A Good Day

Yesterday was a very full day for me and a very good one as well. Let's recap...

Early Sunday morning Julie left on a trip back to Michigan to see my sister, brother-in-law, and their newborn daughter, Ruby...their first child. We had hoped to see little Ruby before we left, but God's timing in bringing us to STL did not coincide as she was not born until June. We are so excited for Katie and Kent and I was thrilled to see Julie go and spend several days with them. Katie and Kent have been a great aunt and uncle to our children. Our other siblings, my sister Heather and Julie's sister Jodi are good aunts, but have children of their own and lived some distance away from us when we were in Grand Rapids. Yet Katie and Kent regularly made the trip out to our home and blessed us each time they came. The fact that they did not have children of their own increased their flexibility for sure. Now that they have their first child, we are sad that we will not be able to shower them with love and support in being the great aunt and uncle they have been. They are going to be great parents for sure!!! So we sent our Zilkie ambassador, namely Julie and her attendant Selah, on a three day trip to Detroit.

The other positive is that Julie can use the break as she has been stretched thin these past couple months since moving into a temporary home here in STL. She is doing great and taking great care of our home, but this time away for her is good. In the meantime, I get to watch our four oldest by myself for three days...which is a blast. Sunday afternoon we made pasta with butter and Parmesan cheese...and a slice of buttered bread. Not fancy, but a perennial favorite with the kids...and a meal that Julie would never dream of serving. In fact David said that it was his "favorite noodles". Sometimes simple is best. Then this morning we were up, fed, and at the zoo by 8 a.m. There was nobody there and it was great. We saw the penguins and puffins, touched the stingrays, walked through the bird sanctuary, reptile house, monkey house, and insectarium. We had 2 full hours of zoo fun and were out of there by 10 a.m. when the crowds started showing up. Also, David and Jonathan watched Star Wars for the first time yesterday afternoon. Then today they watched Empire Strikes Back for the first time and they want to finish off the trilogy tomorrow afternoon with Return of the Jedi. They are mesmerized by the movies, the larger than life characters, and they remind me of what it was like to watch those films when I was a child when they were first released. It has been a very cool time.

The second thing that was special yesterday was being part of a baptism for a neat woman and sister in Christ named Claire. Claire is the fifth child in a family of 17. Her mother Rita gave birth to 17 children in 20 years and did not have any multiples. Pretty amazing. Claire is now in her 50s with three grown daughters of her own and has a beautiful faith in God that only really took hold about three years ago. Claire grew up in a strongly denominational church-going family. Her parents were amazing people and sought to impart their faith into the lives of their children as best they could. However, with 17 kids, odds are some might not "get it" from the start. Well with many of her family and friends present yesterday, Claire got up in the service and read the story of her spiritual journey. It is a beautiful one. Her eldest daughter is the one who actually pursued her heart and was the lynch-pin for her finally seeing and believing in Jesus for herself three years ago. Not only that, but Claire is now heavily involved in the life of Rooftop and in the lives of her three girls as a loving and godly mother and grandmother. I thoroughly enjoyed our conversations as we talked about her spiritual journey and what she wanted to share before being baptized. The water in the baptismal was cold, but the warmth of support and love in the room from Rooftoppers, her family and friends, and the blessing of God's presence more than made up for it.

Finally, I met with a bunch of Rooftoppers who volunteer their time and energy to serve our church community. We are planning a big fall serving event that will hopefully accomplish much in line with God's will for our church and for our community. There are more details to come, but it will be successful because of the great servants and volunteers God has placed at Rooftop.

Yes, yesterday was a good day. I continually get excited to think of the many like it that, Lord willing, are yet to come.

Update on David, Julie & the Car

For those of you following along with our life via the blog, you know the past several weeks have been very intense to say the least. In a matter of days our car was stolen, Julie had some major health concerns related to Selah's birth, and David had severe pain in his hip without a fall or accident of any kind.

In response to all of this, we prayed and many of you prayed...and this evening we have a very positive update.

Julie saw a doctor and although there is a small piece of the placenta remaining, her health and iron level is high enough for them to be patient and see if things correct themselves in time. Along with that her bleeding has diminished and there has been no trace of blood for 5 days now which is very encouraging.

The car has been cleaned, the console fixed, and is operable again. There is no radio and the A/C was damaged slightly, but it is running well and for half of what we were told it would cost.

We are most thrilled for David, who after being prayed for last weekend at our church's worship night by several leaders and an elder in the church has his pain diminish over the weekend and has been completely pain free for several days. We have a follow up doctor's visit in July where the X-rays will tell us of any bone deformation, but for the time being things look and David is feeling good.

