Our annual Canadian Tulip Festival starts here in Ottawa today! It runs from May 6th - 23rd. To be quite honest, our spring is so late this year that not too many of the Tulips have actually bloomed yet. Some of the Tulips are grown pretty close by where we live, so Lilah and I took a little run down to check them out yesterday!
And after begging for many days, that happened to be wet and soggy, Lilah finally got to fly the kite that she got for Easter.
It was the perfect breezy day for smelling the tulips and kite flying!
She came running into the kitchen to tell me she wrote a note for me. But I wasn't allowed to see it yet.
"How do you spell 'to'?" she asked. "T.O." I told her.
Off she disappeared for a few seconds. Then came running back in waving this piece of paper.
She handed it to me and said, "This is how much I love you."
I'm not sure how I held it together.
I love that girl of mine, as big as the world.
I think in her mind, the size of her love is due to the number of times she wrote Mom.
And I adore how she used the sticky tape to fix the tear that happened when she was pulling the paper out of her notebook.
"Baba, you should wear some perfume, because it's perfect for your wrist!"
"I'm starving for the restaurant! Are you a wee bit starving too?"
"No Mama, I'm not cold... in fact!"
After listening to me complain about the rain: "But Mama, the rain needs to come. To make the flowers and leaves grow."
While shopping: "Oh look! That manikin has the same dress as me!"
After explaining that Baba would be home late for supper: "Is he gonna be home late because he's a busy boy?"
Me: "Lilah, will you do me a wee job and run upstairs and get your jammies for the wash"
Lilah: "Oh, sure Mum...no problem. Is there anything else you'd like me to do for you?"
Me: "Lilah, if you want to play outside, you have to stay on the porch."
Lilah: "Why Mama?"
Me: "Because I don't want any bad people try and take you away."
Lilah (with the most serious face I've ever seen): "Oh. Same as Jesus?"
*She'd been learning the Easter story around that time.
Me: Lilah, I hope you're not going to fall asleep!
Lilah: Why?
Me: Because Baba's coming home and we need to make supper.
Lilah: Mama! Are YOU serious?!!
Lilah: "Mama, can I wear my shorts and short sleeve t-shirt when the weather is sunny?"
Me: "Sure you can, but the weather hasn't been nice to wear them."
Lilah: "Okay. But I wasn't talking about the weather today. I was talking about the summertime."
I couldn't be more blessed. I even have a daughter that can take my birthday picture now!
Lilah said to me this morning: "Mama, do you want to make a nice heart cake for your birthday? And I'll share it with you, because I don't want your belly to be sore!" - love that girl!
Birthdays are good for you. Statistics show that the people who have the most, live the longest.
Larry Lorenzoni
Lilah and I headed out to Rockcliffe Park yesterday to snap a few shots of the daffodils. As soon as I mentioned taking pictures of the daffodils, she said: "I want to take some pictures too!" - and off she ran to find her Tinkerbell camera.
She is quite the little photographer.
The first shot below that I captured of her, photographing the daffodils with her little Tinkerbell camera, is probably one of my all time favourites. She is definitely going to need a macro lens for those very close up shots she takes!
I processed all the photos, other than the first one, using the The Pioneer Woman's 'sunshine' action.
I will be the gladdest thing, under the sun!
I will touch a hundred flowers and not pick one.
Edna St. Vincent Millay
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Here are my contributions to the twelfth AND FINAL month of Project 365.
Springtime is definitely an amazing time to take pictures and revel in the beauty of creation. That's probably the main reason I started this project, exactly a year ago tomorrow! I can hardly believe I'm finished - I look back through my pictures and they remind me of how much we've done and enjoyed in the past year. It's been a truly wonderful year - I have so much to be thankful for.
I really enjoyed this past month, it's a month of new beginnings and April is always a special month to me, because in April 2008, 3 years ago, we received our referral for our very special girl, little Lilah Grace. It most certainly was a wonderful new start for us, as a family of three. It was December before we were able to travel to China and hold her, but it still felt like she was a part of us that day we received her photo and saw her face for the first time. God is good.
I did have a pretty big problem in the middle of photographing this month though! The shutter gave up on my 2½ year old camera, in fact, the technician told me it broke right off! I think it would be safe to say it has more to do with the amount of pictures I take, than the cameras age! So I took it to a camera shop downtown to get the shutter replaced. Needless to say, living without it was rather tough!
