A Wedding in Illinois

This weekend, Michael and I took a trip to Illinois to attend a wedding. We traveled the eight hours down on Friday, spent the night at my Aunt and Uncle's, visited with our brother Dan and sister-in-love Basia and their two boys on Saturday, going with them to the wedding. It was Basia's nieces wedding. Yvonne is Polish while the man she married, Juan, is Mexican. It made for an interesting wedding! They had some beautiful music and Yvonne walked down the isle to "Be Thou My Vision", it was so beautiful. Then we went the reception were Michael had been asked to play piano. He played for forty-five minutes and did an astounding job, over-coming the obstacle of a way-out of tune piano, people talking to him while he played, a little nephew "helping" him play and me getting distracted from turning pages for him. He did really well!

During the dinner they had a mariachi band come in and play Mexican music for a long time, it was nice though rather loud. We spent the night again at our Aunt and Uncle's place and returned home on Sunday. We had a nice visit with Dan and Basia and the boys and with our Aunt Charis who spoiled us terribly! :-)

Juan and Yvonne


Dan and Basia, Kristofer (almost 2) and Noah (7 months)

My two brothers!

Noah and I

Michael and Noah

Kristofer

Noah

On the trip home I came down with a bad headache, even Tylenol would not take it away, so Michael drove more than half of the trip. Finally he had to stop and pick up a mountain dew, he let me have some and shortly my headache was gone and I was able to drive again, amazing what caffeine can do! We are very thankful to the Lord for a good trip and for bringing us home safely!

This spring is so beautiful, we are really enjoying it! Today we have a whopping temperature of 88 degrees! Right now I am a little over-whelmed with all the things that need to be done for the garden, it always seems that there is such a short time span in which to squeeze tons of work. Each day must be taken individually and the priorities of that day accomplished. Otherwise, if I lump all the tasks together, they appear to be a mountain that will never be brought down and that is exactly what I tend to do! I have to tell myself to just take it a day at a time, plough through it, things will eventually get done.

God is so faithful, He is so kind and merciful to us! I was thinking about this on our way home from the trip, how He so lovingly answers prayer. Chicago driving can be very stressful and there are many places where you have to merge into traffic, through example my Mom taught me to pray and ask the Lord to make a good clearing while I am merging and God does show Himself faithful every time. The one time I forgot to ask, I had a very hard and a little bit harry time merging, it made me aware of God's faithfulness.

I am so thankful to the Lord that He hears our prayers, He is such a wonderfully kind Father! This makes me think of the work Jesus did on the cross for me, because without Him I would not be able to reach God with my prayers. Proverbs 28:9 "He that turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination." and Lamentations 3:44 "You have covered yourself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through." But now I can come boldly before the throne of grace, where I obtain mercy and grace to help in time of need, (Hebrews 4:16) because Jesus has taken the wrath of God for me and opened up the way into the Holiest of Holies, Hebrews 10:14-22 "For by one offering he has perfected forever them that are sanctified. The Holy Spirit also is a witness to us: for after this he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he has consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having a high priest over the house of God; Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water." He has washed away all my sins and cast them into the depth of the deepest sea, I bear them no more, Micah 7:18-19 "Who is a God like unto you, who pardons iniquity, and passes by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retains not his anger forever, because he delights in mercy. He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and you will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea." Jesus Christ has reconciled me to God and that is why I can come boldly before the God and Creator of the universe! 2Corinthians 5:19 "...God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and has committed unto us the word of reconciliation." Praise God!