This is a different kind of Valentine (it wasn't written for Valentine's Day, but I thought it was appropriate to share for today). I will try to very briefly explain this letter, since there is already so much text in this post (but it is worth reading all of it!!!). My last year of college, Pastor Dave Owen at Providence taught a series to the college students on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. It was very beneficial to me because I was preparing for marriage to Aaron. I got the CDs from that series and have occasionally gone back to listen to some of the sermons over the past six years. He read this letter at the end of his sermon on Biblical Womanhood. The background behind the letter is very important:

-It is written by a woman to her father-in-law.
-The woman was previously a radical feminist and had grown up in a fatherless home.
-She held a Ph.D from Oxford University.
-She was one of four female deans at Oxford in their 1200 year history.

I typed this up by listening to the CD and transcribing it, so if there are grammatical errors, it's my fault (not the lady who has a Ph.D from Oxford :)). I also added some emphasis. My prayer for this over-commercialized Valentine's holiday is that I would be reminded to regard Aaron in the same manner, treasuring him, and serving him with such humility, respect, and thankfulness to God for such grace in giving him to me!

When I was little I used to believe with all my heart in white knights on great horses, and good princes with hearts of gold, and dragon slayers on horses. As I grew older, I didn't become so cynical that I lost complete sight of this, but I did bury such dreams away. They were too dangerous to believe in because such hereos could not truly exist. But they do...modeled in Christ, they do. I have learned so many things in learning about my faith, among them just what a reflection relationships in our lives are of his love for us. The ultimate of all these is marriage. Your eldest son is a hero. He saved me from myself and he saved me from the world. He continues to save me constantly through the giving of himself, through his incarnation of what it is like to be me, to assume my burdens and relieve my worries. My relationship with God is like anyone else's: ultimately a personal one. But your son has translated it for me into the dynamics of living it, of seeing it in action. I have been in love for your son for a long time; so much so I had resigned myself to him not ever loving me back if need be. I would rather love him at a distance that anyone else up close. But by the grace of God, he does love me. My heart still marvels at that, and I doubt I will ever be able to completely prevent it from doing so. There isn't anything I wouldn't do for him. God help anyone who crosses him or tries to. I am his bulldog and his butterfly. But most of all, I just want to serve him. I just want to do all I can to glorify him. I truly believe that the best way I can live my life , to God's glory, is to live it in glorifying your son. It may sound silly, but I mean it with every fiber of my being, when I say that it gives me more honor to iron a single shirt of his that to teach a million classes at Oxford. I am not immaturely or what they call "blindly" in love, for I see...boy, do I see! And the vision centers on Superman. I admit, it is selfish; for me to do him ease gives me ease, to make him happy makes me happy. He is everything to me and I am to him. You have raised a hero. You have raised, lovingly, someone I barely dared to believe existed. Bless you always, always for that! And know you have my undying respect and love for all that you both are. Your son I fear sometimes worries a little that I may be resentful or one day regret giving all things up, i.e. professionally, for him. He sometimes intimates such. We have to work on him here. You so kindly offer your help to me, perhaps you can help me in this way, perhaps you can help him see that all is worthless to me without him. I feel like a finely trained athlete, a race horse at the gate, an edgy runner at the start line. I have been trained my whole life for him. And now I am ready to go. To run the race with him, to help him in every suitable way along the way. Sure, I may have many things here in a place I've worked very hard to reach, but I am miserable without your son. Because there exists nothing else even remotely worth investing in. I so want him to rest with ease in knowing that full. My greatest honor comes from bearing his name, not the initials of a degree or the bearing of children; not producing an article or holding a position. The only position I want is one by his side, from his side. Your son is a treasure. Any true intelligence I own is precisely because I know his worth. Of all the things Oxford gave me, and could have given me, it brought me to your son, and he led me to Christ. Life began there.

I am praying specifically for some of you, that very soon you will be able to sing the lyrics to this song with truth and thankfulness.
You are in the darkest night. You can't deny that. The sin that promises joy and life will lead you to the grave. You are running a hell-bound race, indifferent to the cost of it. But God will see you in your helpless state, and lead you to the cross. You will behold God's love displayed for you, that he suffered in your place, and bore the wrath that was reserved for you. And all you will know is grace, and all you have will be Christ.
I am praying with faith and expectation that God will answer.

I snapped some pictures of Vivian with her Valentines last night before we took them to church. Her class had a party and they exchanged Valentines. She helped me make them after her nap. She was really excited about it!

Kate wasn't impressed...she loves her Old MacDonald book, though! She was too engrossed by it to look at the camera for me.

