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| Dadda has been promising Esther and Bella that we are going to go camping this summer, so we finally made it to an REI garage sale (with some friends out here who are pros at REI garage sales) to get a tent - and we got a winner!! After we got our massive 6 person tent with two rooms, we had to set it up in our living room and play "family camping!" |
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| Janelle and our girls...so pretty! One of Janelle's spiritual gifts is getting bargains on really pretty dresses and making little girls' hair amazing. |
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| Janelle is 9 months pregnant and still going strong with the girlies. Life doesn't stop just because a baby is about ready to arrive! (watching this process makes me appreciate moms more than ever before) |
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| Easter Egg Hunt 1 of 5 - Preschool! The girls keep loving preschool. Bella has recently started talking more about her "friends" at preschool! |
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| Esther helping Bella find eggs - Esther is really thoughtful and kind toward Bella in many ways. Often when they wake up in the morning we'll hear Esther explaining things to Bella and helping her get dressed. Bella is still working on consistently returning the favor. |
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| Easter Egg Hunt 2 of 5 - Fuller Seminary. Fuller does an amazing job thinking about families. The quote of the day the night before this egg hunt from Esther, "Dadda, Please, Please, 100 pleases, do you think Bella and I could each eat 2 candies at the egg hunt tomorrow? "Yeah, I think that's a good idea." "OK. Dadda, please repeat 'two, two, two, two' to yourself all night" "Why?" "So you don't forget!!" |
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| In case you've gotten nervous that seminary might have knocked the competiveness out of me, I still got butterflies in my stomach before this sack race. I was behind at the half way mark but you can see me here taking it home for the victory! Esther and Bella promptly ran up and congratulated me...it was a good moment. :-) |
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| Easter Sunday at our wonderful, little church - Knox Presbyterian. We continue to be thankful for this wonderful, vibrant, living community of Jesus-followers that has welcomed our family in. We had breakfast, service, and a great egg hunt together. |
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| Post-egg hunt loot. We were happy for some non-sugar prizes. Check out the projectile noise maker! |
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| Egg Hunt 5 of 5 (my favorite). After Bella, Esther and I dyed eggs on Saturday, I followed in my dad's footsteps and hid them all over the apartment (high and low). The girls (and I) loved it, and we didn't forget where any eggs were! |
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| Waiting for their Easter presents... |
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| Fun baby-doll carriers! We have been getting a bit more interested in our dolls as we prepare for baby brother. |
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| To finish out a really great Easter, we had a potluck dinner with some of our close friends out here - it was such a joy. They love our girls really well. We sang and the girls danced; we go to know each other more; we lived in the reality of Jesus' life. |
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We had a great Holy Week and Easter Weekend remembering Jesus' death for us and celebrating his resurrection-
Esther quote at bedtime on Friday, "Dadda, I think it should be called Sad Friday and Good Friday because it was sad that Jesus died but it was good for us that he died so we can live."
Every time we hang out with our friends out here who don't have kids, they comment on the fact that Esther and Bella are always having fun. I take for granted sometimes all the laughter and smiles and silliness that comes with being 2 and 4 years old. I am really thankful for those.
Whenever baby brother decides to make his grand entrance (due date is actually 4/11), my mom is going to hop on a plane to help out with the girls for a week. Janelle's parents are planning on coming out for bit when Sandy leaves. We are grateful for the help. For some reason, the seminary doesn't offer the same 2 weeks of paternity leave that First Pres Boulder so graciously offers its staff!! So whenever baby brother arrives, I'm going to have to be managing schoolwork at the same time. I think it is going to be good practice in hard work and in not getting overly concerned about grades (the latter is going to be harder for me!).
I have some great classes this quarter -
- OT Writings (Psalms, Proverbs, Esther, Ruth, Chronicles, etc) with one of the legendary profs here - an older English man who tells it like it is.
- Isaiah 1-39 in Hebrew - this is going to be my toughest class. It applies my previous two quarters of Hebrew learning in an in depth study of Isaiah. I'm sure I'll learn a lot.
- Grief, Loss, Death, and Dying - what an important class for many reasons, especially for being a pastor. Last week we had to write our own obituary, epitaph, and eulogy; sounds morbid, but it was a really beneficial exercise.
- Perspectives on Christ and Culture - taught by the president of Fuller, another legend, Dr. Richard Mouw. It is a total privilege learning from Dr. Mouw because he is so well read and brilliant and faithful to Christ and theologically deep while also bringing an amazingly broad appreciation for the whole world. The question of the class is, "how do Christians engage with human culture?"
- Preaching practicum - a chance to keep growing as a preacher. I know I need that!
We will be back in Boulder for the summer, from mid-June to mid-August, hoping to find any kind of job to save some money for Scotland (any tips are welcomed). I hope I get to see many of you then!
Jesus is risen...Happy Easter!
Forrest
