Second Anniversary

Today we are celebrating our anniversary! Since we are in Michigan visiting family, we're thankful that Grandma and Grandpa Ahtila are willing to watch Micah while we go out to celebrate. Our plans are to go out for dinner and a movie, and then go down to the Traverse City Bay, to walk on the beach and maybe even wade in Lake Michigan. (happens to be one of my favorite places!) I am so thankful for such a wonderful, loving husband. (And on a side note, Tim's such an amazing dad, too! It's been so fun watching him interact with Micah!!) Happy Anniversary to us!

Israel

I am so thankful that we were able to go on this trip to Israel. For the sake of time, I won’t write everywhere we went, because we saw a TON of sites!! We left on May 12^th, and had a really long flight from Atlanta to Tel Aviv. That night we drove north along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea to Netanya…at sunset!! It was absolutely beautiful! The next morning, Tim and I woke up early so that we could walk along the beach and collect shells. We then spent the next few days visiting areas around the Sea of Galilee. From there, we went to the Dead Sea, ending with four days in Jerusalem.

One place that was really exciting to see was Hazor. In the Bible it talks about how the city of Hazor was burned. We were able to see the rocks that cracked from the heat.

I also just couldn’t believe how important water is to Israel. Being out in the sun all day is absolutely exhausting!! We constantly had water bottles in our hand. We saw so many riverbeds that were all dried up. As we were driving around one day, I thought of the verse in Psalm 63:1 that says “O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” I knew that I have seen this “dry and weary land”!

Our time in Jerusalem was probably my favorite time. I’ll just mention a couple of things that really stuck with me. The first day we toured in Jerusalem, we visited the Wailing Wall. Not knowing what to expect, I was a little surprised to see the men and women were separated. I learned that they pray at this place because it’s one of the closest places along the wall to where the Holy of Holies was up on the Temple Mount (before the Muslims took over). The women fervently prayed, rocking back and forth, faces pressed into their prayer books, some women even there with their young daughters. Their religious zeal puts us to shame, but the sad thing is that they have totally missed their Messiah, Jesus Christ! I really felt a burden and a sadness for them, that their prayers are basically meaningless!

Also, one afternoon while we were settling back in our room, just wanting to relax, we hear this loud music playing on the street outside our hotel window. A few minutes later we look out the window again, and the streets are absolutely filled with people. Some of them are wrapped in flags, people are dancing in the streets. We found out earlier in the day that the Jews in Jerusalem were celebrating Jerusalem Day. Their patriotism was amazing to see, and we wished that our country was filled with that same kind of patriotism among the Americans.

Looking back on the trip, there were definitely days where it was just so hot and we were just so tired, that it was kind of difficult to really get excited about the fact that these were places where Jesus walked! Now when we read the Bible and we are reading about the sites that we have visited, we definitely get excited and now have a mental picture! We are so thankful for the time we could spend visiting the Holy Land. It has forever changed how we read the Bible!

A Much Needed Update

What a busy month this has been! Tim and I had the awesome opportunity to go to Israel for about 2 weeks. We’re very thankful for our parents, who took care of Micah so that we could take this trip. Tim’s parents watched Micah for the first part, and my parents for the second part. Meanwhile, we toured all over Israel! It was an amazing trip, and we’ll blog more about our trip later.

Micah is now almost 7 months old. We’re thankful for a healthy 6 month check-up last week. He weighed 21lbs., 2 oz. (still 95 percentile) and was 27 ¾ inches long. He’s at such a fun age right now, and he definitely keeps us laughing.

In a few weeks, we’ll be heading up to Michigan to visit our family. We’ll fly (thankfully we're not driving this long trip with a baby!) into Traverse City, where we’ll spend a few days with my family. It’ll be like a family reunion, as my brother and our nephew will be there, as well as my aunt, cousins, grandpa and his wife, and my uncle will all be staying at my parents’ house! We’ll then head up to the Upper Peninsula to visit Tim’s family, where we’ll see his sisters and our new nephew. Tim will also have an opportunity to preach at his home church. It’ll be a busy time in Michigan, but we’re really looking forward to being able to spend some time with family. Also, please pray for us, as we definitely need wisdom for the future. There are a couple potential ministry opportunities we’re currently checking out and praying about. So there’s a brief update on our lives! We’ll post more about our Israel trip soon!