Kate is 18 months old today. She will have her well-check on Tuesday, but I thought I'd go ahead and write a happy half-birthday post for her tonight!
*Update*
We saw Dr. B today, and aside from still having an ear infection in both ears, she is a healthy, growing girl. Here are the stats:
weight: almost 24 lbs.
height: 34 inches
head circumference: 18.5 inches

It's been 1.5 years, but we can't remember what it was like before she was born. She adds so much joy and fun and love to our days!
A few interesting things about Kate that we don't want to forget:
-She is very playful. She loves to wrestle and tickle and play games like peekaboo and hide and seek.
-She laughs and smiles a lot. She also whines and throws mini-fits a lot. She's just a very passionate toddler, as we expected.
-She tucks her arms in front of her, kind of nestles herself into you when you are holding her. Wow, this is hard to explain, but it's so sweet and unique!
-She is a cuddle bug. I love the way she says, "hold you, hold you, hold you" when she wants to be held. -She has really distinct facial expressions. When she is being shy, pouty, mischievous, or just playing a little game with you, she will cut her eyes to the side so that she's looking at you out of the corner of her eye. It's a classic Kate look that's also hard to explain.
-She is a wonderful sleeper. She never gives me a hard time about any sleep times. She still mostly sleeps on her tummy in the corner.
-She likes cheese, broccoli, chicken, avocado, waffles, any fruit, milk, yogurt, cereal, spaghetti...she eats a lot and sometimes I worry because she puts so much in her mouth at the same time, as if I'm starving her! It's just a reflection of her tendency towards impatience. She can also be picky, though, which has presented some discipline issues.
-She says, "amen" when we are finished praying.
-When you ask her to smile, she thinks she's supposed to close her eyes while she does it.
-She sometimes tilts her head to the side when she's talking to you or asking you for something. VERY cute.
-She is a kisser.
-She doesn't like to be put on the changing table for diaper or clothes changing.
-She loves to sing and dance. If you haven't seen her dance, you are missing out. There's no way you can watch her dance and not start bobbing your head yourself...her dancing is contagious.
-She can sing a couple of songs fairly well, so that you can tell which part of the song she's singing at any given time during the song: ABC's, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, the Doxology, Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes, Jesus Loves Me
-She is starting to have nonsensical conversations with us. She speaks in gibberish while she tells a long, drawn-out story.
-She is saying repeated phrases really well... such as "May I have some?" "Take a bath?" "Help, please, Mommy" "No thank you" "Let's go" "Get up" "Where is she?"
-She struggles terribly with sharing.
-She knows about 7 of the answers from our catechism book (one-word answers), and knows about half of the fruit of the Spirit.
-She loves the Mother Goose nursery rhymes that Aaron reads to her at night. She always asks him for the goose book.

Julia and Mason invited the girls over to play this morning!! Erin got out the shaving cream for the kids to play with. They went wild with it. It was a big hit.

Vivian got her face painted and it was definitely the highlight of the night for her. She was entranced with the woman who did the painting. She sat so still (not surprising if you know Vivian, and if you know Kate, you wouldn't be surprised that we didn't even consider the idea that she could sit still to do it).

Thanks, Daddy, for taking us to the carnival!

Saturday night we were able to get to know Sam and Rebecca a lot better because they came to our house for dinner! They've been coming to our church for a couple of months but we had only seen them in the nursery when dropping off kids. They have two children: Henry, who is in Vivian's class, and Emilie, who is about 9 months old.
Nathan and Erin joined us with Julia and Mason. Erin and I teamed up on the meal...she brought half of it with her. Keegan came towards the end of the meal because he and Aaron had planned to watch a movie later, but he had dessert with us and helped me clean up the kitchen :) Sam and Rebecca moved here about a year ago from Missouri (that's where she's from...he's from Richmond). They both went to Liberty.

Aaron and I had a somewhat provoking conversation last night. It was about the mess and clutter that comes to your house when you have small kids. There are two sides to the story: 1) it can be frustrating 2) it is evidence that we are blessed beyond measure with sweet little ones

Kristin took such a sweet picture of Kate on Saturday, I had to share it with you all!

Oh yeah, we're still young.

Actually, the truth is, that neither of us can do it. We made fools out of ourselves. But we took one home from Cohen's birthday party so we can practice and redeem ourselves next time we hula hoop in public.

See if you can hear what she's saying/singing. She skips over lots of letters, but she's definitely getting the hang of it! You'll probably have to listen to it a couple of times if you're that interested to understand her!

At the beginning of January, I "signed up" for the 5 o'clock club that the girltalk blog started several years ago. It's basically a commitment to rise early in the morning to feed yourself on God's Word and to prepare for serving your family well throughout the day.
It has changed a lot for me. I am learning a lot, first of all, about God and what He's done (I'm using a Bible reading plan, reading teaching articles, and praying through the Scripture that I read). And second, the part about being ready and prepared spiritually for the day has indeed been the case for me and I appreciate it so much. I hope the rest of this household does, too.
I've been thinking about doing this for a LONG time, and feel so relieved that I finally just set my alarm and started doing it (and Kristin calls me to make sure I'm up :)).
I am requiring a 20 minute power nap at least several times a week, and I try to get to bed around 9 or 9:30.
I'm not sharing this about myself in order to make everyone think I've got it all together or I'm hot stuff. I'm sharing for two reasons: in case someone else might be thinking about doing it and needs a testimony, and also for everyone who has read this to now hold me accountable to what I've said I'm going to do.
If anyone might think to consider this "club," talk to me about it! I'll say it again: I consider it a relief and a blessing. I pray that it blesses God, too.
There are also several other women in the church doing it! Such an encouragement.

I can't express well enough how much fun our kids had at Cohen's party today. It was a blast!