spots and walks

Little Levi has red splotches all over his face and stomach. It is the hardest thing to see him not feeling well; cold, ear infection, fever, and now a reaction to the antibiotics...thus now on Benadryl. AHHHHH!

I took Caleb and Levi into the store to buy the Benadryl today and when checking out, I looked over to my usually smiley baby, who always melts the hearts of everyone we encounter, and he was half smiling but with red spots all over his face. I then realized how truly blessed I am to have usually perfectly healthy babies!

I had just put Levi down for another nap and Caleb and I went for a walk to get the mail. On the way back, he picked up some rocks to bring back to throw in our mud puddles. We had almost reached the house when he said to me, rather loudly..."Anne! Where you go-een? Anne! You hold dis rock too? It's heavy!"

Oh my goodness!

I looked at him and started laughing out loud. He smiled and started laughing too. I said, "I'm mommy, mister." He said, "Yeah...Mommy. And I'm Caleb!"

our love story (part 2)

(Cont'd from previous post)...

He opened the door of the Suburban for me, 12 red roses in a beautiful vase were on my seat. To say I was confused, would be a gross understatement. I still didn't know where his truck had gone, and why our friend's Suburban was here. But after I overcame the shock and confusion, I heard him say, probably for the third time, "We're going for a drive!"

It was about an hour drive from Montana de Oro to our destination, which I still was unaware about. I felt I was in a fairy tale, trying to push confusion and suspicion out of my mind. Could this be the day...did he...could he have planned all this for me...for the rest of our lives? He gave me another present on the way; he had typed up and printed all of our email exchanges and some of his personal journal entries over the last year. What a precious treasure that was to me. And still the suspicion was hesitantly growing. He obviously couldn't keep from smiling the whole drive.

We pulled off the freeway about 15 minutes outside of Paso Robles, to what seemed like the middle of nowhere. But pretty soon in the distance, he pointed out a small building on top of a hill before us. It was really hard for me to receive all this planning and preparations to make a special day for me...for us! But I gathered myself together and we got out of the vehicle, and started on a hike to the top of the hill.

I remember we stopped once under one of the beautiful, ancient archways. Then we kept going to the top, it was breathtaking! When we finally arrived, I could tell Matt was a little nervous. He kept looking at the few people who were also at the top. When some of them left, he wanted me to follow him...into the chapel! What? It was locked, but somehow he had the key. We went into the chapel through a short little door on the side.

When we were inside, there was no light except the red glow coming in through the red stain glass window right behind the altar. We sat down on one of the wooden benches, and in almost complete darkness, Matt asked if I wanted to pray with him. He said that it was a miracle that we were allowed in there, and that he had made a promise to the man who gave him the key, that we would pray for him once inside. We also prayed for our future, and our relationship. Then we heard voices outside the chapel, a man and woman yelling across the courtyard..."I LOVE YOU!" and then another answered back, "I LOVE YOU TOO!" It was hilarious as we sat in silence in the chapel we were not supposed to be in, trying to not laugh out loud.

If this wasn't a proposal, I told myself this was the most amazing day I had ever had. We went back outside after we couldn't hear any voices anymore. I took a deep breath and walked out to the edge of the courtyard to see the view one more time. I heard Matt behind me so as I turned around, he was holding a box and inside that box was the most beautiful ring I had seen. He asked the question, and I said "YES!"

That was the Valentine's Day I will never forget! And this year we decided to go back and bring our children with us. I love having a special place that we can now go back to and remember how our family first started.

(If you look closely, we are all standing in front of the chapel door)

our love story (part 1)

When I remember meeting Matt, I remember I saw something in his eyes that seemed familiar to me. I really wanted to have a conversation with him...but that was harder to do than I anticipated. We were on the same Mission Leadership team through our church, and still it was hard to talk to him as he seemed to quickly excuse himself from any attempt I made.

So I mentioned to one of my friends, who happen to be married to one of Matt's best friends, that I was interested in getting to know Matt. She was ecstatic and from then on she and her husband were helping us behind the scenes, to have the opportunity to talk. After one of our Mission meetings, they worked it out that we would both ride with them to lunch. I remember talking to him about my major in college, which we seemed right away to have a little different opinion on; but I was not deterred from my quest and challenge to open this guy up. Or so I thought.

I started to pray that the Lord would have mercy on me and just give Matt a little nudge in my direction. Well that prayer lasted about eight months and still, nothing worthy of note happened. I talked to the same friend again after eight months of praying, and she encouraged me to simply change the way I was praying. She suggested that I pray he would have the courage to ask a girl out on a date, since he was really nervous to do so. So for three days, I remember praying that way, and I felt my heart shift from being me focused, to being him focused.

Sunday, March 9, 2003 was an amazing day. I arrived at church, and a little 3 year old boy, with whom I hadn't really had interaction, ran up to me and grabbed a hold of my legs and wouldn't let go. I looked at his mom, and said, "Does he know who I am?" She said he did, and that maybe it was the Lord's way of telling me that He really loves me. Sweet! The service, I remember, was really powerful for me, and again, the Lord was simply reaffirming how much He loved me. A girl came up to me and said she felt like the Lord wanted me to know that God couldn't keep his eyes off of me. This really hit me deep in my soul, just like rivers of living water refreshing me. I went to a bridal shower that day after church, and when I was leaving with one of my friends, I saw I had a voice message. I couldn't stop my excitement when I heard Matt's voice asking if I wanted to go get some coffee sometime. Me? Matt? What??? Again, the Lord was reaffirming how much he knew me and the desires of my heart.

Fast forward 11 months...I had recorded a song I had written for Matt, and I was headed over to his apartment for a Valentine's Day picnic. When he opened the door, I could tell he was acting a little different. Before we left for Montana de Oro, I played him the song I had recorded. He loved it. We headed out to Los Osos and had a wonderful picnic on the cliffs on a perfect beautiful day! We headed back to his truck except when we got there, his truck was no where to be seen. Funny, he wasn't freaking out, but pointed to a familiar looking Suburban...(to be cont'd)