Liana Joy is soooo stinkin' cute. She is making more and more noises. She's discovering that she can add significant volume to her oohs and eehs. She likes to practice them while sitting on the potty. At 14 weeks, we've had quite a bit of success with going on the potty - yeah!



We took her to the Oma & Opa's pool on Sunday afternoon where we swam for a little while. Stephan swirled her around in the water and she just smiled so big. Yesterday while we were at the store, I had her standing on a counter and we were dancing. Well, I was dancing and she was being jiggled a little bit ;) Nevertheless, she thought it was quite funny and gave a great giggle. Oh, it captured my heart and I kept wanting to hear more. I can't wait for her to giggle again.



She also had her first official Bible study last week. Rachel, Marcia and I are starting Believing God by Beth Moore. Previously I have not been a fan of hers, but I think that was due to my own arrogance after coming out of the counseling program/seminary. I am excited to see what God will do over the next 10 weeks. I am hopeful that He will do some miracles in my life...I need them. Perhaps the biggest is in healing my soul - that in the depths of me I could trust Him because I know that I am loved and He is good. The Shack talks about how trust can only come in a relationship of love. If you don't truly know that you're loved, there can be no real trust.

I read this quote recently in The Sacred Romance and it captures things well to me:

"Being in partnership with God, though, often feels much more like being Mel Gibson’s sidekick in the movie Lethal Weapon. In his determination to deal with the bad guy, he leaps from seventh-story balconies into swimming pools, surprised that we would have any hesitation in following after him. Like Indiana Jones’s love interests in the movies, we find ourselves caught up in an adventure of heroic proportions with a God who both seduces us with his boldness and energy and repels us with his willingness to place us in mortal danger, suspended over pits of snakes."

So, if I don't know that I know that I know that I am deeply loved, I am left to make conclusions about God that aren't true although my experience screams that they must be. Afterall, what good, loving parent would send their beloved child into known danger or into a painful situation of any kind? Well, God does & did - He sent His beloved to the cross. So, I must conclude that either I don't really know what GOOD & LOVING are, or God is cruel. Perhaps there are some other possible conclusions, but these are the two that I wrestle with. My continual prayer is that He would show me how deeply He loves me and that He would make my view of Him one that reflects who He truly is. And we pray for our daughter that she would always know the goodness of God and His deep, abiding love for her. Amen!