Happy Easter

Check out my two handsome boys! Austin's jacket was a hand-me-down from our neighbor...too cute.

Happy Easter! He is Risen...He is Risen indeed. Today was a full and meaningful day, to say the least. We enjoyed a full service at church today, with Chris playing the mandolin along with many others in the band. I was SO glad we started with my favorite Easter song, Jesus Christ is Risen Today. There have been many Easters where that was NOT on the playlist, but this year I was not disappointed. It was a good service and I teared up quite a few times thinking of our last week and the gift of life and resurrection.

Thank you Nana for the wonderful Easter basket package! I didn't add a thing to it...they LOVED the Biscuit books, jelly beans and the chocolate bunnies (well, we are waiting till tomorrow to eat those, since they had a lot of candy already). A funny story...I did not give Bennett any of the mini-Cadbury cream eggs (i figured he didn't need them and I LOVE them) but I put one in Austin's basket. Well, I see Bennett chewing and chewing something and was afraid he put too many jelly beans in his mouth. I reached in and found he had put a whole, foil-wrapped mini cadbury egg in his mouth and was saying "Mmmmm". I pulled out as much foil as I could, but I think some of it was swallowed.

Then we headed over to a local park with a large crowd of friends. It was a BEAUTIFUL day, the warmest we have had yet by a long shot. In the mid-70's or even close to 80 in the sun. Our friend Dan commented "Well, we had spring from 6 am to 7 am this morning". Two weeks ago we had 6 inches of snow and today was hot. We ate good food, enjoyed the sunshine, threw the ball and Bennett even napped in his stroller. Austin and Chris disappeared for over an hour on an adventure, Austin informed me. Austin found sticks and pretended to fish in the lake, someone let him "drive" a kids' jeep that really goes and he heard a man playing the saxophone.

Here is the big group of foreigners making a scene. I don't know how many cameras snapped pix of our group, but it was a lot.

Bennett hanging out with a frisbee. Check out the sky! It was so beautiful. The only problem with that is that everyone else in the city seemed to be outside at the park too...and the main grass area was roped off, so it was a bit cramped. But that is par for the course here.

Mmmm- let me check out all this food. I made deviled eggs...Easter is the only time of year I make them.

We came home late afternoon, ready to chill. We had signed up to be part of Hope Church prayer vigil at 5 pm out time (5 am there, not the most popular time to sign up. I decided to walk outside during my time. It seemed the Lord had a divine appointment for us though at that time. As I walked outside my gate, a young couple approached me. The girl was clearly very embarrassed, but asked if I could help them get something to eat. I talked with her more (she didn't look extremely poor) to find out their story. It turned out she and her boyfriend had come to our city, hoping to stay with a friend of theirs and look for work. But as it turned out, their friend had moved away, they had spent all their money on 2 nights of a hotel and were in trouble. They had no place to stay, way to get home or money for a meal. So, we prayed and considered this a providential meeting. We all went to a local restaurant for dinner, where we were able to hear more of their story and share with them why today was such a special day. Both of them were really interested in the big story. The girl's parents were both believers, though she did not have a very clear idea of what that meant. As I write this, Chris is with them at the train station, sending them home. They were both very grateful but embarrassed, but we pray they will make changes in their lives and follow the risen one!