Special Visitor

We've just had our little family Christmas. The girls are tucked into bed. The house is quiet. Sometimes that is my favorite sound of the day. Silence. (Their giggles rank way up there too, though!)

We're headed to Texas in about a week, which is why we let the girls open their three gifts tonight. We made a paper chain to count down to our Texas trip starting at 50 something days, so to get down to single digits is really exciting for the girls. (Ok, me too!)  Addison tells everyone "We going on a-fane to Texas" and asks no less than 10 times a day if she can pack her backpack yet. She wouldn't remember Texas from when we there in 2010, but by the way she talks about it you would think she does!  It will be a fun-filled few weeks with family and friends for sure!

The little playgroup that Addison and I go to had a "special" visitor (Father Christmas/ Santa) on Wednesday. I knew he would be coming in during the song "Jingle Bells" so I was hovering near Addison and asked her to come sit on my lap, to which she told me no...but as soon as she heard the HO! HO! HO! it was no time before she was clinging to my neck, screaming. She was the only child there that was screaming. I knew she would react that way.  He gave out little gifts of chocolate to each child and as he called Addison's name, she shouted "NO!" So a friend had to go over and get her chocolate for her. This kid will do anything for food, so that was a surprise to me. So, last night around 11pm guess who started screaming "NO SANTA" in her bed?  Poor girl just got her sleep issues sorted out. She was staring at her Peter Rabbit pictures up on her wall insisting that Santa was in the picture. It was so sad. Even this morning she said to me, "Santa not coming to see me, right Mummy?"  

Speaking of Christmas, I bought (for only $4.99) 'The Truth In The Tinsel'  advent book that has been so wonderful!  We have really enjoyed it. There is a short Bible reading each day with some sort of craft- and my girls LOVE crafts. We're not doing one every day because I knew it would be unrealistic of me to try to do all 25 with our trip to the states.  And you know what, I'm okay with that! I've been giving myself A LOT more grace than I ever have and it's so freeing! It hasn't been all peaches and cream, I will admit that yesterday's advent reading was a bit stressful. In hindsight, I should've just put it off till today when we were all in better moods. Nothing like Mummy saying "Shh, I'm trying read about baby Jesus! No, that's too much glue! Stop it! Just glue your baby Jesus on, okay?"  Oh dear. Sounds like Mummy needs a little chat with baby Jesus.

This week coming up is so busy- school Christmas concert, Christmas meal with our church community and packing for America!! 

Thanksgiving 2011

This year we felt strongly about inviting our neighbors over on Thanksgiving day. We've known them for seven years- since Cerys was born they have brought us sweets, cards, and presents- every child's birthday, at Easter time and Christmas. They are a precious couple who live 2 doors down from us. They have always signed their cards from "Auntie" and "Uncle" so this year when we were planning Thanksgiving, we knew we should spend it with our "family" here. Since it's business as usual here on Thanksgiving day we invited them for dinner that night. Addison and I walked over to their house the week before and gave them an invitation to which they both responded by hugging and kissing us and saying yes of course they would be there! And they gave Addison chocolate as we left, typical. *grin*

So, Thanksgiving night they arrived right on time, with Christmas gifts in hand for the girls. They love the girls so much. When our neighbors started asking about the Thanksgiving holiday, the girls brought them a book to show them and she started reading it aloud to the girls...

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We had a fun night- and interesting conversation. They've been married 53 years and it was a joy to serve them dinner and learn more about them.

On Saturday, we got together with some other ex-pats and had a huge feast. There were 5 other families there and we each brought several items- wish I had a picture of the food table! The kids ran around while the adults enjoyed catching up with everyone. Here are a two pictures- I stole them from Jordyn, our Texas girl who's here for the gap year.

I love this picture of Miss Priss
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Bailey, enjoying her feast!
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And our little family- Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
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Seven Years Old

How is it possible that we have a seven year old? Cerys had her special day all planned out- so this is what we did!

As soon as school was finished, we drove straight to the bowling lanes! As you can tell from the picture below, Addison was SO! EXCITED!

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All three girls, chillin' on the bench! (Facial expressions are pretty true to their personalities- Bailey: Trying to act cool for the picture. Addison: annoyed at anyone telling her what to do. Cerys: Well, lately her mood changes on a dime, so who knows.)

