Fire Hose

I'd never heard the phrase "like trying to drink out of a fire hose" before Rob and I stepped into military life. More information than you could possibly take in without drowning or being blasted across the room. I like the visual image the fire hose analogy gives me. Because this country girl used to love to sneak gulps from the garden hose whilst watering the horses or use the barn spicket as a drinking fountain, wiping the drips from my chin with the back of my hand.

I'd still do it. I'm totally hip with indoor plumbing, but I think I'd like to have a hand pump and a wooden bucket and ladle in the back yard for the sole purpose of sneaking drinks of water.

Sometimes a great Bible passage does that to me. I'm like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa!" (That's what Lily says when she is astonished. Delectable.) Too much. I can't take it all in.

Yesterday's gift: Seth reading his new adventure Bible, pencil in hand, so that he could underline "important" words, he said. My heart is swelling even now as I type this. He underlined: God. Rabbi. Disciples. He wanted to do the same thing right before bed, and he read out loud to me this passage that hides under the shadow of John 3:16...


"For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God." John 3:17-21

(I underlined all the words that Seth underlined.)

Talk about a fire hose. Usually when I read this, I just blast right through it. The words are as familiar to me as the sound of my own name on the lips of my children. But last night, as I listened to my first-grader sweetly lisp his way through this heavy passage, pausing only to underline words that touched his heart or to sound out a difficult word like "condemned"--what is that "n" doing in there?--God gave me a glimpse of His heart. Just a glimpse, and even that was a fire hose.

God did not send his Son. . . to condemn. (So why can I be so condemning?)

Whoever believes in him is not condemned. (So why am I so self-condemning?)

Whoever does not believe stands condemned already. (Dead men walking. . . all around me. . .already condemned. That crushes my heart.)

The verdict: Light.

Light.

Light.

When we went through Hurricane Irene a month ago, the biggest inconvenience to us was the loss of power for about twelve hours. Not really a big deal in the whole scope of things. We didn't even lose our ice cream. . .mostly because we decided to have ice cream for lunch that day to avoid such a horrific loss. And having no morning coffee felt a little bit like a tragedy. But we did enjoy a rousing game of flashlight hide-and-seek that evening as the sun went down. We only had three flashlights, so one for the seeker, and two of the hiders got to have one as well. The guy with the light on his side had a distinct advantage. Especially considering we were living in a maze of boxes from having moved in only six days before. The guys without lights stumbled and fumbled, although you know it was a little thrilling to find a great hiding spot and have the seeker's beam of light sweep the room and not find you. But in real life? Aren't we all really, really wanting to be found? That is, unless we're so worried, panicky that we'll be found and then rejected/punished/discarded.

I want to be found. And I want those who are not found to be found as well.

So now you know what I'm chewing on today.

And now here's another kind of fire hose for you, a blast of pictures from the last few months. It feels like a cheap way to get "caught up," but I'm ready to move on.

After this, can we please consider ourselves re-united?

On our way out of Texas, we stopped in San Antonio for a few hours to enjoy the beautiful Riverwalk.

We even took a little river boat ride. I was charmed from go.

San Antonio sure knows how to do arches and bells.

And church spires. I love me some church spires.

After our little jaunt in San Antonio, we headed a couple hours north to Austin for the evening. The next morning, we walked a couple of blocks to the famous Capitol building, the largest state capitol building in the, well, States.

Texas pink granite covers the outside of the building. It really is striking.

Inside the Texas Capitol building, looking up at the dome.

Our last stop on our way out of Texas was Aunt Stacey's house outside of Dallas. That was a hard good-bye, because we loved having her as our Texas "neighbor." (Hey, Texas is so BIG that living 7 hours away from your sister means that she is a neighbor.) And we know that it will be a long time before we can see her again. We love you, Stacey!

Oh, we did stop at a cowboy boot outlet and get ourselves some cow kickers. That's just a metaphor. We don't kick cows here.

We overnited in Missouri where my mom and dad (although they were not there) and my Grandma and Grandpa McCoy live.

Their house used to be my favorite place in the world.

Can you guess why?

Nothing like going out into the pasture and have a herd of horses come galloping towards you. Actually, I was a little concerned, since I had Seth and Lily with me. I tucked them behind me and so that I could cushion the blow if the horses decided to trample us. And I clicked the shutter to document the whole tragedy.

Thankfully they stopped.

Next stop: Indiana. Rob and I LOVE camp. Not necessarily "camping," though it is growing on us, but church camp. Both of us made major commitments to God during weeks of camp when we were youth. Both of us were DE-LIGHTED (what does it mean to be DE-lighted? I mean, if I'm super excited about something, aren't I really just LIGHTED?) that our move from Texas to North Carolina timed up perfectly with church camp. We got to stay the whole week.  Here we are walking from our campsite (THANK-YOU again, Court and Jamie, for letting us use your camper!!!) to the worship services.

Memorizing God's word at the picnic table.

The only campsite left for us was right. on. the. playground. Delightful. I mean, lightful.

One of the great things about camping this year was being able to have a place for friends and family to come hang out with us. My sister, Jamie, and some of her kids came to see us most every day. Yay!

And our dear friends Tod and Kerrie and their scrumptious kiddos many a couple of visits, too. I love witnessing the wonderful mother Kerrie is to her little ones.

