God's Grace

Sorry, no pictures on this post. I forgot my camera at home. (We don't have internet at home so I have to blog elsewhere). However, I still wanted to write and praise the Lord for His grace and mercy. My dad made it through his surgery (11 hours!!), and after a week in the hospital, he is now home and doing well considering all he's been through. God has blessed in so many ways through all of this. The doctor was terrific; he was one of the few doctors that actually came out to the waiting room periodically to tell us how it was going (most of the others just phone news in). My dad responded well to the surgery and is progressing well. Rocky, who spent the day with me in the waiting room, was great! No fussiness or anything! Praise the Lord! Two of the ladies from church, Cindy and Nancy, came to sit with my mom and me for a few hours. The Lord is so gracious! Thank you to all of you who have been praying!
As to our family, we are doing well. Gracie is saying more and more words. Her latest is "cado" for the avocado I let her try last night. (She didn't like it. She made quite a face, but tried to eat it anyway). We moved Rocky into Gracie's room this week. We'd been putting it off because he had been waking up early, but we finally decided we just had to do it. I thought it might be tough for Gracie because he might wake her up. I was wrong. She thought it was a party! When I went to get them on the first morning they were together, she was standing in her crib babbling away to him excitedly, and he was laughing at her. It was such a sweet moment to see them enjoying each other so much.
Gracie is becoming very helpful, too. She'll put Rocky's clothes in the laundry basket for me and get his pacifier for him when he drops it. She loves to have baby wipes; she tries to help me clean the table with them. She's a riot when I try to wipe her face after she eats. I'll wipe her face, and she'll say, "knee, knee" because she wants me to clean her knee, too. As Lou pointed out, she's like the apostle Peter when he doesn't want to the Lord to wash his feet and then decides he wants the Lord to wash his head, his hands, etc.
Rocky is getting more and more active, rolling a lot, and grabbing for toys...and hair (ouch!). We're still waiting for him to sit up. He's almost there; he's just such a big guy. He's got a lot of weight to support. He's almost ready to go to a bigger car seat (about a pound away). Lou and I are busy as usual. Lou's trying to keep up with all the duties of ministry, and I've been busy getting a going-away party together for Nancy, a lady in our church who is moving away. I'll try to remember my camera next time; the kids are changing so fast!

Play Time!

Gracie reading to her baby. She pretends to read now. She'll open up a book and babble away; she even turns the pages! Every now and then I hear an actual word. She is starting to really love singing, too. Her current favorite songs are "The Wheels on the Bus" and "Happy Birthday." She'll say, "wheels, bus, round!" and do the hand motions. As for when we sing "Happy Birthday," she'll keep saying "again" until we've sung it to every member of the family! When I learn how to post videos on YouTube, I'll have include it on the blog.

Gracie and Rocky looking out the front window. Gracie loves to get up here and watch for Lou to come home from work.

Gracie in Daddy's shoes

It's hot and humid here on Cape Cod, and there are LOTS of tourists now. Traffic is crazy! Not like L.A. traffic, but it's still crazy because all the roads here are only two lanes. As the Cape bumper stickers say, "Slow down...you're not on the mainland!" We've enjoyed having some of the summer crowd at church, though. There are several families from like-minded churches who have summer places here, so we see them when they're here vacationing. That is one great thing about living here; we're more likely to see old friends because it's a nice spot for a vacation. We're looking forward to Phil and Darlene Johnson coming to stay with us in August. Phil will be doing a conference for us.
Thanks for all of you who have been praying for my dad. He will be having surgery tomorrow to remove the rest of the tumor. We would greatly appreciate your continued prayers. It's a major surgery, and there are some risks involved. I'm planning to sit with my mom at the hospital, but I'll have to bring Rocky since he's nursing (he refuses bottles; we waited too long!). Please pray that he'll do well since we're expecting to be there about 8 hours. At least, I can take him outside if he gets noisy. Gracie will spend the day with Lou. Hopefully, this will take care of the cancer; I'm so glad to know that God is sovereign over all these things. He is so faithful!
On a lighter note, last time I posted the picture of the sign about the deaf cat. Yesterday, we had another crazy Cape Cod sighting! Down the street from the church, we noticed a fenced area is one of the neighbor's yards. They're raising llamas!!!! Who would have thought? We had to pull over to make sure we were seeing correctly...

Lots of Pictures

This was the sunset the other night at Corporation Beach...I wish we had a better zoom on the camera. The picture really doesn't do it justice. Praise the Lord for His creation!

Gracie and Rocky playing on our bed this morning

I went in to get Gracie the other morning and found this. I don't know how she twisted her shirt to look like this (it's actually just a regular T-shirt).

