Christmas Blessings

Christmas is a time of waiting and anticipation.  Christmas Eve we went to Bayou City Fellowship's first Christmas Eve service.  It was cold and outside, but a good reminder about the "no room in the inn" time our Savior first experienced. With matching PJs a tradition my mom had started with us as kids, Bailey and Colton headed home still too little to understand anticipation of the next morning.  (the adults sure were excited to share their first Christmas with two babies) 

Mom had planned out a menu for the day with delicious breakfast items and traditional Christmas.  We each in turn made fun of the menu as we found it hanging on the refrigerator, but now I wish I had taken a picture.  She always does a great job making everything seem like a beautiful, special adventure.

Phillip, Erin and Bailey arrived first, so we had the next 20 minutes of distracting Bailey from the presents before Andrew, Amy and Colton got to the house.  Finally after the anticipation of waiting for everyone to arrive present opening began.  Since Bailey's birthday was just a month before, she had already mastered ripping off the wrapping paper.  I enjoyed getting her a tea set with a pink boa.  She didn't like the boa too much, but the tea set has been a big hit.  I also found Shelia Walsh's books about Gigi that fit so perfectly with the tea party idea.  She also got a fun pink Castle from Aunt Amy.

Although not even close to being able to enjoy these books, Tale of Despereaux by Kate DeCamillo became one of my favorites a few years ago.  She was in Houston to autographs books and I could help but get a copy for the fabulous Princess and Knight. Colton got is very own Shelia Walsh book about Will the Warrior.  I searched and searched for a sword to match the fun book, but never could find the best one.  So he got one of his toys from his Babies R Us list, a sports activity station. (I still owe you the sword Bud!)

So in reflecting on the anticipation and excitement of picking out the perfect gift, it points me back to the symbolism of God's love for us.  Many years people waited in anticipation for God's promised gift of Christ's presence on Earth.  As He prepared a special time, like we pick out the perfect gift, He sent Jesus to us. Oh how we wait for His return to Earth again.

Fun first month

Today she turns one

I'm not really sure the pictures can capture the way her eyes twinkled and mind sparked with curious delight as we sang at the tops of our lung happy birthday to Bailey as she walked into Aunt Pam's house for her birthday dinner.  Her little mind was surely processing this was different and entertaining and I would like to say she was figuring out it was for her.  She learned quickly how to tear open presents and we learned equally as well to not give her the books if we didn't want the process to stop for a reading session.

She did get clothes from Clayton and Amy in which you can see her delight and hugging.

The cupcake singing was the best as she again watched with intent eyes and looked at each person while the song was being sung.  And then as she leaned to blow out her candle and take a first bite of sweets.  How children who have never had sweets know to say yumm, yummm will always surprise me with delight.

The day of her party Bailey celebrated in Minnie Mouse style and this is the jumper I gave her.

Also wanted to start her a charm bracelet, so she got her 1st birthday charm at her party. Happy Birthday sweet girl....Aunt Lisa loves you!

Hooray! A King is Here!

After many months of waiting and days of waking up to expect a text or phone call, I know it was relieving for all of us to know Amy had a scheduled induce date. It wasn't the original Sept. 21 we all had in our heads, but Andrew was sure to be in town and we were fully ready to meet Colton James King! The blog title says it all in a text from Greg as he realized he was a second cousin and a true king Colton has proven to be. I know I was excited to be apart of the day since when Bailey was born I received a picture text at 8:00 in the morning and had to wait until 6:00 that night to hold her! I debated just taking off half a day, I mean it was my sister who was having the baby NOT me, why should I take the day off.  I sure am thankful I did though because there were precious moments for me that morning as I got to spend time with my little sister before she "became" a mom.  Much of the story I would write from my perspective would be completely different as we all could take a different angle to share, but the calm and patience I saw her hold onto as she had matured into an amazing woman was outstanding.  I guess the unspoken maturity of her allowing/tolerating me to be apart of the moments spoke volumes to my heart and transferred to me a love that I long to receive from my sister. Here's the rest of the story:

Dinner the night before at Chuy's.

                                                                

Memorial Herman was a very convenient location and after jokes of Andrew sleeping in at the house while mom took Amy to check in that morning, they all got their pretty early and quick to start induction. The delivery floor was nice as each patient had their own rooms, but as the family we were free to walk between the waiting area and Amy's room.  During delivery Erin even commented she wanted to hear Colton's cry for the first time and attempted to walk down the hallway in time. After seeing the doctor leave the floor Phillip, Erin, and I assumed he was here and shortly after Andrew came out to announce Colton was here and show pictures.  We all quickly took turns watching Bailey in the waiting area and seeing Colton for the first time.  Here Bailey finally gets to meet her cousin for the first time.

The nurses did a great job giving him a bath and letting us feel apart of the process.  The big picture windows sure help you feel like you are right there with them.

All cleaned and sleeping with his snuggle pup Aunt Lisa gave him.

After we had settled into the new room, Andrew and I changed him into his 1st day picture outfit. It came all the way from H&M.

Day 2 a quick visit after church and waiting for them to be ready to come home.

This little man is not going to be this small forever, so a picture on my legs will prove that in time.

                                            A great family picture.

                                Showing Colton his room for the 1st time.

                                           Playing dress up again.

                               Welcome home King family!
                            (Hook'em is already aware of the change)
                                        

Drowning in a sea of newness

This is an email that never got sent to people willing to pray for me.  I'm not sure I even FULLY remember those first months of changing to 2nd grade as every day was just survival.  I wish now that I had more time to write it all down.  Let's just stay that it was a new kind of breaking and humbling process.
______________________________________________________________________________________
I'm not going to send an email every week, but I did want to give you some specifics to pray for and say thanks for being willing to receive them. I also wanted to let you know the 2nd week did not start off as "peachy keen" as my first one sounded. (it did however end better)

Behavior was a struggle since the 1st day of school and seemed to get worse into the 2nd week. It wasn't until Wednesday that I realized perhaps it was my fear of letting go of control and feeling of not being prepared that left me stressed NOT the students. I have been in a very foul mood and didn't seem to want to fix it. Not being prepared seems to leave me unknowingly grumpy...it is always under the surface, but just lately I am realizing that's what causes the feeling.


Thanks for the prayers and listening ears.

Teaching is my passion and I am humbled because of it.

Humbled by how our plans are never better than HIS plans. - I am finally back to teaching at my dream grade level 2nd grade!

Humbled by how loved I am- never knew I had so many people who love me enough to say they were thinking of me on the 1st day of school

Humbled by my inability to shake that "new teacher" feeling after 10 years of teaching-Only God knew I would need it to remain close to HIM and give HIM the credit

All of these lessons came the first day of school. Many of you have gotten a "back to school" email from me in the past on the night before the first day of school. I fully intended on writing one and even sat down Sunday night to compose it, but didn't feel like the timing was right. Sure glad I didn't run ahead because I know I would had missed out on these sweet blessings.

I didn't go on any big mission trips this summer although my heart longed to go. I wrestled a lot with God about the idea of being lazy, but He continued to remind me to be still and relax for His purpose. I am learning who I am is not about what I do and He wanted to drive that home this summer. So all of that leads me to this email already a week into the school year. I am reminded again I am called to teach! I was blessed to know when I was little what I wanted to be when I grew up (although my poster from elementary school says I wanted to be a nurse!) Teaching is my passion, it brings me great joy. So despite the fact that I try and convince myself that other things sound more noble, for now this is what I am called to do and I love it.

I am going to continue to update my blog throughout the year http://truthlovegrace.blogspot.com/ but when I started these emails a few years back it was because I had friends who were missionaries. They would send updates to me about specific prayer requests about their area of the world. It was in reading one of these and trying to put myself on mission somewhere else that I realized I had already been sent somewhere....my own school! Although I have lost focus, I would like to start sending these emails more consistently on behalf of all teacher. So if have a desire to pray for teachers or even just for me and want to continue to get emails from me this year, please email me back.

Below are the verses I taped up around my room behind posters and decorations. I also included a picture of my room, but more will be on my blog. Thanks for being apart of my life!

Romans 10:13-15; Isaiah 61:3; Ps 5:11-12; Isaiah 64:4; Psalms 118:19-24; Psalms 18:16-19; Psalms 16:5-6; Psalms 31:6-8; 2 Corinthains 5:17-21; 1 Peter 3:15-16

Watching her grow

After months of getting to hold her and small times for people to leave us alone...this was the first "real" babysitting I got to do for Bailey.  She was just starting to sit up, but not able to sit on her own.  With Aunt Lisa's couch pillows and borrowed toys from Nana's house, we had a blast while the mom, dad, and grandparents were taking care of other things.

Although she won't sit for long any more, this was Bailey's first moment at the piano.  It was so fun to watch her tap out the keys and "sing" along.

Throwing her in the air and watching her squeal, we watched as she also began to find pure delight in bouncing on your lap. I was excited to buy this jumper and watch her go.

The process of walking is an amazing thing to see as it happens months before the actual first steps.  In fact, looking back on all of these pictures I realized how blessed I was to be able to see her through all of these stages and compare it to our own "walk" with God.  Babies gain the muscles needed to hold up their head, so they can transition into laying on their tummies for crawling and sitting up on their own.  Before watching Bailey "learn" to walk, I thought the sitting was the most important step before walking, but I actually realized it's when they are on their tummies learning to roll over that is most important.  If babies never learn to roll over and gain those muscles, then during those awkward crawling moments when they need to sit up and turn around they can't get their leg under them quite right.  It's at those times we have seen it happen with babies, their arms get stuck and their legs are tangled in just a way that makes it impossible to move, that's when they flop face first onto the floor. How many times have I done the same things, only whined and complained even more about the process to God.  He's trying to teach me to "walk" with him, only I'm trying to run before I have the skills and muscles to turn around.  Much like parents it would be easy for Him to scoop me up and make life so easy I never learn anything.  We don't have a Father whose mean enough to let us suffer, but loving enough to grow our muscles stronger so we can run with Him. 

Why crawl before we walk? We all knew Bailey wouldn't crawl for very long because all she wanted to do was jump and stand.  It's the arms that are gaining strength to pull up on objects so they can stand during the crawling process.  Here's a picture of her pulling up, shortly after Nana bought her a walker and she took off.  Balance is the last, most important skill in walking.  Observing Bailey I realized you first learn to balance by standing in one place.  The first moment I saw her doing this was in her parent's front yard.  She didn't like her feet touching the grass, so she didn't want to move when I stood her up.  Distracted long enough by a cell phone and she was standing for a few minutes on her own. Do our arms have the same strength or do we give in too soon and stop "crawling" letting our weakness keep us on the floor instead of taking adventures? Most of the times God is calling me to be still, I feel like I am not doing anything but looking at this process of walking I can see how standing still does require action. This sweetness is now running places and I love keep up with her!

Today I saw a rainbow

The very first verse I taught myself to memorize was Genesis 9:16 "Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth."

I had handwritten it onto a sheet of paper and found a heart sticker with a rainbow on it. The paper was taped to my desk next to my bed so I would see it when I woke up every morning. The promise of God after the flood has always stood out to me and I love how forever we have a symbol of His spoken Word. So...when I started seeing rainbows around I got really excited. The one above came in the middle of standing at the base of a waterfall. While at Yosemite my dad and I took a detour from picking up my brother from hiking. My normal tendency is to be anxious when we are suppose to be doing something, but lately I have started going with the moments. This one gave me a special blessing. Below is the picture of the river coming off the waterfall. The only reason I am not completely drenched is because someone offered me a plastic covering. What a thrill to hear the roar, have water rushing around your ankles and look up to see a rainbow!

Rainbow #2 came during the hike my brother and I completed up from a different waterfall. Some people might say, "But Lisa, rainbows are made from water and sunlight, so of course you are going to see one." But I would say, "yes, but how many other people are pointing out the rainbow when there is a giant waterfall to look at?" Notice the small glimpse of a rainbow in the bottom right hand corner.

Unfortunately for rainbow #3 I don't have a picture and it did come much later than these two (I saw these in the same day). This one was weeks later and I was driving with my mom to my sister's house, actually she was driving and it was probably a good thing, because I started shouting with joy and pointing. "Look it's a rainbow! Look do you see it! Mom do you see the rainbow!" Now I know I sounded like a three year old and you might be annoyed at my response. I think she was probably trying to figure out what the big deal was with the rainbow, so let me explain this joy of seeing three rainbows. The past several years I have sought God out to teach me how to love Him, people and find joy in life. All of my attempts to accomplish these have failed, it is just recently in surrendering to Him that I am starting to see how it all works together...Him loving me first, me loving Him back, Him showing me people to love and the joys of life. So the exciting thing those few weeks was to see God's promise to me appear over and over. He does not forget us, He loves us deeply and if we aren't looking or taking our own plans, we might just miss the simple things of life that can bring us joy. Rainbows might not be your thing, but as you dwell on how God loves you, you might just ask Him to show off for you too.

Moses wanted to take a peek, am I willing to take a second look?

Words jump off a page as you read, you know the same words you have read many times before, but suddenly the Holy Spirit allows you to see them in a different way. Here's my words:

The verse is Exodus 3:4-5 When the LORD SAW that he had GONE OVER to LOOK, God CALLED out to him from the bush, "Moses, Moses!" "Here I am," he answered. "Do not come closer," He said. "Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you are standing is HOLY ground.

