Here in the Mead household, we have four girls with four birthdays in four weeks! This makes for a busy, but fun time. Here are a few photos of our celebrations:
Miss Kaylah was 2 on February 1st. What a delight this little girl is to our whole family!
She brings us so much joy every day.
Kaylah’s getting really good at talking now and stringing together words into sentences.
Most of her sentences start with, “Kaylah . . . ” She refers to herself as Kaylah instead of using “I” or “me” . . . pretty cute.
She still likes books . . . and dressing up too . . . even while being changed!
Aliyah turned 11 on February 5th. We thank God for this girl who has such a diligent and loving heart. Here she is with a couple friends and the gum ball machine cake they made together.
Our sweet Mariah turned 9 on February 19th. We love her kind heart and very sparkly smile.
Mariah requested a Robin Hood Party so we had her friends over last Sunday for the big event. She dressed up as Maid Marion. A good friend helped me organise the party and made the beautiful sign with Mariah’s name and the “bullseye” cookies and Robin Hood cake!
Sweet Mariah with her Robin Hood cake. (yes she ended up with two cakes this year . . .the heart one on her real birthday!)
The kids had fun watching the Disney Robin Hood film, having a treasure hunt and eating too.
The boys even had a sword fight! (Joel is on the left)
And the fourth birthday . . . an exciting one . . . Hannah became a teenager on March 2nd! She is maturing into a lovely young lady and we are excited to see her launch into this next phase of growing up.
I decided to start a tradition of taking our girls away overnight for a mother-daughter time when they turn 13. Han and I had a really special time together . . we stayed at a B&B, went out for a meal and then went shopping the next day.
So our celebrations are over now . . . at least for a few weeks! We won’t tell you how old Peter is going to be next month. 🙂 We are incredibly thankful for our four precious girls (and Joel too of course!) Please keep praying for us as we need so much wisdom and love each day as we try to raise them to know and love Jesus.
Here are a couple more photos that I couldn’t resist including in this post:
The kids love playing down by the brook near our house . . hours of fun with mud and water!
Mr. Joel is always ready to play some kind of military make-believe. He is becoming an expert on World War I and II just through reading things on his own!
Who know tortillas (wraps) had so many uses?
Here’s Kaylah all bundled up. We’ve had a few lovely spring-like days but winter still feels like its hanging on for the moment.
Thank you so much for your prayers for us. We still hope to send out an email update very soon! We continue to be encouraged by things at Trinity Chippenham and Cor Deo too. We look forward to reporting more.
God has been gracious in helping us through these past months, especially through weeks of stubborn illness and the sadness of losing our baby. We can feel our hearts slowly healing although sometimes it feels like two steps forward and one step back. Even though life is back to “normal,” tears still come easily at times for me. But our Father has been comforting us through the ups and downs and the variety of emotions. I am reassured to know from others that this is not something you just “get over” but over time God does heal even though the sadness is always there in some way.
A friend gave me a book the other day: Invest Your Suffering, by Paul Mallard. The author relates his own story of suffering, dealing with the long-term debilitating illness of his wife. He tells the story of a sleepless night and how the Lord reminded him of a verse: “As for God, his way is perfect” and how it brought him tremendous comfort. The next morning he found it came from Psalm 18:30 . . . the rest of the verse is: “Every word of the Lord proves true. He is a shield for all who take refuge in Him.” I was reading this in the book the other night before bed. When Peter and I went to read a Psalm together, guess what Psalm we were up to in our nightly reading? Psalm 18. And then the very next day, I went to a friend’s house and guess what verse she had up on her chalkboard in her kitchen? Psalm 18:30. Wow. I love the tenderness of our God and how He speaks to us through His Word.
