seder meal

our house church has a tradition on the thursday before easter to have a passover seder meal. so we look at the symbolism from the Jewish Passover and reflect on it's connection with Jesus' death and resurrection. it is a story of deliverance, freedom, redemption, and thanksgiving connected to the story from Exodus and the Israelites being freed from slavery and our own freedom from the slavery of sin. It is such a rich connection of stories and amazing to reflect on how God set up his story from Israel, many many years ago to our story today. The images and weaving together of the first passover with our own need for freedom were real as we drank from the cup and ate bitter herbs, unleavened bread, parsley dipped in salt water, and lamb.
" I am the Lord; I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians, I will deliver you from slavery. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, I will take you as my people and be your God." Exd. 6:6-7
Such a clear connection to how Jesus stretched out his arms for me, for us, and took me as his own and is my God. Then in John Jesus says
"If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Truly, truly, I say to you, every one who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed." John8:31-34

last night was a time to pause and remember what Christ has done for me, for everyone, and to celebrate and thank God for the grace and peace and life he has given. we have faith that he continues to work and that all creation groans for the final redemption and the fullness of his kingdom. happy easter friends and we pray you experience true freedom in Christ!

abram is 6 months tomorrow!

my scandisk had been missing for a month and i finally got it back last night from my brother, so i had a lot of pictures to upload. tomorrow abram will be 6 months old, wow, it went really fast and he is getting to be such a big baby, learning, "talking away" and growing so here are some highlights. Malachi is becoming quite the little man as well, he is a ton of fun and also seems to be going through a testing phase to see if we really mean what we say.


hanging out in the sling


watching eric roast coffee beans


malachi in the weeds


sitting up like a big boy


abram's yummy first bite of rice cereal


abram's first ride in the big car seat


his reading spot


the verwys family


abram and his cousin stephanie

turtles, ducks, lizards & seeds

today we had a wonderful time exploring the el dorado nature trail. we saw a whole bunch of turtles, lots of ducks, a cute bunny, and much to my delight scampering lizards. of course i didn't have my camera to capture all these fun adventures... malachi loved walking the trail and checking out all the animals, and abram slept almost the whole time. today was ryan's day off and we enjoyed having the time to wander through the trees and be together. it was amazing how many different animals we saw - there were so many bees buzzing on the clover we could hear them. great times.
then we came home took naps and started our garden. ryan framed the garden and malachi helped pound some nails. he also just walked through the dirt a lot. i planted our seeds to transfer to the garden so we will hopefully have: strawberries, beets, radish, carrots, squash, cucumber, tomato, two types of beans, watermelon, zucchini and 2 types of basil - we are looking forward to the harvest!! i'm already anticipating the pesto we will make... so good. we are also opening to the garden to others because i think the amount of produce we have could feed half of our neighborhood - so really this is a community garden, so if you ever feel the urge to pull some weeds, water, or pick veggies stop on over. i'll show pictures soon.

fun with uncle ross

abram and ross at the zoo


"pushing over palm trees" in santa monica

ryan's brother was here for his spring break and we had a great time. beautiful weather and lots of adventures together. malachi is still asking for uncle ross to watch the cars movie or go for a walk...

grandpa verwys

christmas 2007

grandpa and malachi

the day of my last post was a sad day, it was the day that ryan's grandpa died. grandpa verwys was a man with a strong presence. when he walked into a room, you usually heard his voice errupting with greetings, stories, or advice. he was also a man of prayer and deep love for jesus. we were told countless times that he and grandma were praying for us daily. he also loved to sing and shared this talent with many. he was a man who lived with integrity, gave generously, was a great friend and an amazing grandpa. abram is named after his great grandpa, abram was grandpa's middle name. we hope and pray that abram's life is a testimony to the promise that we know that "the Lord your God is God. He is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep his commands. " this verse was one of grandpa's treasured and is reflected in our family already. we are thankful that grandpa's love for Jesus was passed to ryan's dad and then to ryan and now to our boys. ryan was able to say goodbye to grandpa over the phone the day he died, yet we are thankful it is a goodbye with the hope of eternity. we were able to be in mi with family for the funeral and visitation. what a celebration of a life well lived. so our sorrow is filled with peace and we are thankful for grandpa, who he was and how he taught us to live.