Day 6 & 7 of Advent

 Sorry about the lack of blogging. BUT, we have been crazy busy. When I say busy, I mean we haven't stopped all weekend.

 As you can tell, it wore our children out!

 Saturday, we went to look at a guitar for Taylor (which we didn't get), Joanns fabrics (for me to make a new nursing bib), then we spent the rest of the evening at the church. We decorated the "Crismon tree." You can google it if you're unfamiliar but interested. ;-) We also decorated the float for the Christmas parade on Sunday. The Williams family blessed us by bringing us a super yummy dinner Saturday night.

 Taylor and Rachel gearing up for the parade on Sunday.

 Sunday started early and ended late. We changed the service up a bit. We met at 10:30 am instead of 11. We ate brunch together, read scripture, and had a devotional. Then we loaded up the float for the annual "Parkwood Christmas Parade." This was the only parade in Durham this year. It was an awesome opportunity for us.

 We gave out hundreds of copies of the Gospel of John comic book to the children. We also gave out tons of candy and sang worship music. The highlight of the day was Mr. Boushell making up his own song as we waited for our turn to get going. We had a blast with everyone on the float.

 After the parade we had a table set up at the fire station. We gave away free apple cider and Starbucks coffee. We then headed back to the church to finish cleaning off the float. We ended up staying there with the Iraggi's and Jacob S. and  eating leftovers for dinner (which helped with the clean up). We enjoyed the time after the craziness to just hang out with our brothers and sister in Christ. We love those guys! Stephanie ended up taking Taylor to the grocery store for me after all that and they picked up our Christmas cards. She is a total blessing!

 Needless to say, we did our Advent for Sunday and Monday tonight. (Monday night) Martie read Genesis 21:1-7 and Genesis 22:1-14. The first reading was when God promised Abraham and Sarah a baby. (even in their old age) The second reading was when God tested Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. Both of these passages pointed us to Jesus, who God promised to send to us, and was ultimately THE sacrifice for our sins.

The ornaments we put on were of a cradle for the promise of a son and a lamb for the sacrifice.  Just as God provided a lamb for Abraham to sacrifice we talked about ways God has provided for us. Martie told how God provided a trailor for us to carry all our leaves away, and he also provided 2 big boys (Ethan & Andrew) to help load all those leaves. (Just like Isaac helped carry the wood for his dad). God provided diapers and frozen meals for me today. The CC moms in Taylor's class all brought in these gifts of love for our family. The kids all came up with things like, God provided us with dinner, a house, a brother...

On a side note I went to the doctor today. Baby is doing great and we are scheduled to meet our little guy in person on January 5th!