition, confusion  and chaos...so often I just didn't write.

But recently, he seems to be moving us out of this wilderness and into a place that flows with milk and honey...a place filled with rich treasures of his love for me to discover. I finally have new insight into his pursuit of me while I was in slavery to sin (OH HE WAS THERE, WORKING TO RESCUE ME), an understanding of  some of the purposes of our intense wilderness time (OH HE WAS THERE PRUNING ME TO NOTHING SO NEW LIFE COULD COME), and I have a new way (YES NEW LIFE!) of relating to my Savior. It's a bit like falling in love, only stronger.

 He just keeps overwhelming me with more of himself, with deeper understandings of who he is and his heart of love for me.  Everyday has become a gift from him for me to unwrap. "Normal" interactions with his word and others around me have deep meaning and God is using them to powerfully rewire my heart-and-soul understanding of how to walk intimately with him.

 So I'm (attempting) to cut a few (good) things (that I love and have value) out of my life (for a bit) so I can spend more time with him, the LOVER OF MY SOUL. He's burning things in my soul that I long to write about...but I can't keep up with the pace he's setting for my relationship with him along with the pace of loving and serving my family and church and other things on top of those two primary things...so I'm just taking a break from my blog and maybe a few other things to clear some space for my main man, Jesus,... and for my four other peeps, those dear Huffmans I'm called to serve and love.  I'm delighted to give my spare moments to him and make some changes so there's more room for "us".

 I hope to get back to writing about what I'm learning about the LOVER of my soul as I walk through my small tiny little life.  But for now, I'm waiting on my main man, spending my time sitting at his feet. And I pray that God does for you what he is currently doing for me through the Holy Spirit:  "and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."  Romans 5:5

Something has changed inside my soul. There's been a paradigm shift and I know I'll never be the same.  I can't exactly explain it, but I know it's God's spirit revealing his Father's heart of love for me that has broken open something inside my soul...and now there's an overflowing river of life...and words, so many words.  My IPod has been set to Sara Groves for the past couple of weeks and these two songs say what I am experiencing:

This video was done by someone who went through a recovery program. It's the only video I could find with her song on it. After I watched it, I decided it was perfect.  God's had me in a REHAB program of his own and it feels like I just got out! I have a new perspective on life and things are  looking pretty bright!!

 Though it's my 32nd birthday, I feel like I just showed up for my real life! All day long I carried a candle with me every where I went (see it in the coffee and in my strawberry?!)  Now I think it's fitting...experiencing God's love like this really has given me a new lease on life...feels like I am just at the beginning of an extraordinary ordinary life!  

 Happy Birthday to you, dear Erin Ashley "Lucy" Huffman, girl I love.   Love, Jesus

Their Dad

To these little guys, he is Superman!!

Make New Friends

But keep the old, one is silver and the other gold.  We have some amazing friends.  Sometimes I truly marvel at the people God has allowed us to know and love and be loved by.  He is kind.    And though we are making great friends here in our new home, our old friends are still so precious and dear to us.  Maybe even more than when we lived near them.  My BFF from way back, is a shining treasure to me...a reminder of God's perfect love for me.  She's the one who really introduced me to Christ.   And there are my treasures from college and China too.  We have some "gold" friends from each stage of life!

And our kids have a few "gold friends" that we still talk about a lot.  See that candy jar?  It was a gift from some of our china friends when we were leaving.  They are in every little street shop in China, filled with lollipops for little ones.  The plan was to bring it home and eat the lollipops as a reminder of each other and our time together in China.  And we did.  The lollipops are gone, but we keep refilling it and remembering!  YAY for friends and candy!  To the golden friend who gave this to us,  do you still have yours????

Puppet Show

She even wore white puppeteer gloves.  Oh my!  

3 Performances

 (From Wiki)  Saint Lucia's Day (sometimes Lucy for short) is the Church feast day dedicated to Saint Lucy and is observed on the 13th of December. Its modern day celebration is generally associated with Sweden and Norway but is also observed in Denmark, Italy,Estonia, Latvia, Finland, Hungary, Malta, Bosnia, Bavaria, Croatia, Slovakia, Spain and St. Lucia, West Indies.  In the United States it is celebrated by little girls getting super creative with extra garland, sheets, and paper candles.  

HEHE. ok, I added that part!  Andy and I actually learned about this Nordic holiday while in China.  Each year, we loved visiting a local art gallery run by Nordic friends, sipping mulled wine (ok, I hated that part!) and watching this beautiful performance.  Lots of young women dressed in white led in procession signing Santa Lucia and other Christmas carols.  It was really beautiful.  