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Sweet Sisters!
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We had to stop halfway through the bowling game for a bright blue slurpee- I didn't even know they had those things here!

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As soon as we were done bowling, we played a few arcade games and headed to Burger King- Cerys' choice for dinner. I tried all week to persuade her differently. Marc laughed at my futile efforts. After we endured BK, we went home for cake and presents!

She's growing up way too fast!
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She changed her mind about a Mary Poppins cake, and I could not have been more relieved! She chose a pink cake with sprinkles- it was still a labor of love, 3 layers is a lot of work. It wasn't our favorite cake ever since it was quite heavy and dense but Cerys told me "You did pretty good Mummy, it's okay" Ha. (Her doll is Mary Poppins from the Disney Store, she LOVES it!)

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After Skyping with both sides of our family, we all fell into bed with full bellies and happy hearts. Happy 7th Birthday Cerys, we love you!

Hola!

Well I thought I would tell y'all about our little trip to Spain. First of all, let's give God some praise because we had the best flight EVER with all three girls on the way to Spain! We left our house at 5:45am to drive to Bristol Airport (about an hour) to catch our flight to Malaga. So, even with being up so early, the girls were just awesome. And I'm mostly talking about Addison here, because Cerys and Bailey are pro's at flying and they entertain themselves quite well.

Addison was so happy, compliant and hilarious on the flight. She was so proud of being a big girl with her backpack full of stuff. She loved her seatbelt and putting the window shade up and down a jillion times. She did keep calling one of the flight attendants "old lady" and I was considering stuffing her under the seat in front of me. (Addison, not the flight attendant!) I kept looking across the aisle at Marc, who was sitting with Cerys and mouthing "Can you believe how good she's being?" I think I said it a few too many times on the way to the hotel (a 10 minute walk) that Marc finally said "Ok, honey, I got it, she did great, that's great, now let's move on!" Well excuse me for being so excited that we didn't get kicked off the plane!

If all of that didn't already put a huge smile on my face, we arrived in SUNNY and WARM (about 75 F) Spain! I mean, look at this: the view from our hotel balcony.

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We had an apartment in this huge hotel. I'm pretty sure the marble-floored hotel room was bigger than our whole house. There was a bidet in the bathroom and Bailey came running out shouting "Mummy, you HAVE to come see this tiny, cute sink right next to the toilet!" Aw, bless. Good thing I didn't have to explain that one. Some things are better left unspoken.

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Addison loved "frowing wocks" in the water! There was a playground right here next to us in the sand but she was not interested in the playground. I can't blame her.

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Yes, Lord, I think I hear you calling me to Spain....

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While Marc and I were reunited with some friends and met new friends and sat in meetings all day, the girls did some fun activities with a group of Americans that came from Arizona to keep the children. They did lots of VBS (Holiday Bible Club) type of activities and kept them fed and watered. One afternoon we did have a chance to walk down to the beach and the girls were in heaven!

On the way down to the beach we saw this interesting house: Rapunzel style Spanish home?

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Ok, don't judge me on this next photo:

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It's common here to carry a portable potty when potty training you child. It folds up in this little bag and comes with absorbant liners that you throw in the bin afterwards. So, I took it to Spain because you never know when you might need to "go." We were down on the beach and she was desperate and I knew I would not have time to find a toilet. So, see, it's good to have on such occasion. Marc was surprised that I took a picture. I'll show her when she's 20 years old and she will love me for it.

Also, we had fun finding different American food items in Spain. They had cheetos! and chips ahoy! the two important food groups. Just kidding.

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It was an eventful week in more ways than one. A nasty stomach bug was going around the hotel and I'm pretty sure at least one person, if not more, from each family got it. I kind of freak out over the stomach bug. There is nothing grosser (is that a word?) to me. So on our second day there, I knew we were going down. But who would it be? Each morning there were a few less people in our meeting...it seem to knock the kids out first so lots of moms or dads were missing from our group. Sure enough, Friday night around midnight I was holding a bowl for Bailey- there wasn't enough time to get her to the "tiny, cute sink" ;) Thankfully it was short lived and by Saturday morning she was running around the apartment. I'm SO thankful no one else got it. Although, Cerys did look a bit green on the flight home, but she never threw up. Also, the hotel staff were really friendly, but of course spoke only Spanish. They would squeeze Addison's cheeks and say a bunch of words to her. Well she picked up on "Hola!" and would put her hand up in the air as if to wave and shout "HOLA!" when she would walk past all the workers. It was awesome.