The kids and I were able to sneak away from camp for an afternoon so that I could spend time with this precious lady. How did I get so lucky to be gifted with this friendship? I love this woman!

My nephew Corbin turned five during camp. We had a little party for him.

I love this shot of of Caleb memorizing his scripture for the day, perched on the monkey bars.

Lily and her cousin-bestie, Emmaly.

The playground equipment is perfect for little boys who love to climb. Like Corbin.

And little girls who love to explore and peek. Like Faith. She also loves to run away. She makes every photographer I know question their calling into that profession. She. Does. Not. Sit. Still. Or smile for the camera. But I caught her by surprise here! Ha! And the shot turned out darling.

Caleb trying some extreme sports at camp: zip lining. But first you have to climb a thousand stories into the air. Maybe not a thousand. I don't have a picture of him zipping down. I took video instead, but I'm having serious trouble getting any of my videos to load here. Boo. But yay for Caleb trying something hard.

 Caleb's loooong climb to the top.

Gabe had a rough time getting his legs to go where he wanted them to go. Have I ever told you how much I love, love, love awkward, pre-adolescent boys? Having two of them at once is pure joy. And very entertaining for me.

Just jump, Gabe. Easy for me to say.

Seth and Lily were too young to ride the zip line, but they did get to ride an enormous swing. Seth's ride was hilarious. He squealed with laughter and then shouted over and over, "I can fly! I can fly!"

Lily gets a last minute pep talk. But she loved it. Especially when it was over.

After camp, we spent the evening at my sister's where much cousin fun was had by all. Aren't my nieces beautiful?

My handsome nephew Ralph and my handsome husband.

I love this country girl.

This guy keeps me in stitches.

Faith dressed specifically for watermelon eating.

These two young men are growing up way too fast.

What do you do if you are surrounded by cousins and a volleyball and no net? Well, you invent playground-volleyball. Of course you do.

Little Jessi and her million watt smile. 

Of course we took some time out to spend with our favorite four-hooved member of the family.

Please pay no attention to the capris-cowboy-boot wardrobe combination. We were camping, and this is all I had at the moment, People! Give a girl a break. (But don't you love my boots? I do!)

Hot.

Aren't we the cutest sisters ever? I miss her so, so much when I live far away. I've never met anyone who loves me and supports me as unconditionally as she does.

And then we left IN to stay in MI for a couple of days so that Caleb could see one of his best friends for his 12th birthday.  I can't find any pictures of CB with Jeremy. Did I not take any? What was I thinking?

We did get the chance to see another one of the boys buddies, Nathan. We invited him and his mom and brother to the hotel to swim with us. Good times.

 And then we headed down to O-hi-O. Our first stop was Rob's mom's and step-dad's home. We headed out the next morning for a full-fun-family vacation day at King's Island. This was mine and the kids' first King's Island experience. Gabe is insisting we make this a yearly event.

Living far away from family means that we miss out on cheering for our nieces and nephews as they participate in a variety of activities. But we did have the privilege of bearing witness to the cutest football player. The guy to the far left? That's Nate. Don't let his smallish size fool you. This boy's got skillz.

Gabe, Sam and Caleb.

Emily Rae gettin' some attention from Uncle Rob.

Our O-hi-O fun included a three-way birthday party for our August babies. I'm not sure why I keep typing O-hi-O. But just know that as I'm writing this, that's exactly how I'm saying it in my head.

Lily is completely and thoroughly enamored with Grandpa Jess. She thinks nothing of jumping onto his lap. He never seems to mind.

Cousins, cake and ice cream. Perfect. I wonder what's going through Hayden's mind right now?? He's contemplating something.

A little football in the backyard. Nate won.

Please humor the photographer and smile. Or at least look at me. Okay, I'm just gonna take the picture anyway.

What could be holding these guys' attention. A rousing game of chess, that's what. I heart nerds. (By the way, I'm the nerd that bought the game for my own nerdlings.)

A trip to Greenville is not complete without hitting a few at Papaw Bob's driving range.

And maybe a new tradition: Young's Dairy. Best. Ice. Cream. Cones. EVER!

Lily chose lemon. She likes sour flavors. A lot.

We ended our time in O-Hi-O with the Great Darke County Fair in Greenville. Awesome.

Believe it or not, but you really should believe it because it's true, this is Seth's very first cotton candy wound on a paper cone. He was not disappointed.

And these two have a serious sugar addiction. So they were in fair-candy heaven.

I'm not sure how many times Gabe rode this ride...maybe 4? But it was his favorite by far.

Seth chose a carousel horse with the same color hair as himself.

Ferris wheel fun for Gabe and Dad.

Church camp and family cookouts and King's Island and the fair. I can't imagine how we could have packed any more family fun into our trip from Texas to North Carolina, via Indiana and Ohio.

We love our family.

And now we are here. In North Carolina. But not home yet. We are temporarily renting a house until our home on base is available, which is in about three weeks from now.

Can I tell how excited I am to have packers and movers come and do ANOTHER move? This time without Rob, because he will be gone for two weeks during said move. What I am excited about is finally settling a bit.

So I'm going to turn off the fire hose now. Much to your great relief, I'm sure.

If you made it to the end of this post, you really do deserve a prize. I'll try to think of one...I'll get back with you.