Grapes is creative.  We all know that.  And on St. Lucia's Day she gave us a really fun performance.  We made the costume and she came down the stairs to the hauntingly beautiful song Santa Lucia.  There are varying stories on the life of Santa Lucia, and it's not a holiday we normally celebrate.  But this year, creativity, the calender, and our warm memories of celebrating St. Lucia's day in China collided for a fun morning!  

 And a little brother can't be left out of the fun.  He came riding down the stairs on his horse to some Gene Autry tunes...but got a little stage fright half way down, as you can see!

And this little guy.  Well he's the star of the CUTE show.  We are loving our five month old! He's FUN and oh so cute!

Each one of these little ones is fearfully and wonderfully made.  Your works are wonderful God, I know that full well!  Psalm 139

A year of putting down roots!

At 6:30pm we poured the sparkling grape juice, passed out cups of M n M's and party horns, and watched last year's New Year's Eve countdown on Youtube.  We ran around outside screaming HAPPY NEW YEAR and then my kiddos were in bed by 7:30!  I'm hoping they'll sleep through the actual ringing in of the new year, but it's unlikely with all the fireworks!  Either way, I'm glad we celebrated early and got a few good hours of sleep in before the fireworks begin.  My five and four year old just aren't ready to party til midnight.  (Neither am I for that matter!)

Andy has been gone for five days now and we are all eager to get him home tomorrow!  God has provided for me through friends from church. I've had play dates and help putting kids to bed and friends to cook for us and friends to spend the night with me.  I got a break and sat by a lake for an hour!   And I even had a stranger buy my groceries...which is a post of it's own!  I'm so grateful for how well it went...cause let's face it,  I AM NOT GOOD AT SINGLE PARENTING!!! I get frazzled and angry and overwhelmed.  Much help was needed and much help was provided!!!  The Lord was very kind to me.  

I've been thinking about this past year and it's been a year of putting down roots.  2012 was our first full year in our house.  It was first full year as members of our church.  It was Andy's first full year at his new job.

Andy working, well sorta

 It was our first year to have a season pool pass and to attend all the town's holiday events-The Easter Egg Hunt (which involves a helicopter and marshmellows!), Fourth of July Fireworks, and The Santa Drive By (which involves getting pelted with peppermints!) 

My very pregnant Fourth of July with the Aragones Family!

Marshmellows for Easter with the Wilhoits! 

 It was a complete year-and God has richly blessed us with friends this year.  We are known and loved.  We have friends over for lunch after church and friends who babysit our kids and neighbors we carpool to school with. 

Silliness at our Christmas Party with our Gospel Community

We love our little school

 In 2012 we were able to get the 4 plus years worth of leaves off our lawn so that grass can begin to grow.  That was upwards of a 70 bags of raked leaves.  Things are taking shape and we are starting to have a yard and a life here.  Through it all, God has been faithful.  From the days of intense transition where everything was in chaos to our more settled and normal life this year, he continues to show us his heart of love for us.    We were given a grapefruit tree recently and I think it will always remind me that as 2012 was the year it took root in our yard, so it was the year our family began to take root in this town.  

 My favorite moment of the year was having a baby!!!  Judah is precious and I am so thankful for him.  He seems like he's going to be a fun kid.

Blessed with two healthy boys!  

And I have loved how I am learning to walk with the Lord this year.  Deeper trust in him. Seeing how much I need him and learning to look away from myself and look to him for what I need.  The wreath above my desk says "abide."  That was my word this year-to abide, or hide myself in his love for me!  And as I have done that, I have experienced great joy this year.   There have been some really hard things this year for us, and I am so thankful for how he is shown me his deep love and commitment for me, in the midst of those hard things! There has been real joy in connecting with him, especially in the midst of the harder parts of our life.  So I can walk confidently into 2013, knowing he will walk with me, no matter what the year holds! 

Enter Beth

We've had the pleasure of hosting this sweet friend for a couple of months now!  Beth moved in with us in October and will be staying til February 24th-we're counting down the days  til then (notice the countdown chain above her door)...  But not because we want her to leave but because on February 24th SHE'S GETTING MARRIED!!!

Danny and Beth are in our small group from church and we are really excited for them to start their life together soon!  She's a delight to have in our home and hopefully our chaos isn't too much for her.???   The kiddos really love her and I love hearing them say things like, "Ms. Beth is a part of our family too!"  I'm so thankful for the body of Christ and how we can love and serve one another.

As a busy mom of three, I've been thankful for moments to connect with her over doing my regular job-cooking, folding laundry, helping my kiddos.  It's hard to get to know new people well at this stage in my life when so much of my time goes to my family, so having her in our home has been a treat for me.  So thankful for her.  With each chain we take off her door, we're praying God would bless their marriage and their future together and draw them to himself and each other everyday of their lives!