There is something very peaceful about seeing the day to a close...
And seeing the night begin...
Pics from my camera phone on my walk tonight.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Monday, July 4, 2011
Luke's Imagination
I am just so grateful for Luke's imagination on days like today. It is a gorgeous Fourth of July; our final day of eleven days of vacation together. It has been such a blessing to share these days together both with fun outings and relaxing at home together.
Luke has been quite a trooper through long car rides, days of running errands and working on minor house projects, and enjoying simple time at home. Like today, we filled up his pool in the backyard and he's been playing quite a while in the hose-cold water with his sand and tub toys. He is constantly playing imagination games with his toys, the slide, and the water.
I am especially grateful for his imagination while he is still an only child. We so hope to bring another child into our family, to give Luke the opportunity to become a big brother and to enjoy life with a sibling(s). I love to hear Luke's narration of his imaginary games and to see his creativity, but I also wish he had someone to share it with. Someone closer to his age than us. He is still in the age range when it is fun to play with mom and dad, but I see him when he's with other kids and I know that his joy is multiplied when he can play imaginary games with friends and cousins. One of his recent favorites has been playing "brothers" with Ethan. Luke explained that they do homework together and wrestle and they both love it:) So precious.
Don't get me wrong, I know that bringing other siblings into the picture brings challenges like finding fun ideas for different aged children, working around sleep schedules for younger ones, and spats between sibling. But, I have no doubt that the joy of having more than one outweighs the struggles that arise.
Luke has been quite a trooper through long car rides, days of running errands and working on minor house projects, and enjoying simple time at home. Like today, we filled up his pool in the backyard and he's been playing quite a while in the hose-cold water with his sand and tub toys. He is constantly playing imagination games with his toys, the slide, and the water.
I am especially grateful for his imagination while he is still an only child. We so hope to bring another child into our family, to give Luke the opportunity to become a big brother and to enjoy life with a sibling(s). I love to hear Luke's narration of his imaginary games and to see his creativity, but I also wish he had someone to share it with. Someone closer to his age than us. He is still in the age range when it is fun to play with mom and dad, but I see him when he's with other kids and I know that his joy is multiplied when he can play imaginary games with friends and cousins. One of his recent favorites has been playing "brothers" with Ethan. Luke explained that they do homework together and wrestle and they both love it:) So precious.
Don't get me wrong, I know that bringing other siblings into the picture brings challenges like finding fun ideas for different aged children, working around sleep schedules for younger ones, and spats between sibling. But, I have no doubt that the joy of having more than one outweighs the struggles that arise.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Summer Bucket List
This summer we have been more intentional as a family to make time for the special things we want to do together. We had several reasons feeding our intentionality:
Last Friday night, we made our way downtown to take in the sites of the Rochesterfest parade. This has become a tradition for us each summer since Luke was a toddler. It's fun to see how his perception of the parade changes through the years. This year he was much less intimidated by the loud sounds and was more interested in collecting candy. It was a beautiful night and we stayed to the very end of the parade this year, which was a first for the three of us.
Last Saturday, we headed to Wisconsin Dells for four days with the Pickers. This was a monumental first: the first, three generation, family vacation! Thanks to the ingenuity and organizing efforts of my lovely sisters-in-law, the first time trip came to life:) We had a great time and all had a lot of fun on the water slides at The Great Wolf Lodge, playing mini golf at Pirate's Cove, playing and riding rides at Knucklehead's, and shopping at Tanger Outlet Center. All in all, a great, age appropriate trip for the kids and fun for the adults too. We have way too many pics to post on the blog, but check out Kodak Gallery for our June 2011 photo album.
