Our family has never been very “extra” for birthdays but lately it just seems like we all need things to distract us and bring on some smiles. My motto lately has been “We’re making memories!” And with a tiny bit of supplemental income from my part-time job we are able to say yes to extras!

Jake turned 40 years old last week and we decided to celebrate with a quick trip about an hour away. We found a small AirBNB with a pond out front for fishing and a local state park close by with frisbee golf.

We spent most of the weekend sleeping in and enjoying not having a schedule! And fishing for catfish with some hot dogs.

On the night of Jake’s actual birthday we went to a restaurant at the top of a mountain that had outside seating in a bubble. I am not exactly sure how else to describe this experience, so hopefully pictures will help.

The food was delicious and the whole experience was so special. Malachi loved the echo of the bubble and the frequent zipper noise that happened when the waitress came in and out. They were comfortably heated too!

We drove back down the mountain and got settled back in the rental…and then BOOM! The stomach flu enter the scene about 30 minutes later. We definitely made memories that weekend…not all great memories but definitely unforgettable experiences haha.

We have spent this last week at home getting back to normal and re-entering the world again.

Next up on the calendar is Malachi’s birthday! With all of the hard things that Malachi has coming up we thought it was a good year to make it extra special. We rented the local skating rink and sent an invite home with every student at his small school.

Leading up to the day Malachi was giggly every time we talked about his party. When the day officially came he actually seemed a little nervous.

But those nerves disappeared quickly when his friends showed up and started fighting over who got to take him on the next lap around the rink!

His joy was contagious, and for several of the kids there that was the first time they had seen that silly side of Malachi. He was definitely in his element out there with his friends!

I was talking to him about the party tonight and his smile just melted my heart.

We definitely made some memories, and I am so thankful we will have some recent fun things to look back on! He will officially turn 12 on Tuesday and lights up anytime I mention it.

Levi did surprisingly well on the rink too, falling often but getting right back up again.

Sometimes when I look at Levi I forget about the journey that he has been on and the challenges he faces. But here is my sweet boy with cerebral palsy and so many other challenges skating unassisted on a rink. God has been so good to our family.

This week Levi will do a check-in with the neurologist to discuss his epilepsy and cerebral palsy. This should be an uneventful appointment as he is doing really well right now. We do need to see if his seizure meds need to be weight adjusted based on how much he has grown.

The boys and I will head to Vanderbilt on Wednesday for all of Malachi’s pre-op appointments with the spine surgeon and anesthesia. We are also knocking out his final post-op appointment from his November foot surgery. It will be a long day, but I am eager to speak with the surgeons and get a concreted plan in place. Surgery is still scheduled for February 24th.

Our children’s soccer league will start up tomorrow and we are all buzzing with excitement! This ministry league launched 4 years ago and this year we had 120 children register. The kids practice once a week and play games on Saturdays and we lead a devotional in the middle of each practice and game! What an opportunity for us to share the Good News of Christ with each of them for the next six weeks.

This season is a bit more complicated with a big surgery scheduled for the middle. Thankfully we have recruited enough volunteer coaches to step in and help the week-ish that I am out with Malachi. And it has been a good exercise for me to practice trusting God and allowing others to help.

Each year I spend months in prayer, trying to seek exactly what God wants me to share with the children. Last year we walked them through the gospel message, a week at a time. But this year the Lord has been very clear on the direction we are meant to go.

In Acts 4 Peter and John are arrested for teaching the people about Christ and His resurrection from the dead. They are taken to jail and put on trial the next day. One of the descriptions that I love the most about this scene can be found in verse 13, “Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus. And seeing the man who had been healed standing with them, they had nothing to say in reply.”

They decided to let Peter and John go, commanding them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. Their reply was so powerful in verses 19-20.

“But Peter and John answered and said to them, ‘Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge; for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.’”

It is easy to know a lot about God. You can study the Word of God and fill your head and heart with knowledge about Him. But walking in relationship with Him takes it that step further…that step to actually KNOWING Him! He is a knowable God and craves a relationship with His creation!

I have been thinking back in my life to the first encounters I had where I realized that God was a knowable God and that He truly cared to know me. When I reflect on the God moments in my life I can spot so many from childhood that were monumental in developing my faith. Moments where God saw me in my distress and intervened in beautiful ways.

If we all embraced the heart and attitude of Peter and John in this scripture and “cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard” can you imagine the fruit that that boldness could produce!

These next few weeks I will be sharing MY Jesus with the children. And I want to encourage each of you to do the same with the people in your lives. What is your greatest God story? What are the moments in which you knew without a doubt that God was living and active? And why don’t we talk about those moments more often?

Please be in prayer for a new airway buddy of ours, Hank. He has a very similar diagnosis as Levi and made it to Cincinnati yesterday after a traumatic few weeks in Nashville. He meets with Levi’s same surgeons tomorrow to figure out the next steps towards a stable airway- join us in praying for miracles for Hank!

Sincerely,

Leah