Little Praises 3.0

Last week, Aria got her third opportunity to sing on the big stage in "big church" with her Little Praises choir.  My girl still really loves to sing and she loves being a part of Little Praises!  The teachers are wonderful and the songs she knows from her weekly practices are great to hear around the house.  Aria would much rather Little Praises continued on through the summer, but I'm sure the teachers love their break!  The other day we were discussing summer swimming lesson plans and Aria said, "But mom, we can't have swimming lessons on Wednesdays.  I have preschool and Little Praises and FX on Wednesdays."  I told her we don't have those things in the summer and her response was, "What in the world am I going to do?"  She loves her Wednesday events!

Back to last Sunday.  You just never know what will happen when you put a bunch of 3-5 year olds up on stage in front of the church.  The kids get to sing in all 3 services, so it makes for a long morning.  By the last service, most of them are a little squirrely.  That is why we record every song, every service.  You just never know when a boy will sing the whole song in a falsetto voice or a girl will tell her Daddy that a certain boy wants to marry her.  And, you have to hope that at least one of the songs will be a recording of the kids' faces instead of the back of their heads turned around looking at themselves on the big screen.  I picked the two videos I thought Aria did her best.  I wish I could include them all to get the full effect, but I'm not waiting that long for them to upload.

Here is Hallelujah Lord and Jesus Loves the Little Children/Oh How I Love Jesus

Easter Pictures

A glimpse of our marathon Easter Sunday...

Easter morning surprises: the empty tomb and Jesus took our sins and replaced them with special blessings.

Making and eating Resurrection Rolls (a 3 year tradition)

Off to church where the white rose symbolizing Aria's decision to trust Jesus was on display

An egg hunt at home put on by Grandma

Family pictures because we are all dressed up

Our second annual grandparent Easter tower picture

I'm not sure there is a thing on earth more beautiful than this

Off to the Rickey family for food and fun with cousins

Then to the Blow family for more cousins and more (not needed) food

Phew.  I should have taken a picture of her passed out in the car on the way home.  It was a long, but fun day.

Jesus is alive!

Sing, Sing, Sing

Our church doesn't have a full fledged, put on the Christmas story, Christmas program.  Instead they just turn the monthly Family Experience night into a birthday party for Jesus.  There is a program with cute little kids singing and of course that is right up my cute little kid's alley.  Last year she got to dress as an angel and sing a few songs with just the rest of the two-year-old class.  To be honest, I was kind of dreading this year's performance because last year they grouped age three through second grade all together for singing and it was just very chaotic.  However, it was much more organized and well done this year. 

There was a sketch that went on throughout the program that included the songs by the little ones.  The twos sang by themselves, then the threes and fours sang by themselves, and then the school aged kids joined them for a few more songs.  And the sketch went on between each of the different groups.  It isn't very formal, but the kids have a blast! 

Of course Aria just loves the songs with all the actions and she loves that the Turn It Up group comes to her Children's Church class to teach them the songs. 

After the singing was over, there was a cake and Bingo to complete the birthday party for Jesus.  It was a fun night and Aria was so blessed that all 4 of her grandparents were there to watch her!

Aria sang 4 songs, but I am not going to put them all on here.  It would take forever!  Here is what I thought was the cutest one!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GcSYSEJNlI&feature=youtu.be

 

Singing in Big Church

Aria is part of the "Little Praises" choir at our church, which is for 3-5 year olds.  Last Sunday they sang for all three services of big church.  It was an event she was looking forward to for many weeks.  My girl loves to sing and she isn't afraid of the big stage.  One of the pastors posted a picture on Facebook of all the choirs and said "Children performing at NCBC this morning. Great singing, but off the chart cute factor!"  I couldn't agree more!

Oh and a big bonus from getting to do what she loves every week is learning about Jesus through song and gaining confidence to use the gifts He gave her for His glory!

Okay, so I'm having trouble putting the video in here so you will have to click the link to watch!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsQpnRkdju4

Operation Christmas Child

If you haven't heard of Operation Christmas Child, you need to click on this link and read about it and pray about it and then hurry up and pack a shoebox.  We found out about this awesome opportunity through our church and had a wonderful time packing our boxes together as a family last weekend. 

Let me back up and say that we did a shoe box with Aria last year where she got to pick out things for the box, but I'm not sure how much she understood as a two-year-old.  It was a good experience and Aria claimed she remembered doing it last year, but I'm not so sure.

This year was a whole different story.  We started our Saturday morning at Perkins as a celebration for Aria's completion of our church's obedience challenge. (I should write about that, too.)  With full tummies we headed to the dollar store to pick out our supplies.  This year we decided to each fill a box.  Aria and I chose the 2-4 year old girl category and Justin chose a 2-4 year old boy. 

