Humanity

In the last week, I have had 3 beautiful reminders of humanity.

1. At yoga with my sister the instructor invited us to make eye contact with one another and take the time to connect with humanity before the class began. At first it was weird to look around at people in the eyes, but it was an inspiring way to start class.

2. For Palm Sunday at my parents' church, several people came on stage with their testimonies written on cardboard. It was a vulnerable demonstration of the hardships, triumphs, and choices in this life. We all have a story and our story connects us to each other.

3. The most powerful image of humanity was Friday night. Aaron and I watched the movie, "The Passion of Christ" for the first time. I had never watched it because who really wants to watch their God suffer? But seeing Christ's suffering was a brutally precious reminder to me of his absolute humanity and what he did for humanity. It made his sacrifice more real for me.

From these three images I feel challenged to take the time to look people in the eye, acknowledge that everyone has a story (that I probably don't know), and sit, pause, and remember the humanity of Christ.

Montana's Friends

Montana's homeboy, Will (below), and home girl, Jenny (above)

Day out in Bellingham

When Aaron and I lived in Langley, we would often drive down to Bellingham for an afternoon. We would go for a walk around Lake Padden and have supper at La Fiamma. Our conversation at one point or another would lead to how cool it would be to live in Bellingham and how much we loved that community. Yesterday, we had a little outing to Bellingham. We hiked around Lake Padden and ate at La Fiamma. The only difference between the trips a few years ago and yesterday was that we had Montana with us AND we signed a lease on an apartment in Bellingham. CRAZY! It's so exciting to be taking yet another step in our journey and cool to see it come full circle. Little did we know 2 or 3 years ago that we would be moving to Bellingham. It seems God was planting those Bellingham seeds in our hearts. It makes me think of Proverbs 19:21 (from the Message)... "We humans keep brainstorming options and plans, but God's purpose prevails."

Brett Dennen Concert

Last night Aaron and I went to an amazing concert in Vancouver - Brett Dennen. He's a very tall red-head and he danced around the stage barefoot. We had a great night with our friends, Aime and Ashley, and we all really enjoyed the show (despite the annoying girl in the green shirt who jumped on stage with Brett 3 times!).

Another one of our favorite Brett Dennen songs is called "Blessed".
Here's the lyrics to the chorus:

Blessed is this life
and I'm gonna celebrate being alive.
Blessed is this life
and I'm gonna celebrate being alive.

This is our current theme song (I couldn't find a good video of it to put on the blog, but you'll have to check it out on your own!). We put this song on all of the time and the 3 of us dance around like crazy people.

Montana Fun Facts

Seeing that this blog is a mix between an online baby book for Montana, a place for her Grandparents to keep up with her, and our random thoughts, I thought a few Montana facts were in order.

1. She is almost 15 months
2. Her very first haircut was on February 15. It wasn't much, but she was growing a mullet and it had to go.
3. She LOVES blueberries. Summer berry picking is calling our names.
4. She attempted to bite Will the other day. We intervened just in time and it was so hard not to laugh, but at the same time slightly disturbing to see her sinful nature bubble to the surface.
5. Yesterday she took a 4 hour nap (which is very unusual)!
6. She can say "hi" "bye" and "baby" very distinctly. She calls her blankie her "Bee-Bee."
7. She loves going outside
8. She has been on an airplane 5 times.
9. She is the friendliest, most adorable, lovable baby around. And we love her to pieces.

Hair Drama

Every now and then I get a crisis phone call from my sister. "I can't take it anymore. I'm going to cut it, Kate. Please stop me." I think I talk her down from the building (the salon building, that this) and the next day she calls telling me that she has a new haircut. She wasn't strong. She gave in to the bad hair day.
Considering Emily has never had her hair much longer than past her ears...this emergency call isn't so rare. Well today she called again...but this time it was a different phone call. She's going to do it...she's more adult now, more patient. She owns her own business for goodness sake. This time it's really going to happen...she's going to grow her hair out. And she's blogging about it. Maybe this will hold her accountable and keep her from the temptation of an impulsive visit to her stylist. This is like so many times in life when we need people around us to cheer for us, to beat sanity into our crazy thoughts. So here's to you, my sister, may your hair grow long and prosper.

Check out her blog here.

If you've known Aaron and I for awhile, you can probably recall some of our different hair phases. When we left for China we vowed not to cut our hair for the year...well that year turned into about 3 or 4. Aaron got dreads and my hair got very long. Then at one point we decided we should "grow up" and become more professional so off came the dreads and 8 inches of my thin hair went to locks of love. Now I think we are reverting back to those days once more. Aaron is growing his curly locks out and I recently got fed up with getting hair cuts that I can't stand, so I think I am joining my husband and sister in the journey of hair growth.

And one final thought on hair. One of the main reasons I married Aaron was for his hair. I'm not going to lie. I was really hoping to break my family's terrible hair gene pool. I figured that with his dark, thick, curly hair our future children would have a better hair life than my mother, sister and I ever did...

Well, Montana, all I can say is...I tried.

Snowshoeing with Shawna (try to say that 10 times)

Montana and I spent a splendid day snowshoeing with my beautiful friend, Shawna. It was a glorious, sunny day and we had wonderful conversation!