We had an equally good flight home, which gives me great hope for our long-haul flight to Dallas in December! The day we arrived home I had a friend, whom I've never met in real life, send us a package of candy corn! Just in time! Isn't she sweet? That bag is gone now. They were sure good.

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We arrived back home Sunday afternoon and we sent Marc off to preach at The Well. I stayed home with the girls and frantically started laundry and getting things ready for school the next day. We were exhausted! On Monday the 31st our friend's had a "Clashing Colours" party at church, so we joined in. I didn't get a picture of any of us, but Marc got one of Addison. She didn't like the balloons popping- but she loved the other silly games they played. One guy got an answer to a quiz wrong and had to have baked beans poured all over his head. The girls were cackling and Addison kept saying "Him got beans on him head!" Hahaha. I love 2 year old speak.

Here's Addison in her clashing colour glory: She was very concerned at first about wearing two different shoes.

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And finally, Saturday night was Guy Fawke's night or Bonfire night. So we went into town to watch the fireworks, but it was cold and we couldn't really see the fireworks over the castle wall. We're too cheap to buy tickets. Well, sort of. We bought tickets last year and it was not really worth the price. So we ate dinner at home (fajitas) and went to Krispy Kreme to get a donut before fireworks. Except that KK was about to close (everything closes early around here) and they only had about 4 kinds of donuts to choose from. And they were out of sprinkle donuts. And it was too long till the fireworks started. And it was too cold to stand outside. And, and, and...

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And, so I told the girls, get over it and smile for the camera!

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While Addison hid under her blanket and cried "I WANT TO GO HOME"- Yep, just another typical Verlander outing. Except we did have our awesome gap year girl with us to experience all of this. She's like the 6th member of our family, whether she likes it or not! :)

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So we headed home, put the girls to bed, made coffee and got under a blanket to watch the A&M vs. OU football game. I think it was OU that played? As you can tell I'm not that into it. I just like being in the room and asking "What happened? Is that good? Why is their mascot that?"

Also, just let me mention that I dyed my hair on Friday night- tried to do what the salon did back in May- going browner. I bought a "nice and easy" box that wasn't really nice or easy. It turned out a bit red. Thank goodness it's non-permanent and will fade. I washed my hair six times on Saturday. Not kidding.

So, I know this was a totally random post but I wanted to share our Spain pictures since the walk to school this morning looked like this:

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Most of the leaves are gone and there's a chill in the air. But God is good. He blessed us last night at The Well with 9 new faces and so that makes 23 in total last night. We were just so excited, as each person came in the front door I was bursting on the inside! I love students and it's just so neat to be apart of what God is already doing here in Cardiff. I love chatting to them, making them tea or coffee, listening to them and just watching them learn about God who loves them so much and wants a relationship with them. We covet your prayers each week as we mentor students and as Marc preaches the Word each Sunday night.

Puh-kin Kitty

I saw this Smart car parked near our house and I had to take a quick picture with my phone. When you have a Smart car and there's no room to parallel park, no big deal!

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The weather has been much cooler this week- like in the 30's a few mornings. I was running around the house getting some things done and I noticed Addison was playing in the sun coming through our bedroom window. You do what you gotta do during these Welsh winters.

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I went into town to get my tins of pumpkin before they are all gone! There is one store that sells them (for a price!) and they are usually sold out really quickly. Last year I was on a waiting list to get some. So, I'm now prepared for Thanksgiving and Christmas!

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The girls had school pictures and parent/teacher conferences this week at school. We're really proud of both girls and how well they are doing in school here. To celebrate we went to IKEA and got ice cream after school on Thursday and then on Friday night we went to Costco to eat pizza for dinner and get an "extra large" pumpkin to carve. We might have also bought some giant cinnamon rolls that need to GET OUT OF MY HOUSE.

Today we chose our pumpkin or "puh-kin" as Addison says, theme. I wanted to do a giant V for our last name. Everyone told me that was lame. Cerys thought a big heart with "Jesus" written inside would be good. We had all kind of ideas but since Marc is the resident carver- he vetoed all our fancy ideas. So, a Puh-kin Kitty it is!

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Last year none of the girls would dare stick their hand in that messy pumpkin. I can't blame them. This year, they dug in with great gusto- even Addison who called it "gooey chili?"