Today, we took advantage of the "cooler" weather (anything feels better after 100 degree weather) and took a hike at Oxbow Park with a stop at Zollman Zoo in the middle. We did this last spring/summer and really enjoyed the nice trail options available and it's always fun to stop to see the animals:) Check out a few pics from our hike:
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- After last summer when we had a lot of time together as a family while Brent was not working, we did some different things together that we had never challenged ourselves to doing or had never made time for
- After a l-o-n-g winter, we were reminded how fleeting the opportunities of summer can be in Minnesota
- Knowing that Luke is starting school in the fall, we (or at least I) feel an urgency to make the most of our summer-of-freedom together before the 13 years of school years officially begin
- Luke is at a great age to try new things and maybe even remember them into the future now that he's five and a half
- Life is short
Last Friday night, we made our way downtown to take in the sites of the Rochesterfest parade. This has become a tradition for us each summer since Luke was a toddler. It's fun to see how his perception of the parade changes through the years. This year he was much less intimidated by the loud sounds and was more interested in collecting candy. It was a beautiful night and we stayed to the very end of the parade this year, which was a first for the three of us.
Last Saturday, we headed to Wisconsin Dells for four days with the Pickers. This was a monumental first: the first, three generation, family vacation! Thanks to the ingenuity and organizing efforts of my lovely sisters-in-law, the first time trip came to life:) We had a great time and all had a lot of fun on the water slides at The Great Wolf Lodge, playing mini golf at Pirate's Cove, playing and riding rides at Knucklehead's, and shopping at Tanger Outlet Center. All in all, a great, age appropriate trip for the kids and fun for the adults too. We have way too many pics to post on the blog, but check out Kodak Gallery for our June 2011 photo album.
Today, we took advantage of the "cooler" weather (anything feels better after 100 degree weather) and took a hike at Oxbow Park with a stop at Zollman Zoo in the middle. We did this last spring/summer and really enjoyed the nice trail options available and it's always fun to stop to see the animals:) Check out a few pics from our hike:
Near the middle before we got to the zoo
Near the end when Luke was tired and Brent gave him a ride on his shoulders
P.S. I don't want to give the impression that the path is all stairs as these pictures happen to show. These were two isolated areas. 95% of the path was a dirt trail.
Luke enjoying a very bubbly bath after a sweaty, dirty afternoon of hiking:)
It has been a wonderful week of fun together, relaxing together, and simply enjoying a beautiful summer week of vacation together.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Heaven is for Real
I'm a reader and love to dog-ear pages of books with lines or paragraphs that stand out to me or impacted me while I read them. I always have aspirations of documenting my favorite quotes/segments from books, but have yet to find a "good" way to do it. I just finished reading Heaven is for Real tonight and had to document a couple things from it.
First, I was taken by the simplicity of the quote below:
What is childlike humility? It's not the lack of intelligence but the lack of guile. The lack of an agenda. It's that precious, fleeting time before we have accumulated enough pride or position to care what other people might think. The same un-self-conscious honesty that enables a three-year-old to splash joyfully in a rain puddle, or tumble laughing in the grass with a puppy, or point out loudly that you have something hanging out of your nose, is what is required to enter heaven. It is the opposite of ignorance--it is intellectual honesty: to be willing to accept reality and to call things what they are even when it's hard.
I love it when someone can explain large concepts to me in simple terms, and this one was especially impactful to me because I live with Luke, who still has this childlike humility. It is easy for me to understand what the author, the father of the boy who experienced heaven during a life threatening surgery, learned from his own son. Brent and I refer to Luke's childlike humility has being in "Luke's world". He can literally enter into Luke's world within seconds, even while in the midst of a conversation with someone in the "real" world. We love to watch him. He has no idea that we are watching or that we can hear him. Brent and I try to watch as inconspicuously as possible so as not to interrupt his time in Luke's world. It is a glorious thing to watch, such a pure, unadulterated joy. I don't know how capable we are of such joy as adults. I know that I have a tendency of minimizing joy or hurrying it by moving on from the moment too quickly. I try to capture it in pictures to remember the moment, but I'm not sure a camera (or at least my photographic skills) can capture it entirely. It is really more the emotion of the moment than the physical smile on some one's face.
