This says it all...

Yep! School is wrapping up. :) The transition is often slow, but sure and steady. Now our "summer school" begins...out in the freshening world on the farm!

In the Quiet Misty Morning

I have to tell you...misty mornings are not quiet, any more than glowing afternoons. But the sounds are enchanting, ethereal, heavenly. The boys and Daddy had turkey licenses for this week, and I got to go along and sit with them. I dragged myself out of bed the first morning at 4:45 and wondered whether it was really going to be worth the loss of hours of sleep.

The moment I stepped out the front door I knew it would be worth it. You can have no idea of how captivating the hour before dawn is until you see it. It is better than the most appealing art or divine music. At first the minutes slip by in a deep silence, as if everything was holding its breath...even in sleep. Deep shadow is slowly invaded in wide spaces with a grey wave, and even the darkest hollows look as if the glow of life is being breathed again into them. Gray takes a gold tint, and fades into white.

Dawn cracks on the horizon, and for a moment, a highway straight to the sun shoots over the next hill. Everything comes fully to life in the time it takes to draw one long breath...music bubbles out in a chorus from the throats of a hundred singers. Dewdrops, glistening like diamonds, crown every blade of grass, so that the meadow before me is encrusted with the most perfectly exquisite jewels. The whole world thrills with a swelling breeze, dancing to a song deeper than the foundations of the earth and higher than the farthest stretches of the sky.

I will never forget mornings like this. The Spirit of our wonderful Creator is so near and evident in all He has made. His fingerprints are on all creation. There is not a single blade of grass or towering tree that doesn’t testify to His wonderful gift of life. The greatest artist, He pours everything about Himself in everything He makes. I suppose it must be the aspiration of any good artist to put thought into every detail of his work. Apparent in God's work is His mind and heart. He created "good art." This original art is not only detailed and beautiful from a distance. No matter how deep you look into it, the picture is just as complex and stunningly beautiful as the larger scene. It is captivatingly magnificent down to the last atom. There is nothing in it that does not simply shout the glory of our Creator.

"But now ask the beasts, and they will teach you; and the birds of the air, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you; and the fish of the sea will explain to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this, in whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind?" Job 12:7-10

A Family Hunt...

Daddy and the boys always hunt turkey in the spring, but this year, they decided they wanted the girls with them. I (Emily) went out to sit with them two other times last week, but Daddy persuaded Mama and Aubrey to join us for the last hunt of the season!

It was a glorious afternoon!

I walked out with Charlie. We were going to sit on the other side of this beautiful horse pasture when we spotted a Tom with two hens just inside the tree line...

Unfortunately, there were also three does browsing in this clearing. They spooked; and that spooked the turkeys...

Charlie and I hit the brush and he called for a while, but never got a response. So he took me on a little scouting trip all over this ridge and hill.

We kept getting glimpses through the trees of the afternoon light flooding our valley. The boys really don't talk much about scenery on the hunting trips; which really isn't terribly surprising considering how focused they are on the quarry, so it was a real treat to get to see all the beautiful things they witness every time they go out!

Children Rise Up...

Charlie and Garrison were asked to speak about their adoption story at an adoption seminar recently. It was a blessing to be able to watch them verbalize the ways God has worked in our family through adoption.

Good job boys!!!

We call Her Blessed!

What a devoted, diligent, wise, loving, faithful mother God has given us! The Six Arrows "rise up and call her blessed, her husband also, and he praises her: 'Many daughters have done well, but you excel them all.'"