A New Creation

Today marked the end of March, the end of our excellent Esther Bible Study, and the beginning of a new little life. After the Bible Study, mom went to pick up Hope and Josiah from the kid's area where they were teaching about Jesus preparing a place for those who love him. Hope got it in her head that Jesus' place is a kingdom, kinda like a castle. As we were getting her coat on, Hope told mom that she was ready to have Jesus live in her heart because she wanted to see His castle. I kind of laughed it off, but asked her if she wanted to talk more about Jesus, we could do that when dad came home tonight.

Tonight, during dinner, we were talking about our day, and Hope mentioned that she wanted to see Jesus and his castle one day. So we asked Hope is she wanted to know about asking Jesus into her life. She said, "yes". Dad described Adam and Eve, sin, our separation from the Holy God, why Jesus had to die, Jesus as the pure sacrifice and being the only one who could truly save us from ourselves. Then, he described that all of us had to individually accept this gift and open our hearts to invite Jesus into our hearts. Jesus would come and become Lord of our lives and we would be forever His. As he was describing all of these concepts to a little four year old, Hope was nodding and accepting these ideas. In our hearts, we could sense that this was REALLY happening, and that this was a truly wonderful moment. Hope had never wanted to hear the entire story and she was never positive about these ideas. She would always say that she was not ready to hear it and that she'd ask Jesus to come into her life when she got older.

Hope then said, "I don't want Satan in my heart anymore. It took until I became 4 to ask Jesus into my heart." So we all knelt down and dad led Hope in the sinner's prayer. Hope just had to ad lib her own thoughts, thanking Jesus etc. It was such a wonderful moment that mom was crying and freaking Hope out, but Hope was pretty excited that the little "seedling" is growing in her heart.

As we sat back down at the dinner table to finish our mangoes, Hope said, "Now Heaven will have three rooms: one for mom, one for dad, and one for me. But Josiah doesn't get a room yet because He doesn't have Jesus yet".

The newest citizen of Heaven, right after the prayer

I think she understands what just happened...

Celebrating by eating mom's favorite fruit

Paxton celebrating by preparing for April Fool's Day

Why Asian blonds are just NOT cool

Maybe it was because of Lisa mildly injuring her knee running in February because she didn't warm up on a freezing day and couldn't run for two weeks. Or maybe it was because of Paxton's March 5K run and Hope's determination to run again and again. But something caused Paxton to one day ask if he should do the Pikes Peak Ascent, and we all shrugged our shoulders, "Sure, why not?" Then, a few days later, Lisa looked up and asked if she should run a half-marathon this year and everyone said, "why not?" Ever since, it has been wild just thinking about training to run 13.1 miles. Paxton's race is a bit more daunting, as he has to run a half-marathon up to Pikes Peak with other lunatics (Hey - Matt K!). Lisa's race is more along the lines of reality, American Discovery Trail.

It has been fun training, thinking about running in a race again. Last year, Paxton did a few 5K runs and his first sprint triathlon. Lisa did her first 10K. But this year, we wanted to go the long distance...to start training with the big dogs. Our ultimate goal is to run a marathon next year. Thus, the cool books, Marathoning for Mortals by John Bingham, and Daniel's Running Formula. It has inspired us to take it slow, to enjoy the journey, and to get that MEDAL!!!

If anyone is interested in joining us in this life goal, let us know!!! By the way, Hope will be doing some of her own races this year. She has been training along with mom and dad. She's a marathoner in the makings!!!

Spring has Sprung

What a lovely day to dye some Easter eggs! Hope had been bugging mom to do it for three weeks, and mom finally had the energy to get the dye and eggs out.






We thought that Josiah would break some eggs. Turned out, Josiah was very delicate with his eggs, and Hope ended up breaking two eggs. Guess what color this boy likes?



Then, into the garden for some bug hunting. Josiah would NOT get near the bugs. Hope, on the other hand, wanted to touch all bugs: spiders, ants, flies, worm, etc. I told her to stay away from the spiders...

St. Paddy's Day 5K

We headed downtown for the annual St.Paddy's Day run, where 1500 runners brought in the spring weather:

Getting warmed up for the race. It was 35 F when Paxton started...brrrr

There's Paxton in a sea of green

Ahhh! If running only looked so easy

Here's Hope warming up for the kid's race! Mom had to run with Hope so Hope wouldn't get lost in the sea of kids

Hope after the race, exclaiming that she didn't even break a sweat. Half way through the race, she wanted to quit, but Mom put Tigger in front of her, and she ran the last half trying to chase Tigger.

Our two winners!
Next stop, Dad runs the Pikes Peak Ascent!!!