Obedience

For the past week, as I’ve waited for Caden’s bus to drop him off, I’ve taken some alone time to read through the gospel of Luke. I’ve read this book several times but for some reason, I’ve hung on every single word – I’ve been engrossed in every miracle, every parable, and every word from our Saviors mouth. As I read through the pages that serve as a record of Christ’s ministry, a sense of shame came over me like never before.



For so long I’ve considered myself to be a faithful and obedient child of the Lord. I can’t count all the times I chose right over wrong. I can’t count how many times I’ve sacrificed willingly for God’s purpose. But the words in Luke really pierced my heart as I thought about true obedience. Jesus walked the earth sharing His love. It just poured out from His body not even His power could not be contained (think about the bleeding woman who simply touched His cloak and was immediately healed from 12 years of bleeding. (See Luke 8:40-48)) While He was sharing and teaching the Word, He was also preparing to be faithful and obedient to it. There He was being completely unselfish during a time that most of us would spend just thinking and doing for ourselves. He knew what was to come and still He poured out his love and wonders. How awesome!



I pray for that kind of obedience. When I’m exhausted from a long weeks work, I want to still share in the Word with others. I want to be the servant He’s molded me to be. He has plenty of awesome things in store for me, I just have to surrender to Him and be obedient in my walk. I look at Caden and think about how loving he is. The love just pours out of him. It cannot be contained. (Sound familiar?) He did not get this from Eric or me. While we show love – it certainly doesn’t always come in the pure way Caden’s does. I guess I had to become a mother to really get it, to really experience that. I now understand what Jesus was talking about when He said to become like little children . I am in awe, honestly! (Luke 9:47-48 & Matthew 18:3)



It’s no longer enough to do just enough, I want to do more. I want to be more. I want love to pour unselfishly from my heart - faithfully with obedience.

October

This month has been quite a busy month for us- so far:

- We launched a new Young Adult group at church. We meet every Sunday night.
- We started teaching a new study for the youth group. We meet every Wednesday.
- Bible study group is almost finished with our very tough to hear study. We meet every Friday.
- We made Caden's adoption official, last wednesday. (see http://caden.eberhardt.us for more details).
- We've been swamped at work - we have like 15 new clients - no joke.
- Caden is walking around everywhere, and exploring non-stop!
- And since he's walking...we started potty training Caden and allowing him to help out with little things around the house (like, picking up toys, wiping down the coffee table, etc.). (He's so helpful by nature and it's not like he even makes a dent in the work or anything but we like to encourage him! His favorite thing to do thus far is wiping the coffee table.) It keeps us busy though.
-We've been taking turns being sick. All 3 of us, Eberhardt's. So not fun!

Last week was so busy that I didn't have time to plan out our family meals this week. We ate the pizza that was for last Thursday, just last night --- pretty bad! It was delicious though.

I'm not complaining though...I'd rather be busy than bored out of my mind. There are blessings in all that I listed though, every single thing has made a positive impact in our life some way some how. I am so thankful for the daily blessings God sends us!

One of the best things is that Caden's school has 2 new kiddos riding the bus, so his pickup time is a bit later. No more waking up at 5:30 am and rushing to get out the door! We can actually breathe a little. Praise the Lord!

Weekly Meal Menu

We're finally home from our weekend vacation. We went to Rock the Universe at Universal and while it was tons of fun, I am completely exhausted.

So I was actually excited to sit down and plan out the meals this week. I needed some down time while I waited for Caden's bus to drop him home from the Learning Center.

Monday -
Lunch: @ work.
Dinner: Spicy Parmesan Coated Pork Chops
Roasted Potatoes
Corn on the Cob

Tuesday -
Lunch: Turkey and Ham Wraps w/ Veggie Chips
Dinner: Pepperoni Pizza (We decided we're going to eat 1 pizza from the store once a week to save on $, it's a good idea, look for pizza's under $6)

Wednesday -
Lunch: Leftovers
Dinner: @ Church

Thursday -
Lunch: American Sandwich with salad
Dinner: Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese sandwiches

Friday -
Lunch: @ work
Dinner: Pot Roast w/ potatoes, carrots, sweet onion and celery.

Saturday and Sunday - I'm leaving open as we're unpredictable people on the weekends!

Eric's Birthday

Jackie and I had an absolute blast planning Eric's Birthday party. It wasn't great having to "sneak" around but I spilled all the beans in a poem we wrote and read during the party. It was entitled "The Lies I've Told in the Past Week". The poem made plenty of references to iParty and little incidents that happened during the planning stage. Jackie read it in an English accent so it was a big hit to say the least.

Anyhows, we were aiming for classy and elegant (with a man's touch of course). So the color scheme was black, white and silver. It was an intimate dinner scene that we shared with our closest loved-ones. While Eric wasn't totally surprised, he was shocked at how many people there were and how elaborate everything was. Here are some photos of the set-up and place settings.





And the final layout for the place settings...


Here is a snapshot of Jackie putting some extra touches on the place settings. As you can see we set up shot for quite a few people.


We had Hors D'oeuvres, wine, and catered dinner from Olive Garden. While it was a blast planning everything, it was even more fun celebrating and sharing in that moment with Eric and our friends.


Here we are sitting around the table just talking, laughing and enjoying the company.


and here are some more photos...


I special ordered Eric's birthday cake. We opted to stick with the color scheme and do black, white, and silver. It was white cake with fresh strawberries in the middle. So delicious.

We topped the cake off with sparkler candles and set out to sing happy birthday to the man of the hour. Here he is blowing out the candles.


Overall the birthday was great fun (at least for me) and we are so blessed to have such sweet friends. I want to send a special thank you to my great friend Jackie for being my right-hand lady as we ran around getting everything ready.

Happy Birthday, Eric. May you have many (and I mean many) more!