Amazingly flexible, thoughtful and generous...

that's my in-laws! Dennis and Denise....Thank You. Thank you so much, and even though I know we told you this a million times yesterday, thank you again!! Jason and I were so blessed this weekend! We got to go to Bethlehem Baptist's Marriage Retreat..held in Chaska, MN held at the beautiful Oak Ridge Conference Center. So here's the scoop and an explanation as to why this was such an unexpected blessing...a friend of mine from my MOMS group from church called around 9:00 on Friday morning while Jonas was eating his breakfast and told me that her daughter was still sick, so she and her husband were not going to be able to go the the marriage retreat this weekend...we had talked earlier that week at MOMS group and several of us at the table had expressed how we wished we could go but that money and childcare were an issue...So when she called, I was really surprised and didn't know what to say, but she assured me that she didn't want their spot to be wasted. I told her that I would try to call Jason at work (a virtually impossible task to actually catch him) and see what he thought and get back to her. I doubted it would work out because we didn't have anyone that we knew of available to watch Jonas for the whole weekend (not to mention the fact that I had never been away from Jonas for more than a couple of hours...we had never done a night apart, let alone two!!) Jason couldn't talk for more than a minute and couldn't even really hear what I was saying when I was trying to explain to him the situation...I asked if he thought I should try and call his parents (our only chance really, as my mom had to work, and I didn't want Jonas left with anyone except a Grandma and Grandpa combination:) Well, I called Dennis, and he was so kind and said that he would love to.. (he got in contact with Denise at school too), so they were both on board, even though it was so last-minute!!
All in all... WE GOT TO GO!! (thank you also to Michael and Bailey who watched Jonas between the time we left and the time Dennis and Denise arrived (it took a whole team of players to make this weekend work, so thank you to all of you!) It was such a wonderful time for Jason and I. It is hard to believe that for almost 9 months now we have never been "just the 2 of us"...so, needless to say...it was an interesting night for me without the bedtime routine and a little cuddly baby boy to kiss goodnight. But it was so healthy for us to have that time together...the speaker was very encouraging and practical, the fellowship wonderful, and the time alone together...invaluable. We talked to several couples at the retreat that made it a priority every year to come as they believed it was a great investment in their marriage and worth the time, money and effort to come...I was encouraged by these conversations immensely...It was so good to be surrounded by couples that loved each other and believed their marriages to be extremely important. We got to take a long hike around the lake (and on it) during the warm, gorgeous Saturday afternoon that was our free time! We wrote a huge "I Love U" in the snow on the lake, and I had to get on top of Jason's shoulders to get it all in the picture, but I couldn't, so we made a little one too:) We even saw a huge owl on the hike...they are such mysterious and sagacious creatures...we had a staring contest for almost 5 minutes and would have been content to have gone longer, but he soon took off, stalking some unsuspecting shrew or other unfortunate creature. We even got to enjoy a fun "Sweethearts Dinner" where we got to get all dressed up and eat yummy food:) Everyone brought a wedding album for others to look at, so it was fun to see all the different styles and colors from the different decades:)


We had time for good talks, walks, and even felt challenged by the speaker (Timothy Lane-a pastor and leader from CCEF-an organization that is engaged in "Restoring Christ to Counseling and Counseling to the Church")... something he said I will never forget and want to share with others. He said that while many parents put their children and their children's activities before their marriages... actually,
"The best gift you can give to your children is a healthy marriage." Not vacations, not toys, not a car when they turn 16, not even a college education...your marriage..the way you love each other, the way you interact, communicate, disagree, resolve conflict, forgive, and live as a husband and wife will have a much more lasting impact on your kids than anything else that they see you do. So time and energy spent on your marriage is never wasted but is an investment not only in your relationship as it models Christ and his love for the church to a watching world, but it is an investment in your children's futures. They are watching and they will learn. I can only pray that Jason and I remember this. Jonas is our greatest joy next to Christ and our greatest responsibility, so we are committed to making our marriage a place where he sees love modeled in practical ways, but, O how we need grace!! Every day we need God's grace because every day we are tempted to forget.
Tim also had a very powerful message about forgiveness too--certainly one of the most difficult topics for married couples to encounter (communication being the other big one:) We as believers have been forgiven and all of our debt has been absorbed by a Savior who took it upon himself to make the ultimate sacrifice. "When we neglect to forgive, we are ignoring the power of the gospel." God's grace is sufficient and nothing our spouse ever has done or ever will do can ever compare to what we have done already to offend and insult our God...and His love never fails... And we have his storehouses of this incredible love to draw from (so our ability to forgive does not rest on our ability to find and muster enough love and compassion from within ourselves)...He will supply all that we need, but we need to first realize that we are in need.
"O to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be..."

And because I love quotes by this wise man (and because he says it better than I could or ever hope to...)
"To forgive the incessant provocations of daily life--to keep on forgiving the bossy mother-in-law, the bullying husband, the nagging wife, the selfish daughter, the deceitful son--how can we do it? Only, I think, by remembering where we stand, by meaning our words when we say our prayers each night 'Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.' We are offered forgiveness on no other terms. To refuse it is to refuse God's mercy for ourselves. There is no hint of exceptions and God means what He says."
C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory