This sweet boy...

asked Jesus into his heart last night!  We are absolutely thrilled.

 

It came on the tail end of a devotion we had been doing with the kids which is pictured below.

It was a series of 7 devotions for Christmas with a box to open each time that had a character in it about the story of Jesus' birth.  It kept building up to the 7th day.  Each day's devotion kept referring to what you would find in the 7th box that you could offer to God.  In the 7th box was a mirror signifying that the best gift of Christmas you could give to God would be your heart.  It was a natural lead in to talk to Ezra about making the decision to accept God's offer of salvation and give his heart to Jesus.  He prayed with Tim and I on the couch.  It was a very special moment. 

Ladies Christmas Tea at church

Our church has a wonderful event every Christmas for women.  Its just a fancy dinner and program.  Each table has a hostess who decorates the table with beautiful things and china, fancy silverware, and gifts for everyone.  Its nice to feel pampered for a night!  There are a group of men who dress up in white shirts and bow ties and act as servers.  I don't often get to do "girl" things so this was a treat for me.  I invited my friend Kelema to go with me.  She made me laugh as I picked her up.  Language barriers prevented me from being able to describe the event ahead of time and what dress was appropriate.  I know Kelema loves to dress up and she has some beautiful African dresses she wears to church.  When I got to her apartment she had on jeans and a casual shirt but through a conversation with one of her kids I was able to suggest she put on one of her "fancy" dresses.  She just giggled about that and seemed worried that we had enough time for her to change.  It was so cute to see her get giggly and silly.  She looked beautiful in the dress she chose and I think it was a special night for her too.

 

Confused Seasons

I've been meaning to post these pics for a few weeks. The leaves take forever to come down in our neighborhood. We finally got the big raking and cleaning up done Thanksgiving weekend. Even still there were trees that still had their leaves.  The 2nd picture is my daffodils and crocus bulbs start to come up.  I think they started to come up early last fall/winter too and then they just "stalled" until February and then came out fully.  Hopefully that will happen this year too.  It just is a still a bit strange to me that we could be trying to rake leaves with spring bulbs appearing. Just another example of how I always describe Seattle weather - from spring to fall to spring to fall...