Before we started our shopping, we talked to Aria about a couple of things.  First we told her we were only shopping for our shoe boxes that day, not for ourselves.  Next, we told her we needed to pick things that would fit inside the box.  We also talked about choosing more than toys and selecting things like toothbrushes, washcloths, and socks.  We encouraged Aria to choose things that she likes because the present would be going to a little girl her age who doesn't get any presents. 

I could tell she really felt compassion for the kids we were building shoe boxes for and she did a fabulous job picking things out.  She chose a baby doll, a package of pretend jewelry, markers, crayons, a book about baby Jesus, fingernail polish, stickers, bubbles, a ball, Hello Kitty toothpaste, and a few more things.  All of those things are very much her favorites.  She also wanted to help us pick things for our box.  She really got into it.  She didn't like it when the person checking us out mixed up the items that were supposed to go in each box.  So, when we got home we had to immediately sort and pack our boxes with the correct items.  She didn't even want to play with the things once we brought them home and never once asked for anything for herself.

The last piece of our boxes were handwritten notes to the kids.  I wrote the note for Aria, but she told me what she wanted to say.  She talked about things she likes and told the girl that Jesus loves her.  It was a very sweet letter.  We also included a picture of Aria and a map that shows where we live. 

On our church's monthly family night we brought our boxes to turn in.  She carried her own box in and added it to the pile.  I love Aria's heart because she asked if we could deliver the box to the girl ourselves.  I explained that we would drop them off at church and they would have them delivered for us because they are going far away.  We filled out the form online to track our boxes and I am excited to find out where they went and learn a little more about that country.  Hopefully that will help Aria remember the experience even more.

I hope this can just be a start to helping Aria and Justin and I to care for people all over the world and love them like Jesus does.

Raised to a New Life in Him

Yesterday, August 7, 2013 I was baptized!  It happened at our church's annual picnic and baptism at Palo.  I am really thankful for the whole experience and feel extremely blessed to be a part of an awesome church family.

My journey to baptism really started shortly after Aria was born.  We participated in a child dedication service at church for Aria when she was three months old, but didn't have her baptized like both Justin and I were as infants.  After that, as with many things in parenting, I really wanted to know why I didn't baptize her.  I started doing some research online and in the Bible about baptism.  I blogged about that research here.  Well, that was over two years ago and I've been wrestling with being baptized ever since. 

This spring and summer, God has really been providing some encouragement for me to get baptized.  The subject of baptism just seemed to come up a lot.  And every time I thought about it on my own, there was always a message or a mention of someone I knew being baptized that happened shortly there after.  I knew it was time. 

Why did I want to be baptized?  After learning that infant baptism was not something that came from the Bible, I really felt it was necessary for me to declare my faith through baptism.  I know my salvation was secure before I was baptized, but I also felt like I hid from my faith a lot and I don't want to do that anymore.  Being baptized is a way to publicly declare that I love and follow Jesus and I think it can be the start to me publicly declaring that all the time.

I am so thankful for our church family at New Covenant Bible Church.  I have developed some sincere, deep friendships.  I have been challenged spiritually.  I have been supported tremendously.  I often speak of the small group we were a part of for almost six years.  Those people really taught me about God, pulled me out of the depths of despair and back to Him during infertility, and loved me like He does.  Another thing that has really helped me grow is being a middle school sponsor.  I signed up for it because I loved teaching middle schoolers, but I really had no idea how to share my faith with them.  But the middle school pastor, Mark, has really challenged me and help me grow in my ability to share my faith and help those middle schoolers grow in theirs.  I am very thankful for him, his support, his friendship, and serving in the middle school ministry with him, which is why I chose Mark to baptize me. 

I don't know that I can really put into words what it felt like out there.  There were 38 people who got baptized last night.  We were split into 5 groups.  Each person shared their testimony on the beach to the big crowd then headed out to the water to be baptized.  I was in a group with two middle school girls that I know very well, which was really awesome.  I am so proud of them for speaking in front of a large crowd and placing their trust in Jesus!  Once in the water, we each had our turn.  I could tell it was a special moment not only for those being baptized, but also for those doing the baptizing.  The water was cold, but it didn't matter.  It was also very clear and beautiful.  The sunset was beautiful.  Where I once was afraid of being in front of so many people, I didn't even notice they were there.  I just kept asking God to make it all about Him and He really did.  I stood next to Mark and he said something like...

"Julie, having heard your public profession of your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, and your desire to passionately follow Him, I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Dead and buried with Christ (go down into the water) and raised to a new life in Him (raised out of the water).”

It was very emotional.  I had tears in my eyes and I was choked up, but I was extremely happy all at the same time.  Justin, Aria, my parents, and Justin's parents were standing right on the shore watching, along with our really good friends the Ryons.  Plus I had many other friends out in the crowd there to support me, too.  It meant a lot to me to have all those people there.  It is a moment and an evening I won't ever forget. 

Most of all, what my baptism means to me is that I have decided all on my own to follow Jesus with my whole heart.  I want to proclaim his good news to the world and love others like he does.  I will make mistakes and I won't be perfect, but I will strive to glorify him in everything I do.