Overall, Heaven is for Real gives a beautifully simple look at heaven through the eyes of a child. For that alone, I recommend the book.
But, the second excerpt really brought the book home for me:
One evening in October, I (the author) was sitting at the kitchen table working on a sermon. Sonja (author's wife) was around the corner in the living room, working on the business books...I heard Colton's footsteps padding up the hallway and caught a glimpse of him circling the couch, where he then planted himself directly in front of Sonja.
"Mommy, I have two sisters," Colton said.
I put down my pen. Sonja didn't. She kept on working.
Colton repeated himself. "Mommy, I have two sisters."
Sonja looked up from her paperwork and shook her head slightly. "No, you have your sister, Cassie, and...do you mean your cousin, Traci?"
"No." Colton clipped off the word adamantly. "I have two sisters. You had a baby die in your tummy, didn't you?"
At that moment, time stopped in the Burpo household, and Sonja's eyes grew wide. Just a few seconds before, Colton had been trying unsuccessfully to get his mom to listen to him. Now, even from the kitchen table, I could see that he had her undivided attention.
"Who told you I had a baby die in my tummy?" Sonya said, her tone serious.
"She did, Mommy. She said she died in your tummy."
Then Colton turned and started to move on. But after the bomb he'd just dropped, Sonja was just getting started. Before our son could get around the couch, Sonja's voice rang out in an all-hands-on-deck red alert. "Colton Todd Burpo, you get back here right now!"
Colton spun around and caught my eye. His face said What did I just do?
I knew what my wife had to be feeling. Losing that baby was the most painful event of her life. We had explained it to Cassie; she was older. But we hadn't told Colton, judging the topic a bit beyond a four-year-old's capacity to understand. From the table, I watched quietly as emotions rioted across Sonja's face.
A bit nervously, Colton slunk back around the couch and faced his mom again, this time much more warily. "It's okay, Mommy," he said. "She's okay. God adopted her."
Sonja slid off the couch and knelt down in front of Colton so that she could look him in the eyes. "Don't you mean Jesus adopted her?" she said.
"No, Mommy. His Dad did!"
Sonya turned and looked at me. In that moment, she later told me, she was trying to stay calm, but she was overwhelmed. Our baby...was--is!--a girl, she thought.
Sonja focused on Colton, and I could hear the effort it took to steady her voice. "So what did she look like?"
"She looked a lot like Cassie," Colton said. "She is just a little bit smaller, and she had dark hair."
Sonja's dark hair.
As I watched, a blend of pain and joy played across my wife's face. Cassie and Colton have my blond hair. She had even jokingly complained to me before, "I carry these kids for nine months, and they both come out looking like you!" Now there was a child who looked like her. A daughter. I saw the first hint of moisture glint in my wife's eyes.
Now Colton went on without prompting. "In heaven, this little girl ran up to me, and she wouldn't stop hugging me," he said in a tone that clearly indicated he didn't enjoy all this hugging from a girl.
"Maybe she was just happy that someone from her family was there," Sonja offered. "Girls hug. When we're happy, we hug."
Colton didn't seem convinced.
Sonja's eyes lit up and she asked, "What was her name? What was the little girls' name?"
Colton seemed to forget about all the yucky girl hugs for a moment. "She doesn't have a name. You guys didn't name her."
How did he know that?
You're right, Colton," Sonja said. "We didn't even know she was a she."
Then Colton said something that still rings in my ears: "Yeah, she said she just can't wait for you and Daddy to get to heaven."
From the kitchen table, I could see that Sonja was barely holding it together. She gave Colton a kiss and told him he could go play. And when he left the room, tears spilled over her cheeks.
"Our baby is okay," she whispered. "Our baby is okay."
From that moment on, the wound from one of the most painful episodes in our lives, losing a child we had wanted very much, began to heal. For me, losing the baby was a terrible blow. But Sonja had told me that to her, the miscarriage not only seared her heart with grief, but it also felt like a personal failure.
