10 Things To Love About Fall

 

It's the first day of Fall! This is perhaps the greatest season. It has a good back-and-forth with Winter for my favorite season, but I think, at least for the time being, Fall has taken the lead. There are so many fantastic things about this season.

• Cooler weather: It's time to wear jackets, hats, scarves, etc..., but it's still warm enough to go outside and enjoy the weather.
• Changing leaves: All the absolutely gorgeous colors that fill the world during this season are breathtaking and leave you in amazement and awe of the beauty of God's creation. It also means that there will soon be large piles of leaves to play in with my kids. (Of course who's kidding, I like playing in big piles of leaves too :) )

Rain for Rain (The Small Gifts)

Yesterday we got to, once again, celebrate the official addition of Rain into our family, only this time it was with a big shindig, lots of food, and close to 100 people. It was so much fun! Now, we were sort of expecting that number of people, we invited them after all, but it was still just awesome to see everyone there, gathered together, celebrating with us. The love and support that our family has is truly amazing. From family, friends, church, we are surrounded by people who care about us, and those at the party were not all of our family, friends, church and people who love and care about us by any means. It was just a really neat experience to see everyone together, to see people smiling and laughing, to see the kids playing. It was great.

So, we expected people, but we didn't expect all the gifts and cards. It was amazing, the pile of gifts and cards that we received. People were coming up and asking me where to put gifts, and I had to just make something up because I wasn't planning on that at all. We got lots of awesome gifts for all 3 of the kids: Play-Doh, Towels, Learning Games, Flashlight Friends, and lots more, but there was one gift that really stood out for me, and it was one that I didn't recognize at first.

I'm Adopted!

On Monday, Manda and I had the incredible experience of finally getting to adopt our little girl! She's been a part of our family for almost two years, but on Monday it became official/legal, her name matching ours her birth certificate indicating we are her family. For us, she has been our child for two years, but now she also is in the eyes of the rest of the world.

It was an amazing, emotional, exciting, nerve-wracking experience. It was so cool to see the joy on Mallory's face as she realized she no longer had to be concerned that someone was going to try and take Rain out of our home. It was awesome to see the smile and goofiness coming from Rain as she half sang "I'm adopted!" It was amazing to see 25+ people filing into the courtroom to support and celebrate with us.

Yes, Jesus Loves Me

♫ Yes, Jesus Loves Me ♫

So many people have sung this simple children's tune countless times, both as children and as adults, and being that it is a children's song it is often easy to forget, or simply not look at, how profound and deep it is. Have you ever taken the time to examine this one, 4-word, phrase? I hadn't really, but it struck me yesterday, as we were singing this line in our Easter service, that is is truly a remarkable phrase. Let me show you.

"Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you die"

"Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you die"

 

It's Mardi Gras, and, if this isn't the theme of today it should be. Today is a day to indulge, to over indulge, to gorge yourself, to "get fat" on all of the "fatty" foods and behaviors that you probably shouldn't be partaking of, but will anyway because tomorrow, Ash Wednesday, you "die" to all of that, and begin a 40 day stretch of fasting from all of the things that you are indulging in today.

It is perhaps one of the most bizarre "religious" holidays/festivals. I put religious in quotes, because a lot of what happens on Mardi Gras today is not what originally happened. It's always been a day of feasting and gorging, but traditionally it was strictly on food, sugary, fatty foods, hence the "Fat" part of Fat Tuesday. Today, feasting and gorging on food is still a huge part, but so is gorging on virtually any and every other behavior you can think of. And then tomorrow, for the religious, you mark your forehead with ash in mourning over your sinful nature...