A glorious day

Easter was truly a glorious day for us. I love celebrating Jesus' resurrection, and this year we satisfied my need for traditional celebration by attending First Presbyterian Church downtown on Easter morning. Most of the time I am fine with our very non-traditional church plant, but on Easter I very much enjoy celebrating with lots of people and singing joyous hymns. So we did! The kids even got dressed up in fun Easter clothes. Luke chose these dresses for the girls, and since he rarely expresses any preferences about the clothes I buy for them, I happily agreed and we bought them beautiful dresses this year.

The rest of our day was rather quiet at home, eating ham and potatoes and asparagus. Quiet, that is, other than the sounds of our neighborhood coming to life in springtime - people playing basketball at the park across the street and our neighborhood wheelchair man who blasts the tunes as he rolls by daily. (He won't speak to me, so I'm not sure what his name is.)

Our cherry tree is in full bloom and is quite beautiful and smells amazing. The bees think so too. Yesterday you could hear the buzz from several feet away, there were so many bees pollinating our tree. But on the day we took the picture with Elizabeth in the tree, it wasn't quite as warm out and not as fully blooming, so it was safe for her to climb in it.

A retreat

On Sunday, Monday and Tuesday we headed to World Impact's camp in the high desert, The Oaks for the W.I. West Coast Staff Retreat. This was the first one since we've been here (7 1/2 years). It was good, albeit tiring with three little ones who decided not to sleep well. There was a great speaker who is the director of YWAM in San Francisco but just returned from 25 years in India.

On Monday afternoon I got to hang out with Elizabeth and Caleb while Luke attempted to get Emma to nap. So we painted pottery, took 2 hayrides (we're on one above), decorated and ate cupcakes, and just enjoyed a beautiful sunny day. That was fun for me. I think we're finally about caught up on our sleep, although Elizabeth had to fight off a yucky cold after we returned. I hear lots of people in L.A. ended up sick too.

We also enjoyed yummy (and, I fear, very unhealthy) Oaks food and great child-care during the sessions by awesome volunteers. It was good to get away and fellowship with fellow urban missionaries.