God's symbols...

Emily- May 2004 Allie- May 2004
Zack- May 2004
Jenny- May 2004
Sophie- May 2004

Happy Easter! The pictures above are from almost exactly 5 years ago, when Zack, the girls and I were all baptized by immersion at Fellowship Church in Grapevine, TX! Aren't they wonderful pictures? I thought they would be a fitting symbol on this Easter Sunday! Before I write anything else, I want everyone to watch this youtube clip- it's beyond amazing! But before you can watch it, you need to scroll to the very bottom of my blog and pause the music. Also, this clip is almost 9 minutes, and you may think at the beginning, oh I've heard all this before...but hang in there! It gets VERY interesting as it goes on! It will be worth your time...

Wasn't that AMAZING?? On this beautiful Easter Sunday, I was gifted with two symbols of God's love and sacrifice for us. The first was when Zack brought this video clip to me this morning, completely out of the blue! He simply said to me you need to watch this. When I asked him how he found out about it (I was assuming it was an Easter message), he told me that someone had shown it to him several months ago. Well, I found that VERY interesting- I had been looking for the perfect thing to share on my Easter post, and the fact that Zack showed up with this at the perfect moment??? Well, I'm calling it divine intervention! And it wasn't the only SYMBOL that God showed me today! I was also blessed with a visitor. The kids were in the living room this morning, and all of a sudden they started yelling for Zack and me to come and look out the window. Josh was running to get Emily's camera, and the other kids were just standing and staring out the window as I entered the room. I followed their gaze, and immediately saw what they were all so excited about- a red cardinal. And not just any red cardinal, but the brightest, most beautiful cardinal I have ever seen! If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed that a cardinal could look so awesome! Unfortunately, it flew away before any of us could get a picture, BUT I SAW IT!! We went back into the kitchen, and Zack began to tell us how his grandfather used to say that the cardinal is a symbol of Jesus dying for our sins. I immediately went and googled it, and he was right! The cardinal does represent the blood that Jesus shed on the cross when He died to save us from our sins! It's usually associated with Christmas, but I thought it was a most appropriate symbol for Easter! And the fact that we had the most beautiful cardinal ever sitting right outside our window...divine intervention!

We spent the rest of the day doing the normal Easter stuff, and although it was pouring rain outside, we enjoyed our time of rest and being together as a family. Here are some of the pictures we took- I put the rest on the slide show for our die-hard fans (Mom)!

Here's some of the gang on their way down the stairs to check out what the Easter bunny left for us...

7 little baskets, all in a row...
Jenny and Jake (with a mouthful of candy!)...
two little boys- I thought this was so sweet...
We went to church last night, so we were able to enjoy a quiet day at home:) After the egg hunt, we had omlettes, and then we decorated some eggs. Lunch was egg salad, and then the kids watched the video clip about Laminin! Dinner was a kid favorite- hashbrown casserole- and we ended the day with Zack reading the Easter story from the Bible and having coconut frosted Easter cake! Here are the rest of our pics! Enjoy, and have a blessed day!

P.S. I leave you with this picture of the three girls from several years ago cuz it's Allie's favorite Easter picture!