I am being reminded to ask God fervently in prayer for that which He has laid upon my heart. Sometimes I just "trust" God and assume He will do what He will do. Yet, this is not God's complete desire for me because He wants me to pursue Him and to keep pursuing Him. Ironically, Jacob wrestled with God in the book of Genesis and would not let go until God blessed Him. Finally, after a long night, God gave in and blessed Jacob. Yet, he touched Jacob on the hip and gave him a limp as a reminder that He had wrestled with God and won.

I don't know if we are completely out of the woods yet...we will see. I do know that God is "marking" this journey for David, for Julie and for myself. Today, David felt great and played chase with his brother Jonathan and sister Caroline. They had a blast and for that...today, we give thanks.

Happy Birthday, Julie!!!

Yesterday, June 5th was my wife Julie's birthday, her 35th to be exact. Her day started with David, Jonathan, Caroline and I making a trip to the mom and pop doughnut shop at the end of our street to pick out Julie's favorite doughnut, an apple fritter! Of course, the kids all had to pick out one as well! Later that day, the same three kiddos and I went out for flowers for Mama as well. They all wanted to get Julie sunflowers which had just come in fresh that day. In addition to that, David got Julie an orange flower, Jonathan a red one, and Caroline a pink one. It is wonderful watching the kids pick out flowers for their Mama, as they did back for Mother's Day as well. I think it is more of a blessing and treat for me watching them select the flowers than it is for Julie to receive them. Our children are truly amazing creations...for sure.

Thanks to some generous Rooftoppers, who volunteered to watch our kiddos, I was able to make dinner plans for just the two of us...errr, three of us including a nursing Selah. But, three is more romantic and peaceful than seven so we were thrilled to bring her along. And actually, Selah is the key to the rest of our evening, which turned out to be an amazing night and birthday...one of the best we have celebrated together in our 10 years of friendship.

We live in South St. Louis, very near the Italian district and along with that community are a slew of great Italian restaurants. Not knowing St. Louis all that well, I asked a friend and very knowledgeable restaurateur named Will, and he was very helpful. The first recommendation was Cunetto House "the standard" for Italian food here in St. Louis, but they did not take reservations. Next on his list was Trattoria Marcella, which did take reservations, so we had our birthday restaurant.

As soon as we arrived, the hostess saw little 7 lb Selah and she was enraptured with her. In fact everyone who sees little Selah these days is enraptured with our 2 month old who looks like a newborn still. As we were seated Mike introduced himself as our waiter and did a great job all evening. This was the first time Julie and I had an evening away from the family since arriving here in St. Louis. We don't need many of these as we adore our family and love being together, but an evening away is special anytime you can get one.

Throughout the evening we talked, got caught up on our day, enjoyed the numerous courses and slow atmosphere of the restaurant. It was wonderful time connecting with my bride and wife of 8 1/2 years. Periodically throughout the evening people would see Selah and comment and several conversations would begin. Julie and I, loving to engage people, were thrilled to meet people and get to know them... however briefly.

Shortly after we started with out dinner, the table next to us filled with an older couple who looked very sharp and whom immediatly took notice of....you guessed it, Selah. When we shared that she was not our first, but rather our fifth we got the usual look of surprise. This started a conversation that was intermittent at first, but increased progressively throughout the evening. John and Jan were from West County and had three grown children of their own. They vacationed at a cottage in Northern Michigan and John was an officer in the Marine Corps in the 70s. Additionally, they are Jesus followers as well and we shared numerous wonderful family stories and anecdotes throughout our evening. After some time they finished their meal and said their good byes. We were just finishing our dessert but had not yet gotten our bill. As they left and I asked Mike for our bill, he had a little surprise for us...

John and Jan had anonymously paid for our bill and wanted to leave before we knew. Julie and I sat there in shock. We had saved for several months and with our budgeted funds had spent quite a bit on dinner that evening, and yet this wonderful couple, fellow Marine, brother and sister in Christ gave us the ultimate gift on Julie's birthday. You see these past several weeks stuff has happenned that is part of life but has caused us some difficulty and presented some challenges. These difficulties and challenges have not yet gone away and they might not for some time. Yet, that expression of grace from God through John and Jan, left us both speechless and with tears in our eyes. This was God's gracious gift to us amidst our little storm and it confirmed His presence with us and also His tender and gentle touch upon us in the midst of our struggles. Julie and I laid in bed that night just reveling in the amazing evening that God had brought about. Even today, we still are soaring on the wings of God's work through one expression of generosity and grace last night. Happy birthday Julie!!!