The next morning when I went in, she figured out how to get her shirt off altogether!

Lou and Gracie at the beach

Rocky catching up on some reading

Gracie, Rocky, and Mommy

We took the kids to the beach the other day. Gracie was playing with her pail and shovel on the beach towel. Then, before we could stop her, she used the shovel like a spoon and ate a mouthful of sand! I think she actually swallowed it, although Lou tried to get it out of her mouth.

Lou and Rocky being silly

Rocky playing on the floor with the frog. He loves this frog; thanks, Diane!

Only on Cape Cod...yes, this is a real sign in someone's yard. We HAD to take a picture. I love that they actually show the cat with a horn!

It's been another busy week for us with something going on almost every night. Seminary really was good preparation for how time-consuming and busy ministry is! Lou's been out the last few Tuesday nights at the local cable studio taping preaching videos. They air twice a week on the local mid-Cape cable station. We've been doing it for a little while now, but it's pretty time consuming. There's a group from church who help run the cameras, equipment, etc., but Lou has to do all the editing and burning to a DVD. The cable channel is a community channel, so the it's open to the public for a small fee, but we have to do all the taping, editing, and so on ourselves. We hope that God will use this to help us reach the community.
The kids are growing so fast! Rocky is 6 months old now. He just had a check up on Monday, and he weighs 20 lbs.! He and Gracie are only 5 lbs. apart now! He's tall for his age, too, so he's really not a chubby baby, just big. Gracie's on the small side, but we praise the Lord that she's healthy. She's talking more and more. She can say "Cape Cod", "Get down please", and her latest is "morning" for "Good Morning". She's figured out how to climb on the couch without help, so she's busy putting her doll up there and then climbing up with a book to read to her doll. She still loves Rocky. She's always hugging and kissing him and bringing him toys. I hope they grow up having a close relationship.

Visiting Grandma & Grandpa

Playing at Grandma's house (a little ray of sunlight fell on Rocky's mouth; it looks like he's eating a french fry...)

Playing on the little bridge

Getting ready for the 4th of July!

Rocky making funny faces

On Thursdays, we usually visit Grandma and Grandpa (Amy's parents). Gracie loves to play outside; they have a little wooden bridge that she likes to walk on. Praise the Lord, my dad is done with chemo and radiation now, and the tumor has shrunk quite a bit. He also had a clean catscan (the cancer hasn't spread), and if all continues to go well, he will have surgery on July 7th. Please keep him in prayer as this is major surgery (it's supposed to take 8 hours!!!). God has taught us all a lot through this. We have continually been reminded that God is sovereign, and He is trustworthy. He has been (and continues to be) so faithful through all of this. How wonderful it is that God can and does use every circumstance for His glory!

Outdoor Fun

Gracie with a flower and a pine cone. It's amazing how much she enjoys simple things. I should be more grateful...

Gracie in front of our house

Rocky sporting his Indiana Jones look...

Gracie showing me her hand (it looks like she's doing a cheer)

Gracie with lilacs and a big rhododendron; I love the smell of lilacs! That and the scent of beach roses make me think of summer on the Cape!

It's finally starting to feel like summer around here with some temperatures in the 80s. Gracie and Rocky really love being outside. Gracie and I will walk down our street with Rocky in the stroller, and she will stop and pick up every pine cone and leaf that she can. She loves flowers, too, as you can see from the pictures. My mom and dad got a little inflatable pool for her, too; I'm looking forward to seeing what she thinks of it!
This has been a busy week; it seems like we've had dinner with someone different every night! Our friends James and Courtney Dolezal are here on vacation, so we have enjoyed some time with them. Gracie has enjoyed playing with their son Judah. Lou is getting ready do a wedding vow renewal ceremony on Saturday. One of the deacons, Paul, and his wife Sally are celebrating their 50th anniversary and asked Lou to renew their vows. My aunt and uncle, three cousins, and my cousin's fiance are all flying in on Saturday from Utah to visit. We're looking forward to seeing them. I haven't seen most of them since we got married, and that was over 7 years ago now.
Praise the Lord! We've had some good news with my dad. He did have to have surgery to put a feeding tube in yesterday since he's had so much trouble getting food down (he's lost about 50 lbs. in the last two months). But, when they were doing the surgery, the radiation doctor checked the tumor, and it looks like it's shrunk about 70%! My dad will finish chemo/radiation at the end of next week, and they'll do another catscan to make sure the cancer hasn't spread. If all looks good, he'll have a five week break and then surgery to remove the rest of the tumor. We are so grateful that the Lord has allowed such a good prognosis. With this type of cancer, there is not usually such a good outcome. When I was reading info at the American Cancer Society online, it said that most people with this type of cancer would be doing well to live for 5 years. Thankfully, in my dad's case, they think they will be able to completely eradicate it. God is so gracious!
Rocky and Gracie are both doing well. Gracie is starting to recognize and name some numbers and letters. She knows "H" really well. She's getting more resourceful, too, dragging the footstool over to the couch so she can climb up on it and look out the window. Rocky has learned how to blow raspberries (why do they call them that???), and it's really funny...except when he does it while I'm trying to feed him his cereal. What a mess that is!! He has started to have some veggies, too. As unappetizing as baby food veggies look, I couldn't help but think as I fed him how good God is to give us so many types of food. How bland life would be if all we ever ate was milk and rice cereal!
Lou is still very busy, no surprise there, but he's great about making sure he has time with us. Mondays are his day off, and we usually try to do something together as a family. Last Monday, we went to Chatham, a little Cape town about 15 minutes from us. It has a really quaint Main St. with lots of little shops. We walked around with the kids and enjoyed being outside. It felt like we were on vacation, and we were only a few minutes from home! I guess that's one of the blessings of being on Cape Cod!

