Bernheim Forest

   A couple of days ago we visited Bernheim Forest which is outside of Louisville, KY. It was such an amazing place; I am sure we will be going back. We barely scratched the surface!  It was so great to be outdoors surrounded by green, green, green everywhere!!! There were so many different trees and plants.  The kids enjoyed exploring so much and Jack and Emma had a lot of fun identifying some different things they had learned in botany this year. (Hey! You know who! Botany is not boring! ;-)) 

 Walking on a trail...Janey Kate walked a really long way that day up and down hills.

 We passed an area where different faere homes were built. The kids are ready to build their own now.

 Creed said, "Take my picture by this little habitat. (Habitat is one of his favorite words)

 Just because...

 Some people shared some bread with us and we fed, geese, ducks, and turtles.

 We explored the are around a neat little pond. This turtle was sunning itself.

 One of several frogs we saw.  God's design in camouflage is amazing.

 We saw lots of lichen and moss.  The forest was so damp compared to Texas. We were amazed at how wet(and cool) everything was and the wide variety of vegetation.

 Mom! Mom!  It is a squirrel barrow.  We think he meant burrow.

 See the moth?

 We went into an educational center and they had this amazing beehive. I don't know if you can see the tube by the hand but that is how the bees fly in and out.

 Walking across a model of the land in this region.  The knobs region is the area of Kentucky that is characterized by a lot of hills the same size. If you look out across the countryside, you can clearly see rolling hills of the same size. It is my favorite region.

 How Louisville bats are made.

They had all these pieces of woods for the kids to build with.

Creed, being very thoughtful and purposeful about what he was doing. I wish I had taken a picture of his finished product. He built a spider habitat and it was really neat and he explained what each part was.

 We finished up with a picnic snack and play in this great children's play area. There was a playground but even better than that lots of different things to explore and rocks to climb on. If we lived near by, I'd take them there all the time, stretch out with a good book and let them play and explore. The grand finale was JK's first trip to an outhouse, but I have no photographic evidence of that!

Creed turns 5!

Now that he is five he is all cool you know.

He has been just crazy about working with wood lately. He doesn't know it but he has a present that was delayed in getting here that is a montessori-type woodworkig tools with a drill and saw that really work along with a hammer and tape measure and a book of ideas. I can't wait until he gets it.

Blowing out his candles.

Showing off his birthday outfit. I happened to be testing a new pattern from Peek-a-boo pattern shop this week and made these shorts from the pattern called Coastal Craze Baggies. I love how they turned out and he loves them because they are soft and comfortable. I made the shirt(stenciled and painted) because he is always wanting a puppy and my facebook friends like to joke about #teamcreed that wants him to get a puppy. He was terribly happy to get a puppy on a shirt!

Showing off his mad jumping skills.

I could eat him up!

"Mom, help me be more stable. This isn't very stable."

 

Birthday goggles for a birthday boy going for a birthday swim.

 

 

He has been doing great this week learning to swim.

He was so worn out from the day that he fell asleep in the car at 6:30 dropping his sisters off at youth group. We were headed to Jack's baseball game but headed home instead to work on his new legos he got from Grandma.

A Crazy Amount of Pictures from the Antique Rose Emporium and Royers Cafe

A Letter of Peace and Comfort

   Not long ago, a friend asked me a question regarding the loss of a child and heaven.  I don't remember the specific question, and I didn't have an answer for her, but I shared the following letter with her. It was written by J. Knox Chamblin, a former professor at Reformed Theological Seminary, after the death of our son Matthew Knox.  Our Knox was named for Knox Chamblin and the theologian John Knox so that alone made the letter precious to us. Knox Chamblin has since joined Matthew Knox in heaven.  I was asked to share this on my blog and so I am!

Dear Jon and Rachel:

Ginger and I want you to know of or love for you, and of our prayers on your behalf since we learned of the death of your son Knox. I know we cannot enter fully into your present experience, for it is one we have not shared. But we are parents and granparents; and when I try to think how I would feel if one were suddenly to be taken from me, I can identify to some degree with your present grief and loss.

I know that the ways of God are often impenetrable to our finite minds, and that many of our experiences in this life are very hard, or impossible, to understand.  But I also know that the suffereings and sorrows of this life help to prepare us for the life to come, and that when Jesus returns he will grant to his people gorious resurrection bodies - bodies fit for life in the heavenly kingdom. Paul 'rejoiced in the hope of the glory of God,' even as he experienced affliction and sorrow. In fact, if I read Romans 5: 2-5 aright, it was especially his sufferings that caused his hope to grow.

In heaven we shall participate in 'the communion of saints' to a degree that we can now neither experience nor scarcely imagine. I believe that an integral part of that experience will be to help one another to grow in the knowlege of the Holy Trinity, and of ourselves. I believe also that you will meet your infant son in heaven, and that you will then come to know one another as you unable to do in this life.  (Job would meet no less than 20 children in heaven - the ten he lost, and the ten that God gave him in their place.) I think it is also possible that in the heavenly glory you will both be granted by God the privilege of assisting him in the spiritual nurture of your son - just as you son will then be a channel of God's love to you.

May God grant to you his very own consolation. May he overwhelm you by his holy and merciful and gentle and mighty presence. may he pitch his tent beside you and hold you in his fatherly embrace.  May he quieten you with his love, and rejoice over you with singing (Zephaniah 3:17).  And may the Holy Spirit cause his fruit to ripen in your lives - especially peace and joy (Galatians 5:22).  I thank God for your family, our times together at RTS, and your present place of service.

Your brother in Christ,

Knox Chamblin.