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And there you have, Puh-kin Kitty!

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The girls are out of school this coming week for half-term and we are headed to Spain later in the week! We're hoping for SUN and warmer temps! Have a great week!

Phone Dump

Since my last post was a bit on the serious side and I'm feeling extremely vulnerable, I thought I would post some pictures that I've taken with my phone.

Addison playing in the back garden:

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Bailey is ever the fashionista. She loves anything with matching tights:

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Marc had a quick meeting one day after church. What else is there to do but push your sister around in a funky chair?

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We had four or five really nice days- no jacket days!! It was glorious!

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Do you have grey nail polish? You should get some. I'm in love.

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The first night of The Well:

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Poor Kate, she's in a box in every toy shop:

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Our glorious days are gone and autumn is here. This is a typical view from my kitchen window looking out to our garden and garage:

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Addison took the canopy off the baby doll crib and shouted "I da Queen!":

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My view each morning on the way to the gym. It's cold and silent:

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One of the best Bible Studies I've done in a long time:

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I got some red patent ballet flats from Clarks for only £13.00! I love them!

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Bailey often dresses quite hilarious. I call her Memaw sometimes. She also decided that the flower pot was ugly and needed a design. Cerys is digging for worms:

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Addie and I visited a play place today called Jazzy Jungle. We were freezing- but thankfully the heaters were on:

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Stirring The Nest

I wanted to share something with you that I hope will encourage you. This morning I was on my knees on the bathroom floor praying through Psalm 86 out loud. I was desperate to hear from God. I needed to know that he hears me, sees me and cares about me. I know this stuff, but when you are in the midst of a battle it's hard to remember sometimes. Maybe I'm an easy target for the enemy because I believe his lies too easily. But I've felt attacked, which sounds dramatic but it's the only way I can describe it. It seem every few years I go through this- just a real, heavy, battle. I can feel "it" on me, around me, every where and it tempts me to despair. Some old things I thought I had worked through, even had victory over seem to come rising up out of the ashes and can seem HUGE in my eyes. As if to say, "This is the time it's going to be the end of you, You never get through this" kind of thing.

This morning as I was praying I got to verses 16-17 of Psalm 86 and it says " Look down and have mercy on me. Give your strength to your servant, save me, the son of your servant. Send me a sign of your favor, then those who hate me will be put to shame, for you O Lord, help and comfort me." That verse stuck out as if it was the only verse on the page. I said "Yes Lord, Yes Lord" over and over and then had to get on with my day of getting myself ready for church and the three little girls. As I was sitting in church I felt the urge to run out of there. I fought it and looked down at a note card that I wrote 2 Thessalonians 3:3 on, "But the Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one." I read it over and over and then the guest speaker got up to talk to us.

He read Deuteronomy 32:11 "like an eagle that stirs up it's nest and hovers over its young, that spreads his wings to catch them and carries them on it's pinions." I immediately sat up to listen harder. Something grabbed me and I couldn't take my eyes off the huge picture of an eagle he had on the screen. He began explaining that the mother eagle will stir up or messes up the nest when it's time for the little ones to learn to fly. She hovers over the nest, ready to swoop down and catch them if they are struggling to fly. Tears filled me eyes. He said that we might be cosy in our nest today or we might be flying, soaring just fine in life. But maybe we are falling and struggling and when we do sometimes nothing makes sense, even our theology seems to not be working and we can't remember any promises from God. In his great Welsh accent he said this is a beautiful picture of our great God- he swoops down so to speak and carries us on his wings to safety. I got home and read in J. Vernon McGee's Commentary this- "This is the way God watches over those who are his own. God pushes us out of our nest sometimes, not because He doesn't love us but because He wants us to learn to fly- He wants us to learn to live for Him. This is a wonderful description of the goodness of Jehovah."

Last night before I went to bed I had been thinking that maybe God is trying to teach me to fight in some ways. To stop taking the lies and filth that come straight from the enemy's mouth. Maybe it's time I start recognising it at the first lie and not even entering in to the enemy's mess. Usually, I cower down and start agreeing with the lies and before I know it, I'm a wreck. I feel like I'm falling down in the dark abyss of torment and chaos. It's a scary fall. This morning I believe was for me. I prayed that God would help me see or hear from him and this morning, in the chaos that was my mind, He spoke calm, peace and love. I'm His child. I'm chosen. He cares more than I will ever understand. What the enemy has meant for harm for me, God has meant for good. The enemy wants to destroy me, but God, maybe is using this to "stir my nest" and teach me to fly. To stand up. Enough is enough.

