In Christ Alone our Hope is Found

"............ There are always those moments creeping up. The unexpected talks about death, the vague symptoms that can stop us cold in our tracks and our unashamed plea's for God's healing. And I know if we experience those moments other families do too.  Cancer is a marathon race, or a marathon roller coaster. Keep praying and keep being understanding of those families that may be in your life. It is a grueling journey. A smiling face doesn't mean the journey is over, or easy. It simply shows God gave grace for today." This was written by a mom whose daughter has had brain cancer. It is possible her daughter, Kate is cancer free, but they have questions. They are in limbo. We understand limbo. What she wrote really resonated with us. God has richly blessed us, beyond anything we expected or imagined. We are loving each other and living together in thanksgiving for every single day. He has given us many days of joy and we are so thankful. BUT,

 I LOVE family pictures. Family pictures are my most favourite "thing". The pictures on my walls are all family pictures with only a few exceptions. It is a beautiful thing to capture our family at every stage. When the kids were younger I was faithful in taking lots of pictures, but we rarely got a photographer to take pictures for us. I regret that a little.  There were so many pictures to choose from. The ones below I would say are some of my favourites! (:   To me this picture of our family looks very natural. Everyone is very relaxed and Natalie is even just leaning on Ken. I like it very much. I would have to say that this one is my favourite of the whole lot of them. The relationship these two have is beautiful I love it! My girls. (I love saying that!) Natalie is a great big sister, who is always ready to hold Grace or feed her a bottle. Although,  Grace is getting pretty big and strong for Natalie and Micah to be carrying around. Josh is 12. It is hard

This afternoon, I called the hospital to see if I could find anything out about Micah's tests last week. He had an Xray and a CT, both of his lungs. I was told that his Xray showed no problems. Nothing. No cancer. This news is incredible to us. We knew God could do it, but we were sure that Micah had cancer again, just from the way he has been feeling and also because it just seemed to good to be true to be cancer free so long. To be almost 7 months past surgery seems almost crazy. This is what we were all hoping for, but it is still beyond all our expectations. What a merciful God we serve. Micah and I decided to tell Ken in a fun way that his Xray was clear, instead of just blurting it out. With my help, Micah wrote Ken a little note and gave it to him in the middle of supper. It is so precious and we will keep it forever. We have cried many tears at the supper table, but today they were happy tears. Thank you Lord.

This past weekend we went on a family trip. On Saturday we drove to Collingwood. The fall colors are amazing!. There are beautiful caves up there as well. I took so many pictures of the beauty, but my $125 camera couldn't seem to capture what we were really seeing. We stayed in Collingwood the first night. In the morning we got up and drove to Meaford. There is an OPC church plant there. That is neat. We then drove on to Owen Sound and went for a walk at Inglis Falls. It was amazing! We stayed the night at a hotel in Port Elgin with a GREAT pool. Monday morning we checked out and started the drive home. It would be really great to have a button to push that would transport us home. I reeeeaalllly dislike driving long distances with a van full of kids. Actually, I don't love driving a long ways without them either. I would rather just get somewhere and start doing things. Driving seems like a waste of time to me. Ken is just the opposite. He enjoys driving very

This is our girl Grace. This first picture is my favourite picture of all time!! Even the spit up is appropriate. She is a volcano and spits up even hours after she eats. This is our mischievous Grace. I took this picture to remember my favourite little sleeper she wore. She didn't wear it home from the hospital, but wore it soon after she was born. It fit her for a long time and I had to document it being too small. But her expression is "Van Dyk" for sure. That little glint in her eye is trouble! Our graceful Grace asleep. I brought out the highchair very early. She sits in it reclined many times throughout the day. It helps her be part of the action while we have supper and while we do school. Grace is like Micah in that she LOVES LOVES LOVES the bath. I have this fantastic bath seat that she can just recline in like she is at the spa! She is in the big bath at least once a day, sometimes twice and occassionally three times a day, if she is fussy. It fixes everything.