My Dearest Matthew,

This morning we loaded up the girls and headed down for the beginning of a few days of celebrating you. To say I’m proud of you is the understatement of the year. Six years of balancing family, ministry and schooling. I could not be more proud of your choices to take a lighter load as we welcomed three beautiful little girls into the world in their own times. I could not be more proud of your hard work and perseverance as you worked hard, realistically and gave each class’ efforts to the Lord as worship. I could not be more proud as God shaped you and grew you so much in your walk with Him over these past years. And love, I am so proud of the man of Christ you have and are continuing daily to become. It wasn’t always easy…. remember Hebrew? Goodness! And I wasn’t even taking the class! But you fought through it. And, my dear, you have managed to pull off  a 3.9 GPA. 3.9! That means the lowest grade you ever received in a class was a B+. And that was only in one class. I am floored at your ability, in Christ, to overcome so much and work hard… so, so hard at each class on your agenda. I love how you came home from some of your classes with a new plan and new focus on Christ for our family. I love how God spoke to your inner being and it splashed out into our lives. We were and still are so richly blessed by all that the Lord has taught you in seminary. And now, my love, now we celebrate. In Christ YOU HAVE DONE IT!!!

So to my Master’s of Divinity, to my Christ-centered dreamer, to the absolute love of my life I say in a resounding jubilation from the tips of my toes:

CONGRATULATIONS, BABE!!! YOU DID IT!!!!

The wide world is before us. Who knows where God will call us and lead us next?

But as you take the stage Friday late morning, I may resist the urge to blow a fog horn (so as not to embarrass you, naturally) but I will most certainly be shouting for joy inside, to my very core, “That’s my Matthew!!! My Matthew…”

Love you so,

yours.

A video to her friend without kids…

– Love it!

While downloading some pictures from my camera, I realized that I have a lot of homeschooling fun to catch up on blogging/journaling (hence the silence). So if you’re interested there will be more postings coming up in the near future as I catch up. And for those of you not interested, just pop back in when you are interested. =)  I enjoy blogging not only to share in our fun experiences, but for two other more primary reasons: 1. To have a fun history to reflect on and 2. To celebrate our times together and the fun stories we’ve made.

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One such story we made together came a week after studying farm animals. In our curriculum there was a three-week period of studying farm animals, more specifically the goat, cow and horse. We took the opportunity to go to an 1800’s farm with some dear friends during our cow study week. And while we rained out of our original date, Mat got the opportunity to take the girls on their other farm-related field trip to see our Pastor’s horse, Abijah.

Pastor took the opportunity to show them Abijah’s barn, talk about horse care and share some fun stories of Abijah’s personality of kicking all the hay to the corners of his pen so Pastor would have to stack it all back up in the middle for his bed. The girls enjoyed the opportunity to see Abijah’s food and water dishes, check out his saddle, pet him and even ride him.

Hannah enjoyed her first horse ride as Pastor led each of the girls around the horse pen on that windy evening.

And while I didn’t get a chance to go this time, I am thrilled at the pictures and the stories that the girls bring up randomly about Abijah’s world.

Thanks again, Pastor, for helping our books come to life. =)