The Fruit of the Spirit

Our church has monthly "FX" nights, which stands for Family Experience.  I don't really know much about what it is like, other than what I hear from Aria. 

1.  There is a monkey named Steve with Pastor Seth
2.  They sing "We...are...the...redeemed!  We are the ones who are free!" And there are important dance moves not to mess up.
3.  She gets to go up on stage to sing.
4.  A lot of times she sees her friends there.

Justin takes Aria to FX night while I am volunteering with the middle school youth.  I think it is mostly geared towards elementary aged children, but Aria still has fun.  They have a character trait to focus on each month and some sort of activity we can do to practice that trait.  There is also always a memory verse to go with the lesson and if you memorize it, you get to put your name in a drawing for a prize the next month.  We've never done well with the memory verses.  I haven't figured out how to help a three-year-old memorize a verse.  Until last month.

In March, the character trait was self control.  The memory verse was....well, I'll just let Aria tell you...

This is quite possibly my favorite thing yet!  It was really easy to do Galatians 5:22 with Aria because there is a song from Seeds Family Worship for that verse.  Aria was all excited to hear about self control in a song, so she caught on quickly.  She has definitely learned the verse and the reference.  Sometimes she sings it and sometimes she just says it.  She did slip a little in the video, but usually she says all the "fruits" exactly right and in order.  She is quite proud of herself.  I am so excited to help her learn more verses now!

The Christmas Program

Where to start?  With the lack of Internet and Christmas, I got a tad behind in my blogging.  I have such a long list of things I want to write about, I'm not sure I'll ever get to them all in a timely fashion.  There are some things I don't want to leave unwritten because this is Aria's virtual scrapbook, after all.  So, I will start with one month ago, today, December 5 and Aria's Christmas program at church.  I did post the look-a-like pictures, but never talked much about the show.  I had planned to post some video, but I'll skip waiting for that to upload.  Besides, it wasn't my kid who stole the show.

The Christmas program at our church was put on by the two-year-old through second grade Sunday School classes.  The twos got to perform separately in the cute angel costumes.  They sang three songs, which they practiced for about six weeks prior to the program.  We were singing "Ring the Bells," "Jesus You Are Here With Me," and "Away in the Manger" all the time in our house.  But she knew the songs and all the motions very well.  There were probably 40ish twos up on the stage performing that night.  It was beyond adorable.  One of Aria's friends stole the show with her dramatic movements and extremely loud singing.  Once she knew the crowd was laughing at her, it encouraged her even more.  It was hilarious and it didn't surprise any of us who knew her. 

Besides enjoying my daughter's singing and the cuteness of the whole thing, I couldn't help but reminding myself over and over how lucky we are to be a part of such a wonderful family at our church.  We knew so many of the kids that were up on the stage in what will be Aria's school class in three years.  We knew a lot of the parents before we had Aria and we've met even more since she's been interacting with those kids in Sunday School.  Our church is huge.  I meet people all the time who attend it and I've never seen them there.  Some 2000+ walk through the doors every Sunday.  But we belong to an ABF and are involved in smaller groups  within the church to help us know our demographic well.  I'm so thankful for the families Aria will grow up with in our church and for the wonderful friendships we've established there!

My first french braid!

The wings



Walking the crew up to the stage



Waving to the family



The stars in the sky

Ring the bells

 

 

Our adorable little angel

 

 

The Girls Retreat

My recent decline in blog posts was mostly due to planning a middle school girls retreat for church.  It's not that the planning took every hour of my day, it just took the time that formerly was allotted to blogging, napping, or spending useless time on the computer.  Well, we had the retreat last weekend and I think it was a success!  It was small with only 21 girls, but it was fun!  We stayed at church, in the basement, played games, ate junk food, worshiped, made duck tape creations, painted fingernails, and learned about getting rid of insecurities and being proud of who God made us.  What I enjoyed was the chance to get to know 21 girls just a little bit better.  I enjoyed watching them play hide and seek, spin themselves in toilet paper, attempt to use a pencil elevator to lift candy into their mouth, and stack dice on a popsicle stick in their mouth.  I loved watching them worship our Lord and seeing their sincere interest in our speakers.  I was exceptionally pleased with their excellent behavior and ability to follow rules and not complain.  I much appreciated their feedback on the evaluations for what was good, what was not good, and what to do in the future.  They were honest, appreciative, and had great ideas!

I worried and stressed over planning this event and it turned out wonderful.  I had a lot of wonderful people who helped me out and great girls attend the event.  I don't know what I was so worried about.  It happens almost every time I worry about any event; I worry constantly, but when it gets here, I am so glad I got to do it.  Exactly the same with this retreat.  Did we follow my schedule to the minute?  Are you kidding?!?!  Were there things I didn't think of?  Always.  Did it keep us from having a blast?  No way!

Now I can get back to my regularly scheduled blogging and laziness in the afternoons!  :)