I hope you find that as encouraging as I did today. As Romans 8:15 says, "For you didn't receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received the spirit of adoption, so we cry Abba! Father!" I'm so glad I call on my Abba Father to reach down and pull me out of the pit. Help me, Jesus.
One probably shouldn't log into Blogger when one does not have a thing to write about.

So, how are y'all? Good. Good.

We've been busy with various things this month- one of which was the first night of The Well! We're a small group right now, about 15 of us, that is meeting on Sunday nights to worship together, hear from the Word of God and share what we are learning in small groups and also serve our city in any way we can. We've met for the past two weeks and it's been really neat. Marc is doing an awesome job of preaching each week, I'm super proud of him. We've definitely felt the enemy this month, so if you think of us, we would so appreciate your prayers.

We are going to Texas for three weeks at Christmas!! We're very excited! One night at dinner we asked the girls what would be the best Christmas ever and they said going to Texas but it's too far. Then I said, "Well guess what, Daddy got us plane tickets today, we're going!" Bailey just stared at us and Cerys teared up and kept saying "ARE YOU SERIOUS? ARE YOU SERIOUS?" So, the countdown is on.

I've been staring at this keyboard for about 5 minutes. Sometimes there's just too much going on in life to write a blog post.

Funny Stuff

So I will remember these one day, here are some funny things the girls say right now:

Bailey- "I don't like crust-ez" (as in bread crust)
"You are the best-ez Mummy in the whole wide world" (my personal fav!)
"Well, I'm pleased to tell you...." (imagine strong British accent)
and all manor of British words like- lovely, fabulous, cheeky, etc

When Addison wants me to do something with her she ends her sentences in "me"-
"Mommy, do this puzzle me?"
"Mommy, read this book me?"
"Mommy, get juice me?"
"Mommy, get biscuit me?"
"Mommy, turn Mickey Mouse on me?"

As you can see I'm her personal assistant.

And Cerys. Oh me. She is hilarious. Her sense of humor is developing and not only can she "get" jokes, she makes them up too! She's planning her 7th birthday that is coming up in November with a list of things she wants to do or get. I wrote on her list last night "7 birthday spanks" and she lost her breath laughing, "Oh Mummy, you are so hilarious." It's awesome to see her start to use "big" words in context, well mostly she uses them in context. Ha. She wrote out her list and it is as follows, in her own spellings:

1. bowling
2. movey (movie-Mary Poppins)
3. diner at Burger Kind (King?)
4. present

And she informed me she wants a Mary Poppins cake. Anyone have any suggestions for me?

Freedom

On Thursday I was hoovering (vacuuming) upstairs. I pulled out Addison's crib away from the wall to hoover behind it because it gets so dusty. I remembered that the backside of her crib was broken and propped up with a piece of wood. Classy, isn't it? It was safe, don't worry. But since I've just potty trained her, I figured it would make sense to take that broken side off her crib and allow her some freedom. Ahem.

What was I thinking???

Actually, it hasn't been that bad. Yet. We put a bed rail on the side so she won't fall out even though it's not that far to roll out. So there is just a small space where she can get out. The first day she thought it was great and called it her "new gate." I put her down for a nap and she slept great, didn't even try to get out of her bed. I was amazed. Then at bedtime that night, same thing, she went right to sleep and even woke up at 5am saying "I wanna get out my bed" and I thought that was funny because she didn't even know she could! Now, Friday was a different story-two potty accidents and she kept coming out of her room- but the thing that keeps playing over in my mind is how she was free, but didn't know it.

She's been in her crib for over 2 years. She was so used to it that she didn't even attempt to try to get out.

It's a lot like me actually.

Jesus Christ has set me free from anxiety and fear, but I sit in it many times not even recognising that I can get out! It's familiar, it's comforting in a weird way because it's what I know, it's what I do. But there's so much of life out there, if I would just scoot to the edge and climb out.

"Now God, don't hold out on me, don't hold back your passion. Your love and truth are all that keep me together." Psalm 40:11 The Message
Posterous theme by Cory Watilo