"You do all the right things, eat all the right things, and you pray for the baby's health, but still this tiny baby dies inside you." she had once told me. "I feel guilty. I know in my mind that it wasn't my fault, but there's still this guilt."
We had wanted to believe that our unborn child had gone to heaven. Even though the Bible is largely silent on this point, we had accepted it on faith. But now, we had an eyewitness; a daughter we had never met was waiting eagerly for us in eternity.
The painful loss of miscarriage has been a part of our story as well, which made this excerpt so very real. The author is right, there is nothing in scripture clearly stating that the souls of those lost prior to birth had a future in eternity. But, we are certain that each person, born or unborn, is precious to God "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb." (Psalm 139:13) The beautiful thought that our babies are in heaven waiting for us was so touching.
First, I was taken by the simplicity of the quote below:
What is childlike humility? It's not the lack of intelligence but the lack of guile. The lack of an agenda. It's that precious, fleeting time before we have accumulated enough pride or position to care what other people might think. The same un-self-conscious honesty that enables a three-year-old to splash joyfully in a rain puddle, or tumble laughing in the grass with a puppy, or point out loudly that you have something hanging out of your nose, is what is required to enter heaven. It is the opposite of ignorance--it is intellectual honesty: to be willing to accept reality and to call things what they are even when it's hard.
I love it when someone can explain large concepts to me in simple terms, and this one was especially impactful to me because I live with Luke, who still has this childlike humility. It is easy for me to understand what the author, the father of the boy who experienced heaven during a life threatening surgery, learned from his own son. Brent and I refer to Luke's childlike humility has being in "Luke's world". He can literally enter into Luke's world within seconds, even while in the midst of a conversation with someone in the "real" world. We love to watch him. He has no idea that we are watching or that we can hear him. Brent and I try to watch as inconspicuously as possible so as not to interrupt his time in Luke's world. It is a glorious thing to watch, such a pure, unadulterated joy. I don't know how capable we are of such joy as adults. I know that I have a tendency of minimizing joy or hurrying it by moving on from the moment too quickly. I try to capture it in pictures to remember the moment, but I'm not sure a camera (or at least my photographic skills) can capture it entirely. It is really more the emotion of the moment than the physical smile on some one's face.
Overall, Heaven is for Real gives a beautifully simple look at heaven through the eyes of a child. For that alone, I recommend the book.
But, the second excerpt really brought the book home for me:
One evening in October, I (the author) was sitting at the kitchen table working on a sermon. Sonja (author's wife) was around the corner in the living room, working on the business books...I heard Colton's footsteps padding up the hallway and caught a glimpse of him circling the couch, where he then planted himself directly in front of Sonja.
"Mommy, I have two sisters," Colton said.
I put down my pen. Sonja didn't. She kept on working.
Colton repeated himself. "Mommy, I have two sisters."
Sonja looked up from her paperwork and shook her head slightly. "No, you have your sister, Cassie, and...do you mean your cousin, Traci?"
"No." Colton clipped off the word adamantly. "I have two sisters. You had a baby die in your tummy, didn't you?"
At that moment, time stopped in the Burpo household, and Sonja's eyes grew wide. Just a few seconds before, Colton had been trying unsuccessfully to get his mom to listen to him. Now, even from the kitchen table, I could see that he had her undivided attention.
"Who told you I had a baby die in my tummy?" Sonya said, her tone serious.
"She did, Mommy. She said she died in your tummy."
Then Colton turned and started to move on. But after the bomb he'd just dropped, Sonja was just getting started. Before our son could get around the couch, Sonja's voice rang out in an all-hands-on-deck red alert. "Colton Todd Burpo, you get back here right now!"
Colton spun around and caught my eye. His face said What did I just do?
I knew what my wife had to be feeling. Losing that baby was the most painful event of her life. We had explained it to Cassie; she was older. But we hadn't told Colton, judging the topic a bit beyond a four-year-old's capacity to understand. From the table, I watched quietly as emotions rioted across Sonja's face.
