God ALWAYS hears our prayers!

Last night, Isaac wanted to go for a bike ride, so off we went. He was on his bike and I was walking. There's a church about a block from our house and he loves to ride in their parking lot and also go down the ramp on their sidewalk. I had to get on him for zipping right into the road and tried to show him how to go down the ramp and into the tiny parking lot. He said he couldn't stop in time to avoid the road. I explained that a car might say the same thing about why they hit him. He was upset with me, but I told him I'd rather him be mad at me than hurt, or even worse. He wasn't wanting to listen real well and in his 6 year-old mind, he just didn't see any danger. I decided we'd better head back towards home and away from the highway. In an all-boy fashion, he takes off on his bike with his legs out, carefree. I chuckled because I've never been able to be so carefree. Then I started to pray that God would just put a hedge of protection around him as he goes through life so carefree.

No sooner that I'd prayed that prayer, he rolled right through the stop sign at the intersection on our street. And there it was...a car! They had been there, behind a big bush, and were getting ready to turn, when thankfully, they saw him. I screamed his name and took off towards him. The car went on and waved as they passed. It wasn't dramatic, no screeching of tires to stop. But still, there was my carefree child, my baby, and a car. It could have been a different scenario. I was crying, although Isaac didn't seem to see what the danger was. Moments after it happened, my friend Deb was walking down the street and stopped to talk. I was pretty shaken up, so we talked, and she gave me a hug and prayed with me. I told her about the prayer and how I'd just finished it when the car came.

Needless to say, he won't be riding the bike for a few days. I sincerely hope he's learned from this. I know I have learned. I learned that God hears our every prayer. I knew that before, but this just drove it home!!

Spring Break Fun - Part 2! Lincoln's Boyhood Home

Our other adventure last week was to Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial in Lincoln City, IN. We found it quite interesting to watch the short film, wander the trails, see the cabin memorial, have a picnic at the beach (!!!), and just enjoy our day. We went with our good friends Mary and Ryan, which made the day even more special.

Andrew, Isaac, and Ryan standing outside of the visitors center. The walls were made of Indiana limestone and had really cool scenes on them.
Looking at the grave of Nancy Hanks Lincoln, Abe's mother, who died of milk sickness.

There is a real working farm here (in season). This is the chicken coop, which were the only animals on-site for our visit.

A replica cabin, which you can go inside of in season.

The actual cabin site

A train track runs through the walking trails. Mary and I were on the other side from the boys when we heard the whistle and took off!

Love my boys!

We had wanted to go to a real beach on spring break, so we were quite surprised to find out there was a beach at the park! After lunch, we played there for awhile. Ryan was the only one to get more than his feet wet...haha! That darn slippery dock!

Spring Break Fun!

The boys were off of school this past week so we decided to go and have some fun. On Monday, Court took the day off after working the men's walk over the weekend. We took the boys out for breakfast, which we rarely do. Afterwards, we went for a "drive." We were actually headed to French Lick to the Big Splash Waterpark Hotel, but they had no idea. Court told the boys he needed to run in and use the bathroom, and Isaac kept saying, "Can't we just go home and get our swim trunks and come back?" They were quite surprised to find out we'd already packed them and we were there for the day! We had so much fun...well, except for the one time Andrew convinced me to go on the toilet bowl waterslide. As we swirled around and around the bowl part, I was convinced we would pop over the side. Then, we swirled down to the hole, which felt like a straight drop. I know I was screaming loudly. After the ride was over, Andrew was hysterical. He said I screamed, "Lord Jesus, please come back NOW!" :-)

We had a great family day and loved not having any kind of schedule. The only bad part was we ate a big breakfast purposely so we didn't have to take time out for lunch at the waterpark. When we left, we went out for pizza and Isaac realized it was supper time, but we hadn't had any lunch. He basically wouldn't eat it until we convinced him it was lunch and he could have supper when we got home. I guess not all of us enjoyed a day without a schedule.