Easter Thoughts.

Creeping behind our curtain, tomorrow morning, the sun will shine on my face and wake me up. The last two days this has been the case. I love that feeling. Tomorrow as the sun wakes me up it will be Easter. The last several months for us have been very difficult. Baby, school, work, marriage, family, friends, faith, sleep depravity, so many things we have faced we have never had to deal with before. But tomorrow morning I will wake up with the sun on my face. After the sun wakes me up I have two plans. First I'm going to roll over and glance at my beautiful bride...still sleeping of course. When I look at her, since the SON rose up on Easter I know everything is going to be just fine. Bird is the love of my life and the resurrection of Jesus gives us so much hope in marriage, as a spouse we are asked to sacrifice continually for one another...with Easter it is good to know that our sacrifice does not end in death. In marriage the sacrifice does not end it death, it ends in more joy. So as I glance, I will be reminded to keep on sacrificing and to keep on growing as a husband. I've learned that it does end in life...not death.

Secondly, I'm going to walk into Kasaan's room and sing. There is something about Easter that puts a song in my heart. There is something about that kid that makes me want to weep with love. I'm going to sing him a song tomorrow morning. I'm not sure what will come out...up from the grave he arose, or Handel's Hallelujah Chorus, or Christ the Lord is risen today...who knows what will come out...maybe my own little chorus of made up mumblings...."I love you and you are my son, you are beautiful and today is Easter and because its Easter I can love you even more and you never never never never have to die! And I'm going to be your dad for ever and ever and ever and even when we are dead we will be together....who knows what will come out. But I will sing him a song nonetheless. The resurrection of Christ offers me the hope that this kid does not have to die. Christ's defeat of death offers him a life beyond his own. A life not made for this world. This week as I have been pondering what the Cross means to me one day I was doing dishes and Kasaan was playing in the living room. Bird was running some errands and I looked over my shoulder at him playing in perfect peace. Nothing special, just a 2 foot colorful alligator, soft yellow duck and a fluffy bear, in that moment the cross, the tomb, my understanding of love to the point of tears, it all hit me. I would be willing to walk across fire for the life of this little boy. Walk across fire for this little boy. And as I soaped another plate it hit me. "Gregg, I would be willing to walk across fire for you, my little boy. And I have. And now it is over, it is finished, I have purchased you back from the Kingdom of Satan and you are free."

Easter to me is the greatest day out of the year. It is joy, life, love, freedom, hope, and peace. May we take the time to see it everyday....may we take the time to see the love.

Family Photo Shoot

Peter Christian's Tavern

Don't you just love it, when you go on a trip and you have to pull off the road for lunch somewhere in the middle of nowhere, and that little lunch spot ends up being an absolute gem! On our way to celebrate our 4th anniversary last week in Burlington, VT, we stopped off in New London, NH for what we thought would be Subway or Burger King, what we got was just the most beautiful little restaurant not in Europe. The lighting, the food, the rustic tavern look, not trashy but Old English. If you can't tell by my writing it has been a while since we've had a vacation. Maybe that's it...any place might have been so wonderful.

But really we had a great time, spending two and a half days in Vermont celebrating our marriage. Burlington was full of great food and great walks. Our last night there though Kasaan melted down around 4 PM. We realized we should just head back to the hotel which ended up being just as great. We ordered pizza and watched a movie. I've just realized something...each March for our Anniversary or Honeymoon we have spent in New England. I'll have to do something a bit more special next year with the big 5th year looming.

Baby Dedication

On March 2nd we had the joy of dedicating Kasaan unto the Lord. What relief to know that God has created us to live inside the church who is willing to teach, train, and model the life of Christ. We feel privileged to raise Kasaan along side the beautiful people of Harbor of Hope. As a church they promised to encourage Bird and I, model Christan faith, and to teach and train Kasaan in the Lord. What could else could a couple of parents want?

Not much new.

The last few weeks have been so much fun with Kasaan. On Monday night for example we were on our way out to dinner and he had been so good we were like, "Lets skip the dinner grab fast food and go see a movie." Clearly we were aware of the risks involved in taking a 3 month old into a film but we were willing. He woke up a couple times but other than that he was awesome. Things are really good on our end...this Sunday Kasaan is going to be dedicated at our church. We are excited about that. I'll never forget the days after he was born simply praying back to God this wonderful gift that he had given me. I didn't feel like I was worthy of him or capable of training him. The Lord has given us strength to raise him so far and we are excited about the commitments the church will give us on Sunday to help raise Kasaan in the LORD.


Bird is still very tired. Her class is going well and our schedule is working out just fine for me to be home with Kasaan.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY: Puppy Love

The Jennings Trio would like to wish yout he warmest Valentine's Day. We stayed in last night and made Eggplant Parmesian (our new favorite thanks to Momma Byrne). Today was wicked cold out but it was so sunny that we just had to go out for a walk. Kasaan was sim

ply adorable in his puppy hat.

I also want to take a second to say thanks to everyone who has been praying for Kasaan's breathing. He gave us all a huge scare a few weeks ago but nothing has gone bad since.

Bird and I are doing well still tryin to adjust to our new family, school, work, life, blah blah blah. It is amazing how intential you have to be when you fill your schedule with non family stuff, to let yourself just "BE" a family.

Anyway, Happy Valentine's to a family that loves you!

David

I realize its been a while since we've blogged and we wanted to get keep everyone posted on what is going on. My sister Heather sent Kasaan a lamb blanket which we named David. It's really cute and we love it. Life for us has been hard to explain. The last three months have been some of the most challenging of our lives. However at the same time they have brought us unmeasurable joy.


Kasaan has finally dropped into a pretty predictible daily pattern and we feel he knows and trusts us completely. He is smiling a lot and just loves life.


Birdy is 2 courses this semester but they are both considered 1/2 classes. So really she only has 1 course worth of work. She is so happy to have all her work from last semester finished and turned in. Since Kasaan was born in the middle of her semester they gave her until last Monday to turn it all in.


I'm working 3 days at Starbucks and 3 days at the Harbor of Hope. I have found it to work out really good for us as a family.


















This is a picture of our son enjoying his Choo Choo Mobile. He is totally mesmorized by it. Every time we turn it on he just loves it.

And in case you were wondering New England weather is still depressing. We had a white out today for like 20 minutes....a complete blizzard and then fog, wind, depression, depression for those of you who live here or have lived here, enough said.