reasons we love easter

1st (and by far most important): a great day to celebrate that our savior has risen and we have the promise of salvation and the hope of eternity with him.

(far distant) 2nd: we get to wear a fun easter dress for church, have a great day at the park where we see the easter bunny (who happened to be ella's favorite sunday school teacher about to pass out from heat exhaustion), we get easter baskets, and the opportunity to hunt around the house for eggs filled with raisins, jelly beans, or pennies (for our piggy banks, the offering jar at sunday school, or the fountain at AJ's, our choice)

3rd: this easter morning is especially exciting because angie and phil (my sister and brother-in-law) are on their way to China to bring home their new son!

they will be in China for just under 3 weeks to complete a process that began, in their minds, over a year ago, but in God's heart long before that. Joshua RuBin was born August 17th, 2006 just 2 months after Bennett. not only am i excited about a new nephew, i have been encouraged and challenged by angie and phil's faith and commitment to "look after orphans... in their distress..." (james 1:27) and i must say my eyes have been opened to the overwhelming need of orphaned and abandoned children around the world. over the last few months i often look at bennett and think that joshua may be doing similar things developmentally. and one day, as bennett was saying "mama" and "dada" it hit me that those are words joshua wouldn't be saying.

if you are interested in their adoption journey (which began with a simple prayer of a 2 year old) or would like to follow their adventures while they are in china, you can check out their blog at http://heir-raisingtales.blogspot.com/ and of course, your prayers for them, joshua, and their 2 kids they had to leave with grammy and poppa are very much appreciated.