A bit nervously, Colton slunk back around the couch and faced his mom again, this time much more warily. "It's okay, Mommy," he said. "She's okay. God adopted her."
Sonja slid off the couch and knelt down in front of Colton so that she could look him in the eyes. "Don't you mean Jesus adopted her?" she said.
"No, Mommy. His Dad did!"
Sonya turned and looked at me. In that moment, she later told me, she was trying to stay calm, but she was overwhelmed. Our baby...was--is!--a girl, she thought.
Sonja focused on Colton, and I could hear the effort it took to steady her voice. "So what did she look like?"
"She looked a lot like Cassie," Colton said. "She is just a little bit smaller, and she had dark hair."
Sonja's dark hair.
As I watched, a blend of pain and joy played across my wife's face. Cassie and Colton have my blond hair. She had even jokingly complained to me before, "I carry these kids for nine months, and they both come out looking like you!" Now there was a child who looked like her. A daughter. I saw the first hint of moisture glint in my wife's eyes.
Now Colton went on without prompting. "In heaven, this little girl ran up to me, and she wouldn't stop hugging me," he said in a tone that clearly indicated he didn't enjoy all this hugging from a girl.
"Maybe she was just happy that someone from her family was there," Sonja offered. "Girls hug. When we're happy, we hug."
Colton didn't seem convinced.
Sonja's eyes lit up and she asked, "What was her name? What was the little girls' name?"
Colton seemed to forget about all the yucky girl hugs for a moment. "She doesn't have a name. You guys didn't name her."
How did he know that?
You're right, Colton," Sonja said. "We didn't even know she was a she."
Then Colton said something that still rings in my ears: "Yeah, she said she just can't wait for you and Daddy to get to heaven."
From the kitchen table, I could see that Sonja was barely holding it together. She gave Colton a kiss and told him he could go play. And when he left the room, tears spilled over her cheeks.
"Our baby is okay," she whispered. "Our baby is okay."
From that moment on, the wound from one of the most painful episodes in our lives, losing a child we had wanted very much, began to heal. For me, losing the baby was a terrible blow. But Sonja had told me that to her, the miscarriage not only seared her heart with grief, but it also felt like a personal failure.
"You do all the right things, eat all the right things, and you pray for the baby's health, but still this tiny baby dies inside you." she had once told me. "I feel guilty. I know in my mind that it wasn't my fault, but there's still this guilt."
We had wanted to believe that our unborn child had gone to heaven. Even though the Bible is largely silent on this point, we had accepted it on faith. But now, we had an eyewitness; a daughter we had never met was waiting eagerly for us in eternity.
The painful loss of miscarriage has been a part of our story as well, which made this excerpt so very real. The author is right, there is nothing in scripture clearly stating that the souls of those lost prior to birth had a future in eternity. But, we are certain that each person, born or unborn, is precious to God "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb." (Psalm 139:13) The beautiful thought that our babies are in heaven waiting for us was so touching.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Bieber Fever
I just remembered this video I took last month and had to share...
Luke & Ethan were jamming to "Luke's Dance List" that we created with music Luke likes on Rhapsody. I was able to catch them singing along to Justin Bieber's Baby. I think it's hilarious how they only know the chorus and chime right in when it starts:)
Like Troy said, this may be a great video to pull out at their high school graduation;)
Monday, June 13, 2011
Luke's New Skills
Check out Luke's new skills!
We're so proud of our big boy! We took him to the Holy Spirit Church/School parking lot by our house for some open space to try out his bike with no training wheels and he caught on in literally 5-10 minutes. As proud as we are, he is probably more proud of himself:)
Friday, June 10, 2011
Brent & I - Pre-Digital Picture Age
Ok, so these pictures probably aren't from the "pre-digital picture age" like the title says. I'm sure there were digital cameras around when we were in high school, but I can't think of anyone I know that had one. Hence the scanned pictures below.
