Of Weddings and Wonderlands, part 1

                    Whew! This was a busy weekend for us!

We attended my friend Sylvia's wedding in VA on Saturday and then hurried on up to PA on Sunday for a day at Dutch Wonderland with the kids. Lots of traveling, which the kids were great about, by the way!

This picture is of Sylvie's adorable nieces who served as her flower girls.

Sylvie's dad was the pastor of our church growing up so our connections run deep and cover as many years as I've been alive. The bride looked beautiful and very happy! Sylvie actually eloped a year ago and she and her husband decided to have a commitment ceremony at their one year anniversary so that all their friends and family could be a part of their vows as well. I'm so glad they did because it was so much fun to see Sylvie get married!

Someone from their church made the cake. It was so pretty and finding a passion for cake decorating in myself, I was quite taken with it.

(Sigh) How I miss seeing everyone more often. All of us out-of-towners were invited back to the newlyweds home for dinner and visiting. We know a lot of the same people so I was able to visit with a lot of "family" I don't get to see much anymore since a lot of them have moved away.

This is my sweet friend Mary (sister and matron of honor in the wedding). We keep in touch by letters and emails but how I wish we lived closer together. She and her husband are so much fun to be around and it's so much better visiting face-to-face rather than long distance.

We had a great time that ended all too quickly! I'll post more on the second leg of our journey soon!

Window Seat Wanderings

                                            
Every Wednesday I post about a book I’ve read that I think is worth passing on. I have a personal love for Christian fiction so that is my main focus but you will find other reads sprinkled in here from time to time.



I’d love to hear what you thought of a book I recommended or if you have a new one for me to try. So grab your favorite beverage and get comfortable, let’s get wandering!

     I know every book grabs each of us differently but I hope you will enjoy this one as much as I did. I have such a soft spot for kids who are orphaned and it is a desire of mine to one day have some sort of ministry to them. This book spoke to places in my heart and I wept through a lot of the story (in a really good way!). I've cried through a lot of his books but this one struck a chord with me. The author actually supports an orphange in Peru that is the setting for The Sunflower. (You can find out more about his charity work at www.operationkids.org/lifestart/)

     Just a week before their marriage, Christine's fiancé calls off the wedding, leaving her heartbroken. With hopes of helping her through a difficult time, Christine's best friend Jessica enrolls them both on a humanitarian mission in Peru, to work at an orphanage called El Girasol — The Sunflower. While working at the orphanage Christine meets Paul Cook, a successful and charismatic American doctor who has fled the States after one fatal day took away his career, his faith, and the woman he loved. Unplanned events lead Paul and Christine into the jungle of the Amazon, where Christine must confront her deepest fears, and she, and Paul, must both learn to trust and love again. Filled with powerful lessons of faith and hope, The Sunflower is an evocative novel about the redemptive power of love from one of the world's most beloved storytellers.

Summer Fun

     I know I've been absent lately and I assure you we are all well and doing fine. I've just needed to "unplug" for a while and enjoy my kids, the outdoors and spend more time with the Lord (more on that later!).

     I love watching him at play. I can see it in his eyes while he's jumping. The feeling of greatness. That he's jumping higher and better than anyone has ever jumped before.

      I can see those days in me as I look back at childhood photos. In a child's eyes, they are always the best and every possibility is theirs. I delight in it. I encourage it. I cheer him on.

     Childhood only happens once. I want to give each of my children the best memories possible, especially when it comes to the simple, everyday things where their imagination can take flight.

Window Seat Wanderings

Every Wednesday I post about a book I’ve read that I think is worth passing on. I have a personal love for Christian fiction so that is my main focus but you will find other reads sprinkled in here from time to time.

I’d love to hear what you thought of a book I recommended or if you have a new one for me to try. So grab your favorite beverage and get comfortable, let’s get wandering!

     Kristen Heitzmann is my author of choice today. I've only read two titles of hers thus far and thoroughly enjoyed both. The most recent title I read was Freefall. It was intriguing and the characters felt "real" to me. There was enough "whodunnit" action going on that I couldn't read fast enough to get to the solution. The ending wrapped up a little too quick and neat for my tastes but the overall story was really good. I'll be looking for more of her books!

When a young woman stumbles out of the Hanalei Mountains on the island of Kauai with no memory of who she is or how she got there, Cameron Pierce reluctantly agrees to investigate the mysterious circumstances surrounding her arrival. As pieces begin to fall into place, he suspects her injuries were no accident, but he's far from convinced she's an innocent victim. And there's that nagging feeling he's seen her somewhere before....



Now known as Jade, the woman begins to recall fragments of what led her to this place, and she realizes the danger isn't over. Jade and the cynical Hawaiian investigator attempt to reconstruct the threads of her identity, but the stakes are far higher than either expected.