Happy Birthday, Mommy!

Amy's 29th Birthday

the 2 Roccos: Rocky with Great-Grandpa Rocco

Can we have cake yet?

Daddy and Rocky

Lou surprised me and took the day off work to be with me for my birthday. We decided to drive out to the Outer Cape, the very tip of Massachusetts. I hadn't been in years, and Lou had never driven all the way to the end. Here is Nauset Light in Eastham...very Cape Cod.

Gracie at the boardwalk at Nauset Beach. It's really beautiful. Lou got me paints, brushes, and an easel for my birthday because I'd mentioned I'd like to learn to paint. (I have a friend who does it and gives lessons). If I can learn, I'd love to be able to paint some of these places instead of taking pictures!

Gracie and I looking at the Three Sisters lighthouses: They used to be along the middle part of the Outer Cape in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The three lighthouses signaled the middle while there was one lighthouse near the tip, and two lighthouses near the bottom in the Lower Cape. Now each location has just one lighthouse, each with a different flashing pattern so boats can identify where they are. These three are preserved in a park near Nauset Beach. Just a little history for you...

More scenic pics from our drive

Catching Up

Gracie waiting to go to church
Finally, a picture of them together!
Tummy time!
Roses for Mother's Day..and two white roses (I don't know if you can really tell from the picture), one from Gracie and one from Rocky

Gracie wearing Mommy's shoes...I'm amazed she can walk in them. And, of course, she's carrying one of her Biscuit books. She loves Biscuit; we read those books over and over and over. I think I can recite all of them! She also loves the Sandra Boynton board books, especially Hippos Go Berserk! and Pajama Time!--very cute and enjoyable for adults, too
Gracie on her cell phone. She's a riot talking on the phone. She'll babble on and on and then pause like she's listening to someone talk back to her. Then, babble, babble, babble, with an occasional "Mommy" or "Ocky" thrown in...so cute!
Rocky has started his solids! He's having rice cereal in the morning and at night. He's still working on learning to eat from a spoon. We put a bite in his mouth...and then put in back in about four more times. It's teaching us patience. =)
Gracie in her pretty dress that her great-grandmother knitted for her.
Gracie sporting her hood. Anytime we put a sweatshirt or jacket on her, she pats the top of her head to indicate that she wants to wear the hood. I thought most kids didn't like hoods???

I'm trying to make up for not blogging in two weeks and for finally uploading more pictures to my computer. We are all doing well. Last week, we had our friends the Risers come and visit. Lou and I enjoyed the fellowship with Chris and Alisa, and Gracie enjoyed playing with Johanna and getting Josiah to read books to her--one of her favorite pasttimes. My dad started his chemo today, and he began his radiation yesterday. He'll have radiation 5 days a week and chemo once a week for the next 6 weeks or so. Please keep him in prayer and my mom, too, of course. We are grateful to the Lord for good doctors; hopefully, we'll all be a testimony to them through all of this.

Please continue to keep Lou in prayer as he ministers to the church. There is always so much to be done, and we thank the Lord for the opportunity to serve. We pray that the Lord will be glorified here, and that we will find more ways to reach out to the community. We continue to pray that the Lord would raise up another elder to come alongside Lou. We are looking forward to having Phil and Darlene Johnson here with us in August; Phil will be preaching a few times at the church. We hope the Lord would use this as another means of outreach to our community. Thanks for all your prayers!