The other day, I spent some time flipping through our photo albums at home. I began to realize how many years of pictures I had that included Brent and I. I decided to scan some of my favorites from years gone by.
Hope you enjoy my reminiscing...
Freshman Homecoming Dance
One of the first pictures of Brent and I together. You can probably guess our age by Brent's Bugs Bunny tie;)
Junior Homecoming Dance
Senior Homecoming Dance
Senior Sweetheart Dance
Weren't we stunning? I'd so still wear that dress if I still had it and fit in it of course;)
Senior Prom
We're coming down the escalator at the then Galleria Mall (now Shoppes at University Square) for the Prom Grand March
Senior Prom
Close up of us after the Grand March (P.S. I loved this dress too!)
High School Graduation
Do we look uncomfortable in this picture? Well, we probably were. We not actually dating at this time (read: temporary break up).
Sophomores at Minnesota Bible College (now Crossroads College)
Picture was dated February, so I'm thinking we were going out for Valentine's Day that it warranted a picture???
Sophomores at Minnesota Bible College (now Crossroads College)
Comfy pic on the couch at Ruth & Kerry's 25th Street House
Associate of Arts Graduation from Minnesota Bible College
Associate of Arts Graduation from Minnesota Bible College
Same day without the robes
Associate of Arts Graduation from Minnesota Bible College
Same day at my parents in everyday clothes
June 2002
This picture has a story. This was the day of my cousin's wedding. We hung out at the church most of the day since we were in family pictures and I was reading Scripture for the ceremony. Anyway, while we were waiting in the sanctuary between tasks, Brent says to me, "What if this was us next year?" I laughed and said he was crazy. At the time, he was planning to go to school in Kansas the following school year and I was headed to University of Wisconsin River Falls. We had no plans to break up, but we both intended to finish school before making any other plans. Read on to learn our actual future together;)
August 2002
Hugs at our friends' the Riggin's house
August 2002
Another date night, obviously worthy of a picture.
October 2002
Our engagement! So the continuation of the story since June 2002 at my cousin's wedding goes as follows...We moved Brent to Kansas in August to begin football a couple weeks before school started. I got moved into the town home I was sharing with roommates in River Falls the end of August. Around this time, Brent decided that he did not want to stay in Kansas and decided to come back to Minnesota Bible College to finish his degree. To my surprise, Brent had bought an engagement ring during the short time he lived in Kansas. I did not learn this detail until the weekend after my birthday, October 2002, when Brent brought me to Buena Vista Park Overlook in Alma, WI and proposed. Most people think that since we were together for so many years that I knew the proposal was coming, but I most certainly did not! Again, Brent said he'd like to get married the summer of 2003...I was still skeptical that we could work the details out...
February 2003
An actual Polaroid picture. Haven't seen those in a while:) Brent and I were at a marriage retreat as part of his internship for Marriage and Family Counseling with his professor (also a Marriage and Family Counselor) who was leading the retreat. We were the only engaged couple there but it was a great weekend of learning together. This picture is from the date night portion of the retreat where we had a romantic dinner together. (P.S. At this point we were far into wedding plans for a July 2003 wedding. Brent finally convinced me;))
July 26, 2003
Our wedding day. A quick candid outside the limo and this picture is actually digital:)
August 2003
Shortly after our honeymoon, Brent had a game with the Rochester Giants. Love this pic of my handsome Brent:)
May 2004
Brent's graduation from Crossroads College
October 2004
A few months after we moved into our new house, attempting a picture with our pups: Goliath and Cougar.
March 2005
Dinner at Applebees with friends when Luke was almost literally a twinkle in our eyes (we found out we were expecting him the beginning of June 2005).
Our story does not end here, but the hard copy of 35MM pictures ended here:) It was a fun trip down memory lane thinking back on our years together and all of the life experiences we have gained through the years together. The dreams and plans may have changed slightly through the years, but the I wouldn't have had it any other way.
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