So that's it, for Project 365.
Oh, and I haven't decided on a new photography project yet. I was thinking of maybe doing something like a set of 'Friday Favourites' or a set of 'Monthly Memories'. I'm not too sure and to be honest, I really haven't given it a lot of thought. But one thing is sure, I'll still be taking plenty of pictures!
Zacchaeus was a wee little man, and a wee little man was he.
He climbed up in a sycamore tree, the Lord he wanted to see.
And as the Savior passed that way, He looked up in the tree.
And he said, "Zacchaeus, you come down!"
"For I'm going to your house today, for I'm going to your house today"
Do any or all of you know Stefanie, over at 'Ni Hao Y'all'?
She has a massive heart for the Lord and for adoption, more especially, she advocates for the special needs children in China. In fact, if I must admit it, I envy her in many ways. As it stands, she has nine beautiful children, five of which are adopted from China. She and her husband, being the incredible people that they are, are bringing home another two beautiful girls, Poppy & Esther, from China. Bringing their family head count up to 13! Now THAT, is amazing! The Lord has done great things through this family.
I also want to mention that they are raising funds to bring home their girls and the prizes are sweeeeeeet! But, there is one thing that I absolutely love and that is the t-shirts they had made especially for their two girls. If you donate a mininimum of $30, you will automatically get one of these t-shirts in the mail.
Awesome right?!
And the t-shirt is called 'so LOVED', the verse on the back reads: 'For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16.'
Indeed, it's the gospel in a nutshell.
I'm so excited to get our t-shirts in the mail - I've ordered one for both Lilah and I!
This is Lilah's latest rendering of 'our family'! We're the extra long arms and massive ears family! Haha!
And yes, that's Baba (on the left) with the "sticky up hair" as she so kindly puts it! I have to laugh at my little monkey, because she totally draws it like that to get a kick out of her Baba. You should hear her giggle and snicker while drawing his spikey hair! It cracks me right up!
I adore this family shot, it already has prime spot on our fridge!
Here's a few pictures taken this weekend, while in Toronto, at the Bible Conference. We all enjoyed ourselves immensely.
: Making new friends at the conference.
: Pretending to be a koala in the pool.
: Relaxing at the hotel.
: A picture (she took of herself) on the drive home.
: The chocolate easter bunny.
: Beautiful smelling Easter Lillies.
: Some new goggles, noodles and a swimming hat.
I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore. - Revelation 1:18
[ the tomb is empty and our hearts are full ]
We're heading to Toronto this long weekend for a Bible Conference.
Happy Easter Weekend to you and your families.
No matter how long the winter, spring is sure to follow. ~Proverb
Every spring is the only spring - a perpetual astonishment. ~Ellis Peters
No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn. ~Hal Borland
If you've never been thrilled to the very edges of your soul by a flower in spring bloom,
maybe your soul has never been in bloom. ~Terri Guillemets
3 years ago, we saw this perfect little face (with the sticky up hair!) for the first time.
We couldn't love her more.
You'll notice from the smaller photos below that she's laughing, that's because she thinks her sticky up hair is pretty hilarious! But then again, she thinks just about everything is pretty hilarious at the moment. She continiously makes me laugh and grin. Here's an example of her witty little personality: This morning when I asked her what dress she wanted to wear, she pulled one out of the wardrobe (actually, it's the one she's wearing in these pictures!) and said "Well, this one would be nice, but not really my colour!" - and then she fell into fits of laughing.
Thank you Lord for this beautiful child. The love I have for her constantly reminds me of the love You've shown, and continue to show toward me, Your child.
I implemented "quiet time" this week.
She took it hard when I told her about it first, but when I explained it to her and told her why it was good to have a little bit of time alone in her bedroom, she was fine! So we set her alarm clock for half an hour and she played quietly and looked through her many books, which is something she absolutely loves doing.
By the end of the week, she was implementing her own quiet time - shouting downstairs to let me know that it was quiet time already! I love how much she enjoys looking through her books, telling the stories in her own words, and absorbing every single detail on the pages. Being read to is quite possibly her favourite thing in the whole wide world, other than the park! Truly, she hangs onto every single word and detail.