I capitalized the words because it struck me that Moses had to take action, but once God saw his movement of obedience He was able to speak to Moses. Lately I had been stuck, almost feeling rebellious (well okay in a way I was) Telling myself it was okay to sleep longer because it's the summer and I wouldn't have much longer to enjoy. Having my gym bag fully packed, but talking myself out of going. Those things in themselves are not rebellious, but I knew my heart in these and other matters at hand. I knew in a way I was going through a growing journey with God. Thank goodness He loves us more than we love ourselves sometimes. I have a friend that once was taught, when you stop thinking you hear God, go back to the last thing He told you and do it. Makes sense right, why would He give us something else to do if we wouldn't do the first thing. Quenching the Holy Spirit. Often times I mistake it for my laziness, or an option for something I could do. But how many times have I missed out on the burning bush, and ultimately missed out on God's Holiness?

Exodus 2:11-3:1 also has some verbs that tell Moses' story. When you think back to how he was saved as a baby it speaks volumes to how we can plan our life, but God will take our failed actions and use them to write HIS story/ HIS plan. Too often I have become stuck with my plan, pitching a fit because I don't get my way, forgetting that I enjoy most when He surprises me with His plan. The question the study asked that I am still asking myself is: thinking about the bush, when was the last time you took a second look at something out of the ordinary?

Counting my Blessings and Adventures

We were very excited to see my cousin Elizabeth get engaged and invite us to the wedding, (especially since they have always lived in CA but we had never been to visit). So in family style we decided to jam pack it full as a vacation. We saw a lot of fun things, but my favorite part was being able to do it with groups of my family.

Group#1

Being off for the summer I wanted to go up early and "explore." My dad at the time didn't have a job, so he booked his ticket to come with me. When my brother learned about the plans t

o visit Yosemite, he decided to change his flight times and come along. What a blessing to spend the time with these men who I love and value so much!

Did I mention that my dad got laid off from his contract job and asked to interview for another company with a permanent position in the same day. MIRACLE! because he had to go back for a second interview, he had to delay his flight that Monday, so Phillip and I visited the Golden Gate while we waited for him. The clouds were hanging low that day and the wind was very cold.

That night dad got in sooner than expected because he got to the airport early, so we made our way to the hotel. Did you know to get good hotels you have to plan like a year out to stay anywhere near Yosemite? This was another huge blessing because during the planning we went back and forth about what we wanted to do for the three days. Well the week before we left, I got back online to look one more time (the guys said it would be fine to sleep in the car and while I am okay with that as a last resort, I would rather a good night's sleep) Low and behold, one of the hotels that was 10 minutes from the park had one room open that was not unreasonable. Here's the view from the balcony:

Amazing adventure #1

We started at Glacier point that morning and while taking pictures a man told us we should hike up to the waterfalls. So we did...

Amazing adventure #2

Who knew repelling into a cave and crawling around would be something I enjoyed! This was so much fun and again a somewhat unplanned blessing. My dad had found Moaning Caverns online, we planned to go, but then my brother had us talked into white water rafting. (Did you see the river in the picture above?) Every place we called first of all said "Today! You want to book something today?" Guess we have always sort of planned in the moment. The second thing they would say is that the river was too high from all the snow run off. To top it off it was raining that morning. I secretly was glad because the big rapids scare me and who wants to raft in "ice water" with no wet suit gear. So as we stood shivering in the parking lot they called off the trip. This did lead us to another unplanned find...the biggest redwood I have ever seen. And after walking through the forest to find the river we came to a sign that said 3 more miles. Phillip and I without needing to have a conversation turned around and walked back (we had spent the whole day at Yosemite doing the same thing)

Another blessing how we got our own private tour of the cave. This was her first group and we beat getting lumped with the girl scouts by a few minutes.

Dad got to repel down into the cave after we finished our climb out...so much fun and a memorable experience.

Amazing Adventure #3

Group #2 and 3

I thought this was just going to be another check the box I have done it tourist thing, but this was so cool. The way they have the prison set up with self guided audio tour makes you feel like you are the only person in the area. Good facts and history about the whole island. Biggest things that stands out to me is how daily the prisoners could hear/see the sounds and joy of life happening just across the water.

As you can tell by the pictures, by this time everyone else had joined us and it was fun to still be enjoying the different groups of my family. Phillip, Erin and Bailey shared a suite with us, so we got some one on one time. Amy and Andrew joined up with us each day on the adventures. After the island we spent some time walking on Pier 39.

Then off the see the Golden Gate Bridge with everyone. Bailey loves the wind, so she was in squealing heaven. I wish we had more video that captured her delight. This girl is going to be one whirlwind of a roller coaster rider.

Amazing Adventure #4 (although there really are more, but who really wants a page full of pictures :)

Another great find by dad, the steam locomotive. He has always love the train since my grandfather worked for the railroad company. This was something we talked about doing, but almost didn't have time for...sure glad we did. The cable car was really the last family thing we did, but that's a whole adventure for it's own post and my sister has the pictures.

They had the area set up like a small town, so it included a school. I just had to ring the bell.